FRANK BRUNNER'S BRAN MAK MORN PORTFOLIO

Middle Earth was a great mail order company back in the 1970's. Many of the items they offered were prints and portfolios from major comics and fantasy illustrators, in particular Frank Frazetta, that at the time were at the height of their powers.

Frank Brunner was another such artist. I was lucky enough to purchase his fabulous Alice in Wonderland portfolio, but missed out on the one shown today. In this 1976 collection of six signed and numbered 11 x 15 plates, Brunner plies his Frazetta-inspired talents to depicting scenes from Robert E. Howard's heroic Pict from Britain's ancient past, Bran Mak Morn.

Howard wrote five Bran Mak Morn stories, nearly all of them appearing in WEIRD TALES. The most well-known of these stories is "Worms of the Earth". Howard even displayed his influence by H.P. Lovecraft's so-called "Cthulhu Mythos" by including place name R'lyeh and Dagon the water deity that lords over "The Deep Ones", denizens of Devil Reef. In turn, Lovecraft mentions Bran Mak Morn in his story, "The Whisperer In Darkness".

The story cycle was first collected in the Dell paperback, BRAN MAK MORN, published in 1969. Over the next few years, other imprints, such as Ace, Zebra and Orbit did the same. It is interesting to note that Lancer did not print an edition, especially when one considers they were at the top of the newsstand heap with their Conan series. Dell even scored high points by having the renowned Conan paperback artist, Franz Frazetta, paint the cover for them.