Black and White Wednesday: Rudy Nebres' REH Portfolio

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Rudy Nebres is another was another Filipino artist whose art made a huge impact on the American comicbook scene during the Groovy Age. He mostly worked as an inker, but he also did full art on many U.S. features (Ol' Groove's fave example being his work with Chris Claremont on Iron Fist in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu issues 19-24--you can read 'em starting right here, btw). He inked several Conan and Kull stories, which was cool, too--but t'was a rare treat to get to see Mr. Nebres penciling and inking till his talented heart's content as he did on the following portfolio featuring some of Robert E. Howard's greatest creations (and Red Sonja, too). Feast your eyes on these mini-masterpieces from Savage Sword of Conan #39 (January 1979), baby!

Black and White Wednesday: "The Right Hand of Doom" by Moench and Gan

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Hands down (ouch! don't hit!) Robert E. Howard's "The Right Hand of Doom" is Ol' Groove's favorite Solomon Kane tale. Yeah, Kane doesn't have a whole lot to do in this story, but man, it's one of the spookiest, creepiest fear-fables ever! In Savage Sword of Conan #13 (June 1976), Doug Moench and Steve Gan adapted that classic to comicbook form--and they did a Marvel-ous job. Okay, I'm gonna hush--whaddya think, I get paid by the (horrible) pun?

Addicted to Alex Nino: "People of the Dark" by Thomas and Nino

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! Roy Thomas and Alex Nino adapted Robert E. Howard's classic "People of the Dark Circle" in Savage Sword of Conan #6 (April 1975). About three-and-a-half years later, that story was reprinted in gi-normous tabloid size and in color in Marvel Treasury Edition #19 (October 1978). While you can't enjoy it in all its humongous glory online, you can still thrill and chill to Nino's incredible artistry right here, right now!

Black and White Wednesday: "Blackmark Triumphant!" by Goodwin and Kane

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! We're back with more of Gil Kane's masterpiece (scripted by Archie Goodwin, natch) Blackmark! Chapter 4, "Blackmark Triumphant!" (like all these Savage Sword of Conan-published Blackmark stories) was re-formatted from the paperback book format to the magazine-sized format (overseen, Ol' Groove s'poses, by editor Roy Thomas and Marvel's art department) with varying results. The large blocks of copy and the cropped artwork doesn't feel at all like a normal comicbook page laid out by Kane, but the power of the individual images makes up for a lot to these old eyes!

This version comes from Savage Sword of Conan #4 (December 1975), natch.