Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Black and White Wednesday: "The Hyborian Age Chapter 1: The Pre-Cataclysmic Age" by Thomas and Simonson

During the Groovy Age, Roy Thomas made sure that comicdom got the best of Robert E. Howard and his creations. With color comics like Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Conqueror/Destroyer, and Red Sonja, we could count on high-caliber color comics month in and month out. With the full-sized black and white mag Savage Sword of Conan, however, Roy raised the bar even higher. Not only did we get the adventures of Conan, but we got more adventures of Kull and Sonja, plus lesser-known (to the general public, that is) Howard creations like Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane. We also got tons (I say, TONS) of historical and critical analysis, art portfolios, REH fandom news, photos of early cosplayers (Red Sonja was a fave topic in that area), and so much more. Into the "more" category came Roy's adaptation of REH's "The Hyborian Age". This series of shorts (running semi-regularly from SSoC #7-9, 12, 15-17) adapted REH's historical essay into comicbook form--no mean feat. When you consider that Roy enlisted the aid of artist-supreme Walt Simonson to accomplish this daunting task shows just how serious he was about giving us the best of the best. Is Ol' Groove hard sellin' ya? Read "The Hyborian Age Chapter 1: The Pre-Cataclysmic Age" (from SSoC #7) and judge for yourself...
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4 comments:

  1. Jimmy PorterJanuary 19, 2011 at 4:34 AM

    I'm not normally a sci-fi or sword and sorcery buff, but seeing how "the scene" was, really makes me wish I'd been born ten years earlier--I was born in '71--so I could enjoy this stuff first hand.

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  2. Simon B January 19, 2011 at 7:02 PM

    "Then the cataclysm rocked the world!"

    I loved "The Hyborian Age". Roy did a great job of adapting REH's original essay and Walt pulled out all the stops with his dynamic artwork. A fascinating resource for Conan fans.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 3:43 PM

    this site is cool...

    been searching the web alot ultimately about r.e.howard's comics adaptions,and i must also agree that the 70s b/w were ,by far , the BEST ..

    SIMPLY EPIC STUFF...

    been reading (and apreciating) some of dark horse's new issues but they just can't reproduce that epic "savage" feel..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Doc ThompsonFebruary 8, 2013 at 9:05 PM

    This was one of the highlights of the publication.SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN got real dum,once Roy Thomas left and all the intellectual material left the book.No articles.It dummed everything down to the caveman level.I really miss this sort of thing,ou only get on the net.

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