Compare and Contrast: Castle of the Devil

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This has been a good year for Solomon Kane fans: the excellent new Castle of the Devil series from Dark Horse, followed by a collection of all of the Kane tales from the old Conan series and another collection coming up, full of the 80s Marvel comic. Good times abound.

Back to Castle of the Devil. As I've already confessed, I straight up bought this series twice - I am a sucker for nice looking trades with extra material. I knew that the series was based on a five paragraph story fragment from right about the time that Robert E. Howard got really into writing about Conan and (oh, woe!) pretty much abandoned Solomon Kane. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for adapters, actually: Howard sets things up and you can finish the story how you wish without excessive nit-picking.

Anyway, given how much I liked Castle of the Devil, I was very interested to see that there was another adaptation of/expansion on it in the Saga of Solomon Kane trade that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I've never actually been able to track down a copy of the fragment (especially weird given that Howard's work is kinda sorta tenuously in the public domain) but I think that we can piece together just what the authors of these diverse stories had to work with with a little of the old compare and contrast (with a little help from the Wikipedia summary of the fragment, of course).

Okay, so both tales feature Solomon Kane, of course. The Sword Against Sorcery, the meanest Puritan since Cromwell or that one guy from the Baroque Trilogy. Also featured is John Silent, a decidedly non-Puritan Englishman and rogue whose favourite expression is "Name of the devil!":

I like the second a bit better. "Foppish rogue" just isn't as fun as regular rogue.

The story begins with Solomon Kane finding a young boy hanging from a gibbet. Don't worry, though, as he gets there in time to cut the lad down and save his life. Here's the Dark Horse hanging:

And here's Marvel's offering:

You know, I'm going to venture a guess: I'll bet that the Howard text just says "a youth". Either that or this issue of Savage Sword of Conan hadn't yet reached its Naked Lady Quota and they were scrambling to fit just one more page worth in.

So, having rescued the... youth, Kane strikes out for the titular Castle of the Devil to have a few words with the local Baron about his practices. he meets up with John Silent along the way and takes the opportunity to engage in a bit of tough talk and show off just how badass he is:

Okay, now this is where I think that things start getting speculative. I reckon that Howard mentioned that the Baron had some sort of crazy idol that he had an unhealthy relationship with. Marvel went with a standard giant devil guy:

It's pretty evil - I definitely wouldn't trust a guy who worshipped anything with that many spikes adorning its head - but it doesn't even compare to the super-creepy Guy Davis creation that Dark Horse offered up:

There might have been a little note, something along the lines of "Boy, it would be kind of cool if the Baron turned into a monster at some point, huh?"

And I reckon that Robert E. must have made it plenty clear that John Silent likes the ladies:

Like to a wildly inappropriate degree. Finish rescuing her first, John! You need to concentrate! On something that isn't boobs!

What I will guarantee you, though, is that there is absolutely no physical description of the Baron himself in the fragment. Like, nothing. I know this because, well look for yourself:

On the one hand, an elderly, robed figure with a Persian wife and an air of learning.

And on the other hand, a Sergent Rock-style Nazi with goat feet.

Goat feet! Monocle! Crew cut!

I don't know what else to say!

Anyway, I have finished. I think that we have managed to ferret out the truth, you and I. And I got to use that picture of Baron Nazi Goatfoot, which was my whole goal.

Good night!

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, No Comics Shall Escape John's Sight

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Hey, I just had a great idea! Next Summer DC could have a big event called Brightest Day, in which everything goes just swell!

Blackest Night: Superman No. 1 (of 3)

Urgh. There’s technical about this comic that renders it any worse than the Batman version last week, but somehow big cosmic-style event stuff happening to Smallville just skeezes me out. Like, Millennium was not by any means a masterpiece but it definitely hit its lowest point when they did the Superman tie-in and were all like “and by the way, there’s a giant Manhunter spaceship right over there and everyone under thirty is a Manhunter and hey, here’s Manhunter Lana Lang!” It just doesn’t work for me - Smallville is a perfect for smaller adventures (alien invasions by five or fewer aliens, theft-based crime, etc) or as a jumping-off point to more exciting places (the future, the past, space, everywhere else) but giganto world-shaking things just don't work as well there. Hell, set two or three modern-style events there and there won’t be a Smallville anymore, just a series of craters and bits of wood.

I’m also having a hard time reconciling this series with the start of Adventure last week. Does this take place beforehand? Is Smallville an idyllic small-town wonderland even after wholesale zombie-slaughter? Or does it take place at the same time and the rest of the Adventure run will mostly feature Superboy rescuing traumatized people who wander out into traffic whilst having flashbacks? Maybe Blackest Night will end up only kind of happening, like Countdown.

