If you missed the last one…
Creatures on the Loose #29 (May 1974) was the final issue of Thongor;s adventures in Lemuria. Not surprisingly, it is my favorite issue for action. Thongor is finally going to fight the Dragon Kings! Right from that cover, you knew this was going to be great. Gil Kane was a master of the cover design and Ernie Chan makes this one even better.
No changes on the crew: Gerber and Alcazar again inside. Vicente gives us some nice panoramic panels like Val Mayerik used to do. We get the only two page spread showing the Dragon Kings about to initiate their rite that will bring their reign back to the Earth. “I ao Thamungazoth!” is some pretty obvious Lovecraftian stuff. Of course, the lizard boys have to summon their Big Bad so they can take over the world.
Anyone familiar with Robert E. Howard knows that Lin Carter borrowed the Dragon Kings from King Kull and his Serpent Men. They appeared in the first true Sword & Sorcery tale, “The Shadow Kingdom” (Weird Tales, August 1929). Lovecraft adopted these critters into his Cthulhu Mythos. So by the back door, Carter has made his Edgar Rice Burroughs-Howard novel a little bit of a Lovecraftian fun-fest. (He would do this again in the Conan pastiche, “The Castle of Terror” (Conan the Cimmerian, 1969) with its shoggothian monster. Carter wrote many regular Mythos stories as well.
The novel rounds off nicely, and Carter will be back with Thongor of Lemuria (1966) (Thongor and the Dragon City in the 1970 revised version.) Marvel Comics chose not to continue the adaptations. The editor explains in the letter column that comics are usually dropped because of sales. I suspect that is what happened with old Thongor. The next issue of Creatures on the Loose would experiment with Man-Wolf for the final eight issues of the title. Roy encouraged readers to write and show their support but alas…
No other Thongor comic was ever produced by Marvel or anyone else. A film version had been shopped in Hollywood with David Prowse (Darth Vader’s body) as the Valkarthan but no dice. If the film had been made, maybe another comic?
The story picks up where we left off…Thongor deals with the lizard-hawk that attacks him.
Thongor thinks he has escaped when he pries the beast’s claw open.
He soon learns that she dropped him in her nest and her babies are hungry. Using his sword, he kills the chicks. He climbs down from the nest before the mother returns.
Sharajsha returns with the newly forged blade but learns that Thongor has been lost.
The heroes press on without the Valkarthan. They fly to the home of the Dragon Kings, ready to use the sword. Unfortunately, they are not up to the job. Sharajsha has the star sword knocked from his hands while Karm Karvus is zapped with magic.
The Dragon Kings are quite happy to have the trio for the blood sacrifice they have planned.
Meanwhile, Thongor is busy with a triceratops that doesn’t like him. The beast chases him into a cave.
Our hero flees. At the other end of the tunnel is the home of the Dragon Kings.
Before approaching the home of his enemies, Thongor finds the star sword in the surf. (Not since Beowulf fought Grendel’s mom has a magic sword shown up at just the right time!)
The prisoners are taken to the altar. Sharajsha’s magic is useless to save them. Only the star sword can defeat the Dragon Kings.
The rite begins. The scaly ones will summon their god, Thamungazoth!
It looks pretty bad for the good guys as they are lain out on the altar…
But Thongor shows up and kills the Dragon Kings! (Epic Alcazar moment!)
Even Gorm, the All-Father god, shows up to zap the lizard boys to Hell. Thongor gets the girl and everybody escapes in the flying boat. Bring on the sequel. (Thongor will get even with that Archdruid if memory serves…)
Wow, what a finish to a great series of comics! So why the slow sales? I suspect that unlike Conan the Barbarian, which was more episodic, the continuity of the novel actually worked against the comic. You could pick up any Conan and you got a enclosed plot (conflict, swordplay, end of conflict). If you read a few issues in a row, there was sometimes a continuation but each issue had a certain fullness. Chopping up Carter’s novel worked against this. The writers tried to maintain a sense of roundness but some issues were less satisfying than others. The first two were more like a Conan piece and probably sold well. As the novel dragged on, readers may have fallen away. This is only a guess, but it would not surprise me.
For readers today, who probably have all eight segments, this is not really an issue. But it was the sales figures back in 1974 that mattered. No one at Marvel at that time had any inkling of the collections of comics we have today. I often hear fans grumble that the Thongor comics should be given an omnibus collection. I agree, especially with better art resolution, so we can really enjoy Val Mayerik and Vincent Alcazar’s work. I don’t know if copyright is an issue. I am sure Robert M. Price (Lin’s copyright holder) would like to see these reprinted as much as anyone. I suspect Marvel has no interest. Which is too bad since Sword & Sorcery has been good to the company.
