Recently in Marvel Barbarians Category

Michael Golden provided three terrific covers for Kull the Conqueror in 1984-85.  My favorite cover is the one above, with the Executioner in the black and white background, providing a terrific contrast to Kull in the foreground.  Golden knocks himself out drawing all the jewelry and details on Kull's cape, waist, and feet.

The cover to issue #5 is probably the least impressive, but still visually exciting. 

Marvel Barbarian Revelation #1: I just noticed the Roman aqueduct in the background.  Conan is set way before Roman times and Kull is set way before Conan.  Man, those Atlanteans weren't so barbaric after all.

Now this cover to issue #6  explodes with both action and color.  The background demon figures are all in green, allowing the three main characters to pop out.  I love the expression on that babe's face as she realized her predicament.

Marvel Barbarian Revelation #2: King Kull really had much better fashion sense that Conan, didn't he?  Nuff Said!

More Giant-Size Marvel Barbarians:

Michael Golden's Covers for Savage Sword of Conan Make Barbarians Quite Fashionable

I like to feature Marvel artwork, characters, or stories that are either offbeat or hard to find.  I searched through over 100 Savage Sword of Conan covers looking for stuff, and noticed that most of them have the same elements:

1. Conan with a huge sword fighting a demon.
2. A bikini clad babe in the foreground looking at Conan in horror.  If Conan wins, he gets the babe.  Spoiler alert: Conan always wins.
3. If the editors really needed a sales boost, they put two bikini clad babes on the cover.  Or Red Sonja.

Most of the covers could have been done for the pulp magazines in the 30s, and feature these elements against a bland background.

Enter Michael Golden.

The above 1988 cover to Savage Sword #150 is a perfect example of how he uses all those elements but does so in a stylish way.  You've got Conan with a sword and a babe standing next to him, but the way they are adorned and colored makes them visually appealing.

I gotta wonder about that red-haired chick in green, though.  Wouldn't it be hard to sit down with a dagger in the middle of your underwear?

The Savage Sword #117 cover features Conan in a Frazetta-like pose, but Golden details every little bit of the headdress, armor, and horse that he can.  Conan's helmet and the horse's head-gear are particularly impressive.

Notice that the babe is hiding shyly behind Conan's back.  Doesn't that make her more tantalizing that just spreading her out in front like a Maxim magazine cover?

Savage Sword #124 eschews the babe for a classic shot of Conan leaping in mid-air to attack an army of stooges.  Don't they know those spears will just bounce off Conan's steely hide?

The Dragon-relief on the wall behind Conan is the most interesting thing about the cover, symbolizing what Conan is doing in the foreground.

Savage Sword #101 features a sea-venturing Conan encountering an angry sea-god.  It's kind of a risky move, as you don't see Conan's face, and the threat of the sea-creature's tentacles is very subtle.  Still, this cover is a cut above most of the Savage Sword dreck.  Nuff Said!

More Giant-Sized Marvel Conan:

Neal Adams' Savage Tales Starring Conan, Ka-Zar, and Zabu, Too!

Savage Tales #2: Conan, Red Nails, all for seventy-five cents!

Barry Smith's King-Size Conan Annual Cover

This John Severin pin-up of King Kull standing by his army appeared in Kull and the Barbarians #1, 1975.  Severin helped launch the King Kull color comic, and most notably worked on the Sgt Fury and Hulk.  Nuff Said!

Also in this series:

King Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane by Neal Adams

Red Sonja Pinup by Howard Chaykin

Solomon Kane by Berni Wrightson

Barry Windsor-Smith first bid Marvel adieu in the 1970s after he left the Conan series.  But he returned from time to time, working on special projects, such as his contributions to Epic Illustrated.

This particular cover for the August 1981 issue, featuring a warrior about to enter a walled city, shows that Smith still retained his mastery over all things sword and sorcery.

The February 1983 cover depicts an "epic" crash landing in a lush pond and surrounding forest. 