Ah well. As I said, it ain’t a bad comic on its technical merits. Of particular note is the effective use of the “Black Lanterns can see your emotions, well, seven of them” convention. Superman’s arm is afraid!

ZOMBIE WATCH: Earth-2 Superman, Earth-2 Lois Lane.

Superman Annual No. 14

Hey, uh, wasn’t the secret origin of Mon-El the top story in the last year's Action Comics annual? I will be highly amused if this is just a reprint of that story. (reads comic)

Okay, it’s okay. This issue was concerned with his secret origin before he touched down in Smallville and is largely focused on reconciling the happy-go-lucky good-time exploratoring Daxamites of Mon-El’s origin story with the xenophobic jerkwads of Sodam Yat’s. And, much like in the old “Hey, why are the Klingons all lumpy-headed in Next Generation when they just had severely receding hairlines before?” question of yore, the answer is basically “Uh, there are two different types. But only one type that we’re going to use from now on.”

Eh, it’s a decent story and a valiant attempt to retcon things so that all of the divergent bits of DC history match up (hey, does this finally remove the Daxamites from the Invasion! equation? Aren’t they the reason that Earth won?), though wouldn’t it have been easier to say that Lar Gand’s spaceship was slower-than-light and that he came from an earlier, more tolerant age on Daxam? Coulda cleared everything up in a couple of panels and devoted the rest of the Annual to him beating up Captain Nazi or someone. I’m just saying, is all.

Batgirl No. 1

I think that the fact that there would be a new Batgirl in this series was pretty broadly telegraphed, right? I'm not going to be surprising anyone by talking about it here? Okay (or SURPRISE!). I was kind of hoping that it would end up being Misfit from Birds of Prey (and will we ever get to find out what her DARK SECRET was?) but bad news: it’s not Misfit.

I guess that my personal code of ethics dictates that I not spill the beans until Issue 2 is already out, but it’s not like it’s hard to figure out - the potential Batgirl pool isn’t terrifically huge. I can’t even think of enough teenage girl martial artists to make an effective joke about someone really unlikely being considered for the job. How old is Judomaster? Or, uh...  Ah well. If it really matters to you, bring it up in the comments section (linkcmeo)

I know that it’s basically a cliché by this point, but the Bat-family is just super reluctant to admit that anybody else is at all capable of being a vigilante in Gotham, based on… the fact that they were there first? (so in a perfect world Alan Scott should be showing up and giving Batman a hard time?) It feels like I’ve read the scene where someone gets home from fighting crime only to have Batman or Robin or whoever show up to give them a a stern talking-to about a million times. They really need to just start assuming that new guys are going to show up every once in a while and have some gift baskets made up. It’s not like trying to dissuade them has ever worked, not even on Nite-wing.

The Red Circle: The Web (One-Shot)

I suspected that this would be the Red Circle comic that I enjoyed the most. So far I’m right, and I don’t think that the Shield is going to knock this one out of the top spot.

Let’s see… the Archie Comics Web was a Batman-style vigilante with a web-gun and (eventually) a disapproving wife. The Impact Web was a SHIELD-style spy organization who kept a beady eyeball on the super-types. This Web is a billionaire industrialist who is driven by dissatisfaction with his life and a desire to do something meaningful to start a website offering up his services as a super-hero. So... Iron Man plus Iron Fist?

I like the idea of a hero who, as the Web does, focuses on helping folks with day-to-day stuff rather than haring off after alien invasions and so forth, as DC heroes so frequently end up doing (heck, Mr Grim n' Gritty Street Crime himself got killed by the eye-beams of a semi-dead alien god). There should really be half a dozen of these guys per city, just busting muggers 24/7. Just like, some big guy with a wrench who you get in touch with through a number you find written on a phone booth wall and you have to buy him a sandwich to help you.

Power Girl No. 4 - Man, how’d I miss that Terra miniseries last year? I have to assume that she was just as fun there as she is here and kick myself a little for having missed it (I don’t think that there’s a non-creepy-sounding way to say this, but the fact that she takes her pants off as a substitute for having her costume with her is pretty adorable. But not creepy-adorable, I swear. Look, just read it and see what I mean). Guess I know where some of my nickels are going next week. As for the issue: yeah! More one-off (kinda) issues where PG’s life and supporting cast get built up! More of that cat! This is a good time!

