The Savage Sword of Kull, Vol. 1

The Savage Sword of Kull #1

by Roy Thomas, Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator)

Collects:
* Bizarre Adventures #26
* Kull and the Barbarians #1-3
* Marvel Preview #19
* Savage Sword of Conan #1-3, 7, 9, 23, 34, 42-43, 55, 119-122, 124-127
* Savage Sword of Conan Annual #1
* Savage Tales #2

In the tradition of The Savage Sword of Conan and Saga of Solomon Kane collections, Dark Horse presents The Savage Sword of Kull, which is the first of a two-volume set that will collect all of the black-and-white Kull material printed by Marvel in the 1970s through the1990s. This volume breaths new life into classic Kull comic-book tales like "Demon in a Silvered Glass" and "The Teeth of the Dragon" as well as Robert E. Howard adaptations like "Kings of the Knight" and "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune," and many, many more. Howard's characters have always attracted top talent, and the creators assembled in this hefty tome are no different. Industry heavyweights like Roy Thomas, Chuck Dixon, and Gerry Conway lend their considerable writing skills to the embattled Valusian king - teaming up with the artistic talents of Barry Windsor-Smith, Bernie Wrightson, Marie and John Severin, and others to bring you some of the most exciting tales of fantastic battles and political intrigue ever committed to paper.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Graphic Novels, Action, Fiction

443 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Drew Canole]

I was really thrown off the first time approaching this material. The problem is this just reprints all the B+W Kull comics in publication order. But many of those are just reprints of the color comics and material that was published while the color comic was on hiatus (but is more properly read while reading the color comic). So if we ignore those issues and just read the unique comics... this is actually a great collection! Plus the last chunk of the book are very short stories taken from the back of the Savage Sword comics from 1986... so it's just a very disorganized book going from 1973 to 1986 with no through story.

The John Bolton issue Demon in a Silvered Glass from Bizarre Adventures #26 is one of the best looking fantasy comics ever. Up there with the best of Berserk. It needs it own release.




Old Review:
Incredibly inconsistent. I guess this is to expected because Kull, especially the mature pieces (presented here), had a sporadic publishing history. The selection here is over 15 years time. The art is inconsistent, ranging from pretty awesome (not on par with the best Conan stuff) to awful. The writing ranges from solid Roy Thomas (not on par with the best Conan stuff) to boring and pointless.

One of the issues is that many stories feel the need to rehash Kull's origin story, probably to introduce new readers to the mythos. Kull is very undeveloped. His nemesis 'Thulsa Doom' is a wizard with a skull face - no other development is really made.

There are two longer stories here. The first ends abruptly (but not soon enough). The second has art by Bolton and is actually pretty interesting.

There are a couple straight REH adaptions.

Ultimately, unfortunately, for hardcore Savage Sword fans only.

[Little Timmy]

Anyone that knows me knows that I a HUGE Robert E. Howard fan. It may surprise you to learn that Conan is not my favorite of his creations. To me there was another better barbarian character, King Kull. Most of Conan's adventures were before he became a king while most of Kull's were after he took the throne. I enjoy reading of the Barbarian king deal with the complexities and nonsense of court rule. These comics did an excellent job of capturing the feel of Howard's stories of King Kull. Nice artwork also. Very recommended

[Quentin Wallace]

Ive always been a huge fan of the black and white comic magazines, be it Conan, Kull, Creepy, Eerie or anything similar. They just seem a little more mature and have a little more of an edge to them.

Kull is an underrated character, as he mostly stays in the shadow of his more famous companion, Conan. However, many fans like the Kull stories better. I don't really like Kull better than Conan (I'm actually more of a Soloman Kane guy) but I will say this is a really good read. Many of the stories are taken directly from Robert E. Howard, and the art ranges from good to fantastic.

Just a great read for Sword and Sorcery and Robert E. Howard fans. If you like The Savage Sword of Conan, you'll like the Savage Sword of Kull.

[Dimitris Papastergiou]

Set in 18000BC

This collection of Kull’s later adventures is full of sword fights, dark magic, and non-stop action. The black-and-white artwork gives it a cool, old-school feel that matches the intense vibe of the series. It even makes you wish all the colored stories were in B&W too.

Besides the battles, there’s a deeper side where Kull deals with questions about power and destiny. If you're into classic sword-and-sorcery with some thoughtful moments, this one’s a solid mix.

