In 1967, Lancer started publishing
Robert E. Howard’s Conan in popular paperbacks with titles like Conan the Freebooter, Conan the Wanderer
and Conan the Adventurer.
A little earlier, in 1965, JRR Tolkien’s
Lord of the Rings trilogy was
published in paperback by both Ace Books (unauthorized) and Ballantine Books
(authorized).
Sword and sorcery was clearly a
coming thing in American popular culture, and DC was the first comic book
publishing company to jump on the bandwagon with Nightmaster, which melded elements of both Tolkien and Howard.
Written by Denny O’Neil and drawn
by Jerry Grandenetti and Bernie Wrightson, Nightmaster
had a three-issue run in Showcase in
1969. But the genre wouldn’t really connect with comics until the next year,
when Roy Thomas brought Conan the
Barbarian to Marvel.
ReplyDeleteClayton Emery wrote:
I reread all three issues a couple of years ago... and can't remember a thing except he started as a beatnik. A beatnik -- in 1969. As in, "How un-hip can we be?"
Bill Henley wrote:
ReplyDeleteI remember at one point Don and Maggie Thompson’s newszine Newfangles reported that Nightmaster was getting his own title. But I guess that fell through.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteYou’re right that Nightmaster reflected many of the elements of the Sword & Sorcery books, but DC had been dabbling in the related “Swords & Sandals” genre for most of the previous decade. These tales were more in the heroic fantasy mold of King Arthur or Prince Valiant, with an emphasis on swashbuckling adventure over the pulpy elements of supernatural magic, Lovecraftian creatures, and mild eroticism that defined the Conan tales.
I replied;
Yes, the supernatural elements were so muted in those that I didn't really count them, but you're right.
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe 60s were a great time to hit the paperback racks. Tolkien, Howard, Burroughs to name a few and I read as much as I could afford
I replied:
The first paperback I ever bought was Ace's A Fighting Man of Mars. I was entrance by the Krenkel cover painting.
Michael T. Gilbert wrote:
ReplyDeleteModern Sword & Sorcery comics started earlier with Warren's Creepy and Eerie (though not with any continuing character, I believe). Eerie #10 (July 1967) being an example.
Scott Gibson wrote:
ReplyDeleteI was totally unfamiliar with the sword and sorcery genre until that first issue of Showcase featuring Nightmaster was published. I was hooked by the story, and then disappointed that it didn't get to continue into its own series at the time. Jerry Grandenetti's work on that first issue was mesmerizing. Of course, Bernie Wrightson wasn't bad, either...
Ed Chaczyk wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think Warren Publishing was doing some S&S before DC. But nothing like a regular strip like Nightmaster which, as you say, ran for three issues.
Bill Scott wrote:
ReplyDeleteActually I think Nightmaster owed more to Michael Moorcock's stories than it did to either Tolkien or Howard. His enchanted sword was reminiscent of Elric's sword "Stormbringer" and as the reincarnation of an earlier hero (Nacht) he echoes Moorcock's Eternal Champion. I was reading Moorcock at the time and thought that Denny O'Neil was doing a riff on his work.
I replied:
Yes. But of course, Moorcock's stories themselves owed something to Tolkien and Howard.
Daniel Gallant wrote:
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool. Wrightson does 2 of the issues. I've not heard of this so looked it up.
Burns Duncan wrote:
ReplyDeleteIn the 1968-69 school year, I frequently visited a young guy who lived about 12 blocks away, who was breaking into pro comics. Having done great single stories in the House titles and the new Witching Hour, Bernie Wrightson contibuted samples as requested for the proposed new Nightmaster series. He was told that his approach was what the editors wanted, but the powers that be at the time feared that he would not be fast enough to handle a series. In fact, by spring semester he and Mike Kaluta had begun sharing studio space and could give each other minor assists to beat deadlines. As everyone knows, Bernie got to do the tryout, starting with the second issue. He shared his mixed feelings. He had a shot at his own series after a few months in the field, and it seemed to be then as close as comics would get to sword and sorcery. On the other hand, he did not want to be obligated to do a series for at least several issues that was too much like a super-hero.
Melody Ivins wrote:
ReplyDeleteAnd we're still dealing with the second and third-rate rip-offs of Tolkien and his peers, authors who care not about the language or any degree of authenticity in the tales they spin oh, so easily.
Please see the sage Ursula K. Le Guin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," about why it is alarmingly bad to allow apparently medieval, or other ancient or otherworldly characters, to talk like they just stepped off a crosstown bus. Or CNN. The author can't just throw in a thee or thou or a thus hither and thither and persuade anyone who gives a damn that's how Ulric the Red or Vteeq of Kuatskk would speak.
Bah, humbug.