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Bran Mak Morn is a Robert E.Howard character with a direct lineage to the Pulp fiction of Adventure Magazine. In the pages of that Pulp were the tales of Tros of Samothrace, a Greek adventurer who defied the Romans. These were written by the great Talbot Mundy, who Robert E. Howard admired. Mundy’s band of rebels had plenty of action as well as a good dollop of mysticism, a fact that REH would imitate as well.
In fact, REH hoped to one day follow Mundy into the pages of that periodical. To do this, he created the character of Bran Mak Morn, the greatest chieftain of the Picts. Howard’s band of Celts little resembles “The Picts of Galloway” but were a dark people who had held Britain before the Celts came. Bran hates the Romans with such intensity that he goes too far to defy them.
Bran Mak Morn directly appeared in only two stories in Weird Tales (the inevitable market after Adventure rejected stuff), one indirect tale and a fourth that didn’t feature Bran at all. These were: “The Lost Race” (Weird Tales, January 1927), “The Kings of the Night” (Weird Tales, November 1930), “The Dark Man” (Weird Tales, December 1931), and “Worms of the Earth” (Weird Tales, November 1932). Let’s look at each individually and the comic book adaptations that followed.
Added to this list is “Men of Shadows” and “A Song of the Race”, an unpublished tale and poem that Glenn Lord included in the book Bran Mak Morn in 1969. Also of note is the Mythos story “The Black Stone” from Weird Tales, November 1931. All of these pieces will inform the comic books that will come in the 1970s.
“The Lost Race” features a character named Cororuc, a Celtic warrior. He stumbles on a band of Picts that plan to kill him after recounting their history. When the Romans show up the Celt witnesses the fury of the Picts as they butcher the Latins. He flees, realizing that the Britons too are invaders and should be wary of the shadows. G. O. Olinick’s illustration for the tale is racist and mostly inaccurate. He equates “dark” with the cliche African.
The story was adapted by Roy Thomas for Savage Sword of Conan #68-69, September-October 1981. Typical back page stuff for Savage Sword but I will admit my fondness for such has grown while my love of the photocopied adventures of Conan have not. Gene Day was always great even when inked by someone else.
“The Kings of the Night” was one of those stories that REH really hoped to sell to Adventure. because of that, no monsters, only King Kull coming from the past to fight alongside Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art. The Picts and their allies are having a hard time convincing a band of Vikings to join in against the Romans. By pulling the legendary King Kull from ancient Valusia, Bran finds a monarch worthy of the fierce norsemen. The entire brigade is slain fighting beside the man from the past. Kull survives and returns to his time.
Roy Thomas is back to adapt the story for Savage Sword of Conan #42-43, July-August 1979. This one was drawn by David T. Wenzel who would go on to do a great job of The Hobbit later. When I think of these stories, it is usually Wenzel who comes first to mind despite wonderful art by others.
“The Dark Man” was the first of these stories to be adapted, way back in Savage Tales #4 (May 1974) as “Night of the Dark God”. Bran Mak Morn doesn’t appear in this tale which featured Dark Turlough O’Brien and a statue of the ancient Pictish king. It’s an action-packed tale that, of course, was turned into a Conan adventure for Marvel. Artwork by Gil Kane and Neal Adams is a treat and oddly, looks so much like both of them.
“The Worms of the Earth” is Bran Mak Morn’s finest and darkest tale. Angered by Roman brutality, he seeks out a witch who shows him where to find the Worms, a race of degenerate Serpent Men who live underground and worship the Black Stone. Morn steals the stone to force the weird creatures to attack the Romans. He regrets his deal in the end. “Worms” received the Roy Thomas treatment in Savage Sword of Conan #16-17 (December 1976-February 1977) The iconic Barry Windsor-Smith and Tim Conrad art is what most think of when you mention Bran Mak Morn in comics. Like “Kings of the Night”, a colored version of this story later appeared in Dark Horse’s REH’s Savage Sword but I prefer the black & white versions. For actual worm monster comics, go here.
“Men of the Shadows” feels like an expansion of “The Lost Race”, with a Roman recruit instead of a Celt. He is captured, meets Bran and then gets a long history lesson, basically the same format as the earlier tale. The story was included with the poem of the same name in Bran Mak Morn in 1969 along with other fragments. “Men of the Shadows” received two adaptations. The first was Roy Thomas (as always) in Savage Sword of Conan #102-104, #106 (July-September and November 1984).
The second version was in Dark Horse’s REH’s Savage Sword #5-7, August 2012-January 2014. The tale was adapted by Ian Edginton. This one was in color.
“A Song of the Race” was adapted for Savage Sword of Conan #35 (November 1978). The text is by Robert E. Howard with art by Richard Moyle. The poem does another deep dive into Pictish history in a dream.
Other comics that touch on the Bran Mak Morn tales include “The Black Stone” which features the same black stone that the worms possessed in “Worms of the Earth”. It was adapted in Savage Sword of Conan #74 (March 1982) and is set in modern times. There were two pastiche novels written about Bran, The Legion from the Shadows by Karl Edward Wagner (1976) and For the Witch of the Mists (1978) by Richard L. Tierney and David C. Smith. Neither was adapted into comics. Perhaps the one wrinkle that did was Cerebus the Aardvark #5 (Summer 1983) that featured a character named Bran Mak Muffin, a parody of you-know-who. Sim is riffing off of the iconic Windsor-Smith/Conrad piece above. He has his underground dwellers worship a gigantic aardvark.
Conclusion
Bran Mak Morn was one of Robert E. Howard’s great characters, equally as good as King Kull. “Worms of the Earth” and “Kings of the Night” are two of REH’s best tales. But such greatness does not mean that you will spawn a horde of new comics. All of these comics are adaptations. There are no new BMM tales, unlike Conan and Kull. Bran is like Turlogh O’Brien and Cormac Mac Art. Fun, but best done with source material. Can you imagine a Bran Mak Morn comic where each month he tries to defeat the Roman legions and fails? If you drop that central idea he becomes something else. The two novels done in the 1970s were a mixed bag. Karl Edward Wagner doubled down on Serpent Men while Tierney/Smith took Bran all the way to Rome and had very little fun in the process. Coming up with a new (good) idea for BMM is pretty hard. I suppose we should enjoy what there is and not wish for more. What character can say he was drawn by Gene Day, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, Tim Conrad and David Wenzel? There isn’t a lot, but what we got was very good.
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