Beautiful work by Big John…
From Marvel Super Special #21
You mighta noticed from the Marvel solicitations released in April that the publisher has another Savage Sword of Conan omnibus coming — Vol. 6, this November.
But what you mighta missed was that it includes a real treat: John Buscema’s never-reprinted adaptation of 1982’s Conan the Barbarian film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, from Marvel Comics Super Special #21.
Dig the official description:
The Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 6
By Michael Fleisher, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Val Mayerik and Gil Kane.
In this massive Omnibus collection, writer Michael Fleisher hits his stride with a series of mold-breaking Conan tales like “The Temple of the Twelve-Eyed Thing,” “Demons of the Firelight” and “Dominion of the Bat” — illustrated by top talents including Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan and, of course, the one and only John Buscema! Meanwhile, X-MEN superstar Chris Claremont pens an adventure that pits Conan against the minions of Thoth-Amon in a tour de force drawn by Val Mayerik! Conan legend Roy Thomas is also on hand to tell solo stories of Conan’s “Red Nails” colleague, Valeria. Rounding out this volume are the conclusion of John Buscema’s “Bront” — and extensive articles on, and the comic book adaptation of, the blockbuster Conan the Barbarian film!
COLLECTING: Savage Sword of Conan (1974) 73-87, Marvel Comics Super Special (1977) 21
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A few thoughts:
— Here’s the original Marvel Super Special #21 cover, by Renato Casaro:
— By the way, here are the adaptation’s writing credits: John Milius (movie script); Oliver Stone (movie script); Ed Summer (movie script, uncredited); John Buscema; Michael Fleisher.
— The 1,016-page hardcover is due Nov. 3 and lists for $125.
— There are two covers for the omnibus. One by Joe Jusko (above) and one by Dan Panosian:
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MORE
— CAPTAIN AMERICA and CONAN Lead Summer Wave of Marvel EPIC COLLECTIONS. Click here.
— JOHN BUSCEMA: A Birthday Appreciation, by JOE JUSKO. Click here.
May 18, 2021
That’s pretty cool! I would also love to see Marvel round up all the “storyboards” done by William Stout for the movie’s early script. He did it (at least part of it) as a black and white, fully rendered comic book, not as traditional rectangular individual boards. You can find several pages of it online, but I would love to see it published in a nice format.
May 18, 2021
Marvel would be a good fit for that but I bet that they have no rights to the art. I always wanted to see Steranko’s art for Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboard but no such luck there either. Although Marvel might have the rights to those now that Disney owns Lucasfilm.
May 20, 2021
Jim Steranko only did four production paintings, these are easily found with a Google search. Spielberg asked him to do more but was unrealistic in assuming Jim could turn out the paintings quickly.