Thanks for the books you mentioned, Deadshot. I haven't looked at the SHOWCASE issues you listed in a long time.
I don't know the
Iron Hammer Graphics book you're referring to.
Iron Hammer Graphics released a great comics adaptation of Norse mythology, titled
MASTER OF THE VOID:
It began in April 1993 and only lasted two issues. Color covers, b&w interior. Beautiful pencil art, extremely detailed and ornate, with decorative celtic/runic designs woven into the art.
The guys who did this book clearly felt a great passion for the stories they were adapting.
The
Nightmaster stuff you refer to, that ran in
SHOWCASE 82-84 (May 1969, July 1969, and Sept 1969 issues) featured stories by Dennis O'Neil, the first with art by Jerry Grandenetti/Dick Giordano, the latter two with some of the earliest pro work of Berni Wrightson. I enjoyed these issues too, it's pleasant early work by O'Neil/Wrightson, two guys who would become superstars in the comics field shortly after.
There was also some uncredited additional art on the Nightmaster stories by Jeff Jones and Michael Kaluta, so it's an interesting collaboration all the way around. A sword and sorcery series that preceded Roy Thomas/Barry Smith's CONAN # 1 (cover dated October 1970) by about a year.
Berni Wrightson also did a Kull story in
CREATURES ON THE LOOSE # 10 (March 1971), so you can get an idea what Wrightson's Conan from that same period would have looked like.
Wrightson had a very low opinion of working for Marvel, as clearly stated in his comments in the 1980 restrospective of his career,
Berni Wrightson: A Look Back (edited by Chris Zavisa). Wrightson's original art on the Kull story was stolen from the Marvel offices, he never got it back, and in many other ways he described being jerked around by Marvel.
