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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Surprisingly (or maybe not), only around eight UK comic titles beginning with the letter 'V' have ever been published. Valentine, Valiant, Valour, Vanguard, Venture, Victor, Viz, and Vulcan. (If you want to amuse yourselves, you can have a go at dreaming up other possible titles for comics beginning with a 'V'.)
Meanwhile, though, I thought I'd show you the only Special to accompany Marvel's Valour, published back in the '80s. I never knew about this Special, even though I bought the weekly comic for a while, and still have the first three issues. Anyway, I obtained it recently via eBay and, as always, it provides me with immense satisfaction to return over 40 years into the past and check out something I should've owned at the time, but didn't. (I do now though!)
Any Crivvies ever buy the weekly Valour or have this Special at the time? Feel free to express yourselves in the comments section.
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| CONAN and RED SONJA copyright CPI |
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23 comments:
I see there's a pin-up of Conan and Red Sonja who seem to be fighting each other for some reason. By coincidence I've just finished reading the Conan story "The Slithering Shadow" from my e-book "Conan The Barbarian - The Complete Series". I first read this story in Marvel UK's Savage Sword monthly #9 dated July 1978. Did Conan appear in Valour? I don't think I ever bought it.
That image was the cover for Marvel Feature #7, CJ, in which Conan and Red Sonja crossed swords. And yes, Conan did appear in the weekly Valour comic. Funnily enough, I read The Slithering Shadow not that long ago, as I'm currently working my way through my Complete Chronicles Of Conan volume.
Enjoying your recent return to form, so to speak.
I'd be interested in seeing anything you might have to say about the Howard CONAN stories.
Thanks, GP, I'm not quite back to form yet, as every post is an effort at the moment - even the short ones.
As for the Howard Conan stories, maybe one day I'll do a post about them, but in the meantime all I'll say is that they're brilliant. Howard has a knack for describing the fantastic in such a compelling way that the reader is swept along without questioning or doubting what is described as it all seems entirely believable.
Kid, I rather lost interest in the Marvel UK weeklies after Dez Skinn's revamp in early 1979. I did continue reading them for a year or so but my heart wasn't in it and I finally decided to concentrate on the US Marvel comics and ditched the Marvel UK weeklies altogether.
I completely agree with you about Robert E. Howard's Conan stories - they are thrilling and engrossing but, amazingly, I hadn't read any of the original Conan stories until 2009. Obviously I'd known about Conan since the '70s thanks to Marvel but I'd never read any of the original R.E.H. stories and then I finally bought a Conan paperback collection called "The Conan Chronicles " which was a shortened version of the book you are currently reading. Three days after I bought that Conan collection my mother died and I started reading the book on the day after my mother's funeral - the first story I read was "The Tower Of The Elephant" which was another tale I'd first read in the UK Savage Sword monthly. I'd assumed that Marvel's adaptations were only vaguely similar to the R.E.H. originals but I was amazed to discover they were almost word-for-word and scene-for-scene identical which I was very glad about.
I first read the original Howard Conan tales printed in a paperback that a friend gave to me back around 1978 or '79, CJ. It was called, I think, Conan The Adventurer, and I've still got it to this day (somewhere).
What surprised me was that Belit appeared in only one story in Howard's original tales, whereas the Marvel mags gave the impression that she was a recurring character in the books, going from the amount of issues she appeared in.
In Howard's "Queen Of The Black Coast" Conan sails with Belit for about three years so that's why she was in Marvel's Conan The Barbarian for so long. Howard later wrote a novel-length Conan story called "The Hour Of The Dragon" set in the time when Conan is a king and there's a section where he's reunited with the black pirates he sailed with but there's no mention of Belit at all which surprised me. It's implied that Conan alone was the leader of the pirates and Belit is totally forgotten about.
I never picked up Valour at all as I had pretty much stopped reading Marvel ,DC comics ( with the odd exception) and all weeklies by 1980 concentrating what interest I had on titles like Cerebus, Love and Rockets etc. Saying that it looks a good comic.
