Sunday, November 16, 2008

Kull and Solomon Kane

As much as I like the character of Solomon Kane-- the Puritan crusader who wanders the Earth, rapier and pistol at the ready -- better than any of R E Howard's other creations, I haven't enjoyed the Dark Horse comic as much as I'd hoped. It's seemed a bit muddled to me, and the pacing has been off. The art is close enough to what I'd want for the property, but it's not always clear enough as to what's going on.

Meanwhile, I've never cared much at all about Kull, the barbarian who stole a kingdom (and who mainly served as an early template for Conan's later career)...

But I picked up KULL #1 this week and found I really enjoyed it. It's a lot more in the style of what I expected the new/relaunched Howard properties from DH to be like. The writing is crisp and fast-paced and the art is perfectly suited to the character and the world.

If you like the classic Howard properties, give this one a try. Meanwhile, I hope SOLOMON KANE improves soon.

1 comment:

James said...

Solomon Kane is my favorite REH character, hands down. I haven't checked out any of the comics since the early 80's Marvel Conan books.

On a related note, I just picked up The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, and I recommend it highly. It's crammed full of stories, including three or four Solomon Kane adventures, and has great black and white artwork.