SPARTACUS

For Steven DeKnight, writer and producer for Starz’s Spartacus: Blood and Sand, this year’s Comic-Con International offers something close to a victory lap: Returning to San Diego a year after the series was first announced to celebrate not only the success of the show, but also talk about its first spin-off, Gods of the Arena.

Speaking to press before the show’s Friday panel, DeKnight — veteran of fan favorite shows likeAngel, Smallville and Dollhouse — said that returning to Comic-Con with such a successful show was something of a relief.

“We weren’t quite sure [the show would work], we had an inkling, we thought we had something special, but we’re very happy with the reaction,” he said, later adding, “It’s great to have a franchise. You never think that far ahead. You just try and get each show done. When I got started, I said to Rob [Tapert, executive producer], ‘I’m not going to be happy until we’ve got an Emmy nomination.’ And he said, ‘Steve, I’d be happy getting a season two.’ Well, Rob got his wish. … We just love working on the show, it’s an incredibly difficult show to work upon, and write, but it’s so rewarding, there’s nothing else like this on TV.”

He talked about the freedom the show has been given by its network, Starz: “The great thing about Starz is that they’ve always said, ‘We want you to tell the story you want to tell, and we’ll tell you when you’ve crossed the line.’ And the only time in season one when they told us we’d crossed the line was in episode six, when we had the orgy scene. Some of the footage was a little bit too much, but when you buy the DVD, we put it back in. Sometimes they’ll ask us to trim a frame off here, a frame off there in terms of violence. Obviously, in season one, the most violent thing you see is in episode four, with the guy getting his face taken off. But it’s so quick. The show [is stylized] on purpose. We only ever use the really graphic stuff very rarely on purpose; those are very brief moments. Otherwise, we go for a very operatic-type violence. … When we started, Starz told us, ‘We want a hard-R rated show.’ And it’s funny, because in early conversations, they said, ‘We want a hard-R 300-type show,’ and I said, ‘That’s not hard-R. That’s R, but we can take it hard-R.’ We never wanted to push any envelope, we just wanted to be able to tell the very graphic-novel story that we wanted to tell, without having to worry about standards and practices. I remember when I was onAngel, every episode I wrote, I had to deal with standards and practices. It was a vampire show and the one thing they didn’t want us to show was blood. They were always so upset over the blood. We always got it in, but it was always a fight. Weeks and weeks of fights. It usually ended with them saying, okay, you got it in this time, but consider yourself warned. But we did it each time.”

When talking about the new series, Gods of the Arena, DeKnight said it takes place a couple of years before the beginning of Blood and Sand, but that the second series came about as a result of Spartacus himself, actor Andy Whitfield, having to take time to recover from treatment for an unexpected diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“It came about because Andy was not available,” he said. “We’d planned to do a flashback episode with John Hannah’s character during season two, we had one quasi-planned out. And then, when this happened, when we had to delay shooting, I called Rob Tapert, who’s one of my partners, and said, ‘Hey! How about a two-hour prequel?’ And then it became a four-hour prequel, and then it became a six-hour prequel. The key was that John Hannah was available and was interested.”

DeKnight went on to say that, even though a writer wasn’t supposed to have favorite creations, he was drawn to Hannah’s Batiatus because “what he says is what I’m thinking all the time.” A lot of his excitement about the six-episode Gods comes from being able to write Batiatus and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) together again. But even though his focus is on the prequel, which starts shooting next week, he’s still very conscious of the show’s future.

“The show will hit major touchstones in history, ending with the slave uprising,” he said. “I’ve always said we’ve got about five to seven [seasons]. … We’ve got a good idea of the first five years. It’s not entirely written, but we know historically, this [will have happened] by the end of season two, this will have happened by the end of season three. We know where we’re headed.”

Gods of the Arena will air next year, followed by the second season of Spartacus, on Starz. You can watch a teaser trailer for Gods of the Arena below.

