Originally posted by Pig Iron:
There were a few decent Andru/Buscema/deZuniga Shanna and Kazar stories. I also really liked the Gonzalez-drawn Vampirella and Colan Tomb of Dracula stuff....
Yes, Pig Iron, FAFHRD AND THE GREY MOUSER by Chaykin and Mignola is on my list of series to buy.
(click on cover to see larger image)The Joe Kubert issues of TARZAN (issues 207-235, from 1972-1975, adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs'
Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, and
Jungle Tales of Tarzan) are also among my favorites. I consider this to be the definitive Tarzan adaptation, better than any movie version.
I was less impressed with the later Roy Thomas/John Buscema TARZAN (1977-1979) series for Marvel. Which was okay, but read too much like their CONAN THE BARBARIAN run, and for me didn't have the same magic as the Kubert TARZAN issues, or Thomas/Buscema's own CONAN work.
The Frank Thorne RED SONJA was also good reading. I love Thorne's art, somewhat similar to Kubert's.
Thorne's later GHITA series (a somewhat more sexually graphic ceator-owned version of Red Sonja that Thorne later did) is one I sampled but never got around to collecting.
Both (Red Sonja and Ghita) are beautifully parodied in CEREBUS (issues 3 and 19, and later issues).
CEREBUS is another series that's a great outgrowth of the Robert E. Howard adaptations. An innovative, playful and intelligent expansion that goes in a lot of interesting directions, from its original Conan-parody origins.
I actually like the Roy Thomas/John Buscema CONAN issues you mention as much as the Thomas/Barry Smith issues, each in their own way.
But when Thomas/Buscema began SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (with wonderful inks, mostly by Alcala) and 50-plus pages an issue, that really allowed the adaptations to breathe, I think the heart and soul of their Conan work moved from the CONAN comic book to the SAVAGE SWORD magazine.
The KING CONAN series is one I still haven't fully explored. I have some scattered issues.
The Marv Wolfman/Gil Kane JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS series for Marvel is one I'd completely forgotten. But that's a good series too. One of the lesser-known treats of that run is a fill-in issue (circa 1978) by a then-unknown Frank Miller, and it's a nice art job too (issue 18).
I especially liked the Murphy Anderson "John Carter" adaptations, a backup series in TARZAN, and then continued in WEIRD WORLDS.
And "Pellucidar" by Dennis O'Neil and Alan Weiss,
one episode in Korak 48, and also continued in WEIRD WORLDS.
Another incredible series that is seldom mentioned is
the Kaluta backups in KORAK 46-56, adapting "Carson of Venus", and I think one final backup in TARZAN 235, after KORAK was cancelled.
ROXANNA is not a series I've read. I believe that's a European series. I think I saw a collected album of these once, but have never read them.
I agree with your assessment of the Bruce Jones/Brent Anderson KAZAR series (issues 1-27, from 1981-1983). Anderson left with issue 19, but if anything, the stories became even
more engaging in the issues after Brent Anderson left the series, when art was done by Ron Frenz and Armando Gil. This was a book with some wild and often hilarious twists. Very well done.
There was a great "Shanna" backup in a few issues of the HULK magazine, with gorgeous pencil art by Tony DeZuniga. One I particularly like is in issue 9.
Wolfman/Colan's TOMB OF DRACULA series is good too, but was never one of my favorites. My favorite story of the run was a two-issue story guest scripted by Gardner Fox, in issues 4 and 5, where the Van Helsings travel through an enchanted mirror into the past, to try and prevent Dracula from rising to power.
There was a great parody of Marv Wolfman's departure from the Dracula books and Marvel, in HOWARD THE DUCK magazine # 5, by Mantlo, Golden and McCleod.
And who couldn't love VAMPIRELLA ?
There are also some great new illustrated versions of CONAN, SOLOMON KANE and other Robert E. Howard books, by artist Gary Gianni, through Dark Horse. They look great, but I haven't been eager to purchase them because they're priced rather high (in the $60.00 to $100.00 range). I see them release a new one every few months, advertised in the Bud Plant catalog.
