Friday, July 13, 2012

Revising The King!


This King Kull debut comic from the late spring of 1971 was a key book for me, expanding on the style of adventure that Conan the Barbarian had opened up. Titled Kull the Conqueror to recapture the Conan vibe, this introduced the morose King of Valusia, and I found I liked this more mature hero more than Conan in some ways. I certainly liked the artwork on the debut issue with Ross Andru pencils and Wally Wood inks. The cover though seems by a different hand, by Marie Severin who would take over the project ably inked by her brother John with the next installment.


This original artwork shows off Marie's powerful figure of Kull quite effectively, but we see that the Kull figure is pasted on. And we detect that the background figures are not quite the same. They seem to be drawn by someone else, specifically it turns out Ross Andru with inks by Sal Buscema.


This original original shows off what is unseen because of Marie's outstanding additions, the figure of Kull as realized. It's typically competent, but is somewhat less dynamic. The changes were wise in this case, giving us one of the iconic comic book sword and sorcery images ever.

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