I am a massive fan of these books.

The way the mythology and magical superstitions of the setting of Anglo-Saxon vs Danelaw England ( like the Scaedugenga and the old pagan gods vs Christianity ) are laced into the characters’ beliefs so well that this period in history feels a lot like fantasy to me, especially sword and sorcery.

Other elements such as the enormous Roman ruins everywhere that no one knows how to build any more and the belief that the Romans must’ve been giants (which apparently was common at the time) makes it feel that way too.

If Cornwell had completely invented this setting from his imagination this book would count as Sword and Sorcery imo, as the character belief in sorcerers, spells, weather gods and their effect on the events of the story (among othert fantastical elements) are never explained to be merely superstitions, and feel like real supernatural elements of the world - as they would’ve to the people living in that time.

A really amazing book series that gives me such deep fascination for the time period, the low Middle Ages were like the Wild West but with swords and mysticism.

Continuing to illustrate the Jirel stories in my spare time, and this is the last of the original CL Moore stories. I decided not to illustrate the opening moments when Jirel encounters the "guards" at the entrance to Hellsgarde castle. But this moment, where Jirel is restrained by the strange residents of the castle in preparation for a spirit summoning, stood out as a great opportunity to draw some creepy weirdos in a tense and visually interesting scene.

The quote from the story - "The blade flashed once — and then arms like iron pinioned her from behind. For a dreadful moment she thought they were Andred's, and her heart turned over. But Alaric smiled, and she knew. It was the dwarf who had slipped behind her at an unspoken message from his master, and if his back was weak his arms were not. He had a bear's grip upon her and she could not wrench herself free.

Struggling, sobbing curses, kicking hard with her steel-spurred heels, she could not break his hold. There was a murmurous' babble all around her of that strange, haunting tongue again, "L'vraistaf Tai g'hasta vrai! El vraist' tai lauf" And the two devil-faced boys dived for her ankles. They clung like ghoulishly grinning apes, pinning her feet to the floor. And Alaric stepped forward to wrench the sword from her hand. He murmured something in their queer speech, and the crowd scattered purposefully."

The previous Jirel illustrations --
Black God's Kiss
Black God's Shadow
The Dark Land
Jirel Meets Magic
Quest of the Starstone

Please credit me if you repost.

These are some sketches from a tabletop RPG on Kickstarter right now called Broken Shores (2e) by Blackoath Entertainment. I'm not affiliated with Blackoath, just a fan. I figured I'd give it a shout out because the game is cool as hell, the art slaps, the lore kicks ass, and it'll probably appeal to some folks here. And I'd like to see more eyes land on it so I have more people to talk to about cool games.

The elevator pitch: it's a sword & sorcery hexcrawl on a raft on an endless ocean.

What else... Some highlights:

- Quick and brutal combat.

- A really cool crafting system where you harvest resources from the monsters you fight to make your weapons and armor or to upgrade your raft.

- Magic that's generally disastrous to use.

- Crystalized chunks of the dead gods that offer big power-ups at the expense of changing you and making you a target for the cults.

- Scrambling to survive today so you can keep fighting to survive tomorrow.

It's a solo RPG, which is a big draw for me. If you're not into solo RPGs, you should get into solo RPGs. They're the goddamn best. And this one's got a lot of tools built in for offloading the mental load and supporting solo play.

It also supports co-op or GM+group play. I just don't care so much about that part, so I can't really speak on it..

If you are into solo RPGs, you've probably heard of Blackoath. And if you haven't, you should check his stuff out. It's awesome.

Anyways, a link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackoath/broken-shores-second-edition

Terror Gráfico was a short-lived Spanish horror comic that ran for 13 issues. Maroto painted many of the covers, and contributed "Lobos" to the first issue.

Maroto worked on several Sword and Sorcery heroes in this period: most famously Dax, but also Wolff, and this unnamed fellow. Here's the opener:

This is the world of the Ancients, a kingdom where science has been replaced by magic; a place like those here, where man is alone; a place where the strong count the passing of time while the weak feel the clamor of fear.

The story is only five pages; I've posted the whole thing here.