Today: Conan vs. more Body Snatchers.

About a dozen years back, we checked out Conan the Barbarian #41/Conan Saga #78, wherein Conan met a disturbing pod-girl. Today's book takes the Invasion of the Body Snatchers riff up another notch! From 1987, Savage Sword of Conan #139, "The Garden of Blood" Written by Charles Dixon, pencils by Gary Kwapisz, inks by Ernie Chan. Cover by Joe Jusko!

Conan had hooked back up--figuratively and literally--with the pirate Valeria, at least for the short-term: there wasn't a lot of continuity between issues in Savage Sword, but the next issue mentions him jumping ship. Partly because Valeria could be a bit crazy even for Conan, but she (or maybe just the sea) also brought back painful memories of his late, lamented Belit. Valeria returns to her ship, the Sea Fox, but has Conan hold back, since she knows there will certainly be at least a couple mutinous dogs that have to be put down, which Conan does by bow. (Alternately, I think just showing up with Conan shuts down a lot of noise.) Their fun is rained on by a pursuing Aquilonian warship, but they set it on fire soon enough.

Still, the pirates do get a bit of a surprise, with a new island that wasn't there before. Going ashore for water and supplies, they instead find poisonous fruit, and weird milk-filled vines. The island doesn't seem to have birds or animals either, but first Conan and later Valeria seem to feel like they were being watched. Later, a guard is lured away, by a naked woman, but he is then grabbed by naked, silent men, who take him to a horrible plant-thing. His death is pretty awful, even for a Conan comic; and a pod then disgorges a copy of him. Back on the ship, the sailor that unwisely ate the local fruit looks old and shriveled, and Valeria decides they'll be leaving as soon as the last men return from the island. She need not have waited, though, as they get killed by the pod-guard, and his creepy weird feeder hands. The pod people silently walk into the water, to attack the Sea Fox.

Conan and Valeria are interrupted in bed again, as the crew is having a hard time with the pod people: simple stabbing wouldn't kill them, they had to be mostly dismembered. With more of them coming, Valeria orders to hoist anchor and try to drift away, but vines from the island grab them. Conan fights his way to the globes of oil they had used against the warship, then sets the vines on fire. Now frenzied and screaming, the pod people were fighting even harder, the Sea Fox was on fire, even Conan seems to be wondering if there was a way out of this one, and Valeria is like, enh, at least I'll die on the sea beside Conan, so...

They get a lucky break, from what would usually be misfortune: the Aquilonian warship catches up to them, ramming the ship, perhaps not noticing the vines or the fire or the raging battle. The remaining pirates jump ship, intending to take it, and as they pull away the Sea Fox and the monstrous vines explode! The pirates should be outnumbered, but they had managed to free the galley slaves, who also turn against the Aquilonians, who are forced to replace the slaves on the oars. A close one, but Conan and Valeria come out of it with a better ship, so...

Also this issue, King Kull and trade tariffs, in "The Caravan," written by Charles Dixon, art by Fraja Bator. A merchant tries to take his caravan off the usual trail, to avoid paying King Kull's taxes; and instead gets ambushed by bandits. Kull and his forces save him, which is largely incidental to wiping out the bandits: Kull himself had once been one himself, and knew all the tricks. The merchant protests, but Kull knows the score, and the merchant tells his grandson Kull was still a bandit, just one with a crown and an army now. Is it still a protection racket, if you legitimately supply protection? Read more!

"The End" Week: Kull the Destroyer #29!

After the toy show, I mentioned I was going to go through my Conan box; which included this last issue (and a copy of Claw the Unconquered #1!): From 1978, Kull the Destroyer #29, "To Sit the Topaz Throne!" Written by Don Glut, pencils by Ernie Chan, inks by Ricardo Villamonte.

