Thundarr!

It is hard to believe that it's been nearly forty years since Thundarr the Barbarian debuted. I was so hungry for science fiction entertainment in those days that I gobbled up all the episodes. And it didn't hurt that artistic heroes like Alex Toth and Jack "King" Kirby and writer Steve Gerber were involved in major ways in the development of the characters and the look of the far future world after a speeding planet passed between the Earth and the Moon, shattering the latter into two pieces. The Earth is filled with "Wizards" and society hangs on by its fingernails. Riding across this rugged wasteland are three mates, the stalwart but sometimes foolishly brave Thundarr, the clever and loyal sorceress Princess Ariel and Ookla the epitomy of Mok-dom. I gobbled them up and felt lucky as hell to get them on DVD a few years ago, so that I can relive those days of a future which will never be.

Here's a gaggle of Thundarr stuff. Nifty and keen are words which leap to mind.

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The King Of Swords!

Of the many many genres Jack "King" Kirby is associated with (superheroes, romance, war, westerns) he is not so much identified with the signature breakout genre of the 70's - Swords and Sorcery. (With one exception I'll touch on at the bottom of this post.) But there are some few examples as can be seen above in this cover for Comixscene's "Sword and Sorcery" issue in 1973.

Kirby drew Conan very few times, but one time was in his seminal book Heroes and Villains, a collection of Kirby pencil splashes which have been the source of countless inkings and re-inkings over the decades by many talented folks.

He included Conan in this illustration for one of Marvel's myriad subscription ads as the Cimmerian is nestled in with Spidey, The Thing, Howard the Duck and many other Marvel luminaries of the day.

Johnny Romita either heavily inked this piece or re-drew it entirely for the final product.

Kirby produced exactly one Conan cover, for the fifth and final issue of Giant-Size Conan the Barbarian which reprinted Conan's crossover with Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone. This gave the King the chance to draw two S&S icons though Conan's head has been clearly redrawn by the production staff at Marvel.

The evidence is clear in the original artwork seen here. I frankly prefer Conan's somewhat more wistful expression in the Kirby original to his more aggressive mood in the fixed-up version.

Perhaps one of the King's greatest contributions to the genre of Sword and Sorcery was Thundarr the Barbarian, which he designed for Ruby-Spears animation. That cartoon blended the apocalyptic post-holocaust sci-fi genre with the magical S&S  to offer up something which had been never seen on home TV's before.

There is an exception to this though - Tales of Asgard. Though not technically Swords and Sorcery, the series which ran in the back of the Thor comics for years do indeed have many of the same tropes as classic S&S, especially some of the later story lines. Look for much more on Jack Kirby and his work on that series thoughout the month.

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The Kings of Cartoons!

I don't know when I'm going to get around to seeing them all, but I found some deals for cartoons and couldn't resist.

I've been wanting copies of Thundarr the Barbarian since it first aired. VHS never really offered anything approximating a complete run, and for some reason the show never appeared on DVD. Until last year that is when Warner Brothers brought out a limited release, one of those on-demand sort of deals. The collection was pricey, but despite my ardor for this series, one largely designed by Jack "King" Kirby, I didn't bite. Until today when I ordered it and a few other sets to boot.


I also found Defenders of the Earth and The Legend of Prince Valiant complete collections for very small money. I already own the first half of the DotE series but I'll never find the second half for less than the price for the whole. Now I've got an instant present for someone.


I'd been looking at some used Prince Valiant sets, but this is half the price of getting those. Lumping these King Features adaptations in with the Thundarr made the whole shebang feel like better value for money. It adds up over 150 episodes for under 35 cents each.


Add to these a Blackstar set I've had sitting on the shelf for a year at least, and I have enough cartoonage to last me quite some time indeed.

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The Sound Of Thundarr!

Thundarr the Barbarian from the Ruby-Spears studio was fun bit of a cartoon featuring some great artwork by Jack Kirby. You can almost see Kirby's work here and there as the stories unfold. It's a pretty straightforward blend of a classic apocalyptic scenario (akin to Planet of the Apes) and Conan the Barbarian.

If you've seen Thundarr, you love it or hate it I suspect. I have a soft spot in my head for this cartoon. It's mostly nostalgia but it's a sentimental fave.

It's at long last out on DVD from Warner Archives. The cost is about thirty bucks and according to Mark Evanier, who reviews the series and his role in it here, the reproduction is suspect and there are no extras. Check it out at this link.


But it's not hard to see why Thundarr had such a difficult time finding an audience. Check out this TV Guide ad.


Yep! It says "Thunder".

How can they expect folks to flock to a show they can't be bothered to spell correctly.

NOTE OF CORRECTION: As has been pointed out me, the above ad is indeed correct and refers to another show about a horse named "Thunder". I'm sorry to all the Saturday morning fans that I might've injured with this lame post. I only got the show wrong, the year wrong, and the network wrong. Other than that, I'm completely correct. Mea Culpa Amigos!

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