DAY TRIPPER

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

BACK IN THE USSR

ABE SAPIEN

THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN

GREEN HORNET

WARLORDS OF MARS

SKULLTAR

10 COMICS THAT SHOULD BE TV SHOWS

TOP 10 TUESDAYS - 10 COMICS THAT SHOULD BE TV SHOWS

1 - Scalped

Directed/Produced - Martin Scorsese
Dashiell Badhorse - Taylor Lautner

This comic from Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera looks at crime on an Indian reservation in the middle of America. It’s looks at it very frankly and in often brutal ways. People get hurt in this comic, often, and it doesn’t shy away from the terrible and toxic relationships people develop, with themselves, with others, with drugs. Racial slurs are traded evenly between the cops, the Indians, and the Chinese gang that come in from time to time.

This comic does not mess about and that goes for the level of its quality, too; this comic is phenomenal. If you’ve ever looked into the pages of Scalped I’m sure you got hooked within a few issues. Now imagine that on your screens each week. If we can have horror on our screen I think we can have crime as well, if the glut of CSI & Law & Orders are anything to go by. Scalped has a longform story shown through various arcs and the characters are rich and all own the scenes they are in.

This would be premiere television and if cinematic mastermind Martin Scorsese was behind it all I could only imagine the production value and the grit of the nasty people getting stuck in everyone’s teeth. I am also going to go out on a limb, and feel free to saw through it for me, but I’d be interested in seeing if Taylor Lautner of Twilight fame could pull off the lead role ofDashiell Badhorse. They’re both buff, so there’s that, but I wonder if Lautner has the acting chops to really get the job done. I’m just floating the idea here but you never know, it could happen.

2 - Northlanders

Directed/Produced - James Cameron

Brian Wood’s Northlanders is a series of Viking epics are character based tales set in the olden days of boats and maidens and plenty of the old school ultra-violence. Each arc takes us to a different character, or time frame, and Wood makes sure to give us everything we need and nothing superfluous. It would make a very tense and brutal show that I could see gaining a following quite easily. People have followed the tube into ancient Rome so why not another well scripted ancient series?

Having James Cameron involved would only ensure that the authenticity of the period was retained and the production values on the water were superb. I’d like to see Cameron get some of his fat Avatar dollars invested in other actual good stories. This one has promise and I’d love to see someone give it the complete devotion it deserves.

3 - Y: The Last Man
Executive Producer - Alan Ball
Yorick Brown – Justin Long

They’re talking about making this as a movie, or maybe three movies, but even then you know there’d be stacks they’d miss. Why not make the tale of the world’s last surviving man into a television show? He’s out to try and find his girlfriend in Australia all while avoiding marauding ‘Amazons’ and probably falling in love a few times along the way.

It’s a funny story, and a heartfelt one too, but there are moments of serious drama and tension that would work perfectly on the small screen. The main draw would be the tale that does take years to unfold, so there’s no worry of actors aging as the characters will as well. I rate this as my favourite story of all time so the chance to watch it for a few years would entertain me to no end.

I think Justin Long would be perfect for the lead role ofYorick, though with each passing year he’s not looking so spot on for the role anymore. I don’t know who else might step up to make this great character a reality. As for Alan Ball, he seems to know how to take a property and put it onto the big screen with plenty of longform storytelling so I'd trust him on this one.

4 - Ex Machina

Directed/Produced/Showrunner – Aaron Sorkin
Mitchell Hundred - Jon Hamm

Ex Machina was pitched as the West Wing meetsUnbreakable and this tale of a superhero turned mayor of New York just has great drama television written all over it.  In a world where LOST can headline for years and ghosts can be seen in Rescue Me I think the viewing public are ready for a political candidate that can speak to machines.

There are many great characters in this story and multiple story arcs would carry season perfectly. The fact it even has an end date would be a better sell as we’d hopefully know how many seasons we were in for, if there were to stay relatively true to the text.

It might seem a bit obvious but I’d love to see Aaron Sorkin run this show as he’d be a perfect match for Brian K Vaughan’s original dialogue. Considering BKV has written for LOST before I think he could do a good job as well, if he’d be willing. I could see this being relatively easy to recreate on the small screen, budget and effects wise, and it is certainly one damn fine story. Having someone like Jon Hamm playMayor Hundred would be pretty exceptional, though many might only ever see him as Don Draper from now on.

5 - Criminal

Directed/Produced/Showrunner – David Simon

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have created five different Criminal arcs, so far. Each one deals with the depravity of the criminal underworld and wraps this character portrait around a very well plotted and tight noir story.