It's the former king of Atlantis, Kull, versus the current king of Atlantis, Ardyon--really Thulsa Doom!--for the crown of Torranna. Wait, Torranna? Thulsa Doom wasn't content with forcing Kull into exile; he wanted his foe to win the crown of Torranna, but not as a consolation prize: Torranna was a kingdom of corpses, kept alive by magic, but only three of their wizards could live outside of the city's walls. Unless a certain prophesy was fulfilled, which involved a scar-faced champiton taking the crown; then the Torrannians would be able to leave their city, albeit as Thulsa Doom's slaves, while their king would be trapped there forever! Kull isn't going to just let that happen, though; and gives Doom a pretty good shot to the face with an axe, but the skull-faced wizard doesn't even bleed.

While most of the fight takes place with them projected to Doom's homeland, Grondar; back in the throne room a barely-conscious Kull is about to be crowned, when he makes a last ditch effort and wrestles Doom onto the throne and the crown on his head: the earlier blow to his face had scarred it, fulfilling prophecy! The citizens of Torranna age into nothingness, while the city collapses and Kull and his minstrel Ridondo make a break for it. Kull guesses the Torrannians took life from their king, but Thulsa Doom had been dead for centuries, so they had nothing but death on top of death. Ridondo, thinking quickly, had nicked Kull's old crown when it fell off Doom's head; and they head back to scenic Valusia. The court had noticed "Ardyon" had disappeared, but were in no hurry to get him back, the bloom had come off that rose and they almost missed Kull. Kull takes back the throne, since he knows none of them are about to talk back to him...at least to his face.

The letters page mentions something we noted when we checked out Kull #16: the title had been cancelled multiple times, and this would be the third and final time. Still, he would of course continue appearing in Savage Sword of Conan, and would get more series later. I don't know if anybody's doing Kull stories now; I also don't think he's received the public domain treatment like Conan would get with those "The Cimmerian" comics. "The Atlantean" is right there! Read more!

It had been like two years since the last issue, except not really.

I haven't blogged one of these in a bit, so we'll jump in with both feet into this one: from 1976, Kull the Destroyer #16, "The Tiger in the Moon" Written by Roy Thomas and Doug Moench, art by ed Hannigan, inks by Yong Montano. 

With numbering how it is now, it's easy to forget there were some books that the numbering was always jacked up on. Case in point: this was the sixteenth issue of Kull the Destroyer, but it was continuing the story from three black-and-white magazine issues of Kull and the Barbarians. I don't think Marvel did any new Kull stuff when they had the Conan license last, but they did do a nice trade last year, which seems like the way to read this story, honestly. There's a text page from Roy explaining his publishing history at Marvel, which seemed plagued by stops and starts, like it would get cancelled, then they would realize it was selling well, and un-cancel or relaunch it, which I would guess probably took some of the momentum away. This series would last until #29, which I'm positive I have around here somewhere, and am not sure why it hasn't been in "The End," since we saw the much later Kull #10.

So, while the splash page proclaims "Beginning a new era of excitement" it was catching up with the story already in progress: Kull had been deposed as king of Valusia, and his old friend Om-Ra, the king of Kull's old homeland Atlantis, offers him a spot as second-in-command of the Atlantean army. (This was long before Atlantis sunk, so they weren't blue guys, Marvel fans!) Kull isn't sure that's the job he wants, which gives the head general Khor-nah an excuse to distrust him: he tries to have Kull restrained, but Kull rages free, seemingly manifesting the spirit of a tiger...? Om-Ra and Khor-nah convince themselves nah, they didn't really see that...did they? Kull takes his leave, with his only remaining subject, the bard Ridondo; while the girl Kareesha watches Kull go, seemingly promising to herself to get him later, but in what sense?

Kull then muses through his backstory: raised by tigers, forced to leave Atlantis after a mercy kill to save a girl from burning at the stake, then slavery, piracy, gladiatorial combat, the throne of Valusia, overthrown by the skull-faced sorceror Thulsa Doom, freed by his loyal friend Brule, and now uncertain what step to take next. Perhaps a consult, with his patron, the Woman of the Moon? Kull acted like he didn't really believe in her, and it's left slightly open if he actually sees this or not, but it seems real enough. The Woman allows Kull to see his future: a final battle with Thulsa Doom, where Kull seems to have him on the ropes, until a sudden flash, and then--dead, at Doom's hands, while Valusia cheers! Will that be his fate? The Woman tells him, he'll know when the time comes; but in the meantime don't deny her existence, will ya? 

