Claw The Uncollected!

Arguably the the comic book sword and sorcery character in need of a trade collection (now that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have been gathered) is Claw the Unconquered by David Michelinie and Ernie Chan.

 Claw was part of a big push by DC Comics to enter the field of adventure comics in general and sword and sorcery in particular.  Of the myriad heroes they tried out, Warlord proved to be the most successful, but clearly Claw was the one cut most obviously from the same cloth as the highly profitable Conan the Barbarian at Marvel. He looks like Conan for one thing and that's either by edict or simply a result of the fact that Ernie Chua (not yet Chan) was the artist, and since he'd been an important inker on Conan, that was clearly an attempt to tap into that magic.

I've not read much Claw the Unconquered. As the series appeared on the stands, I only ever picked up one issue (number nine) and by that time an up and coming Keith Giffen had taken the series on. The series ran a respectable twelve issues before giving up the ghost and a thirteenth was produced and saw publication in one of the famous Cancelled Comics Cavalcade comics DC put out in the late 70's. Some of the covers by Joe Kubert are pretty dang handsome. And here is a very groovy look at the splash pages from the series.

I'd love to read some Claw. I've seen the back issues and they are not terrible, but I'd much prefer a handsome and easy-to-read trade paperback. Claw has been revived in recent years, even teamed up with Dynamite's Red Sonja, but still no trade of his classic Bronze Age adventures. Come on DC. Do it for the kids.

Here are the Claw covers. Enjoy!

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