When it comes to Robert E. Howard‘s heroes, most people know of Conan, maybe Solomon Kane. But one of his first heroes is Kull, set in a time long before Conan.
Recently, the first two Kull stories have fallen into the public domain, but the character is trademarked. But some people decided to create a new comic-book series based on the first Kull stories, followed by new stories from Arrow Comics. The stories are adapted or written by Randy Zimmerman, with art by Russ Leach. But as Kull is trademarked, they are putting them out as The Atlantean.
Who is Kull?
Kull from a pre-cataclysmic world circa 100,000 BC, in what we know as the Thurian Age. This is way before the time of Conan (c. 10,000 BC). In this time period, there is the continent of Thuria, which combines Europe, Asia, and Africa, but it’s in a different configuration from what we know during Conan’s time (the Hyborian Age).
Sadly, REH never created a map of this period. In the first issue of The Atlantean, there is a map, but for me it doesn’t jibe with what REH set out. I don’t mind that they added further nations, but getting the configuration wrong is bad.
Civilization is concentrated in northwestern Thuria, in the nations of Valusia, Commoria, Grondar, Kamelia, Thule, and Verulia. There are probably others, but we know little of them.
To the west of Thuria is Atlantis. It is not a high-tech civilization, but one of barbaric tribes fighting among themselves and with others. Further west are the Pictish Islands, from which the Picts, the forerunners of the Scottish-Irish, exist. There is a blood feud between the Picts and the Atlanteans. Interestingly, despite the fact that the Picts are the forerunners of the Scots, many artists in the comics have depicted them as looking like Africans. They also do this in the new series.
To the east of Thuria are the islands of Lemuria, where a race of pirates lives and roves around the world. At some point after the time of Kull, a cataclysm occurs wherein Atlantis and Lemuria sink, Valusia and the other nations are destroyed as Thuria changes (lands sink into the sea or lakes, and mountains rise), and the Pictish Islands become the mountains of a new continent. The Picts and Atlantean refugees flee to Thuria, but are now stone-age savages, so civilization must slowly be rebuilt up to the time of Conan.
The new comics
The first new comic is titled The Shadow Kingdom. It was done as a crowdfunded campaign, but you should be able to obtain it through Amazon. There are two editions of this work. One is color, but it’s 5-by-7-inches. The other is in black and white, but it’s 8.5-by-11 inches. I’m not sure why they are different. Also, I had to do a lot of searching to find the color edition, so be advised. As far as I know, they contain the same thing. There is the comic adaptation of the story, followed by the original REH story itself.
This is probably the third or fourth adaptation of this story, and I thought I was pretty good.
Since then, they have started what should be a quarterly comic, titled The Atlantean, which is about 8-by-11.5 inches. The first issue, vol. 1, no. 1, dated Autumn 2024, came out in January. The second issue is currently a crowdfunded effort, and I expect it will be available on Amazon when it’s published. The same creative team is involved, though now we get original stories.
The first one has a nice painted cover and finds Kull and his Pict friend Brule on the hunt for more serpent men, this time finding them in a small town on the eastern edge of Valusia. Overall, I thought this was a good story. I expected to have seen something similar in Marvel’s black-and-white magazines. While the basic story is finished, there is still an overarching storyline. I hope to see how it continues in future issues.
This looks like a good effort to create new Howard-like sword-and-sorcery stories. Check these out, maybe contribute to the crowdfunded effort.
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