Savage Sword of Conan #212 - Marvel

Aug. 1993 - I think most (if not all) of the issues of Savage Sword of Conan in my collection are from the 70s and very early 80s, when Conan = Thomas and Buscema.

But I've always been interested in what the magazine was like in the 90s, after it had outlasted not only ever other Marvel b/w magazine, but pretty much the entire b/w comic magazine genre!

This issue, with Conan fighting some sort of evil Ganesh-type creature, looked interesting enough, so I picked it up. Unfortunately, the last half dozen issues of the title are extremely expensive, when you can find them--maybe by then the magazine wasn't carried by as many dealers, so copies of the final issues don't surface much.

This issue's cover is by Julie Bell, her first. Bell was a protege of Boris Vallejo, but managed to carve out a career all her own in the world of sci-fi and fantasy art. Bell's work never appealed to me all that much--there's a shiny plastic-ness to her figures that never did much for me. Nothing personal, I just always preferred the more down-and-dirty look of painters like Bob Larkin, Earl Norem, and Joe Jusko.

Anyway, this issue opens up with the story "To Live as Gods...To Die As Men" by Roy Thomas and Rafael Kayanan, with the splash page featuring Conan being about as manly as he ever was:

Even I'm impressed, and I'm a vegetarian.

Conan and Valeria are of course looking for treasure, and they find it, in the form of a bunch of glowing green gems, which they find in the skeleton of a giant serpent.

They grab some of the gems, and try to climb their way out of the cavern. On their way back up, they run into a fierce-looking guy, who demands they identify themselves.

Conan tries to show this guy--and the tribe he represents--that they are not enemies, and offers a gem to the tribe's chief as an offer of good will.

They pull Conan and Valeria up, but the chief demands to fight Conan (of course), and Valeria finally demands to know what's going on, since she doesn't speak the foreign tongue Conan and the tribal chief are speaking:

...gee, did Conan ask Valeria if that was ok?

Conan fights several members of the tribe, and defeats most of them. But just as the last of them is about to drive a spike in Conan's skull, Valeria steps in and threatens to drop the priceless gems into a pit, so none of them will possess them.

This works, and soon Conan and Valeria get to relax, and boy does Valeria know how to relax:

...if they had had this scene in Conan The Destroyer, it would've been a bigger hit.

Conan shows up to inform Valeria (after striking out with her!) that the tribe's witch doctor thinks they are all-powerful gods, due to a coincidence of their arrival and an earthquake:

...I love this runner of a joke, with Conan constantly referring to trying to get Valeria in the sack, but never quite succeeding. Gee, I guess I can relate to Conan!

The witch doctor tells Conan he will undergo four tests, tests that no one has yet to survive! Conan is confident, but is taking this seriously, unlike Valeria:

To be continued!

This issue has a second story, written again by Thomas but with art by Conan mainstay Ernie Chan:

Conan is captured by some roving armed soldiers, who bring him back to their giant wooden fortress. Conan is surprised to see that the kingdom is led by...a woman!

And not just any woman, a beautiful, feisty wench named Suva Marsa. Marsa explains to Conan that their kingdom is threatened by another kingdom that wants to conquer them. Luckily Conan offers his services, in more ways than one:

"...after our friendly bout, I'm surprised I ever woke up."? Ok, now I'm back to not relating to Conan at all.

Marsa shows that she is as brave as she is beautiful, and fights against the marauding hordes tooth and nail. Conan starts to feel slightly at home in this place.

Finally, the other kingdom makes its final push, sending thousands of armed troops to the gates of the fortress. Conan and Marsa fight, but Marsa is the victim of some well-shot arrows. Conan sees this, and:

That's a great, scary panel.

Conan goes into his own version of Berserker Rage, and starts hacking away with such ferocity even the other fighters stop and take notice. He barely pauses when the statue of their god, an elephant-headed, six-armed warrior (see cover) comes alive and attacks. No matter, Conan buries an axe in its skull.

Conan then looks for Marsa's body, but it is gone! He then is met by a ghostly figure, who tells Conan that she is the true god of these people, and she led Conan to this place, to help defeat the evil hordes.

Conan asks where Marsa has gone, and the spectral figure tells him she has taken Marsa with her to the beyond, for a life of eternal peace.

Conan is happy--if a little bewildered--to hear this, so he does what he knows best: head into town for wine, women, and song:

If that wasn't enough for one issue, we have a four-page pin-up section by Tom Grindberg, who delivers three nice Conan-in-action shots, plus this iconic one of Red Sonja:

The Tom Grindberg I'm familiar with had a style similar to his mentor, Neal Adams, but this stuff looks totally different from that. Nice stuff, in any case.

There's still more, as the issue wraps up with a four-page biography of Julie Bell, plus a two-page letter's page. Whew!

Not a bad issue at all, though I'm not sure Kayanan--a fine artist--was the best choice to illustrate such a quip-heavy Conan story. So much of it involves how Conan, Valeria, and the tribesmen communicate to one another, that maybe someone with better acuity at subtle facial expressions might have been a better choice.

