Tag Archives: comic strips

The Saturday Comics: Conan The Barbarian

20 Apr

April 20, 2013

sat com logo

conan-the-barbarian-logo

 

Before we begin, I want to point out that during my research, I found a claim that Barack Obama is a big fan and collector of Conan. Somehow I just can’t believe that.

Anyway, who doesn’t know Conan?

Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films (including Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer), television programs (cartoon and live-action), video games, role-playing games and other media. The character was created by writer Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.

Conan the Barbarian has appeared in comics nearly non-stop since 1970. The comics are arguably, apart from the books, the vehicle that had the greatest influence on the longevity and popularity of the character. Aside from an earlier and unofficial Conan comic published in Mexico, the two main publishers of Conan comics have been Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics. Marvel Comics launched Conan the Barbarian (1970–1993) and the classic Savage Sword of Conan (1974–1995).

Conan was also a newspaper strip which ran from 1978 to 1981. It was written by comics veteran Roy Thomas and illustrated by several creators, including John Buscema and Ernie Chan.

I remember it distinctly from the NY Daily News, but is was hard to find online. Here is a selection of, unfortunately, non-consecutive Conan strips.

Conan the newspaper strips the First Sunday

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The Saturday Comics: The 1940’s Batman Newspaper Strip

13 Oct

October 13, 2012

Batman has been a comic book staple but since 1943 he has been a newspaper comic strip staple as well. There have been 5 different versions of Batman comic strips running in the daily papers, including one where he costarred along with most of the Justice League on a rotating basis. The best of them is the first, the 1943-1946 run.

If ever a comic strip almost exactly emulated its comic book inspiration, this was it. In fact it was created by many of the same people who did the comic book, like Bob Kane and Bill Finger. These strips are easily available, compiled in various books and volumes, so it was a little surprising that there was not too much available online. In fact, I found many more examples of the 1966-1974 version of the strip than I did this one. Batman was still published as late as 1991 and the last incarnation was also carried in Comic Shop News, a weekly free newspaper given out in comic book stores.

Oddly enough, from 1972 until 1974, the Batman strip did not feature Batman! Although Bruce Wayne was still a main character, the strip featured a new hero called Galexo. I have no idea why. Posted below are several examples of the excellent 1940’s run. If you are a Batman fan, you owe it to yourself to go out and buy these collections. The newspaper series is a lot of fun and the volumes inexpensive.

Click the thumbnails to enlarge.

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