By the time I started reading Warlord regularly, King Aram Al Ashir was relegated to the lower tier of the book's supporting characters, behind Rostov the Werewolf and Mongo Ironhand. But I did pick up more of his appearances much, much later; like today's book! From 1980, Warlord #40, "The Brotherhood of Death" Story and pencils by Mike Grell, inks by Vince Colletta.
Morgan and Shakira arrive in the kingdom of Kaambuka, where Morgan's friend Ashir has recently taken his crown, and immediately regretted it. Surrounded by enemies within his royal court and outside it, he was also looking down the barrel of a more horrible fate: marriage. It's a marriage of state, and Ashir is positive it's going to be to a beast; Travis tries to encourage him by pointing out maybe he'll be killed first. In that vein, Ashir suggests a royal hunt before the wedding; which is more dangerous than usual even for Skartaris, since a hooded figure plants a mystic talisman on Ashir that makes a saber-tooth tiger go after him.
Later, back at the castle, Morgan, Ashir, and Shakira are ambushed by Ashir's own royal guard; and kill the hell out of them. Ashir notes maybe there's a bit more resentment towards him than he'd expected, but is thrilled to have enemies. It is something to do. But his spirit is crushed again by the announcement of the arrival of his bride--who, surprisingly, is beautiful.
Since it's Tara, Morgan's wife! EDIT: Good news, we blogged the next issue earlier this year, when I was all mad at Danger Street. Which is still running? Ugh, I'm not checking back in on it.
For a change, the back-up feature this issue ties into the main story! Machiste and Mariah are still in the distant past of "Wizard World," but might be able to return to the present since Mongo Ironhand just found the Necronomicon! Which is immediately stolen by a rival wizard, Zaargon. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't turn out the way he wanted, but that would take about 26 issues to wrap up!
I see you have unintentionally blogged the progression & reading order of this story backwards, kudos to you on making this journey more interesting. At least we know kinda sorta (?) how it ends. I'm guessing Asmir gets to avoid THIS arranged marriage but eventually has to go through with another attempt, but maybe he likes it? Idk, either that or he might just give up the crown since it's not as fun as he expected.
ReplyDeleteThe rival wizard here, Zaaragon here looks & talks exactly like the good guy wizard from the the 1977 animated movie Wizards. Like A LOT! Maybe Grell was heavily influenced by the movie. Hard to see how he wasn't since it's so noticeable.
The story and layouts are great but what struck me mightily was Vince Colletta's incredible inking of this story. How no other artist could create beautiful women as those penciled or inked by Colletta is beyond me but it is a fact - The Most Beautiful Women in Comics.
ReplyDelete@ten-cent media:
ReplyDeleteHonestly, given his notorious reputation for taking shortcuts to meet or exceed deadlines, causing him to butcher art, he actually shines here, much to my surprise.