Ugh, really need to dig up that last issue now. Perhaps appropriately, I've been listening to MF Doom while typing this one up...

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Michael Golden, John Buscema, Klaus Janson, and Bill Sienkiewicz; all on the same book.

And yet I still don't think it was ever a big seller, but not for lack of trying!

Since every so often I pull a random issue of Kull out of the quarter bins, hey, here's another with a strong creative lineup: from 1984, Marvel's Kull the Conqueror #6, "Goblin Moon" Written by Alan Zelenetz, pencils by John Buscema, inks and colors by Klaus Janson.

This struck me as a somewhat more fanciful story for this run, until I remembered the zombies and flying bull from a few issues prior. Brule the Spear-slayer is charged with guarding a nobleman's daughter, but they're on the verge of being caught out-of-doors on the "Goblin Moon." Kull hears the story from several sources, of how the goblins rise on this night and offer anyone unwise or unwary enough to be out their hearts' desire, at the cost of their soul. (My heart's desire was not to lose my soul, so I don't know how they'd work that out...) Even though Kull is a barbarian, he seems to take the goblins less seriously than the "civilized" folk and would probably write the whole thing off as superstitious nonsense; but he goes to look for Brule while everyone else apparently stays home and hides under the bed.

Of course the goblins do turn out to be real, quickly tempting the nobleman's daughter with eternal beauty, then turning her into a soulless zombie-like shell. Brule resists them, until he's tempted by a shiny new spear to kill the goblins with. ("Ha! Now I'll--oh, wait...") Kull finds the entranced pair before the goblins take them back to their Tower of Madness, and although he's tempted with "wisdom and empire" he still manages to fight the goblins until the sun comes up and drives them away. Neither Brule nor the nobleman's daughter remember anything, so Kull is left with no witnesses to the existence of goblins. Which he didn't really need, everyone believed in them already, but it would've been something.

Michael Golden did the cover for this issue, but there is also a teaser for the next issue by Bill Sienkiewicz:

I don't think Sienkiewicz did anything else for the next issue, but that's a nice piece there.
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Sure, Kull hunts with a bow, but he doesn't get all weird and Nugent-y about it...

Did you know Marie and John Severin drew some Kull comics? And I mean drew the living hell out of, this issue looks great! From 1972, Kull the Conqueror #5, "A Kingdom by the Sea!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Marie Severin, inks by John Severin. I would have to rely on the GCD to even hazard a guess how many issue #5's Kull has had...

This issue, the prince of said kingdom by the sea approaches Kull, to enlist the king's aid in driving demons from his land. Kull's royal court is all for the trade they'll get out of the deal, and Kull's citizens are all "Yay! War!" Kull still wants to help the prince out, but as is often the case, not everything is as it seems...Not a deep read, but the art is nice; yet I don't believe this has been reprinted to date. Keep an eye out!

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Today, Kull vs. Skeletor.

Actually, that looks less like Masters of the Universe's Skeletor, than like Remco's Skullman. (That link is a eBay listing from a while back, but for the price it might be there a while...) Of course, it's actually Kull's usual big-bad, the wizard Thulsa Doom, in Marvel Preview #19, "Riders Beyond the Sunrise" Adapted from a story fragment by Robert E. Howard by Roy Thomas, with art by Sal Buscema and Tony DeZuniga.

I have to wonder how much of a fragment it was, though; since this story seems to start one place, and go somewhere completely different. Kull's councilor Tu is boring the king's crown off with the account of a countess who fled an arranged marriage, to run off with a low-born adventurer. Although it violates a number of Valusia's laws, Kull doesn't really care until he gets word of said adventurer bad-mouthing him. Taking his Red Slayers and Brule the Spear-slayer with him, Kull rides off in pursuit, to a mysterious land east "beyond the sunset."