Each arc would then make for one great little season of about ten episodes and the characters and actors can rotate as needed. There’d be violence, for sure, but nothing that hasn’t been seen on screens before. The important thing is that everything counts in this tale, there are no cool moments thrown out for the sake of it, this is just great storytelling with superb characters.

Having David Simon, of The Wire fame, run the show would bring in a sense of the real world to these tales. Just because they are comics doesn’t mean they aren’t good stories, and they most certainly take place in the real world. You just aim a camera and shoot it into the night and rain with Brubaker’s words coming out of there and you’re going to capture some of the magic of this comic.

6 - Gotham Central
Showrunner – Denis Leary

Gotham Central is a comic about the cops of Gotham City. They deal with crimes, just like any cops, but they also deal with the enemies of Batman and even sometimes the Batman himself. They have a massive chip on their collective shoulder because one man in a cape and cowl combo manages to do more for the city than a whole squad of them, or so it would seem. Brubaker, Rucka and Lark created this world from the ground up and the beauty of the comic was that it was so heavily character focused. The cops are the story not the crime.

I’m unashamedly a fan of Rescue Me and it’s interesting because though it’s about firefighters in New York City it’s also about guys. It’s a massive character piece and Leary completely understands that. He gets the relationships and the garbage that comes with living at your work and having a family there. He could do this show great justice and it would be unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a comic adaptation before. And you wouldn’t even really need to ever have Batman on screen, though you would need those villains.

7 - The Immortal Iron Fist
Showrunner - Damon Lindelof

It’s been pretty mainstream so far so let me inject a personal superhero favourite and one I truly think could work on the small screen. Danny Rand is a kung fu billionaire. He’s the immortal weapon of the mystical city ofK’un L’un and his nemesis, the Steel Serpent, is out for his power. Throw in Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as supporting players and then you just slowly build up the menace of HYDRA. It would be perfect.

Lindelof showed on LOST that he knows how to treat legacy, mysticism, massive organisations, and awesome in a television show. He’s a very open nerd and he could make this show true to the character but possibly also something completely more than the source material. He could produce a show that is well written, dense, and longform, which I think are elements that Iron Fist certainly could use.

8 - DMZ
Showrunner - David Chase

DMZ is Brian Wood's tale of young journalist Matty Roth and his experiences within the war zone that Manhattan Island has become. It’s a different reality and timeline but some of the atrocities and terrible actions are all too completely real, instead here it’s all dumped on US soil. Each arc seems to find a new focus for Matty in his exploits as one of the few press people in the front line of this sad and crumbled city. It mixes current war events with great characterisation and the room for all sorts of varied groups of people and the opportunity to do some very longform storytelling.

A television series for this show would be pretty epic on scale, as they show a completely destroyed and vagrant city but it would also be extremely rich in characters and brilliant storylines. It’s the sort of story you wouldn’t even realise came from a comic and I think that sort of thing needs to be established as well. And with David Chase being free of his Sopranos he could stretch in a new direction by tackling this show.

9 - Gødland
Executive Producer - Richard Linklater

Hear me out on this one; Gødland is an insanely creative and facemelting piece of comics brought to us from Joe Casey and Tom Scioli, via the id of Jack Kirby and plenty of perception altering drugs. This show would be exceptionally difficult to adapt for any other medium but I think it would work if you made it as a bunch of shorts. Maybe 5 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, take a various approach, make it a rotoscoped visual and I think you’d have a winner. Plenty of effects, plenty of laughs, and a whole screen full of awesome.

As much as this series bends some rules of comics, and just reinterprets others, this story could absolute break the television medium in half. It would be unlike anything else being produced right now and I’d love that. Comics can be presented in different formats and I think this sort of story would be perfect for showing that television's structure can change as well.

10 - The Daily Bugle
Executive Producer - Joss Whedon
Showrunner - Bill Lawrence

I always remember watching Ron Howard’s The Paper and loving the hell out of that movie. Now imagine that those reporters are writing tales of superheroes and major cosmic events. You have that stuff in the background, there’s always some sort of Secret Invasion or Civil War raging but then you focus on the characters. You’ve got J. Jonah Jameson as the terrible boss, Robbie Robertsonas the wise guide, Betty Brant as the eye candy, if you can get Peter Parker that’s cool, otherwise go for Eddie Brock, maybe, the Jameson Jr, and then just create a bunch of others. Of course, with Whedon and Lawrence you’d have a bunch of entry level journalist cadets starting off and trying to find their place with Ben Urich being their mentor.