But the second story is classic Conan, making for a very fine issue. Marvel was still capable of bringing their "A" game to the b/w magazine format, when they were inspired to.

Vampirella #62 - Warren

Aug. 1977 - I haven't written about the sultry (but dangerous!) Vampirella in a long while, so let's see what's inside this issue, featuring a nice cover by Enrich:

First up is Vampi herself of course, in a story by Bill DuBay and Jose Gonzalez:

This story involves no less than a space alien (I mean, another one) who comes for Vampirella as she lays unconscious in an isolation ward. Meanwhile, two petty thieves are messing around with an ancient tome, and causing all kinds of havoc, like this absolutely priceless panel:

...that is classic. Nicely done, Mr. Gonzalez.

Turns out the monsters are friendly monsters--despite their appearance--and they are here to help Vampi by taking her to a place where she will be accepted. Wow, a happy ending for once!

Next is "U.F.O." by Josep Toutain and Ramon Torrents:

A reporter visits who she thinks is a mad man, claiming he has evidence of aliens. The government is more than skeptical, but this "mad man" turns out to very, very, right.

Next is probably the best piece in the book, "Beautiful Screamer", by Bruce Jones and Leopold Sanchez:

...a classic tale of sex, greed, duplicity, and murder. It reads like a classic EC Shock Suspenstory, complete with twist ending. Sanchez draws the most beautiful evil woman you ever saw.

A change of pace is next, with "Time Ticket", by Gerry Boudreau and Esteban Maroto, turning in his usual breathtaking art job:

A seductive witch offers anyone their heart's content, her price a mere seven minutes of their life. Who could say no to that?

Next is another nice change of pace, a straight ahead creeping monster story called "The Fog" by our pal Nick Cuti with art by Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano:

...two real eggheads find themselves chased by a malevolent, killer cloud of death, but it turns out their big brains don't really help them much.

Last is "By Treason's Knife" by Boudreau and Sanchez:

...another brutal, EC-esque tale, of double-crossing and treachery on the battlefields of Libya in 1940, complete with uber-grim ending. A tough, terse yarn.

Finished off with eighteen pages of Captain Company ads (Superman and Batman radios---neat-o!), this is a superb issue of Vampirella--diverse stories, all of them very good to great, with fine art all around. A real winner of an issue.

The Great Monster Magazines - McFarland

I discovered this book on my friend Kevin's online store site, The House of Mysterious Secrets--a whole book on b/w comic magazines? I am so there!

Once the book arrived, I dived right into it.

Author Robert Michael Cotter gives a fairly in-depth overview of the history of comics and the eventual spin-off black and white magazine line, and since the Marvel magazines have not (as of yet) gotten their own book devoted just to them (unlike the Warrens and the Skywalds) he gives them a lot of attention, which they certainly deserve.

At only 222 pages, the book has to leave a lot out, so it reads more like one man's personal history of the format (hey, like this blog!) rather than a complete, encyclopedic reference work. Plus, it has a scarcity of images--only about 30 in the entire book--and while seeing them full-page is a nice tribute to the fine artists to did the covers, I would've loved to have seen a lot more, especially during the parts of the book where the author raves about how good a particular cover is.

But it is definitely an entertaining read, and it was so cool reading a whole book getting into the nitty-gritty of titles like Doc Savage, Zombie Tales, and others. Cotter's love of the format beams from every page. I read the book in less than a few days, and I would've been happy to read it if it was twice as long. He's definitely opinionated, and isn't shy about slamming something he doesn't like, but that didn't keep me from enjoying it.

Plus, the back cover is spot-on perfect:

Cracked - Those Cracked Monsters

Sept. 1982 - Are you ready to be scared? No? Howabout slightly amused?

Like Mad, Cracked knew that they could repackage some of the mountain of material they generated over the years around a common theme and sell it as a "Collectors' Edition." In the days when if you missed an issue of a magazine, it was essentially gone forever, this idea made a lot of sense (and a lot of money, I presume).

So this was Cracked's monster-themed issue, featuring a cover by John Severin that, when you look at it, isn't really funny at all--it's a superbly-rendered cover of a Monster Donnybrook and probably could've run on a Warren mag with just some slight tweaking.

Inside, first up is Severin again with a piece called "Planets of the Creatures" which takes the "Apes" concept and spins the Animal Speak And Spell:

..."Directed by that Italian Genius--Ant Tonioni." Now that's pretty funny.

Next is a feature that humor mags from this era simply couldn't live without--funny captions over old photos. This segment is one of four in the magazine:

Next is "A Tourist's Guide To Transylvania", which features mostly very silly jokes, but to my eyes, very nice cartoony art reminiscent of those classic Rankin-Bass animated shows:

This segment, like most of the material in this issue, is uncredited (only John Severin seems to have been able to get away with putting his name on his work), which is too bad--I would love to know who drew this.