The Brave and the Bold No. 26 - Man, I don’t know anything about Xombi. I gather that he’s some sort of techno-immortal and that he spends a lot of time getting involved with the supernatural, but that’s about it. Anyway, yeah. Xombi and the Spectre team up to fight a ghostly serial killer. Also, the Spectre was the one who made him a ghost, oops. I liked this one - decent story, nice art and colours, lotsa ghosts. I was, however, left with one important question: is the Spectre allowed to shave? Because man, that goatee looked pretty dapper on Crispus Allen but is not doing a thing for everyone’s favourite spirit of vengeance.

Atomic Robo: The Shadow From Beyond Time No. 4 (of 5) - Weep with me, for this latest Atomic Robo miniseries is almost over. Cheer with me, as Robo and Carl Sagan team up to capture and study the latest iteration of the creature that ate HP Lovecraft’s head. Laugh with me, because this is a damn funny comic, with some very good tough-guy lines from Sagan in particular. Fret with me, because another month must pass before we can find out how this whole thing ends.

North 40 No. 2 - I know, I know, it came out a couple of weeks ago. I missed it then, though, which is a shame because this is still a damn fine comic. I get the feeling that it’s going to be really satisfying to read a whole lot of this story at a time, so everybody be sure to buy lots of ‘em, if not for me and my need for this series to continue then for the entertainment value of watching a guy with a whole lot of extra eyes drink lots of coffee.

Superman/Batman No. 63 - Yeah, Dave really did a number on me. I can’t resist this damn comic. Now I’ve got like sixty back issues to check out. The man is a master salesman!

Viking No. 3 - Vikings. Gratuitous sex and violence. Adorable kittens. Is this something that you can afford to miss?

Invincible No. 65 - And we're back to lots of interesting stuff happening in Invincible! Hope it keeps up for a little while, as constant bloody fighting was fun but not as fun as constant bloody world-building. Also, lots of hate mail about the "death" of Atom Eve. Also also, Atom Eve all but explicitly states that she made her boobs bigger when she put herself back together, and that's creepy.

I also picked up The Complete K Chronicles this week, though the indicia says that it was released in 2008, so that’s not exactly a new release. Still: a super fun comic and a steal at 25 bucks for, like, 500 pages. Now I must wait for more.

Our Contest Winner

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I am going to apologize here for my almost complete absence from posting on this blog lately. The last few weeks have been completely nuts.

I want to announce our contest winner! Based on a random draw, ScottyQuick is the winner of our Third Anniversary Contest! Scotty will receive autographed copies of Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke and The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks, a fantastic two-pack of comics by Nova Scotia-based comic book stars. Congratulations Scotty! Be sure to send me an email with your mailing info to rachellegoguen at gmail dot com.

 

To everyone else, I think in a week or so things will have settled down enough for me to get back to blogging regularly. In the meantime, of course, Tiina, Dave and Johnathan are throwing down some awesome posts.

My Back Pages

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My gal-pal Hillary walked in on me rummaging through the bedroom closet earlier this evening, frantically rooting through boxes of comics in a vain attempt to find something, anything, to blog about. “What are in all those bags up there?” she asked, pointing to the closet’s top shelf. I told her that they were mostly filled with my original art for various minicomics I’d done over the years, plus a lot of other projects that burst into flames on the runway (in other words, I got distracted and abandoned them partway through). Looking through them, I stumbled across something cool that I thought I’d lost in a move years ago—the first original page of comic art I’d ever purchased. It’s the final page of issue twelve of Legends of the DC Universe, the now-defunct anthology title from the late Nineties. This two-part tale, written by Christopher Priest and drawn by Ken Lashley, starred the Silver Age incarnation of the Justice League of America. I bought it from the issue’s inker, Ron Boyd, at my first ever comics convention in Toronto in 1999. I was determined to come home from that con with a piece of original art, and was pretty stoked that I had purchased a page featuring Green Lantern, the Flash, and Zatanna for a pretty reasonable sum. It's a swell page featuring a good old-fashioned cliffhanger ending. However, at some point, it got packed away into a bag, thrown onto a pile, and more or less forgotten. Here it is...

...and, just for fun, here's the final, coloured page as it appears in the comic:

Looking at this page, two things became quickly apparent to me. First, I really should get this framed and put up on the wall one of these days before I forget about it again. Second, it’s a bit of a relic, which makes me sad. If you were to buy a page from just about any comic published today, it would look quite a bit different. The lettering in the word balloons on this page is pasted on, whereas today it never physically appears on the original art—it’s added in digitally. The artwork on this page doesn’t make the usual allowances for digital colouring that you would normally see, leaving areas blank for computerized trickery and the like. Lots of pages are now digitally inked, or not inked at all as computer colours are sometimes applied directly to the scanned pencils. At some point, it’s conceivable that the very concept of original pages for sale might be a thing of the past, what with you kids and your Photoshop and your Wacom tablets and so on. This bums me out a bit, since I really love looking at a page of original art and seeing notes to the inker scrawled in the borders, or a telltale spot of liquid paper where somebody made a goof, or the little brown spot where a teensy bit of coffee got spilled. These little touches are what I love the most about seeing original comic pages—all the various layers of interference between creator and fan disappear. You’re no longer reading a comic, you’re looking at a drawing somebody did.