This sort of series has the ability showcase stories that are heartfelt, funny, scary, sexy, awesome, and anything else you really want. The news encapsulates the world and when that world is the Marvel U you have plenty of ways to go. There are opportunities for plenty of winks to the audience but it need not exactly be beholden to anything.

BONUS ROUND!

Hey gang, Matt here! As it turns out, both Ryan and I had the same idea for a post, at the same time. Of course, Ryan is way more prolific than I am so he wrote up the whole thing while I was narrowing down my choices. That being said, I still had a couple more ideas that he didn't think of, so they are included in this bonus round of Top Ten Tuesday!

1 - Alias

There are a couple of things working against making an adaptation of Brian Bendis and Michael Gaydos, the most notable is that there was already a TV series called Alias. The comic, however, stars former superhero Jessica Jonesas a private investigator, who is going through a very rough time making ends meet and is just all around having a bad year. The best way to go about this one would be to take the early Smallville route, and impose a tough “No Costumes” rule, and I think it would work pretty well. With Jessica Jones as the lead, each episode could be self contained (or small story arcs) mysteries or cases that she worked in, that add to the bigger character arc for her. Have a few cameos by a civilian-clad Matt Murdock, personal friend and former Army Lieutenant Carol Danvers, and bodyguard Luke Cage as the love interest, and I think you have a winning formula here.There's no need to make the series about the powers they have, just bring them out every now and then, when the situation demands it for greater impact. Also, considering that Jessica is not very good at flying, it saves the producers of having to shell out for the big expensive computer graphics.

2 - American Virgin

This oft-forgotten Vertigo title by Steven T. Seagle andBecky Cloonan made the list on the strength of what the “pilot” episode would be. The first issue introduces us toAdam Chamberlain, a popular youth pastor who encourages his peers to avoid casual sex, wait until marriage, etc. He is engaged to an equally religious girl, Cassie, who is currently taking part in a missionary (no pun intended) mission in Africa. Adam’s whole world is turned upside down when he learns that the girl he professed his undying love, the girl that he sword he would wait until he was married to have sex with, died in Africa at the hands of a group of terrorists, beheaded in front of a camera and the video of her death broadcast for all to see. What follows is a journey to Africa for revenge and closure, though it leads to a further trip of self discovery for Adam, who now questions everything he believed in. The trip to Africa extends into a world trotting trip in a journey of sexual discovery, that leads to several scenes that Adam's religious parents would probably strongly disapprove. Just to prove that this comic series has the pedigree of a TV series, the second year turns really weird, and it is nowhere as good as the first year.

3 - Proof

If there are two things that people love in their serial TV programs it’s: police drama shows, and paranormal shows. Mix those two things and you get... The X-Files. Of course, that show ran it’s course years ago, and new blood could be injected into this cluster of genres by making an adaptation Proof, the comic by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo. Proof stars Bigfoot, who goes by the name of John Prufrock, as he investigates crime scenes that are possibly related to cryptids (paranormal creatures such as the Chupacabras, Golems, and so on). Put the show from the perspective of Ginger Brown, John’s new partner who is thrust into a world she never thought imagined, and play him as a mysterious and ambiguous character that gets little screen time in the early stages, and I think audiences would be easily hooked. The only downside of this idea is that a Proof TV series would probably eat it’s budget on special effects, especially when the lead character would probably have to go through hours of make up in every filming, and CGI for the creatures.

4 - 100 Bullets

Somewhere in Hollywood, there is a movie exec that is frustratingly scratching his head trying to figure out how to adapt 100 Bullets into a movie. And the truth is you can’t. One hundred issues worth of complicated and deep story cannot possibly be crammed into three hours of movie, but they can be accommodated into a long-form story in various seasons worth of TV shows. And with the popularity of shows like The Sopranos, I think TV audiences can deal with protagonists that are, at their most base levels, unlikeable. The format that the comic series was scripted in also lends to various type of stories, from short done in ones “attache” stories, to long, season ending conflict among the families. Add in the short flashes of centuries-long conspiracies, secret organizations, and a huge and well-developed cast, this comic by Brian Azzarelo and Eduardo Risso would probably make for a perfect TV series.

