“Not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood, restless harbingers of violence and bloodshed, knowing no other path.”
Creators:
Brule: The Spear and the Siren
Writer: David Lapham
Artist: Cobiaco
The Sonora Kid: Knife, Bullet, and Noose
Writer: Jeremy Barlow
Artist: Tony Parker
Conan: White Death
Writer: Pete Doree
Artist: Sean Phillips
The Thing on the Roof
Writer: Dave Land
Artist: M.S. Corley
Kull: The Vale of Shadow
Writer: Alan Zelenetz
Artist: Tony de Zuniga
What They Say:
Robert E. Howard’s Savage Sword #4 features eighty full-color pages crammed with the best creators in comic books putting their spin on Robert E. Howard’s finest creations!
Sean Phillips takes on Conan! David Lapham writes the conclusion to the seafaring adventure of Kull’s right-hand man in “Brule: The Spear and the Siren.” The Sonora Kid has a buffalo-sized showdown with Grizzly Gullins. We bring you one of Howard’s most frightening stories, and to top it off, part 2 of Kull: The Vale of Shadow!
The Review:
The general public best knows Robert E. Howard from his most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian, but the man was a prolific writer in his brief life. He wrote stories ranging from his barbarian fantasies to two-gunned Westerns to the boxing tales of sailor Steve Costigan, so it’s nice to see those stories and characters given a chance to shine in comics. Three of the five stories here are barbarian tales, featuring Brule, Kull, and Conan. The other two are , a straight-up Western and a Lovecraftian horror story.
I’ll cover the two non-barbarian stories first since they’re the exception and not the rule. Even though The Sonora Kid is the second part of the story, it’s easy to catch up with the plot. The “buffalo-sized” Grizzly Gullins has The Kid backed into a corner in a saloon in a seemingly escapeless trap. I doubt I’m giving anything away when I say that The Kid does escape. The real fun of the story is seeing how he prevails. The action is top-notch thanks to Tony Parker’s art. He has a real flair for depicting violence that fits the story.
The Thing on the Roofis a horror story in grand Lovecraftian style. Tussman discovers an unedited copy of Juntz’s “Nameless Cults” where he uncovers the location of a secret Black Temple deep in the Honduran jungle. Supposedly the temple houses a rare and magnificent treasure, but as you might imagine the treasure is not what Tussman expected. The dialogue in this story is suitably old-fashioned, probably adapted straight from Howard’s original story, and the art is reminiscent of Mike Mignola, which again is a good fit for this type of story.
The first of the three barbarian stories, Brule: The Spear and the Siren, is the second part of a tale begun in the previous issue. Again, like The Sonora Kid, the plot is fairly easy to understand. Brule, one of Kull’s most trusted friends, is on his way home to the Pictish Isles for the Moon Dance where he looks forward to tell the story of how he lost his best spear. On his voyage he encounters a Siren that he apparently saved in the previous story. The Siren turns out to be the great Queen Sylyyana, who wishes to reward Brule for his bravery. This story features no action at all (presumably all of the action took place within the first part), but there’s a certain charm to the plot and the art has a rough, energetic style that makes up for the lack.
And where would a collection of Robert E. Howard stories be without one featuring Conan? White Death is a short, done-in-one tale where Conan battles a demon that lives under ice and snow. Unlike Brule, this one is all action. Conan loves, he fights, he slays. I’ve talked quite a bit about the art in these stories, and this one is no different in terms of quality, but the coloring is especially nice here. The tale takes place in winter and the colors are wonderful, washed-out hue that gives it all a chilly tinge. I felt cold reading it.
The final story involves Howard’s other great barbarian, King Kull of Atlantis. This one was also the second part of a two-part story, and it’s the only one where I had difficulty following the plot. In it a sleeping Kull is visited by a spirit. While he deals with her in his dream, his friends gather by his bedside and remember how he came to the throne. And that’s really all I could tell you. This tale was the most text-heavy, but somehow the narrative came off as disjointed and confusing. The art, though, was excellent reminding me of some of Steve Ditko’s trippier work in Doctor Strange. Tony de Zuniga plays with the space he’s given, weaving twisty, distorted images on the page to highlight the disorientation Kull feels as he fights off the spectral intruder. He really plays around with the format and highlights what comics can do that other mediums cannot, and that makes this story worth perusing.
In Summary:
This issue contains four strong tales along with one weak story that’s saved by the art. Like the best Robert E. Howard stories, these yarns are sometimes crude, sometimes overwrought with their dialogue, but still crackle with a vibrant energy that more than makes up for their shortcomings. These may not be the best, but they’re tons of fun to read.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
