Wings & Warriors
Gigantic monsters bats and sinister harpies take on Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian. The original Conan fiction of Robert E. Howard did feature the odd bat or bat-winged villain, though Howard preferred gorillas or snakes. REH did create a race of harpies for Solomon Kane to fight in “The Wings in the Night” (Weird Tales, July 1932):
In the lurid flickering of the burning hut outside, that vaguely lighted the hut into which he had fallen, Kane saw a deed of brain-shaking horror being enacted – red dripping fangs in a yawning gash of a mouth, and a crimson travesty of a human form that still writhed with agonized life. Then in the maze of madness that held him, his steel fingers closed on the fiend’s throat in a grip that no tearing of talons or hammering of wings could loosen, until he felt the horrid life flow out from under his fingers and the bony neck hung broken.
In the Garden
Howard created a winged man who lives atop a tower in the James Allison story, “The Garden of Fear”(Marvel Tales, July-August 1934 – reprinted in Fantastic, May 1961).
He was tall, powerful, black with the hue of polished ebony; but the feature which made a human nightmare of him was the batlike wings which folded on his shoulders. I knew they were wings: the fact was obvious and indisputable.
Conan’s Greatest Foe
My favorite is the winged ape of “Queen of the Black Coast” (Weird Tales, May 1934), Conan’s greatest tale.
Cast in the mould of humanity, they were distinctly not men. They were winged and of heroic proportions; not a branch on the mysterious stalk of evolution that culminated in man, but the ripe blossom on an alien tree, separate and apart from that stalk. Aside from their wings, in physical appearance they resembled man only as man in his highest form resembles the great apes. In spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual development they were superior to man as man is superior to the gorilla. But when they reared their colossal city, man’s primal ancestors had not yet risen from the slime of the primordial seas.
Shades of ERB
Robert E. Howard paid homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs in his posthumously published Almuric (Weird Tales, May June-July August 1939) where a swordsman transferred from Earth takes on a race of winged harpies.
I had but a glance as I reared up, clubbing my empty carbine. I saw that they were tall and rangy in build, sinewy and powerful, with ebon skins. They seemed made like ordinary men, except for the great leathery batlike wings which grew from their shoulders. They were naked except for loincloths, and were armed with short curved blades.
In Tolkien’s Shadow
The Lin Carter/Robert E. Howard piece “The Hand of Nergal” (1967) has the Shadow Bats. (I think these were largely invented by Carter in a Lord of the Rings mood. There is more than a little of the Nazghuls’ fell beasts here.)
Leaning on his dripping blade and resting his sinewy arms for a moment, he stared at the weird shadow-things. For they seemed to be more shadow than substance–translucent to the sight, like wisps of noisome black vapour or the shadowy ghosts of gigantic vampire bats. Evil, slitted eyes of green flame glared through their smoky forms.
Late to the Party
Conan also faced a winged monster in “The Vale of Lost Women” (Magazine of Horror, Spring 1967) that appeared decades after his death. I am curious how much “editing” was done to this story. This story is a tangent to the Cthulhu Mythos.
And then the girl, watching that devilish battle as in a nightmare, saw the black-winged thing waver and stagger in mid-air; there was a threshing beat of crippled wings, and the monster had torn clear and was soaring upward to mingle and vanish among the stars.
Marvel Comics: The 1970s
In 1970, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith brought the Cimmerian to comics. It had a rocky start but the comic would eventually become the epitome of a Sword & Sorcery comic with a newspaper version and two movie versions.
“Devil-Wings Over Shadizar” Conan the Barbarian #6 (June 1971) was written by Roy Thomas, with Conan going up against the giant night god to save Jenna. He manages to kill it with a brazier of coals.
“The Garden of Fear” Conan the Barbarian #9 (September 1971) was written by Roy Thomas, adapted from the story by Robert E. Howard. Conan has his girl taken by the winged dude and tracks him to a tower surrounded blood-drinking plants.