So, it seems like this is going to be a commentary on so-called civilization against the more-honest barbarism of Kull; but instead the whole thing is a lure set by Thulsa Doom. No longer serving the "serpent," Doom plans on getting revenge out "where neither god nor demon has power." That part doesn't necessarily feel like where Howard might've been taking this one; I kinda think Thomas took an opportunity to wrap up storylines from Kull's cancelled comic.

Also this issue: a Solomon Kane story, "The Footfalls Within," featuring Kane against slavers. Eh, it's OK.

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"The End" Week: Kull #10!

From Kull #10, "While Valusia Sleeps" Written by Alan Zelenetz, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Marie Severin. Kull's number-one man, Brule, has returned to the Pictish islands; so Kull brings the warrior Gonra out of a thousand year sleep to come hang out. As you do.

Unfortunately, since the royal court of Valusia is chock full of doublecrossing bastards, a couple put Gonra up to opening a chamber Kull sealed shut with a sword, thinking it will be full of treasure. Instead, it holds a serpent-man. And a ghost. The ruckus gets Kull out of bed, and he's forced to kill the ghost, a batch of serpent-men, and and an imitation-Gonra.


Also this issue: subplots with Brule and Sleeping Beauty! (Actually a girl that was going to sleep until Kull loved her, which doesn't seem like a great way to win him over.) Maybe this being the last issue snuck up on them, since they didn't go anywhere. Kull would appear here and there in Savage Sword of Conan, but this would be the last attempt at a series for him at Marvel.
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With a name like "Devourer of Souls," you know what you're getting.

Dark Horse Comics, the current holder of the Conan the Barbarian license for comics, has been reprinting trade collections of the classic Marvel stories. Per Amazon's listing for the Chronicles of Conan, volume 22 is due December 2011, and that would bring the reprint total to 175 out of 275 issues. I don't know if the Chronicles have reprinted any annuals, but I don't think they would be up to this one yet. Which is just as well, since it's a very Marvel story: Conan the Barbarian Annual #12, "Legion of the Dead" Written by Janes Owsley (a.k.a Priest) with a plot assist by Val Semeiks, pencils by Vince Giarrano, inks by Ernie Chan.

How Marvel is it? Well, this storyline had been running for over a year, since around #187. Conan also had a bigger supporting cast in these issues than his entire run to date; and guest-stars Red Sonja and Kull! (Kull in a flashback, since he was from an earlier age.) And the stakes are definitely raised: instead of his usual foes, Conan was up against the Devourer of Souls, an extradimensional demon who was gearing up for the end of the world.

By this point, the Devourer has captured a little girl and her cat; which is a bigger deal than it sounds: the girl is an immensely powerful "child of the Elder Gods," and the cat is her battery, and may be over 10,000 years old. Needing some backstory, the Devourer makes a visit to Arallu, or Hell, to see Kull's long time villain, Thulsa Doom: the Devourer correctly surmises if the cat had been around back then, Thulsa would've known about it. Having little else to do, since he'd been chained to a wall since his death, Thulsa tells him about it.

Back in Kull's day, a young shepherd named Sedrick saved a knight from savages. Grateful, the knight made Sedrick his squire; and while they were close, the other squires were resentful of the peasant in their midst. Thulsa Doom used Sedrick's resentment, in a plot against Kull. The plot failed, at the cost of the knight's life; and in revenge Thulsa turned Sedrick into a cat. An immortal cat. Thulsa does that rather off-the-cuff: maybe he should've tried that on Kull. He also didn't know the Elder Gods would use the cat to store their power.

In gratitude, the Devourer blasts Thulsa's chains, giving him "freedom to roam the underworld." Then, it's time to get back to work destroying the universe...

Meanwhile, Conan and his band are discussing the recent appearance of a sword, received from the Elder Gods. They come under attack by scavengers, but Conan's group is on top of their game...save one.

