I was a huge fan of Mike Grell's THE WARLORD for DC, from its beginning in 1975, up until he left the series in 1982.



It's a sword and sorcery offering that DC never would have ventured into, if not for the success of CONAN over at Marvel. In issue 7, one of Warlord's attackers is so obviously drawn to look just like Conan, in the opening scene. It was great to see Conan illustrated by Grell.




the first 12 issues of WARLORD are collected with nicer printing in the WARLORD: THE SAVAGE EMPIRE trade, printed in 1991.



I also really enjoyed Grell's STARSLAYER series for Pacific, from 1981-1983. Grell did the first 6 issues, some of his nicest art.
And the STARSLAYER series was continued and made a name for newcomers John Ostrander and Tim Truman, in a long run after that with First Comics (that, and their GRIMJACK run as well).

There were a number of Conan-inspired characters at DC in the late 70's, including
  • Grell's WARLORD
  • CLAW (drawn by Ernie Chan, under the name Ernie Chua)
  • STALKER (by Ditko)
  • and a nicely illustrated BEOWULF series by Ricardo Villamonte

    and for Seaboard Atlas
  • IRON JAW by Pablo Marcos( another SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN artist)
  • WULF by Larry Hama, who years later also worked on SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.


And of course, ARAK, in 1981, when Roy Thomas left editing/writing the Conan line for Marvel, and came to DC. My favorite Arak story was the preview that appeared in WARLORD 48, and ARAK 1 and 2.


WARLORD in 1981-1984 was the launch point for a number of fantasy series from DC, such as ARION and BARREN EARTH, which began as backup features in WARLORD.
And I think the success of these launches opened the field at DC for other fantasy series, such as AMETHYST.

Among many others.

I recall the short-lived Seaboard Atlas line of comics had quite a few Conan-type books and other pulp/adventure material as well in 1975, by many of the same talents, by quite a few up-and-comers, such as Howard Chaykin and Pat Broderick.
And Pablo Marcos who did IRON JAW (which is still basically Conan), with some nice covers and inks by Neal Adams on a few issues.

But the heart and soul of fantasy in comics (as well as the "comic book Fine Art" movement, that inspired so many beautiful posters and prints) was CONAN, and especially after 1974, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. You can see this in the advertising throughout this period in SAVAGE SWORD, for the various Barry Smith and Tim Conrad portfolios and prints, and for Bud Plant Comic Art, and many others who produced incredible work.

For me, the culmination of this movement was EPIC ILLUSTRATED and the Marvel Graphic Novel line, and then the first creator-owned series from Pacific Comics, and Eclipse. And when these died, the movement died. It began to fade around 1985-1986, and by 1990 the level of sophistication of comic art declined sharply, to a level from which it has not since aspired to rise from.

But I'm still awed at the work from that era, roughly 1970-1985, particularly the work of Adams, Steranko, Wrightson, Smith, Kaluta, Jeff Jones, Corben, Alcala, Nebres, Redondo, Nino, Brunner, Ploog, Golden, Rogers, Fastner/Larson, Macklin, Conrad, Russell, Starlin, Gulacy, Chaykin, Day, Steacy, Bolton, Vess, Scott Hampton, Dowling, Fitzpatrick, Suydam, Sienkiewicz, Chris Miller, Chastain, Gould, Maitz, Pound, Jusko, Frazetta, Roblin, Rivoche, and many lesser-known talents.

I think that's what's missing from the comics industry now, the loss of influence from a greater tradition of illustration. A drift away from portfolios, and from the influence of book illustration that Wrightson, Smith, Kaluta and others brought to comics in the 70's era.
An influence of greater tradition that began with CONAN, SAVAGE TALES, and especially SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, and an influence that apparently died with the cancellation of these titles.



That's about the point where the influence turned away from the tradition of Frazetta, Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle, Joseph Clement Coll and Franklin Booth.
And took a sharp turn toward the derivative recycled fanboy "totally cool" look of Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane and the like. (Even Lee, who I somewhat like, is a poor man's Arthur Adams).