Well, I used to buy Valour, but at that time I used to buy every Marvel UK comic / magazine / special, etc. As well as any US Marvels that came in the shops. And all the DC's from another shop! Plus everything 2000 AD related and much, much more!
It all got a bit out of hand and I was spending money that should have gone on the bills!
But I DO have an addictive nature.
Tut tut.
I assume that story will be in my book, CJ, so I'll eventually get around to it. I can only read short bits at a time (gripping as the tales are) because I fall asleep after a while. Anything that requires me to focus my attention on it tires me out in very short order.
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I only have the first three issues and now the Special, McS, and for the life of me, I can't at this moment recall whether I bought any more issues after #3 at the time. If I did, I must've given them away to someone. It was an okay comic, but the disparity between its b&w pages and the early MWOMs and SMCWs colour and spot-colour was obvious, and much to its disadvantage. All the later UK Marvels suffered in the same way to a great degree.
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I think everyone has an addictive nature to a greater or lesser extent, JP, it's just that not everyone is addicted to the same things. With some people it's drugs, or booze, or fags, or exercise, etc. With me, it's comics and toys, and looking back on the past all the time. I'm also addicted to living, and hope to do so for a very long time, but unfortunately there's no guarantees with that. I live in hope (and fear).
The villain Thoth-Amon had a career-arc not unlike that of Belit, in that the former also appeared in just one Howard story-- one in which he never actually meets Conan! Roy Thomas labored to insert Thoth-Amon into many stories where he never appeared, as well as writing individual tales in which T-A became the "big bad" for the Marvel series for many years. The wizard finally got his terminal comeuppance in a Thomas-scripted issue of KING CONAN, which was pretty good considering that a lot of Thomas's work on the regular title had become IMO subpar. I don't get the impression that other iterations of Conan comics have used him nearly as much.
That's interesting, GP, as the name is familiar to me, presumably from reading it in the Marvel Conan mags. I also seem to recall reading it in one of Howard's tales fairly recently, but now can't remember which one. I have to say that the stories are consistently far better than I had anticipated, and it's amazing to think that Howard was only 30 when he committed suicide in 1936. Just imagine what he'd have gone on to write had he not decided to abandon this world.
I have everything crossed for you, Kidda. The fear can drive you mad.
Ta, JP. Not knowing is a buggah as well.
I agree with Gene Phillips about Thoth-Amon - he appeared in the first ever Conan story "The Phoenix On The Sword" in December 1932 and is briefly mentioned in "The Hour Of The Dragon" in 1935 but he was never a big Conan villain until Roy Thomas made him so. Marvel's King Conan series also included his son Prince Conn who was invented long after Howard's death by the Conan writers Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp.
Thoth-Amon. No wonder he was a baddie with a name like that, CJ. Funny how the villains usually always have villainous names, eh? Maybe Doctor Doom would've been a good guy had He been named Percy Von Pureheart instead of Victor Von Doom.
Kid - That's a coincidence. My first Conan book was 'Conan the Adventurer', too ! But I read it in 1982, I think. I've got your featured Valour Winter Special in a folder. My brother got it, whilst I got the 1980 Spidey & Red Sonja Winter Special (that's not it's correct title, I imagine!)
Phillip
I've got the Spidey Special as well, and I think the other one you allude to was called Warrior Women or something similar, which I've also got. I've got quite a few Specials from around that time, which is when Marvel first started doing them, I think.
Kid - this is the one I was thinking of:
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Team-Up_(UK)_Winter_Special_Vol_1?file=Marvel_Team-Up_%2528UK%2529_Winter_Special_Vol_1_1.jpg
Phillip
Took a look - that's another one I didn't know anything about. Over to eBay for me.
Just bought one. Thanks for informing me of its existence.
Kid, John Pitt mentioned addiction and I think you're addicted to eBay!
I'm addicted to comics, CJ, I don't really care where I buy them from - though eBay is certainly convenient.
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