Red Sonja's skill with a sword was a gift from a goddess, and she believed it was conditional on her remaining "untouched." Attacked and violated in a previous issue, she was now acting like the scared peasant girl she used to be. A surly Conan is not very sympathetic here (although I'm positive Conan killed the hell out of Sonja's attacker) and is similiarly dismissive of the Elder Gods' sword as having the wrong weight and no balance. Taking his old sword instead, Conan heads out to get answers from the Footslave of the Elder Gods...where the Devourer already is.

Instead of the Footslave, Conan finds a gateway to Arallu, which he has little choice but to take. There, Thulsa Doom is waiting for him, since he knows the Devourer would even destroy Arallu. Meanwhile, Conan's band set out to follow him, leaving Mad Simeon to watch the helpless Sonja. Attacked by the dead, Conan's regretting not bringing the Elder God's sword, while Simeon's playing with it when the scavengers attack again. Simeon is killed with arrows, enraging Sonja, who regains her fighting spirit...but she knows it was too late.

Joined by his team, Conan fights through the legion of the dead, but the Devourer gains the Elder Gods' power. This would be concluded in Conan #200, which we may dig up some other time, as there was a twist or two there. This was Conan's last annual at Marvel; and while I liked it, I can see how this might not be to the taste of all of Conan's fans.


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Kull's relationship status? Single. And probably gonna stay that way...

The last time we did a post on Robert E. Howard's Kull the Conqueror (or, at least, Marvel's rendition of him) we mentioned Kull didn't have Conan's luck with the ladies. For example, in "The Blood of Kings," Kull meets the love of his life in an arranged royal marriage, only to lose her on their wedding day. She was stabbed to death by a werewolf, then Kull had to stab her again when she came back as a werewolf...and that still went better than Kull's next attempt at dating.

Attending a royal wedding with his advisor Tu and sidekick Brule the Spear-slayer; Kull is almost enjoying himself. Then the Atlantean contingent arrives, including Ku-var, "a man legendary for cruelty," and a smoking hot babe, Iraina.

More after the break!

Tu drops the exposition; that Iraina was of a rival tribe, but sold out her people to Ku-var. Later that evening, as a sparring tournament goes on, Kull picks Brule as his champion. Ku-var picks Iraina as Brule's opponent, but Brule refuses to fight a woman. Even a woman that cuts him. Repeatedly. Humiliated, Brule sulks off; and one of Ku-var's slaves approaches Kull. It's Ram-os, shaman of Kull's old tribe, and he warns Kull of Iraina.

Returning home to Valusia, Kull gets back to the work of king; but Brule plans on quitting. Kull tries to talk him out of it, when a torn and bleeding Ram-os stumbles in. He tells of Ku-var's return to his kingdom, and how Ku-var had decided it was time to take his relationship with Iraina to the next level. It didn't go as well as he might have hoped:

Ram-os says Iraina killed most, if not all of Ku-var's men, and now has an army of women. Kull has a pretty good laugh about that, but Ram-os warns that Iraina has the same totem as Kull, the tiger. Iraina's army proves to be quite effective, especially since the women can turn into tigers, and they maul several opposing armies, as Kull inexplicably sees in his nightmares; but they leave no living witnesses.

A traitorous nobleman (like nine out of ten noblemen in Kull stories) approaches Iraina, to arrange a meeting between her and Kull. Before the meet, Brule follows Ram-os out to a ceremony with Iraina's army. Afterwards, Brule catches the old man, who drops some backstory: years ago, he predicted a child would be born during the full moon, and would grow up to rule the whole continent. The chief at the time wasn't having that, and ordered any children born at the time sacrificed to the tigers. One child, of course, was Kull, who would be raised by the tigers for some years; the other was Iraina, who Ram-os raised on black magic and tiger milk. While Kull would meet Ram-os later, he would end up leaving the tribe; and Iraina would eventually become a complete psycho, but maybe a ruling psycho.

Iraina and Kull are twins, and convinced only one can rule, Ram-os had been sending Kull the nightmares. Brule goes to warn his king of not only the danger, but also that he's about to try and bust a move on his sister. Kull is regretting not implementing any leash laws as he's attacked by Iraina's tiger; but Brule arrives in time to help kill her pet. Wait, not pet, mate. This just gets more awkward...

