Homeric Comics are a thing. Really. Amazing Mystery Funnies #20 (May 1940) presented this one-page filler:
The unknown author really wants to make the point that Homer started it all. (I disagree as anyone familiar with Gilgamesh would.) Certainly Homer was one of the elder writers of ancient times that gave us a large body of myths and stories that influence Fantasy. There is a second stage where that body of lore gets turned into the fiction we read today, starting with William Morris and George MacDonald and ends with J. R. R. Tolkien and 1966. (The year that Fantasy became a publishing product with its own distinct rules.)
Homer wrote two great epics: The Iliad and The Odyssey. It is this second that had the greater influence on Fantasy as Odysseus wanders across a fantastic landscape, encountering monsters and hot magical babes. (You thought Conan was first to do that?) The wandering hero who encounters adventure after adventure is far older than The Incredible Hulk TV show. The Iliad is a tale of war but is far more static.
The comics were quick to use Homer since he was well within the public domain. Gilberton and its famous Classics Illustrated did both. You have to remember this is in the 1950s, long before a Sword & Sorcery hits the big time.
Gilberton
Marvel Classics Comics
Marvel in 1970s gave us these two versions. Sword & Sorcery comics are well underway by 1977, with both Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan pumping out the Howardian thrills. That Buscema/Chan cover was meant to bring in Conan fans, and it did. (I bought it.)
Written by Elliott S. Maggin.
Written by Bill Mantlo. This was drawn by Jess Jodloman, a personal favorite.
Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal gave us “The Odyssey” (April to November 1983) was written by Francisco Navarro with art by Jose Martin Sauri. This was a great black & white rendition with all the Spanish flare over eight issues.
Marvel 2008
This eight issue min-series was written by Roy Thomas with art by Miguel Angel Sepulveda and Sandu Florea.
This eight issue miniseries was also written by Roy Thomas with art by Greg Tocchini and Roland Paris.
I think it is interesting that Roy Thomas did these. He has admitted that Sword & Sorcery was never his first love, despite writing 4000 pages of S&S comics. Like the Cormac comics and even Arak, Son of Thunder, Thomas could not step away so easily.
Graphic Universe
Graphic Universe did a series of graphic novels all based on mythology. Th only Homeric one was Odysseus: Escaping Poseidon’s Curse (2008). It was written by Dan Jolley with art by Thomas Yeates, Sam Glanzman and Ken Hopper.
European Comics
I know this post is very American in focus. Glenat did both epics in French. L’Iliade was written by Clotilde Bruneau with art by Pierre Taranzano. LOdyssee was written by Clotiilde Bruneau with art by Giovanni Lorusso.
Other Epics
Of course Comics weren’t restricted to only Homer. Other epics were used as well.
Conclusion
Sword & Sorcery has never denied its roots in mythology. Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien both spoke of their love of “the Northern Thing“, or Norse and Teutonic myths like the story of Grettir. The heroic prowess of heroes finds its way into fiction as does the evil of great monsters. These are elements of S&S that I crave for sure. When heroic fantasy turns into a political story I get bored (as I did on occasion during House of the Dragon). The Witcher is, by far, my favorite, for the very concept is swordsman vs. monsters. These old comics gave us some of that, especially the episode with Polyphemus the cyclops. There is epic-sized politics too, if that’s your cup of tea. Homer shall always be part of the fabric of Fantasy fiction, as that anonymous writer in Amazing Mystery Funnies #20 said. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
