Andronicus
Mongoose
Dear Sons of Plunder (aka readers of this forum)
I know I haven't been putting out my recommended reading posts lately. I've been way busy. I barely have the time to do this one, but I think it's a goodie. For those of you who don't know, I like to write posts about recommended fantasy and science fiction reading. These are to enhance and enrich your Conan stories and characters.
This post I will cover a comic known as Arak, Son of Thunder. It's concept is just a little bizarre. A Native American boy gets blown waaaay far away from his home coast and gets picked up and raised by Vikings. If being an Indian wasn't barbaric enough, he's got Vikings tutoring him. Greeeat. Anyway, Arak sets off into the semi-mythical Europe and has a series of wacky ass adventures.
This little known comic was written by our beloved Roy Thomas. What is a especially notable about this, is that Arak is DC, while Conan was Marvel. How is this significant you ask? DC was always leading the pack when it came to edgier and more violent comics. If you go back through the Marvel comics, some of that stuff is pretty darn tame. I'm not blaming Roy Thomas. It's Marvel. Toning down the material. It's depressing how many comics Conan could go through without killing anyone, and wenching was right out!
The gloves were mostly off when he went to DC. His concepts were wilder, the violence was there every issue and more graphic and more almost nudity. I like to imagine his mission given to him by DC. "Roy Thomas, your mission, should you choose to accept it is to out Conan, Conan!" The list of regular characters is Conan-riffic.
Arak-The Native American/Viking main character. Violent at the drop of a hat, but with a noble streak. His choice weapon is a tomahawk.
Malaggi-Clever wizard who is always dabbling in something dark (there are lots of demons in this series).
Valda, the Iron Maiden-Hot tempered paladin, she has a romantic thing going on with Arak.
Haakon-A Viking who hates Arak and is always fighting with him over something. Greek fire, gold, Valda or just because.
Satyricus-the last surviving satyr. Sometimes he's a lot of trouble (a magical creature in a human's world), but he's more useful than most sidekicks of his type.
Adventure ideas abound, and I've used more than a few for my Conan stories. The adaptation for these required is minimal to none.
1. Arak boards a ship, only to find it crewed by a treacherous pirate. That's bad news. What is worse, is that the pirate doesn't know his stolen cargo of pumice is from Pompeii. The pumice blocks contain the undead zombies of those buried in the eruption waiting to get out... when the ship is at sea of course.
2. An even darker story takes place in Rome. Underneath the catacombs of Rome, there is a degenerate sect of subhumans. Tired of their own ugly women, they kidnap surface women to serve as breeders. They are lead by a Black Pope (yes, he has an upside cross on his pope hat), and command creatures like albino tigers and mutant giants. Not hard to imagine this group as remnant Acheronians.
3. A wealthy Sultan keeps a menagerie of fantastic and bizarre creatures in his dungeon. Cockatrice, manticore and more. A young man, desperate to rescue his sister from the Sultan's harem, frees the beasts and leads them into it! It's a great fight scene with monsters running around a royal harem. Eye candy and action!
4. There is an extended storyline about the mystical city of White Cathay, a city isolated in time and forever under seige by barbarian tribes. Sound Conanesque to anyone else?
And so and so forth. Now it's honesty time. It's generally agreed that the first half of the series is the better half, and it went downhill after a while. I really can't say myself. Never read the whole collection. Why haven't I, if I'm such a big fan? Simple. The comic is hard to find. For those of you motivated enough by my words, do not despair. While hard to find, they are not all that expensive. Let's face it, Amazing Spider Man #1 this ain't.
In this last bit, I'll try to advise on how to turn the above characters into Conan stats. I think I should have been doing this all along with my posts, but better late than never.
Arak, Sun of Thunder-While he was raised by Vikings, he had lived long enough amoung his own people, I think that Arak is best simulated by a Pict. Native American=Pict. I see nothing in the comics to suggest he should have anything but barbarian levels. Unlike Conan he never works as a mercenary soldier, or make a living through theivery. I'd make him a high level barbarian Pict.
Malaggi-This guy is pretty straight forward. He's basically a French court wizard, so a Hyborian scholar is best for him. His spells would be things like Countermagic, Divination and some Hypnotism.
Valda, the Iron Maiden-This gal is all soldier. Daughter of Malaggi, she should have Dabbler. Otherwise, she is a model Hyborian soldier, proficient in swords and mounted combat.
Haakon-This guy has Nordheimer barbarian written all over him in blood red letters. You can make the argument for soldier levels due to the time he spends as a mercenary.
Satyricus-He's a f'ing satyr. How the heck do I justify a Grecian sylvan pervert running around in Hyboria? I don't care to try and come up with the game stats for a satyr PC for Conan, but I can make suggestions on how to create a Satyricus-like character. To simulate the spells he makes with his pan pipe, scholar levels would do best. Hypnotism would be his chosen spell school. After that, load him up with thief levels.
In conclusion, I want to say two things. Next time, I really will try to do Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melnibone. And secondly, I maintain that through content and presentation, Roy Thomas managed to create something that was closer to Robert E. Howard than the Marvel version of Conan!
