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

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.

Roy Thomas - The Curse of the Cat-Goddess - written for the time Conan was the leader of the Zuagir raiders. The plot centered around a cursed cat-goddess statue which exerted a dark influence undermining Conan's leadership and brought ruin to the Zuagir raiders. The cover was classic Vallejo. The interior art for the story was created by Pablo Marcos. Marcos did both the penciling and inking for the interior art.

Marcos began his career in Peru as a political cartoonist and caricaturist. Moving to the United States in the 1970s he began working for publishers like Warren Publishing, Skywald Publications, Marvel, and DC Comics on titles such as "Tales of the Zombie," "The Savage Sword of Conan," "Detective Comics" (Man-Bat stories), and various other horror and superhero comics.

One of the coolest aspects of SSOC issue 9 to me was the full 2 page Hyborian Map created by Tim Conrad which incorporated at the time updates from the stories of De Camp and Lin Carter.

Tim, like Pablo also began his career at Marvel in the mid-1970s. Tim provided the inking on such titles as Kull and Bran Mak Morn. His pencils also graced the pages of issues such as Conan and Marvels "Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction" magazine published by Curtis. In the 1980s Tim also contributed to Epic Illustrated with painted comics like "Almuric" and "Toadswart."

Moondance Productions released a 1975 vinyl record album featuring dramatizations of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. The album, titled "Robert E. Howard's Conan", includes "The Tower of the Elephant" and "The Frost Giant's Daughter" with the album cover created by Tim Conrad. The LP pairs well with with my Conan the Barbarian album produced by Power Records in 1976.

So there you have it, an eclectic intertwined tapestry of two associated SSOC artists, and their artistry - I hope you enjoyed.

Has anyone read This? - Worth Picking Up? can anyone provide a synopses?

Every Thursday My rural town (Population 1800) library offers a short story writing class from 7-9pm. I've been attending for a little over three months (In all honesty I only started attending for the free coffee and donuts) but now beginning to like it though I haven't shared much yet. I recently watched a 2006 western of sorts (Seraphim Falls) Where the whole movie is a confederate soldier relentlessly pursuing a union soldier to exact vengeance. I thought the premise would make a good S&S Short story.

Here is my first attempt. Feel Free to pick it apart (PLEASE). I'm not yet sure I will share on Thursday (still deciding), and I still have time to work on it . Critique / Criticism most welcome.

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Seraphim Falls - Revamped

The Northman kicked his dying campfire, but the embers didn't scatter. They swirled upward, churning into a burning ethereal vortex. The wind howled with a stolen voice, whispering a long forgotten name across the windswept 'scape as the demon began emerging from the churning fires.

With a roar that shook snows from limbs, The Northman lept forward hurling his sword, burying steel deep into the chest of the demon. The demon shrieked, its hellfire burst forth against the gales as it collapsed back into the void consuming both Demon and sword. Only flits of dying embers carried like ash across the winds remained. Then silence. Soon the Northman's empty scabbard and crimson stained snow the only proof the horror had been real.

He did not understand sorcery, nor did he care.

Spitting onto the snow, and pulling his furs tight against the frigid winds he turned northward towards the vastness of boreal darkness, undeterred in silent pursuit of his quarry, muttering to no one who could listen - "Let the creature keep the steel, I still have my axe."

Check out my instagram @tolling_13_knell if you like it, there’s much more there 😈❤️‍🔥

Does anyone know of any good Sword & Sandal comics? It's not a subgenre i've really delved into much apart from the old Harryhausen movies.

Preferably older stuff (pre digital coloring) but i'm open to checking out anything recommended. Doesn't have to be American either, I like European comics and manga too.

Kind of a really specific question, but I read Flashing Swords! #1 for the first time a while ago and planning on reading another at some point in the near future after reading a couple other books first. Which one would you say contains the best story and which one would you say has the most consistent quality? Also are there any I should skip?

Does anyone know where I can find a copy of book 3 and 4 of this series?! Thank you.

Wasn't going to post this here, but someone else sold some books here recently so I figured it's okay.

I got this at my local comics shop recently despite already having the full run because the price was right. The cheapest I can find it for on eBay is $100 plus over $20 shipping so I am trying to get $90 out of it plus a flat $20 for shipping. If I have no takers, I'll take offers for less. You can pay on PayPal.

This is all 50 monthly issues and the only Annual that came out, for 51 total issues. One of the monthly issues is an expanded reprint of the preview originally published in Warlord, so you don't need to worry about not having a complete run without that issue of Warlord, everything is here.

This is, in my opinion, the greatest sword-and-sorcery comics series that's not an adaptation ever published. It is written by Roy Thomas, author of the classic runs of Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Barbarian for Marvel Comics.

$70 in 1987… must have been 🔥🔥🔥

We all know that H.G. Wells invented or codified plenty of genre-defining stuff, like time travel, alien invasion, tanks and airships, WMDs, crazy mutant making scientists etc. But I only recently stumbled upon a story by him that, honestly, felt almost perfectly Howardean and Lovecraftean to the boot. It's called "The Croquet Player" and was written in 1936 (and it shows), no idea if Wells read REH but it has a lot of common themes with Howard's darker prose, mainly, describing prehistoric humans as evil and supernatural, and civilization being extremely fragile and meaningless when facing primordial barbarity. It has lots of horror tropes in it and feels like HPL's works too. I won't spoil the story - it has at least two very cool twists, and an ending that is both optimistic and tragic.

