Fortier takes on CONAN THE BARBARIAN and Survives!!!
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
By Michael Stackpole
Berkeley Boulevard
Movie Tie-In
292 pages
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
By Michael Stackpole
Berkeley Boulevard
Movie Tie-In
292 pages
There’s something about barbarian swordsmen that lends itself to parody that can often outstrip the original– think Cerebus, Groo, and Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson. And now we have Skultar, a new comic from M. J. Butler (Munden’s Bar) and Eisner Award–winning artist Mark Wheatley (EZ Street, Lone Justice, Mars) appearing in Dark Horse Presents #7, on sale this December.
In an age before recorded history, in a brutal world ruled by myth, magic, and monsters, a hero rises to fight for the oppressed.
His name is Skultar.
Unfortunately, he dies shortly after our story begins . . .
In his place, another rises up to be mistaken for Skultar, to claim the riches and reputation his legend brings. Similar to Skultar in strength, and nothing else, he nevertheless must stumble his way through his adventures, aided by Skultar’s right-hand man. If Skultar’s enemies ever find out he’s an impostor, nothing would stop them from imposing their dark rule over all the lands.
Born into slavery, trained as a warrior, it is his destiny to rule a kingdom by his own hand.
It’s just a stolen destiny.
Mark Wheatley takes his parody seriously. “I think the best humor grows out of a true love for the source material—and I’ve been a fan of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, C. L. Moore, and sword-and-sorcery stories for half an epoch! That doesn’t mean I can’t see where it gets silly! And trust me, Skultar is where it gets silly!”
Hello All Pulpsters!! It’s Tommy, exhausted but happy to be reporting on Windy City Pulp and Paper Con once again…Big day at the con, lots of people…Several of the new pulp publishers had decent days and of course, all the old pulp collectors and such made good sells and trades as well.
Will Murray signed autographs and, along with Radio Archives and Moonstone, gave away to a lucky winner, whose name I did not get unfortunately, a huge poster of the cover of the first Radio Archives Doc Savage audio book, PYTHON ISLE, out this June!!
Lots of connections were made, discussions had ideas bandied about. I personally made a purchase that may lead to a little known pulp type character reemerging, but we shall see. Several possible new additions to the guest list as well for Pulp Ark showed themselves today, including the one I’m most excited about Frank Coffman, an Illinois college professor is also a leading expert on the poetry of Robert E. Howard and if schedules do not conflict, will be attending Pulp Ark next month and doing a classroom on Howard’s poetry and then another on how to write pulp poetry! Awesome stuff happening at Windy City! More tomorrow!
The upcoming R-rated animated feature film Red Nails, based upon Robert E. Howard’s famous Conan story of the same name, has its voice cast in place.
Co-writer and producer Steve Gold notes in his blog Ron Perlman (Hellboy) has been cast as Conan the Cimmerian, Cree Summer (Ben 10, The Boondocks) as Valeria, Marg Helgenberger (Mr. Brooks, CSI) as Tascela, James Marsden (X-Men, Smallville, Buffy, Torchwood) as Techotl, Clancy Brlown (Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited) as Olmec, and Mark Hamill (Star Wars, and virtually every decent U.S. animated show in the past decade) as Tolkemec.
Vic Dal Chele is directing Red Nails. There are tons of development sketches and storyboard art on their website; Mike Kaluta handled much of the development artwork, including the piece above.
Artwork copyright Swordplay Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.