Victor de la Fuente’s Haxtur

Victor de la Fuente’s “Haxtur” originally appeared in the Spanish anthology comic, Trinca in the early 1970s. The stories were reprinted in English for a North American audience in Warren magazines 1979-80, essentially a decade later. There were a number of reasons for this. Europeans had been enjoying historical and Sword & Sorcery comics long before Conan the Barbarian. Warren peppered its horror titles with S&S, especially when it was drawn by Spanish artists like Esteban Maroto, Luis Bermejo or Jaime Brocal Remohí. As with Alfred Alcala’s “Voltar” or Esteban Maroto’s “Dax the Damned”, earlier work from outside North America was translated and presented as new. As most US readers weren’t familiar with Trinca, “Haxtur” was perfect for the Sword & Sorcery crowd within Warren Horror publications.

Victor de la Fuente (1927-2010) started with the  Adolfo López Rubio’s studio in 1945. By the 1960s he was drawing for the UK’s Fleetway and D. C. Thomson then France’s Dargaud. His first US work was for Warren’s Eerie #35, “I Am Dead, Egypt. Dead”, which won the Warren Award for best story.

“Haxtur” (Trinca #14-15, May 15-June 1, 1971 reprinted in 1984 #10, December 1979/1994 #11, February 1980) begins with a modern man fighting in South America. His spirit is transferred to a strange world where a giant lizard attacks him. He has a sword and kills the monster. The gods are angered by this and condemn him to wander until he finds his purpose in the world and that of all humanity.

He wakes again in a canoe. The man paddling it explains that Haxtur is like the Tyrant who rules their jungle world. Using robots and lizard men, the Tyrant demands tribute and servitude. The Lizard-Faces attack and Haxtur fights them. The paddler’s friends show up and take the new arrival to their village. Being from our world, Haxtur understands that water is harmful to machines. He sets a daring trap and dumps the “Greyks” into the swamp. No longer protected by this robots, the Tyrant suffers the anger of his lizard-men slaves.

Part Two has Haxtur approached by a beautiful woman on a horse. She commands him to cross a bridge and cut down a tree. He is powerless to refuse. Once done, the woman’s soul is free. She repays him by destroying the bridge and trapping him on the island. He refuses to give us. He uses the tree to build a rolling wheel. Using this he manages to jump across the gap in the bridge, freeing himself. An old priest waits on the other side to explain that Haxtur has freed an evil sorcreress. Only he can imprison her again, using the wood from the tree.

The sorceress sends monsters against Haxtur, but he kills them. Finding her, he shoots her in the heart with an arrow made from the tree. Dying she tells him that the old man is actually the evil one. When the old man gloats, Haxtur puts an arrow in him too. Later he finds a mill and an old schoalr. This man is suspicious of the swordsman. Haxtur leaves him to be attacked by a knight on an elephant. They fight. In the end the man dies under the feet of his mount. Haxtur thinks the elephant enjoyed his revenge for years of suffering.

The first installment feels quite episodic. The fights are great but none of the events really have anything to do with each other. (It may have seemed less so in the original Trinca where each episode appeared an issue apart.)  De la Fuente uses Science Fiction elements but the over-all feel is Sword & Sorcery. My favorite thing about the strip so far is Haxtur’s modern attitude. He calls sorcerers “assholes” and reacts as the reader would if in that situation. Since this is portal fantasy, this works well.

The last panel of this first adventure says Haxtur’s adventures will continue in 1994 (the renamed 1984) but they actually moved to Eerie, a Warren mag with a reputation for Sword & Sorcery.

“Beware of Glahb” (Trinca #18-19, July 15-August 1, 1971 reprinted in Eerie #111, June 1980) has Haxtur rescue a beautiful woman from being sacrificed to Glahb, a giant reptile monster. Haxtur is captured while she escapes on his horse. She returns to save him but ends up getting eaten all the same.

Wandering on, Haxtur runs into folks in the mountains who are afraid to speak. This is because the local priest is the only one allowed to do so. He takes Haxtur prisoner, sending him into a giant stone building that looks like a god. There Haxtur discovers the loud noises inside are made by the lens that form the god’s eyes. He covers them, then kills the priest. In a little Poesque touch, the entire building collapses.

“Haxtur and the Slow Death God” (Trinca #20-21, August 15-September 1, 1971 reprinted in Eerie #113, August 1980) has Haxtur encounter another woman on the road. She warns him to flee from Mokt. He ends up helping her and her people flee the city of slow death. Sneaking inside with another man, they defy the guards and take the people out. Haxtur realizes that the slow death is from radioactivity.

Haxtur is led into a trap. The guardian of Khut is a gigantic lizard monster that drives him into a maze where Khut, Diabolical Master of Deformation, waits for the swordsman. Khut wants Haxtur to give him his body since Khut’s is deformed. Haxtur refuses and uses Khut’s stink bombs to drive off the lizard guardian.

“Panthers, Wolves and Death” (Trinca #22-25, September 15-November 1, 1971 reprinted in Eerie #114, September 1980) The first episode has Haxtur joining a woman with a leopard named Gaah on a quest for a black stone. Upon the stone is written the true law that will free her people. Haxtur and Gaah cut up a lotta guys to get her there.

The second episode has Haxtur captured by a race of wolf-men. He goes with them to a kind of arena, where he defeats a black-maned wolf, then defends him against his own people but finally kills the beast when it attacks him. Why? (Because it is fun to draw wolf-men?)

“Warriors and Friends!” (Trinca #26, November 15, 1971 reprinted in Eerie #116, November 1980) has Haxtur captured by the warrior, Beyghey. He takes Haxtur to another warrior. They accuse the swordsman of being a spy. Beyghey tries to spear Haxtur, who escapes. Later he unseats the other warrior and takes his horse. He tells the man they could have been friends.

“A Time For Dying”(Trinca #27-29, December 1, 1971-January 1, 1972 reprinted in Eerie #117, December 1980) begins with Haxtur falling through a trap into an underground temple. A priest there tells him he has come to fulfill his destiny. Haxtur encounters a monster but it is an illusion. The old priest takes him to a prisoner and demands he kill him. Haxtur frees the man and he kills the priest.

Haxtur moves on. Someone tries to kill him with rocks, then flees. When he catches the villain, it turns out to be himself. Finally, answers come as the two Haxtur realize they are trapped in Purgatory, reliving the same questions over and over. The second Haxtur dies as the real man had, from bullets in the South American jungle. The gods show up and Haxtur is informed that they have no real power. They are not gods. They are simply avid observers: Death, War, Pestilance and Famine. They thank Haxtur for his service causing ill among men. They leave. Haxtur is damned for all time to suffer knowing he has been a curse on humanity.

This ending is perfect for the Warren magazines, that often held this bleak philosophy. As part of the Viet Nam War era, the message would have pleased some readers. All these years later, it still works for me. The episodic nature of the series seems pretty weak until you get to the final segment. De la Fuente points at all the foibles of humankind. He is not fan of religion, war or hypocrisy. The long meandering saga with the downer ending can be found in Esteban Maroto’s “Dax the Damned” earlier in the same magazine.

In 1972, after “Haxtur”, de la Fuente created a post-apocalyptic series, Mathai-Dor for Trinca. In 1973 “Haxtur” won two awards at European comics festivals in Italy. Victor would return to Sword & Sorcery in 1978 with “Haggarth” that would appear in Eerie in 1982 (We’ll look at that one another time). Most of his later work was in Western comics. The cowboy hero isn’t all that different than the barbarian wanderer.