5 - The Stuff of Legend

No one said that they had to be live action series, right? Well, The Stuff of Legend would make an awesome Saturday morning animated series (because, let’s be honest, no one would want to adapt a TV series that required a bear for all of its episodes). In case you don’t know, The Stuff of Legend is a tale about a group of toys (hello, merchandising division!) that venture into the darkness to save the boy that owns them and fight against the evil Boogeyman. The simplicity of the plot description I just gave you betrays this series, that is filled to the brim with memorable and iconic characters. Any similarities between it and other franchises (like Toy Story), would be forgotten once the toys embark into their fantasy-like quest, a journey that is harrowing and that will test what they are made out of unlike anything else.

CONCLUSION

I think that television fans are ready for longform stories and that is what comics often do best. So an adaptive, or based on, television show for a comic property offers up plenty of opportunities to please a variety of audiences. I hope that with Marvel firing up their own television studio they’ll look at the possibility of going live action as well as cartoon and that more properties get the chance to be adapted because television really does make more sense than a movie to try and cram so much story in. What titles would you like to see made into a show?

THOR 612

BATMAN RETURNS

RINGWORLD

CBR - SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN

"Savage Sword of Conan" returns
Art from previous Dark Horse collection

In a trio of Robert E. Howard-related announcements that included a new Kull miniseries by David Lapham and a Solomon Kane mini by Bruce Jones, Dark Horse revealed atComic-Con International in San Diego that it would launching an anthology series featuring REH heroes including Conan, Kull, and Kane but also lesser-known characters like Dark Agnes, El Borak, Bran Mak Morn, and Sailor Steve Costigan. "Savage Sword" will launch in December in a series of 80-page perfect-bound comics which will include original adventures and classic, recolored reprints in each issue, as well as bonus material. The title, of course, hearkens back to classic Conan magazines, and the first issue of the anthology will feature work by Paul Tobin, Wellinton Alves, Mark Finn, Tim Bradstreet, Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor Smith, Tim Conrad, Gil Kane, Esad Ribic, and many more. For more information, CBR News spoke with writer Paul Tobin, who is providing a new Conan story to the inaugural issue of "Savage Sword."

Introducing the core of the new anthology, Tobin said, "Editor Samantha Robertson is bringing in new stories with a mix of Howard's characters, so while there's going to be plenty of new material concerning Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, and so on, the title is also going to feature characters like Dark Agnes and Sailor Steve Costigan. That's going to be fun, too, for while it's amazing to work on icons like Conan, it's fun to be part of a team that's establishing the looks and feels of ‘lost’ characters as well."

Tobin is leading off the new "Savage Sword" anthology series with a story featuring perhaps Howard’s most famous creation, Conan. "It's a focus on Conan's days of thievery... an aspect of his personality that I've always loved," Tobin told CBR. "There are plenty of hulking brutes who can mow down their enemies with great swipes of their broadsword, and that's certainly a major part of Conan's skill set, but what I always liked was that he can ALSO sneak his way past any guard, climb any tower, and pull any heist. In my story, he sets his sights on liberating a very special jewel. Then things go wrong. Then they go worse. Conan has to show off his sword arm in order to come out of this one." Tobin’s story will run through the first three issues.

The writer said he enjoys writing about Conan’s "younger, wilder time--not that he ever really settles down." "He's hardly the type to paint the picket fence and make sure the cupboard has plenty of decaffeinated coffee," Tobin said. "I love the younger time periods because he has that whole thieving thing going on... I like a wry rogue who can still cleave off a few deserving heads."

The artist for Tobin’s Conan serial is Wellinton Alves, who recently worked on Marvel’s "War of Kings: Ascension" miniseries. "Wellinton is an amazing artist that's perfect for Conan material--and he's excited to be working with Conan. That always makes for a great partnership," Tobin said.

Tobin, too, is excited to be working with Conan. "I was (and am) a huge fan of the ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ magazines. They were a big influence in my developing years," he told CBR. "While my mom was grocery shopping I'd be flipping through the latest issue of ‘National Lampoon,’ or ‘Mad Magazine,’ or, best of all, those John Buscema issues of ‘Savage Sword of Conan,’ inked by a iconic group of artists, featuring lush women, exotic locales, and the World's Best Problem-Solver."