“The Hand of Nergal” Conan the Barbarian #30 (September 1973) was adapted by Roy Thomas from the story by Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter. The Shadow Bats are ethereal monsters sent by Munthassem Khan to destroy Conan’s armies. The Marvel creators used only blue ink for a pretty good effect for a Bronze Age comic.
“The Strange High Tower in the Mist” Conan the Barbarian #56 (November 1975) was written by Roy Thomas. Conan and his sidekicks end up in a city where women are sacrificed to a winged demon in a tower. After Conan kills the monster, the tower and then the city pulls an Usher (Roderick, not the singer) and falls down. That title smacks of H. P. Lovecraft.
“Queen of the Black Coast” Conan the Barbarian #100 (July 1979) was adapted by Roy Thomas from the Howard story. Roy saved this one for the 100th issue of Conan the Barbarian. Conan and Belit and their pirates go looking for treasure in the jungle and find the winged ape. Belit dies but her spirit saves Conan in a scene you might remember from Conan the Barbarian movie. Of course, they changed it to Valeria, added Thulsa Doom, got rid of the ape monster, you know, but it was the same…
“The Vale of Lost Women” Conan the Barbarian #104 (November 1979) was adapted by Roy Thomas from the story by Robert E. Howard. In the story version the monster is called from the darkness of space is not well-described and doesn’t hang around for long. Being a visual medium, Roy does more with it.
Marvel Comics: The 1980
“Dominion of the Bat” Savage Sword of Conan #76 (May 1982) written by Michael Fleisher and inked by three different artists, Alfred Alcala, Ricardo Villamonte and Joe Chiodo. Conan and his desert bandits take on an queen whose army fly on giant bats.
“The Armor of Zuulda Thaal” Savage Sword of Conan #87 (April 1983) was written by Michael Fleisher and has Conan encounter the bat-riders again from Issue #76.
“Tower of Mitra” Conan the Barbarian #147 (June 1983) was written by Bruce Jones. Conan takes on C’harona the witch who can turn into a harpy.
“The Ape-Bat of Marmet Tarn” Savage Sword of Conan #96 (January 1984) was written by Michael Fleisher. This tale saw the return of the winged ape, though Fleisher throws in an extra surprise and makes it a were-creature.
“The Man-Bats of Ur-Xanarhh” Conan the Barbarian #154 (January 1984) was written by Michael Fleisher. Conan helps a race of bird-winged men take on a bunch of blue-skinned bat-winged baddies.
“The Bird-Woman and the Beast” Conan the Barbarian #168 (March 1985) was written by Michael Fleisher and saw the return of the bird and bat people from Issue #154.
Marvel Comics: The 1990s
“Acts of Bravery” Savage Sword of Conan #185 (May 1991) was a short tale written by Renee Witterstaetter. Conan’s list of feats includes some more usual bats before he takes on giant rats, spiders and finally a dinosaur.
“Empire of the Undead” Conan the Barbarian #245 (June 1991) was written by Roy Thomas. Conan and Red Sonja take on the lord of the vampires and his army of winged warriors.
“Barbarians of the Border” Savage Sword of Conan #200 (August 1992) was written by Roy Thomas. This ambitious tale for the two hundredth issue of SSOC has two stories taking place simultaneously, one Conan, one Robert E. Howard. In Conan’s half, he comes up against a giant bat that grabs him. Conan kills it mid-air (Tarzan style) and ends up in a strange city.
Wings of Victory
Marvel’s Conan, whether drawn by Barry Smith or John Buscema, faced off against many types of monsters. Along with the snakes, spiders, gorillas, hulking beasts, the undead and tentacular squidies, there were the bats. For some reason, they were often associated with a tower that challenged the barbarian’s access. This might have been a leftover from Lord Dunsany. I haven’t researched that but that’s my suspicion. “Then the magician of the village went up into the tower of his house, and all night long those whom fear kept awake could see his window high up in the night glowing softly alone.” Fantasy features many towers, of course. Science Fiction may have borrowed from Conan for its alien space bats (certainly Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore did). Whatever the source, bats make for great monsters.