Next is another piece by John Severin, a parody called The Ghost and Mrs. Mire, a fairly sedate choice of spoofery, but Cracked managed to throw some goofy elements into the mix:

Next is "Stationary From Transylvania", then another fumetti segment, then "Transylvanian Cut-Out Signs"(I'm seeing a theme here), then yet another fumetti segment--Cracked's writers must have had a hell of a time coming up with titles for all these photo funny articles.

Next is another movie parody:

...done in family photo album style, which is actually pretty clever.

Next is "Sylvester, The Blawson of Glock", which I could not make heads or tails of, another fumetti segment, a one-page gag strip called "The Terror Trip", ending with "Transylvanian Travel Stickers", which features jokes about the Mummy and the Creature From the Black Lagoon, who of course never set foot in Transylvania.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from the Cracked writers.

A fairly mediocre collection that doesn't really live up to the cover--the preponderance of fumetti material, which I loved as a kid, doesn't age all that well. More John Severin!

Mad News

I keep meaning to get to the next post I have in mind, but I'm hip-deep in a time-consuming freelance project that keeps eating up my days and nights.

But when I saw this, I knew I had to share it immediately--seems like Mad has pissed Circuit City off so bad they banned it, at least temporarily.

Mad--still doing its job, for over fifty years.

Stay Tooned! #1 - July 2008

If you don't mind, I'm going to write a post today that is pure plugging. But since I have no vested interest in this magazine, rest assured my hucksterism is right out there in the open.

I got the first issue of this new magazine, Stay Tooned!, which is all about the lives of professional cartoonists. Its creator, John Read, says he wants the magazine to "advance the knowledge of the craft of cartooning", a laudable enough goal to get me interested.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a fan of magazines--I just love the format, and I wish there were more of them about and/or featuring comic-related material. I bought/buy both iterations of Comic Book Artist, subscribe to Illustration magazine, and I love TwoMorrows' Back Issue! so much I started writing for it.

So while John has a real uphill climb here, starting a new magazine all about artists and their lives, I'm glad he's giving it a shot. I found the magazine breezily written and fast moving, and covers a wide variety of topics within the magazine's framework. And even though I wasn't familiar with most of the artists profiled, I still enjoyed it.

So anyone interested in this kind of magazine, head on over to Stay Tooned!'s site, where you can learn more about the mag and even subscribe.

/end plugging

Soupy Sales #1 - Topps

Fall 1965 - It's time for Soupy!

Sorry for the delay in posts; I had intentions to run this right after Saturday's post about Mad; but the week got away from me and now I see it's Thursday already!

I was never that big a fan of Soupy; he was still airing (whether in all-new shows or re-runs, I know not) in my area when I was a kid, and while I would occasionally take a look, it all seemed so silly to me that I quickly moved onto other more exciting Saturday morning fare, like Shazam! and Isis to an eight year-old, those shows were deadly serious).

But in the 60s at least, Soupy was a genuine phenomenon, as this magazine entirely devoted to him will attest. Here's the intro page, O.D.ing on hyperbole:

...wow, the greatest since Charlie Chaplin?!?

Anyway, this magazine is exactly the kind of thing Warren did so well, except in this case it was made by Topps, taking a few inroads into magazine publishing. It features photos of the things Soupy was most famous for, like getting a pie in the face:

...appearing in Donnie Darko, apparently:

...doing wacky gags with people off-screen:

...as well as getting famous movie stars in on the act. The mug under all that whipped cream is none other than Frank Sinatra!:

(...Soupy was later beaten senseless and left in a field in Hoboken)

There's also informative stuff about the show here, like an interview with Frank Nastasi, the man behind Soupy's most famous co-star, the always unseen White Fang:

There's also a F.A.Q. with Soupy, a profile of his family, and we get to see Soupy so his famous dance, "The Mouse."

In the section called "Soupy's Scrapbook" we get to see just how friggin' huge Soupy was. Here's a shot of people waiting to get in to see a Soupy show--it looks like Beatlemania:

...and check out that marquee. Soupy got billing over Little Richard! Pretty amazing stuff for a comedian whose main bit was throwing a pie!

We get some shots of the show, and then some random facts about Soupy (during WW II, he served during the invasion of Okinawa, and how he started his career as a disk jockey), all wrapped up with this back cover shot:

I'm fascinated by magazines like this, that were a snapshot of a time that seems like it was a million years ago. Is there a comedian around today that is so popular that they could inspire a magazine just about them? Adam Sandler? Mike Myers? Can't picture that, yet here's a 68-page magazine all about Soupy Sales.

When Comic Book Artist (Vol.1) did an all-Tower issue, they delved a little bit into Tower's brief foray into magazine publishing, with longtime Topps staffer Len Brown, who worked firsthand on the Soupy one-shot:

...the other big one-shot Topps did (mentioned above) was a Man From U.N.C.L.E. book, which I hope to get my hands on some time.

Until then...let's throw some pies!