With this and his "Predators" movie adaptation, Tobin has been tackling some pretty bloodthirsty characters of late, in stark contrast to the "Marvel Adventure" titles for which he is known. "It's always about character, for me. In some ways, my writing won't be all that different; it's just that while Spider-Man's problems might have to do with a tough history test or a gang of mobsters, Conan's problems are more along the lines of enraged temple guards and evilly debauched sultans," Tobin said. "And while Peter Parker has his responsibility, Conan has his sword. Deep down, though...they both have strong senses of honor. There's so much to work with in Conan's personality."

As to the possibility of doing further stories in "Savage Sword" after his three-part serial ends, Tobin said, "I'll do as much Conan material as editor Samantha Robertson wants me to do. Same with Solomon Kane. Additionally, I'd love to work with Dark Agnes, or Kull, or heck... any of them. Howard did solid work with the presentation of, ‘This is who this character is.’ They're all so cleanly presented, and that makes them a joy to work with.

THE SHADOW

STEVE ROGERS SUPER SOLDIER

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME

INSPIRE MAGAZINE

CBR - FRIDAY IN AN AGE UNDREAMED OF

 

Almost all of these post-Conan launches suffered from rotating creative teams, lack of direction, and wildly uneven quality.... but there were some good moments there.

None of them really stuck. The ones that did the best, naturally, were the ones that had the Robert E. Howard/Conan connection, King Kull and Red Sonja, who each managed to sustain their own title for a couple of years. (They also had the best artists, in my opinion, with the Severins on Kull and Frank Thorne on Sonja.)

Thongor got off to a fairly good start with SF novelist George Alec Effinger on scripts and Val Mayerik on the art, but Effinger didn't stay and Mayerik's art suffered from substandard inks. The feature was dropped after only seven issues headlining Creatures on the Loose! And Brak never got to headline at all -- he only appeared in an 8-page story in Chamber of Chills, and a couple of issues as a back-up feature in the Ka-Zar version of Savage Tales.About thirty or thirty-five pages of comics, all told.

Honestly? The death smell hung over a LOT of these Conan knockoffs, but I still like them.

Meanwhile, the lesson of Conan's success was not lost on other comics publishers. Gold Key took a swing at it with their own Dagar the Invincible.

 

As always with Gold Key, the stunning painted cover was far superior to anything on the inside.

Dagar's book was actually titled Tales of Sword and Sorcery, which trips up collectors every so often, when they try to look it up on a dealer website and can't find "Dagar" listed...or, alternatively, they get it right only to find out later the book's been listed as "Dagar." (Gold Key was trying to create a brand with the "Tales Of" prefix, tying it in to their horror and suspense titles, hence the awkward logo issue.)

No matter how exciting the action, there was always something a little bloodless and textbooky about Gold Key adventure comics.

But Dagar was very much its own thing. It was, in fact, part of a short-lived attempt to create a Marvel-style continuity at Gold Key. Dagar even crossed over with Dr. Spektor at one point.

Sooner or later, EVERY publisher gets crossover fever.

Written by Don Glut and drawn by Jesse Santos, Dagar lasted a respectable eighteen issues from 1972 to 1976, though several of the latter issues just reprinted the early ones.

Some fun Dagar trivia: Glut had originally named the character "Dagger" but his editors hated that; so Glut changed it to "Durak" for his original story, a one-off for Mystery Comics Digest. Then Gold Key wanted a sequel, and then a series, but his editors wanted a name change again. ("Durak" was too close to "Turok," they said.) Glut obliged them, but they hated all the alternatives-- they went round and round with dozens of different names before settling on Dagar, almost the same as where they started with Dagger. So just for fun, Glut eventually did a story where he had the original guy, Durak, meet both Dagar AND Dr. Spektor.

Whatever the name, the book itself was good clean fun and probably would be great for younger readers who aren't quite ready for Conan or Red Sonja, but want their fantasy with a little oomph to it.

DC Comics certainly wasn't going to be left out. Their first foray into this new genre was adapting Fritz Leiber'sFafhrd and the Gray Mouser in what had to be the single weirdest launch ever of a sword and sorcery title.