I know I haven't been putting out my recommended reading posts lately. I've been way busy. I barely have the time to do this one, but I think it's a goodie. For those of you who don't know, I like to write posts about recommended fantasy and science fiction reading. These are to enhance and enrich your Conan stories and characters.
This post I will cover a comic known as Arak, Son of Thunder. It's concept is just a little bizarre. A Native American boy gets blown waaaay far away from his home coast and gets picked up and raised by Vikings. If being an Indian wasn't barbaric enough, he's got Vikings tutoring him. Greeeat. Anyway, Arak sets off into the semi-mythical Europe and has a series of wacky ass adventures.
This little known comic was written by our beloved Roy Thomas. What is a especially notable about this, is that Arak is DC, while Conan was Marvel. How is this significant you ask? DC was always leading the pack when it came to edgier and more violent comics. If you go back through the Marvel comics, some of that stuff is pretty darn tame. I'm not blaming Roy Thomas. It's Marvel. Toning down the material. It's depressing how many comics Conan could go through without killing anyone, and wenching was right out!
The gloves were mostly off when he went to DC. His concepts were wilder, the violence was there every issue and more graphic and more almost nudity. I like to imagine his mission given to him by DC. "Roy Thomas, your mission, should you choose to accept it is to out Conan, Conan!" The list of regular characters is Conan-riffic.
Arak-The Native American/Viking main character. Violent at the drop of a hat, but with a noble streak. His choice weapon is a tomahawk.
Malaggi-Clever wizard who is always dabbling in something dark (there are lots of demons in this series).
Valda, the Iron Maiden-Hot tempered paladin, she has a romantic thing going on with Arak.
Haakon-A Viking who hates Arak and is always fighting with him over something. Greek fire, gold, Valda or just because.
Satyricus-the last surviving satyr. Sometimes he's a lot of trouble (a magical creature in a human's world), but he's more useful than most sidekicks of his type.
Adventure ideas abound, and I've used more than a few for my Conan stories. The adaptation for these required is minimal to none.
1. Arak boards a ship, only to find it crewed by a treacherous pirate. That's bad news. What is worse, is that the pirate doesn't know his stolen cargo of pumice is from Pompeii. The pumice blocks contain the undead zombies of those buried in the eruption waiting to get out... when the ship is at sea of course.
2. An even darker story takes place in Rome. Underneath the catacombs of Rome, there is a degenerate sect of subhumans. Tired of their own ugly women, they kidnap surface women to serve as breeders. They are lead by a Black Pope (yes, he has an upside cross on his pope hat), and command creatures like albino tigers and mutant giants. Not hard to imagine this group as remnant Acheronians.
3. A wealthy Sultan keeps a menagerie of fantastic and bizarre creatures in his dungeon. Cockatrice, manticore and more. A young man, desperate to rescue his sister from the Sultan's harem, frees the beasts and leads them into it! It's a great fight scene with monsters running around a royal harem. Eye candy and action!
4. There is an extended storyline about the mystical city of White Cathay, a city isolated in time and forever under seige by barbarian tribes. Sound Conanesque to anyone else?
And so and so forth. Now it's honesty time. It's generally agreed that the first half of the series is the better half, and it went downhill after a while. I really can't say myself. Never read the whole collection. Why haven't I, if I'm such a big fan? Simple. The comic is hard to find. For those of you motivated enough by my words, do not despair. While hard to find, they are not all that expensive. Let's face it, Amazing Spider Man #1 this ain't.
In this last bit, I'll try to advise on how to turn the above characters into Conan stats. I think I should have been doing this all along with my posts, but better late than never.
Arak, Sun of Thunder-While he was raised by Vikings, he had lived long enough amoung his own people, I think that Arak is best simulated by a Pict. Native American=Pict. I see nothing in the comics to suggest he should have anything but barbarian levels. Unlike Conan he never works as a mercenary soldier, or make a living through theivery. I'd make him a high level barbarian Pict.
Malaggi-This guy is pretty straight forward. He's basically a French court wizard, so a Hyborian scholar is best for him. His spells would be things like Countermagic, Divination and some Hypnotism.
Valda, the Iron Maiden-This gal is all soldier. Daughter of Malaggi, she should have Dabbler. Otherwise, she is a model Hyborian soldier, proficient in swords and mounted combat.
Haakon-This guy has Nordheimer barbarian written all over him in blood red letters. You can make the argument for soldier levels due to the time he spends as a mercenary.
Satyricus-He's a f'ing satyr. How the heck do I justify a Grecian sylvan pervert running around in Hyboria? I don't care to try and come up with the game stats for a satyr PC for Conan, but I can make suggestions on how to create a Satyricus-like character. To simulate the spells he makes with his pan pipe, scholar levels would do best. Hypnotism would be his chosen spell school. After that, load him up with thief levels.
In conclusion, I want to say two things. Next time, I really will try to do Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melnibone. And secondly, I maintain that through content and presentation, Roy Thomas managed to create something that was closer to Robert E. Howard than the Marvel version of Conan!
Good comic, from what I recall.
