The Eclipse Hobbit!

As far as I can remember the Eclipse Comics adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit came out of left field. I don't remember much buzz about it at the time, but it was a period when I was less connected to comics overall. After the burst of interest in fantasy in the 70's, largely as a result of the success of Tolkien's epic works, the story had gotten an animated treatment in both television and in the cinema. There had been a radio play or two, but things seemed relatively quiet in Middle-Earth. 

The adaptation by writers Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming was illustrated with consummate skill by artist David Wenzel. I had run across Wenzel on some Marvel comics and his name didn't evoke great confidence, but his work in this version of the story is at once distinctive and delicate. His vision of Middle-Earth is not derivative to my eye. Eclipse issued the story in three installments and then in collaboration with Unwin, the longtime publishers of the story produced a graphic novel. 

Wenzel's version of Gandalf is a potent one, as he seems far from fragile and is presented with strong features. He's less the wizened old man of other adaptations. Bilbo Baggins is a surprise as well, shown as quite chubby and with a haircut that frankly reminds me of Moe from the Three Stooges. The Dwarves look great, and distinctive as far as that's necessary in this tome. Unlike the bloated trilogy of recent years, it was less important to distinguish them in all sorts of peculiar ways. 

Gollum is quite different as well. Wearing pants makes him immediately more civilized than his counterparts in other media. He's less a creature and more a crazy and withered person. People love the Riddle Game in Bilbo's encounter with Gollum and it plays well in the novel, but I found it seemed to drag Jist a bit in this presentation. I was happy that this adaptation kept Beorn and his wonderful lodge, something abandoned in other renditions not unlike Tom Bombadil in adaptation of the grander The Lord of the Rings.

 

Smaug is outstanding! That said, the reading becomes quite dense as the band of dwarves enter the final stages of the story. The creators are clearly feeling the pinch of trying to keep all of the story from the novel and the panels get smaller as the captions get larger. This clearly needed to be at least one issue longer. The Battle of the Five Armies barely has enough pages to showcase it, though Wenzel does produce some stellar images. One complaint I have is that the elves don't look much different than the humans, and in some respects even more drab. But overall, the art has a lovely calm to it, that fits the atmosphere of the story being told. 

The adaptation has proven quite durable and is available sundry languages across the globe. I found a modern version on the stands of my local bookstore just a few weeks ago. If you're a fan of the Tolkien tales, this is a charming way to interact with these classic characters. 

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The Savage Comics Of Solomon Kane!

Aside from the two Kane appearances in Marvel Premiere, the six-issue run of The Saga of Solomon Kane is apparently the only color comic run featuring the Puritan from Mighty Marvel. I've never owned nor read them before getting them along with the aforementioned Marvel Premiere issues in the color trade collection from Dark Horse.

This is an odd set of stories because there's precious few of Howard's Kane stories to adapt and Marvel adapted some of them two separate times. One story is adapted twice in this very volume, a most strange happening, but interesting in that it allows a pretty close comparison of the interpretations.

 

"Red Shadows" is the first Kane story by REH and it was adapted first by Roy Thomas and Howie Chaykin and it's a great rousing version of the story. Chaykin's style is perfect for Kane and he's at his best in this tale. I'd love to see him adapt all of the Solomon Kane canon using his modern style. It would be a masterpiece I suspect. The story is adapted again by Ralph Macchio and Steve Carr and Bret Blevins. This one is more briskly paced, but a pretty good rendering. Macchio really has a solid handle on the Puritan.

There are several other stories here that are originals and I have to say they are quite smashing, especially one titled "The Prophet" which pits the Puritan zealot Kane against a Muslin zealot, both of them men of good intent but blinded by their faiths to some degree. It's got art by Mike Mignola and it's a darn fine story with a very effective ending.

Two other REH stories get adapted, "Hills of the Dead" and "Wings of the Night", both of which had been adapted previously by Marvel in black and white. These are decently done, but I prefer the black and white versions, especially the one by Alan Weiss for "Hills".

There's a neat little subplot that runs through the Macchio stories about Kane and his conflict of faith regarding a fetish staff he carries that clearly seems to contradict his Christian faith. At times he rejects it, but is drawn back to Africa and comes to embrace a larger worldview apparently. This storyline running quietly through the stories gives a neat texture to works.

These color Kanes aren't great, but they are darn good. And they look good in this Dark Horse reprint. 

Next up is the Dark Horse B&W reprint of Solomon Kane's adventures from Savage Sword of Conan and elsewhere. Aside from a few of these very early stories, I'd read almost none of this, so it was all new-old Marvel for me.

The earliest Kane stories with artwork by Alan Weiss are superb. Weiss gave Kane a distinctive flavor, similar but not at all aping what Smith did with Conan. Kane's stories under Weiss's hand were lush and had a crisp modern feel to them, even today. There's another great story by Howie Chaykin. The storytelling is by Roy Thomas and Don Glut. In fact, much to my surprise I learned here that Glut was the primary scribe for Kane's adventures, writing the majority of these stories.

The artwork in the later stuff is by journeymen. David Wenzel still many years from his Hobbit stuff is on board for several stories, but in nearly every case the storytelling seemed to suffer by insufficient page count. I'm not one who usually bickers about this kind of thing, but there was a distinct cramped quality to many of the middle stories, even those which got serialized. Following the action was hard at times, but perhaps that has to do with the reduction of the page for this format.

The latter part of the book reprints stuff from the 90's. At one point there's a jump from the mid-80's to the 90's and the change in styles is remarkable. Many of the later stories are well told with some artwork that grew on me as I read the stories. There's even a crossover with Conan to close out the volume. The pin-ups throughout are nice, especially from solid pros like the late Berni Wrightson. 

I'd give this volume a solid B. It's a decent read, it adapts most of the key Kane stories, but the artwork is suspect at times. The high romance that should permeate a Kane story is often missing in these. The first few stories with Kane encountering Dracula are fantastic, and there's a sequel to this classic clash that I'd never read. All in all, not that bad, it opens and closes very strongly.

More Kane later today. 

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The Saga Of Solomon Kane!

I wrapped up the Dark Horse B&W reprint of Solomon Kane's adventures from Savage Sword of Conan and elsewhere. Aside from a few of these very early stories, I'd read none of this so it was all new-old Marvel for me.

The earliest Kane stories with artwork by Alan Weiss are superb. Weiss gave Kane a distinctive flavor, similar but not at all aping what Smith did with Conan. Kane's stories under Weiss's hand were lush and had a crisp modern feel to them, even today. There's another great story by Howie Chaykin. The storytelling is by Roy Thomas and Don Glut. In fact much to my surprise I learned here that Glut was the primary scribe for Kane's adventures, writing the majority of these stories.

The artwork in the later stuff is by journeymen. David Wenzel still many years from his Hobbit stuff is on board for several stories, but in nearly every case the storytelling seemed to suffer by insufficient page count. I'm not one who usually bickers about this kind of thing, but there was a distinct cramped quality to many of the middle stories, even those which got serialized. Following the action was hard at times, but perhaps that has to do with the reduction of the page for this format.

The latter part of the book reprints stuff from the 90's. At one point there's a jump from the mid-80's to the the 90's and the change in styles is remarkable. Many of the later stories are well told with some artwork that grew on me as I read the stories. There's even a crossover with Conan to close out the volume.

All in all I'd give this volume a B. It's a decent read, it adapts most of the key Kane stories, but the artwork is suspect at times. The high romance that should permeate a Kane story is often missing in these. The first few stories with Kane encountering Dracula are fantastic, and there's a sequel to this classic clash that I'd never read. All in all not that bad, it opens and closes very strongly.

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