How do you sell Fritz Leiber in comics? Add groovy-era Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and a chick fight.

They did it with one of the oddest crossovers this side of Archie and the Punisher... Fafhrd and the Mouser met Wonder Woman and Catwoman. And that's the de-powered, groovy-era Wonder Woman. (Interestingly, that's the only DC Leiber adaptation stuff that's been reprinted, in the fourth Diana Prince trade collection.)

At any rate, this was judged enough of a success to give Fafhrd and the Mouser their own book, Sword of Sorcery.

This was a nice adaptation done with care and affection for the source material, it was an entertaining book... and it crashed and burned after five issues.

This is one of those things that should have worked and just... didn't. Good scripts adapting Leiber's stories from Denny O'Neil, good art from talented newcomers like Howard Chaykin and Walt Simonson... but it didn't sell.

SWORD OF SORCERY was largely straight adaptations of the Fritz Leiber stories, but occasionally they would do originals in the back.

Fritz Leiber's two swordsmen from Lankhmar got another shot in comics, from Marvel this time, in 1990.

 

This was perhaps a classier adaptation than DC's, but not a noticeably more successful one.

This time Howard Chaykin was scripting the adaptation, not handling the art chores. Instead, the art was by Mike Mignola and Al Williamson, and it was quite something to look at. This four-issue mini was re-issued in a trade paperback collection from Dark Horse not too long ago, and it's certainly worth checking out if you have any interest in those characters.

 

If you skip Prince Valiant, most folks say sword-and-sorcery comics started with these guys.

The Viking Prince edged out Robin Hood, the Golden Gladiator, and the Silent Knight to be the first real success from that book.

The incredible Joe Kubert art almost certainly gave Jon the edge over his B&B co-stars.

The Viking Prince eventually took over Brave and Bold entirely, lasting until issue #24 before succumbing to the superhero revival that was sweeping over the comic book industry. He still gets revived every so often -- there wasa stunning hardcover that came out a few years back from Lee Marrs and Bo Hampton, and the original stories are getting collected in a book due from DC on July 14th.

 

These books probably would cover your Viking Prince needs.

But -- as much as I like the Viking Prince -- if I'm honest about it I have to admit that he only gets in on a technicality, he counts mostly because he occasionally dealt with wizards and magical foes. "Sword and sorcery," the genre as comics fans understand it today, really started in comics with Robert E. Howard's Conan the barbarian.

Except, if you were there in the late 60s and early 70s, it felt more like it was Frank Frazetta's Conan the barbarian. And it didn't actually start in the comics themselves. Rather, it started on the paperback spinner racks that were often adjacent to the comics in drugstores and grocery stores.

 

Conan did okay in the pulps, but it was the paperback reprint series from Lancer Books that really launched the character's success. And it was Frank Frazetta's covers that sold those books.

I've talked before about the incredible paperback cover illustrations of the 1960s and 1970s, and I can't emphasize enough how vital those covers were in selling a genre book back then. Exhibit A would probably have to be James Bama and Doc Savage, but you can make just as strong a case for Frank Frazetta and Conan. Suddenly every publisher wanted a brawny barbarian paperback series with covers done in that style. Frazetta himself did lots of them and if it wasn't him it was usually Boris Vallejo. Sometimes Jeff Jones, or occasionally Bob Larkin... but all of them under orders to get their Frazetta barbarian groove on.

 
 

If you couldn't get Conan or Frazetta, you could get one of these other guys. Although even I couldn't ever get into John Norman and the Gor books. I have SOME standards.

Of course, the Robert E. Howard rights that were still in play were immediately snatched up by other publishers and those stories were given the Conan/Frazetta treatment as well, even if they had nothing to do with barbarians, wizards, or an age undreamed of.

 

Westerns, boxing, Vikings, didn't matter -- if it was Robert E. Howard, it was 'in the tradition of Conan.'

There was another factor at work, as well. It wasn't just about Conan during the fantasy paperback scene back then. It was also about J. R. R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings.

 

Tolkien was almost as ubiquitous as the Frazetta barbarians. But the cover art was more sedate.

