The Savage Sword of Kull comics is an amazing read.
Dec 19, 2017 13:44:32 GMT -5
Post by bunty0barbarian on Dec 19, 2017 13:44:32 GMT -5
This was such a satisfying read with great Black & White art and good to great episodic standalone yarns that gives the comics a strong re-read value.
As i said earlier the art is great, lush penciling and line-work by classic artists like Mike Ploog,John Bolton, ER Cruz etc and strong contrast inking sometimes with sparse as well as detailed or even shady ink-work by Dale Eaglesham,Ernie Chan,John and Marie Severin, and many other veteran artists from the 70'-80's. From an artwork POV Savage Sword of Kull is fantastic, no doubt about it.
The stories i.e. REH adaptations, Demon in a Silvered Glass (John Bolton's work is comic art bliss) are all great but i personally believe volume 2 has much better stories. The first volume has a lot of repetition continually banging on about Kull's origin (Exile of Atlantis) and the non-adaptation yarns are generally very weak. The 2nd volume has the excellent Rites of Passage story with William Johnson's clean artwork, the demon baby thingy,the extremely humorous Death & Taxes,Robert Bruce and the Spider type story with Kull and the little girl, and of course Roy Thomas and ER Cruz's fleshing out Kull's origin which sets up Exile of Atlantis in a satisfying way.
An aspect i noticed after reading these comics is that Kull is extremely aggressive, much more so than Conan if i am honest. I believe Kull more strained under the weight of the crown, the alliance with the Picts and sometimes listening to Tu's advice where as Conan pretty much doesn't give a fuck. REH also uses "berserk-er" a lot to describe Kull's fury in the original yarns and i don't remember it ever coming up in the Conan yarns.
It's a shame that except for Conan, none of the other characters like Kull,Solomon Kane,and Dark Agnes etc never had a strong legacy in comics.Oh well, at least there's the classic Marvel stuff which means a lot of awesome reading.
As i said earlier the art is great, lush penciling and line-work by classic artists like Mike Ploog,John Bolton, ER Cruz etc and strong contrast inking sometimes with sparse as well as detailed or even shady ink-work by Dale Eaglesham,Ernie Chan,John and Marie Severin, and many other veteran artists from the 70'-80's. From an artwork POV Savage Sword of Kull is fantastic, no doubt about it.
The stories i.e. REH adaptations, Demon in a Silvered Glass (John Bolton's work is comic art bliss) are all great but i personally believe volume 2 has much better stories. The first volume has a lot of repetition continually banging on about Kull's origin (Exile of Atlantis) and the non-adaptation yarns are generally very weak. The 2nd volume has the excellent Rites of Passage story with William Johnson's clean artwork, the demon baby thingy,the extremely humorous Death & Taxes,Robert Bruce and the Spider type story with Kull and the little girl, and of course Roy Thomas and ER Cruz's fleshing out Kull's origin which sets up Exile of Atlantis in a satisfying way.
An aspect i noticed after reading these comics is that Kull is extremely aggressive, much more so than Conan if i am honest. I believe Kull more strained under the weight of the crown, the alliance with the Picts and sometimes listening to Tu's advice where as Conan pretty much doesn't give a fuck. REH also uses "berserk-er" a lot to describe Kull's fury in the original yarns and i don't remember it ever coming up in the Conan yarns.
It's a shame that except for Conan, none of the other characters like Kull,Solomon Kane,and Dark Agnes etc never had a strong legacy in comics.Oh well, at least there's the classic Marvel stuff which means a lot of awesome reading.
