Thursday, August 13, 2015

Sword and Sorcery Week! Groove's Faves: "Night of the Dark God" by Thomas, Kane, and Diverse Hands (Adams, Colletta, Marcos, and McLaughlin)

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Here's another multi-faceted gem of a Conan tale, mined from the pages of Marvel Treasury Edition #15 (May 1977). "Night of the Dark God", adapted by Roy Thomas from the REH tale "The Dark Man" is one of those epic Conan stories that just hit Teen Groove where he lived. There are scenes in it that still stick in my mind to this day. Of course, a huge part of that memory is due to the oh-so-gorgeous pencils by Gil Kane, inked by several of the industry's best (Neal Adams, Pablo Marcos, Vinnie Colletta, and (uncredited on the title page) Frank McLaughlin. Yes, this was a reprint from Marvel's black and white Savage Tales #4 (March 1974), but not only did we get to read "Night..." in that gargantuan tabloid size, but it was also in color, baby! Check it out!





















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6 comments:

  1. Edo BosnarAugust 13, 2015 at 6:52 AM

    I have this in my Savage Sword phonebook, but I have to say, it looks really nice in color, too.

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  2. AnonymousAugust 13, 2015 at 8:25 AM

    Thank you,Mr Groove,for sharing.
    A fine collaboration indeed.
    Cheers!
    /Mr Anonymous

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  3. J_D_La_Rue_67August 13, 2015 at 9:03 AM

    The art is amazing, BUT...
    I think the cue from the Turlogh O'Brien story "The Dark Man" is very poorly developed. The Picts and the statue (originally a statue of Bran Mak Morn) have no real relevance in the Conan story. Plus, (and let me say this with the heart of 7 y.o. reader in 1974) if Conan's plan was to break into the hall and kill them all, he could have done that 5 minutes earlier.
    It's not bad, it's just that Roy has done better. I give 1 Cool for Gil Kane and friends.

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  4. DanAugust 13, 2015 at 1:19 PM

    Just an fyi (and you may already know this), the colorist was George Roussos using part of his old Marvel alias (George Bell) and his last name spelled backwards. This is one of my favorite Conan stories, both in B&W and color. Thanks for posting it.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownAugust 21, 2015 at 4:39 AM

      I think this must have been "Bell Sossour's" only appearance in comics.

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  5. AnonymousMarch 8, 2016 at 2:44 PM

    I'm not so sure Conan's plan was to kill them all. His plan was to rescue Mara. "Kill them all" became the enraged option when she killed herself. I first caught this in a Marvel Treasury Edition. Until then, my kid brain had accepted only Barry Smith as the pinnacle of Conan storytelling but Man, the Kane layouts and excellent finishes really rocked my world. Looking back at the pages, the consistency of the inks is pretty amazing.

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