Long live the king!

[Todd Glaeser]

Great collection of Kull stories with a broad selection of really great artists; Berni Wrightson, Mike Ploog, Marie and John Severin, John Bolton and more.

[Gökhan]

Kılıç & büyü üzerine sağlam çizgi öyküler.

[Matthew]

These stories are not bad little S&S snippets; fun stories often with really good B&W art. (I do wish that Marvel had chosen to depict Thulsa Doom in a way that did not make him look like Skeletor from He-man.)

[Kenny]

Steve Engelhart,Roy Thomas, Bernie Wrightson, Barry Smith,Ross Andru, Wally Wood, the Severin Siblings etc. Titians all,as they weave magic with their adaptations of Good King Kull.
Classic.

[Holger Haase]

Taking a detour from my on and off reading of SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and acquainting myself with the adventures of Kull, another barbarian from Robert E. Howard's vivid imagination. In contrast to Conan he is way more introspective, moody and solemn, making this an interesting interpretation. But fear not, there is still enough blood and gore to satisfy those baser instincts and the more I read by Doug Moench the more I am convinced he is arguably one of the best if not THE best comic book writer of the 1970s.

[Maik Krüger]

Kull is very similar to Conan, but more brutal and darker. As a bonus, this collection contains the very first work of John Bolton for Marvel if I'm not mistaken. Very good.

[PJ Ebbrell]

A four star for the art. Stories are a similar but great to see the problems of kingship in the Lost Kingdoms.

[Aaron Meyer]

What a great set of stories. These stories are taken from magazines which spread over fifteen years so even though you may get some repetition, particularly in reference to Kull's origin, the stories never get old. The storylines progressively move forward in time with some flashbacks, but there is one story that drops noticably and that is the reclaiming of the throne when Thulsa Doom takes it over. One story Kull loses it and is searching out for an army and the next story he's back on the throne and looking back on taking it. I am not sure if the original Kull color comic was running and took up the storyline or not if so then will have to wait on the reprints from that series whenever they will come out. The art is great ninety percent of the time which is a very good ratio I think. Definitely looking forward to the second volume to finish up the Kull appearances.

[Rick]

The tales contained in this volume are of varing quality. Some are excellent, others leave much left to be desired. Kull was clearly not as well developed a character as Conan was during their years at Marvel Comics. If you are a fan of sword & sorcery fiction this is probably a solid and entertaining read otherwise I'd suggest reading Robert E. Howard's original Kull stories instead.

[Max]

This ended up being a bit of a mixed bag for me. For one thing, I went into this expecting to be reading the first half of all the Kull stories. In reality, this just collects some material, as in addition to these black and white comics, there were a number of color comics that are collected in the Chronicles of Kull volumes. I am likely to get my hands on those, since when these comics were good, they were very good, and because of the second main complaint I have. Because this collects only the black and white material, there's a major storyline with Kull fighting Thulsa Doom that has a few installments reprinted here, but most of the story is elsewhere. I found this confusing before I realized this book doesn't have everything, and even after I realized I had misunderstood what this is collecting, I find it annoying that the back of the book gives no indication of its incompleteness.

The comics themselves tend to be good, although there is some weak stuff that combined with my annoyance at how this collection is set up lowers my overall rating. There are good adaptations of The Shadow Kingdom, Kings of the Night, and other Howard stories. One thing I especially liked about these was how they weave characters together, inserting Ridondo and the other conspirators from By This Axe I Rule. Ridondo in general is a fun character here, and I want to read the color material in part because I'm curious to see his back and forth relationship with Kull. There are some fun original stories, including stuff about Kull hunting down the snake people, and a great long story that mixes elements from various Howard stories together to make something new and exciting. However, there are also some weak parts. The eight page stories at the end of this book are rather disappointing in terms of plot and art. There's no continuity and they feel a bit generic and dull. Also, a number of stories are based on Howard fragments that Lin Carter finished, and I often found these disappointing, as I've read the original unfinished fragments and don't like where Carter took them. Admittedly, this isn't really the comic artists' fault, and for the most part the art is excellent regardless of the quality of the writing. I do plan to read more of the Kull comics, but I think for now I'll focus on the much more continuity based color comics, and wait a while until I read the second volume of these black and white stories.