As Iraina's tiger army blitzes the city, Kull is forced to fight his sister to the death. Snapping her neck, Iraina's tiger army turns back into women (and Kull's army thankfully doesn't simply murder them at that point) and Ram-os explains it was always Kull's destiny to rule, the old shaman dying without Iraina's vitality to keep him going. The tale ends, as many Kull stories do, with a gloomy, sullen Kull on his throne; which is fair enough considering this one.

From Kull the Conqueror #1, "Eye of the Tigress" Written by Bruce Jones and April Campbell, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Bob Wiacek and Dan Green. This was Kull volume three, cover-dated May 1983. And I'm absolutely sure this had nothing at all to do with the title, from the year prior:


Hey!



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Barbarian king, check; zombies, pirates, check; flying bull...OK, whatever.

I've mentioned this here before, but Conan stories are always more fun than Kull stories. Always. That's not to say that there aren't good Kull stories, far from it. It's just that Conan at least on occasion enjoyed himself, while Kull is a gloomy son of a gun. He probably has reason to be, though.

For one thing, Conan got all the chicks. In every Kull story I've read, his love interests are either killed, or betray him. Or get killed while betraying him, or some variation thereof. Conversely, Kull had better friends, since most of those stories feature Brule the Spear-slayer (who pretty much does what the name says; you don't call Brule when you need jars opened, you call him in when you need things stabbed a lot) and it was much rarer for Conan to keep a sidekick or ally for more than a few issues. Almost all of Kull's stories are of his time as king of Valusia: he became king younger than Conan would (however many years later, Conan and Kull weren't contemporaries...) but that mainly means Kull missed out on over a decade's worth of partying.

Moreover, while Conan's monarchy in Aquilonia seemed to be a benevolent dictatorship; for some reason Valusia had a king and a senate. A senate composed of the landholding rich white guys, who instead of being bought up by special interests, were the special interests. No middlemen here; but they also had no particular love or respect for their barbarian king, and most of them were either dragging their feet against his rule, or semi-secretly plotting against Kull at any given time.

Which sets the stage for today's comic! From Kull #3, "Dead Men of the Deep." Written by Alan Zelenetz, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Klaus Janson. (With a Michael Golden cover.) A fact-finding cruise of senators (really!) is captured by the pirate Roc, whom Kull remembers. Kull had been a galley slave for him for two years before escaping, and planned on killing the hell out of him before getting sidetracked with all this king business.

Aboard the pirated ship, Kull finds an old friend, Gorn; who had been a slave first in Roc's galley, then in Kull's own Valusian navy. While Kull is glad to see his friend, he's embarrassed to free him by accident, and again laments the official policy of slavery, since he can't get the senate to abolish it. As Kull takes to the sea after Roc, a senator and a priest of the bull-god Anu plot a little regicide. Shortly after setting off, Kull and his ship are attacked by a flying bull. Most people would find that weird, but Kull kills it and is only interested in getting back on track after Roc.

After a surprise attack on Roc's island stronghold, Kull and his crew discover Roc's main force, and his hostages, are in a secret ice cavern. In fairly short order, Kull plants an axe in Roc's guts, leaving him to sink into the icy waters.

On the voyage home, the ship enters a strange fog. Zombie fog, courtesy of the priest of Anu again. Overrun, things look grim, until reinforcements arrive in the form of the king's chancellor Tu; who had been following his king at a safe distance the whole time. The plotting senator kills the priest for his failure; and upon his return, Kull again lobbies for the abolishment of slavery. The vote fails unanimously; Kull is disgruntled to realize even the senators he saved voted against him...

This feels like a busy issue, but to be honest, if I had John Buscema and Klaus Janson for art, I would be throwing different crap at them every couple of pages too, just to get them to draw it. This was the third volume of Kull from Marvel, and the letters page notes it's the last issue for 1983. It was on an irregular schedule for a while there, and I want to say some of the issues were double-sized, some standard. I think Marvel wanted to get Kull up to the level of sales of their Conan books, but he never made it, but not for lack of trying. Read more!