I love that, after a lifetime of reading and enjoying comics, there’s always a new angle to appreciate them from—even if it’s of the wistful, things-were-better-in-my-day variety. I’m heading up to Toronto for the Hobbystar Fan Expo later this month, pretty much exactly ten years after I bought this page. I’m hoping that when I get there, I’ll find lots of cool original art for sale. I also hope, once I’ve financially recovered from the trip, to get that damn Legends of the DC Universe page (with its newfound relevance—Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are, after all, back in action these days) finally framed and put on the wall!
 

Archie Sunday: Archie's Choice

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In case you haven't heard, Archie is going to be popping the question to Veronica this week in Archie #600.

To celebrate the momentous occassion, I have decided to take a look at all the Riverdale women that Archie has chosen Veronica over.

Betty Cooper

Obviously Betty is everyone's first choice for Archie. She's sweet, she's talented, and she's pretty. She does, however, have an unfortunate obsession with Archie that makes her seem deranged. Especially since she is clearly too good for him. She tries too hard, and that is why she loses. It's an unfortunate situation where she tries to win Archie by being the better person than Veronica, but Archie isn't interested because Betty is too easy a catch. Archie is a douche.

Cheryl Blossom

Cheryl makes Veronica Lodge look like Ma Kent. Cheryl is the Queen Bitch of Riverdale, and she also comes off as a stone slut. I am sure that Archie will be cheating on Veronica with Cheryl during their marriage many times.

Midge Klump

Midge is the ultimate "look but don't touch" girl in Riverdale. In fact, don't even look. Because Moose will pound your face in if he catches you. So I don't blame Archie for passing on Midge. I like Midge but I never understood why she would allow her boyfriend to beat the hell out of every boy she talked to. And poor Reggie. He was a pawn in Midge and Moose's sick game that involved Midge leading Reggie into seductive traps just so Moose could beat him to near death. In fact, I would run the hell away from Midge if I were Archie. I'll bet she's into some weird stuff.

Ethel Muggs

Aw poor Ethel. Awkward in both appearance and personality, Ethel isn't getting second glances from any boys. I like Ethel, but that girl needs to find some self respect, even more than Betty does. But it would help if everyone wasn't so damn mean to her.

Nancy Woods

Nancy seems nice, and is certainly attractive, but her defining characteristic seems to be that she is very hard on her boyfriend, Chuck. And I think is one of the better men in Riverdale. I was also always glad that the only two black students at Riverdale High found each other. How convenient. I always thought Chuck and Nancy would be the first to get married. Because Nancy would demand it.

Brigitte Reilly

Brigitte is a lesser-known "fat girl" who started appearing around Riverdale in the 90s. Frankly, I think she is one of the greatest catches in Archie comics. She's pretty, fashionable, very nice, and she is on her way to being a famous singer. PLUS she dated Dilton Doiley! Basically Brigitte represents me in the Archie world. I am sure the writers paired her up with Dilton because they figure the only guy who is gonna date a fatty is a total loser nerd, but the joke is on them because those two are destined to be a very rich and successful power couple.

ComicVine.com has this to say about Brigitte: "She is a bit overweight but is popular because of her great singing voice." I love how that is worded. It's like "despite being disgusting to look at, she has won friends because she is nice to listen to." And Wikipedia notes that she "has been made as attractive as possible." Y'know, for a hippo.

Sabrina Spellman

Now obviously there are countless reasons why it's a good idea to hook up with Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Or at least one really good one: She is magic. She can do or make anything! I mean, that's the kind of power that's good to associate yourself with. She is also very cute and perfectly nice, by Riverdale standards (she has only intentionally injured a few people). Weird in-laws, though.

Josie and the Pussycats: Josie McCoy, Melody Valentine, Valerie Brown

Josie and Valerie are awesome and Melody is stupid. I think both Josie and Valerie are great all-around ladies and either would be a much better girlfriend or wife than Veronica Lodge. But the Pussycats can't be tied down like that, yo. Plus, Josie's got Alan M, and that dude is a total dreamboat.

 

So I guess that Archie's choice to marry Veronica is ok. They really do deserve each other, and I am hopeful that Betty will find a much better guy. She just needs to move the hell out of Riverdale.