Tolkien was more frustrating for publishers, simply because there wasn't as much material -- it was harder to capitalize on the boom. He really only had the four novels, a couple more posthumous collections that were padded out to book size, and there weren't a legion of guys out there doing knockoffs. But that didn't stop publishers from trying to cash in.

Guys like the Brothers Hildebrandt got a lot of work out of the fantasy boom, but it was Tolkien that was the engine.

As a brand, "In the tradition of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings!" got almost as much of a workout as "In the tradition of Conan!"

The Brothers Hildebrandt again, this time from THE SWORD OF SHANNARA. One of the better Tolkien knockoffs.

There had been a few tries at doing Tolkien-esque comics. Mostly from Wally Wood in his self-published witzend.

 

Unfortunately, Wood wasn't that great a businessman. There's some brilliant stuff here and it deserved a wider audience.

Wood also tried it at Marvel, in a one-off story that appeared in Tower of Shadows.

There were a couple of other half-hearted tries at doing Tolkien-esque fantasy, but none of them ever really caught on with comics fans.

 

Neither of these worked that well even as Tolkien Lite.

Marvel's Weirdworld never quite found an audience, though it was a feature in Epic Illustrated for a while. And Ralph Bakshi lifted a lot of Wally Wood's stuff for his animated Wizards (some say, to the point of outright theft, but we'll leave the argument over when homage becomes plagiarism for some other columnist to thrash out.)

But by and large, it was the Frazetta-style barbarians that were the real moneymakers.

 

You really had to be there to understand how these books DOMINATED the SF paperback section, back in 1971 or so.

It was in this atmosphere that Marvel editor Roy Thomas started thinking about trying to adapt the sword-and-sorcery genre to comics. Just as the Executioner paperbacks begat the Punisher and the Doc Savage paperbacks begat the pulp/retro revival, it was Frazetta, Tolkien, and the paperback fantasy boom that got sword-and-sorcery comics their tryout. There was always a sort of cross-pollination going on between the world of comic books and the world of paperback originals throughout the 60s and 70s. Remember, in pop culture, the axiom is always, "Hey, that worked. Do it again."

Since Marvel had embarked on its "Phase II," with Stan giving up a lot of the day-to-day editorial chores in favor of taking over as publisher, touring college campuses, and just generally being Stan Lee, the push was on to experiment at Marvel. Horror titles, off-beat SF, anything seemed possible -- or at least worth trying. Roy Thomas reasoned that Conan the barbarian and sword-and-sorcery would be a natural fit for comics. And he was right. "The rest is history," as they say.

Except that's not QUITE the way it happened. First, in early 1970, came Starr The Slayer.

It's not Conan, but he could pass for him in a dim light.

This was a little trial balloon 7-pager that appeared in early 1970, in Chamber of Darkness #4. Starr's first and only appearance.

If you're thinking you can't really tell the difference between this and the Thomas/Smith Conan, well, you'd have a point. The truth is that this was sort of the Conan pilot... not so much for the readers as for the folks in the Marvel offices, especially Stan, who didn't really get it. The story was later reprinted in #16 of Conan's regular book, a couple of years later.

Conan the Barbarian, when it did launch, was an immediate hit-- and remember our mantra. "Hey, that worked... do it again." Which meant that, starting in 1971 Roy Thomas and Marvel gave us, in quick succession, King Kull, Brak the Barbarian, Thongor of lost Lemuria, and Red Sonja.

  

Almost all of these post-Conan launches suffered from rotating creative teams, lack of direction, and wildly uneven quality.... but there were some good moments there.

None of them really stuck. The ones that did the best, naturally, were the ones that had the Robert E. Howard/Conan connection, King Kull and Red Sonja, who each managed to sustain their own title for a couple of years. (They also had the best artists, in my opinion, with the Severins on Kull and Frank Thorne on Sonja.)

Thongor got off to a fairly good start with SF novelist George Alec Effinger on scripts and Val Mayerik on the art, but Effinger didn't stay and Mayerik's art suffered from substandard inks. The feature was dropped after only seven issues headlining Creatures on the Loose! And Brak never got to headline at all -- he only appeared in an 8-page story in Chamber of Chills, and a couple of issues as a back-up feature in the Ka-Zar version of Savage Tales.About thirty or thirty-five pages of comics, all told.