Continuing with the Cimmerian September celebration, today I'm sharing the first of 5 issues of Marvel's GIANT-SIZE CONAN THE BARBARIAN edited by Roy Thomas with a cover by Gil Kane and John Romita. The first story is an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's "The Hour of the Dragon", first serialized in the December 1935 through April 1936 issues WEIRD TALES. It was Howard's only Conan novel and one of his last Conan tales published before his death by suicide. It was reprinted in 1950 by Gnome Press and later by Lancer paperbacks as "Conan the Conqueror".
The script was written by Roy Thomas with the unusual pairing of pencils by Gil Kane and inks by Tom Sutton.
A text article by Robert Yaple outlines an imaginary history of the ancient and fabled Acheron. It was originally published in THE HOWARD COLLECTOR fanzine in 1971. An article by Roy Thomas follows where he discusses how GIANT-SIZE CONAN came to be and its development with Gil Kane.
One of my favorite comic Conan tales. It's a shame that Gil Kane was not able to finish this saga in glorious color. John Buscema wrapped it up in black and white which was still good. Tom Sutton was a fantastic inker for Kane, gave his work a vibrancy. Hour of the Dragon was my first encounter with REH's original Conan many decades ago when I was still a youngster. I read that before the adaptation.
ReplyDeleteMine too, Rip. I grabbed my Lancer paperback off the spinner rack and raced home to read it (after paying for it, of course!). A glorious story that proved REH could write long form as well as short stories. I remember his battle scenes being vivid and terrifying.
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