Today’s post is brought to you by an upcoming collection of Sword & Sorcery stories called The Beacon House and Other Young Arthan Stories by G. W. Thomas. The fifth book in the series is a collection of six tales of when the bear man was only seventeen. It includes “Hunter’s Moon” which we offered as a free download. It will also include “Green With Envy”, another story you will find her for free in the month to come. Watch for it. (If you can’t wait for a treat, check out Jack Mackenzie’s free download “The Cryo Game” here.)
Sword & Sorcery comics were well-established by 1978. Conan the Barbarian, Savage Sword of Conan, The Warlord dominated at Marvel and DC. What wasn’t well-known was the new RPG gaming magazines. The Dragon started as another magazine but launched in its Dragony form June 1976. That magazine offered funny cartoons about playing AD&D as well as later comic stories like Larry Elmore’s Snarfquest. These were extras, like the fiction stories, that surrounded the real meat and potatoes, adventure scenarios. The RPG comics were not mainstream but do form an important side element to the history of Sword & Sorcery comics.
That was mostly in America. Far away in England, fans had to wait for White Dwarf to show up, which it did a year later in June/July 1977. As with all new project, some experimenting took place to see what buyers wanted. This gave us “Kalgar”, a one page-at-a-time saga that ran in White Dwarf #5-8 (February/March-August/September 1978). It was written and drawn by David Lloyd. If that name isn’t instantly familiar to you, his work on V For Vendetta is (appearing in Warrior in the early 1980s alongside greats like John Bolton). He also worked on Aliens and James Bond comics. But he got his start here, one page at a time.
Our story begins in the land of Araquetta, a war-torn country. A peace treaty is signed and the civil war is over. Most are happy, except for Kalgar, who refuses to turn in his arms. He wanders off into the wilderness where he meets a girl asking for his services.
The girl needs help for her grandfather, so is plagued by bandits. They think he has the magical books of the Brotherhood. Kalgar insists he will be paid for his fighting. He attacks the bandits…
Kalgar dispatches several bandits before turning to the ones in the house. A gigantic spectre appears before the girl can get inside. She learns another girl named Klista has been killed. Kalgar spends his time putting out the fire that burns the house. We see a diary burning that tells of the Brotherhood’s travails.
Kalgar asks for answers from the grandfather but gets none. From the girl (what is her name?) he gets his payment the old fashioned way. The story ends there though it said it will be continued. (Only a half page this last time. Perhaps David Lloyd had moved onto some other project?)
Conclusion
We can only guess at what Kalgar does next. Perhaps he ventured into the Dark Lands, or evil monsters came from there. We won’t ever know. But the impressions I take away from this small sampling are these: the artwork was quite good. It has that British quality to it that Warrior and early issues of 2000 A. D. had. (This is in part Buscema fatigue, which most American comics give me.) The writing is okay though I liked how Kalgar is almost an anti-hero, again, a British thing. He is now a mercenary but not really a hero. That may change in time. Again, I wish the series had gone on for many issues.
“Kalgar” wasn’t the only comic to appear in White Dwarf. In September 1983, in White Dwarf #45, Carl Crichlow’s “Thrud the Barbarian” first appeared. This was a long-running Conan parody (lasted to at least #89, May 1987) that was later collected in books of his own. Perhaps the most success Conan parody after Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark. For more on Conan parodies, go here.
Next time…Valley of the Four Winds…a fiction serial that replaced our good friend Kalgar.
Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books
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