Epic Illustrated was the Marvel Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by the late legendary Archie Goodwin.  While Epic featured occasional stories of Marvel characters like Galactus and the Silver Surfer, it featured independent work by creators.  It was a first for Marvel, to publish stories where creators retained the ownership and copyright.  This paved the way for Goodwin to start the Epic line of comics, where an incredible array of creator-owned comics were published--Dreadstar, Coyote, Moonshadow, Groo, and many others.  Nuff Said!

This Solomon Kane pinup, by Berni Wrightson, appeared in Kull and the Barbarians #2 in 1975.

As usual, Wrightson works wonders with Kane fighting a monster in the shadows on a moonlit night.  Too bad we never got to see Wrightson draw a full length Robert E Howard story! 

One thing I always think about when looking at Wrightson and Barry Smith.  In addition to everything else, they are great at drawing natural scenery, such as grass, weeds, plants, and trees.  Nuff said!

This Red Sonja pinup, by Howard Chaykin, appeared in Kull and the Barbarians #3 in 1975.

Chaykin drew a number of Sonja stories for Marvel, including her origin story.  I always thought there was something great about Chaykin's style applied to swords and sorcery. 

See also: King Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane by Neal Adams

See also: Red Sonja and Storm pinups by Byrne and Cockrum

Neal Adams did great work on Savage Tales covers featuring Conan, but did you know about this piece featuring Robert E. Howard's other heroes?  It was published in a Marvel black and white magazine called Kull and the Barbarians (issue #1, 1975).

King Kull and Red Sonja.  Kull's tiger totem rages in the background, while Sonja looks rather shyly toward the viewer.  It was an interesting choice to depict Sonja this way rather than baring her sword and looking feisty.

The Roman era Bran Mak Morn and the puritanical Solomon Kane.  Adams and his Crusty Bunkers crew also inked a couple of Kane stories.  By now you can tell these two images are connected together, with the fallen tree connecting all these characters together.

Neal Adams did a great job here.  Every time I look at these Robert E Howard characters, I also think that Roy Thomas is the man responsible for their popularity.  I can't believe there is a Solomon Kane movie on the horizon in 2010.  Nuff said!

One of my favorite Marvel magazines of all time was Savage Tales #2, featuring Barry Smith's Red Nails adaption.  I blogged about that giant-size wonder earlier this year.  Apparently Red Nails made Savage Tales a hit, and editor Roy Thomas commissioned Neal Adams to do three covers that would spin the magazine in a different direction.

Savage Tales #3 (1974) features Conan going berserk, about to behead another barbarian before he can defile that babe in the metal bikini.  I think it's terrific; Adams always excelled at portraying characters losing themselves in rage.  A painting like this could sell a comic, regardless of the content inside (which happened to be quite good in this case).  Adams also did a series of paintings for a line of Tarzan paperbacks, which again, were quite irresistible.

The baton was passed from Conan to Ka-Zar in Savage Tales #4 (1974).  If one barbarian magazine was successful, why not two?  (If one Deadpool book is successful, if one Wolverine book is successful, if one X-Men book...you get the idea.)  This was Conan's last appearance in Savage Tales before Roy Thomas spun him off in his own super-giant magazine, Savage Sword of Conan.  It would be up to Ka-Zar and Zabu to carry ST forward.  Zabu looks very intimidating here, doesn't he?

This cover always made me think that a time travelling team-up between Conan and Ka-Zar would have been a nifty idea.

Ka-Zar took cover the masthead in Savage Tales #5 (1974), with another rip-roaring cover.  Within this painting, Adams captured all the elements that should make Ka-Zar a fantastic series.  He's surrounded by prehistoric creatures, about to get his chest ripped to shreds, with Zabu the Sabretooth Tiger as his backup.  And the requisite modern babe in the foreground waiting to be rescued.  Shanna the She-Devil and SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse (who later became Mockingbird) joined Ka-Zar in subsequent issues.

Notice also that the figures of Ka-Zar and Zabu from issue #4 were used on the corner masthead.  Nuff said.