Wraal - Devourer of Souls

[jrmorgan56]

I'm a huge fan of the old Savage Sword of Conan magazines (my introduction to Conan as a kid). Two of my favorite stories involve Wraal - Devourer of Souls.

Anyone remember/read those issues? Anyone incorporate Wraal into any adventures? I've been toying with the idea of making him for the game just for the fun of it.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Oh yes, I remember Wraal. He made a ton of appearances.

Savage Sword of Conan #90, 96, 108, 109
Conan the Barbarian #187, 189, 190, 191, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, Annual 12, 200, 270, 271, 272, Conan: The Flame and the Fiend 1, 2, 3

At one point, he impregnates Isparana and reincarnates as his own son.

I wrote him up as a monster for one of my campaigns. If you are interested, I can see if I still have that file around somewhere.

 

[Spectator]

Conan 187 was my first comic book, ever.
Wraal was one bad-A$$ son on a bit€h.
I was hooked on Conan and Howard since then (Well Arnolds Movie were awesome, but I never sought out Conan stuff after seeing them).

 

[Da Boss]

just buying the collected editions as I have bits and pieces - with that and the new stuff - there is much to be read

 

[jrmorgan56]

I wrote him up as a monster for one of my campaigns. If you are interested, I can see if I still have that file around somewhere.

That would be great, if you can find it!

With everyone's replies and the statements of other appearances, I did a little research. He has been very popular in the comics! I never read/bought the color comics, only the B&W Savage Sword of Conan, and as far as I knew there were only 2 issues with him in it (I don't have 108-109). So I've been doing some "googling" and was presented with lots of info. I had no idea....now I have some "ebaying" to do...

 

[VincentDarlage]

I'm a huge fan of the old Savage Sword of Conan magazines (my introduction to Conan as a kid). Two of my favorite stories involve Wraal - Devourer of Souls.

Have you seen Wrarrl's action figure? It even comes with a Conan figure.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V1YHZW/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=IXUTDQGFV6M8M&colid=2WMH0V81MCBQ2

 

[jrmorgan56]

That is just plain cool.... Wraal looks perfect from what I can tell... I guess you could always supplement gummy worms for juicy souls if you wish!

 

[Hervé]

Well, maybe it's just me, but I never like the Devourer of Souls in SSoC and CTB. I never liked the idea of recuring supervillains in Conan stories. Come on, the guy just look like a fantasy version of Dr Doom crossed with Annihilus!
The Marvel Conan mags were a bit on the downside at the time, and I really feel the editor wanted to make Conan a more "classical" Marvel hero, with silly Archenemies and all... I don' t remember who was writing the stories (I guess it was Michael Fleisher) but it was far from the quality of Roy Thomas scripts.
The action figure is cool, though...

 

[UberDog]

Aw, Wraal was cool. I liked that white hiared kid too, the one who floated. What the hell was his name?

I need to go look him up in my Conan collection. He was creepy.

The Comics certainly took some liberties with the original Howard style but I think they remained more faithful than not.

Plus, consider that the comic really brought Conan much of the fame he has now, helped to resurrect his popularity and led to the movies.

Conan ran for 275 issues, that's a very impressive run.

 

[Hervé]

UberDog wrote:

Plus, consider that the comic really brought Conan much of the fame he has now, helped to resurrect his popularity and led to the movies.

I totally agree with this. But it was mostly due to Mr Thomas tremendous work. I think the comic lost its soul without him...

 

[UberDog]

UberDog wrote:

Plus, consider that the comic really brought Conan much of the fame he has now, helped to resurrect his popularity and led to the movies.

I totally agree with this. But it was mostly due to Mr Thomas tremendous work. I think the comic lost its soul without him...

There was some soul lost, to be sure, but I still enjoyed it as a whelp of Conan's age and younger. It got me reading the books, which led me to run my own incarnations of Hyboria long before D20 even existed.

There is a lot of great material in many of the post Roy books still.

 

[Hervé]

Uberdog wrote:

There was some soul lost, to be sure, but I still enjoyed it as a whelp of Conan's age and younger.It got me reading the books, which led me to run my own incarnations of Hyboria long before D20 even existed.

Yeah, I got hooked back during the Gary Kwapitz period in SSoC. His Conan was different, with a somewhat darker mood. I also liked Alcatena in Conan the Savage. But, as much as you, I grew up with Mr Smith & Buscema and their influence drew me to fantasy and RPGs. Like you, I've been playing in Conan's world long before D20 Conan, although we also spent a long time exploring Glorantha or Elric's Young Kingdoms. Strangely, Mongoose holds all of these licenses today!
Speaking of the appearance of comics characters in RPGs, Boraq Sharaq, a recurrent enemy of Conan in the late SSoC issues was included in the old TSR module CB1-Conan Unchained.

 

[UberDog]

I have those old Conan modules, they have some good stuff in them but they lack plot. At least the second one did, as I recall.

Right now I'm designing my own adventure anyway, so I'm not scouring for material as such.

It will be interesting to see what the effects of 4th edition D&D have on the industry as a whole.

I have heard that the hobby is lagging again from people in the know.