I've talked about the Sword of Sorcery comic before. It's a remarkable example of DC's multiple forays into the fantasy genre throughout the 1970s. Like most of the other fantasy comics DC published during that time – Arak, Son of Thunder; Beowulf, Dragon Slayer; Claw the Unconquered, Stalker, The Warlord, and more – Sword of Sorcery didn't last long. However, it has the distinction of having adapted several Fritz Leiber stories to the comics medium, including "Cloud of Hate," which appeared in its fourth issue from October 1973.
As is often the case, the adaptation isn't a straight one, though most of its alterations concern the tale's order of events than their actual content. Likewise, the dialog is not directly taken from Leiber's text, though it's clearly inspired by it. For me, though, the main joy of the comic is its artwork by Howard Chaykin, which is excellent. (In a twist of fate, Chaykin would later return to comics based on Leiber's Lankhmar stories in 2007, only this time as a writer rather than artist.)
I never read - or even saw an issue - of this one. I did read all the other comics that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite of the lot remains Claw the Unconquered, despite its relatively brief run. A good character concept.
ReplyDeleteI do have to quibble with Warlord being stuck in the list with the short-run books though. At 133 issues plus 6 annuals in the first volume alone DC published more Warlord than all those other books put together, and that despite Grell leaving after issue 59 (he came back for 6-issue mini in the 90s, but it wasn't the same vibe). First appearance of Arak was in a Warlord insert feature, and Arion started as a backup there too. Also ran the conclusion to the Starlin OMAC story started in Kamandi, and the tail end of Claw's story. Pretty important book, historically. Really put Grell on the radar and let him go on to do some excellent work for smaller publishers.
Quite right. Warlord is, I believe, the longest running Sword & Sorcery comic not based on a work of Robert E. Howard--and it beats most of those.
DeleteMight be, at least if you don't include Cerebus the Aardvark as true swords & sorcery, which I wouldn't myself - it was never more than a parody of the genre and not even that past the early days. There's probably been more pages of Slaine stuff over the years than Warlord but it's always been part of the 2000AD anthology so I'm not sure how you count that. Arak (at 50 issues) might be in the next slot - another old favorite of mine.
Delete"Longest running" gets more complex if you consider any of the manga out there S&S, some of those are very, very long indeed. Berserk is the closest I can think of to Western S&S offhand, but manga is such a radically different market and style comparing it to floppy comics feels kind of unfair.
Elfquest runs to over 258 individual issues, and the French Dungeon series is also somewhat sprawling, although it's difficult to compare the latter directly as the publication format is so different.
DeleteBerserk has run for over 364 chapters, and I'd be surprised if there aren't even longer running fantasy comics in the manga format.
Dick, I'd forgotten all about Slaine. His adventures have been in on-and-off publication since 1983 so he surely has a decent claim to one of the top spots.
DeleteHe's also had a couple of RPGs, to bring things back in the vague region of the blog's main topic.
These issues are available on an "archive" comic book website. Writer, Denny O'Neil, had some trepidation about this assignment. On the letters page of the first issue he writes, "I felt as though I've scrawled a mustache on the Mona Lisa and I've half expected Faf to materialize from my typewriter, sword in hand and eyes snapping with fury."
ReplyDeleteNice triptych of Cloud of Hate posts, James!
ReplyDeleteChaykin's adaptation was first published by Marvel/Epic in 1990/1991 but was republished by Dark Horse in 2007.
ReplyDeleteDark Horse collected the above DC appearances in 2008, then both reprints are to be bundled together in another reprint later this year.
The duo first appeared in comics in an issue of Wonder Woman, of all things. I don't think that's going to be in the Dark Horse collection.
Yes, you are correct about the dating of Chaykin's second Lankhmar comic. I always remember the 2007 date because of the later Dark Horse collection.
Deleteminor quibble, Arak is from the 80s, and went 50 issues, etc. I would call that a reasonable success.
ReplyDeletealso, didn't the pair show up in wonder woman? # 202 according to the web
Quite right you are about Arak!
DeleteAnd, yes, they did show up in Wonder Woman. I think I may have even written a post about it ...
Arak was one of the most successful S&S books whose hero wasn't based on a pre-existing pulp character, almost up there with Warlord and 2000AD's Slaine (if we count anthology books). Had nice proper ending too, good to see Arak die peaceful and happy with his life's goals fulfilled.
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