Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Chronicles Of Solomon Kane!
Aside from the two Kane appearances in Marvel Premiere, the six issue run of The Saga of Solomon Kane is apparently the only color comic run featuring the Puritan from Mighty Marvel. I've never owned nor read them before getting them along with the aforementioned Marvel Premiere issues in the color trade collection from Dark Horse.
This is an odd set of stories because there's precious few of Howard's Kane stories to adapt and Marvel adapted some of them two seperate times. One story is adpated twice in this very volume, a most strange happening, but interesting in that it allows a pretty close comparison of the interpretations.
"Red Shadows" is the first Kane story by REH and it was adpated first by Roy Thomas and Howie Chaykin and its a great rousing version of the story. Chaykin's style is perfect for Kane and he's at his best in this tale. I'd love to see him adapt all of the Solomon Kane canon using his modern style. It would be a masterpiece I suspect. The story is adapted again by Ralph Macchio and Steve Carr and Bret Blevins. This one is more briskly paced, but a pretty good rendering. Macchio really has a solid handle on the Puritan.
There are several other stories here that are originals and I have to say they are quite smashing, especially one titled "The Prophet" which pits the Puritan zealot Kane against a Muslin zealot, both of them men of good intent but blinded by their faiths to some degree. It's got art by Mike Mignola and it's a darn fine story with a very effective ending.
Two other REH stories get adapted, "Hills of the Dead" and "Wings of the Night", both of which had been adapted previously by Marvel in black and white. These are decently done, but I prefer the black and white versions, especially the one by Alan Weiss for "Hills".
There's a neat little subplot that runs through the Macchio stories about Kane and his conflict of faith regarding a fetish staff he carries that clearly seems to contradict his Christian faith. At times he rejects it, but is drawn back to Africa and comes to embrace a larger worldview apparently. This storyline running quietly through the stories gives a neat texture to works.
These color Kanes aren't great but they are darn good. And they look good in this Dark Horse reprint. Recommended.
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