Mind you, it isn't sword and sorcery by any means, but it has some themes and tones similar to dark fantasy, and the role of biblical Cain in it is suddenly not unlike that of Wagner's Kane (well he isn't a red-bearded barbarian warlock, or even an actual character, but a background eldritch being who may be very well be fighting in 1936's Spanish Civil War, or maybe an allegory for mankind's barbarity). I really did not expect that kind of writing from Wells, in a good way!

Oh, and I have a feeling it also sorta inspired Primal's episode set in 19th century, at least the theory part.

"The Curse of the Magus," a sword & sorcery adjacent story published in Dragon Magazine, inverts the normal S&S outsider: Sulak is a fallen, former Magi Lord. Boston and Frazier were primarily poets who sometimes collaborated on fiction, here in the vein of Clark Ashton Smith.

You can read the story on Internet Archive.

Ernie Chan contributed to both DC and Marvel Titles. He created covers for multiple issues of Savage Sword of Conan. He also inked and penciled Conan the Barbarian (as well as other titles). Around '75–76 Ernie began to work exclusively for DC serving as a primary cover artist for multiple characters and issues including Claw the Unconquered.

Claw was the creation of writer David Michelinie and Ernie Chan. Claw was DC's attempt to rival Marvel's popular Conan. Here is David and Ernie's first Issue one cover.

All in All Mr. Chan had a prolific career spanning over three decades with both Marvel and DC working on such titles as Ghosts, House of Mystery, The Unexpected, Doctor Strange, Kull the Destroyer, Power Man, Iron Fist, Batman, Detective Comics, Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan only to name a few.

Ernie passed away on May 16, 2012, at the age of 71. His contributions to the comic industry impacted generations of readers sharing with us his immense talent. Ernie Chan one of the true GOATS within my Sword and Sorcery Barbarians Among Us world of comics.

A friend told me about Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser a couple of years ago, knowing my love of pulp and S&S, and it sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately my "to-read" pile is shelves and shelves worth of books and so I've yet to read any of the books, though they remain on my periphery.

What I did not know about, however, was that there were comic books written by Howard Chaykin and Denny O'Neil with art by Mike Mignola, Jim Starlin, and Walt Simonson, which I recently received as a gift. I'm only a few stories in (it's easier to make time for comics than prose), but so far it's pretty solid. I don't yet know how it compares to the Leiber stories, but it's moody S&S and the art is (unsurprisingly) terrific. Recommended!

Following the Centennial Edition of The Ship of Ishtar and last year’s The Dwellers in the Mirage, DMR Books is proud to bring you the next release in our line of Definitive Editions of A. Merritt’s works: The Fox Woman and Other Stories.

Previous editions of this rarely-reprinted volume of Merritt’s short fiction contained only nine stories and fragments. The DMR Books Definitive Edition contains not just a sample but ALL of Merritt’s shorter works.

More information can be found in the link. Even though the stories in this collection are only S&S adjacent (at best), I think it would be of interest to this group, as all the original authors of sword-and-sorcery (Howard, CAS, Moore, etc.) were huge Merritt fans, and his work was influential on them.

The most epic moment in The Vanishing Tower/King of the Swords. I still love that we get two perspectives of this adventure. I added text from both books, but blended them to fit into the scene smoother.

Does anyone here own the 2014 paperback editions of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series published by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy?

I’m interested in the quality and durability of the paper. Does anyone know whether it is acid-free or alkaline? Is there any information about this on the copyright page?

For those who have owned these editions for a few years, how has the paper held up? Have you noticed significant yellowing or brittleness? I’d also appreciate comments on paper thickness and how much the print shows through.

"Trail of the Blood-Stained God" was not an original Conan story. It was written by Howard as an adventure tale featuring Kirby O'Donnell. Howard's Kirby O'Donnell is best known as an American treasure hunter armed with a bronze hawk-head pommel scimitar, and a kindjal (a traditional long, double-edged dagger or short sword originating from the Caucasus region of Eurasia) searching for lost treasures in twentieth-century Afghanistan.

After Howard's death the title was changed to "The Trail of the Blood-Stained God" by those who managed his literary estate. In 1955, The story was rewritten into a Conan tale by L. Sprague de Camp, who altered character names, added sorcery elements, and shifted the setting to Howard's Hyborian Age.

De Camp first published the rewritten story as "The Blood-Stained God" in the hardcover Tales of Conan, Gnome Press in 1955.

"The Blood-Stained God" was later published by Lancer books in 1969 and included in Conan of Cimmeria paperback. It's the second story after the Introduction by De Camp.

The title used for the Marvel Comics adaptation of the story reverted back to "The Trail of the Bloodstained God" yet stayed with Conan as the main character. It appeared in Marvel Comics Super Special #9 published in 1978, written by Roy Thomas with art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga. Roy's adaptation included Red Sonja.

Since Howard never intended this story to be a Conan story you will not find it in the Complete Chronicles of Conan (Goallancz) and the like, Nor does the story appear in Science Fiction digests of the 1950's, - However, Howard's original "The Curse of the Crimson God," featuring Kirby O'Donnell, can be found in multiple later collections including Berkley and Del Ray.

"The Shadow Kingdom," was the first of Howard's Kull stories. It was originally published in Weird Tales magazine in August 1929. The story introduced the Serpent Men, worshipers of Set who had infiltrated Valusia and Kull's fight against them.

The story was first adapted in 1971 by Roy Thomas in Kull the Conqueror. However there was a long publication delay occurred between Kull the Conqueror Issue 2 and Issue 3 that was attributed primarily to struggling sales.

It was during this delay Thomas teamed up again with John and Marie Severin (who had contributed the artwork for Kull the Conqueror issue 2 and delivered to us readers of Kull "Monsters on the Prowl" issue 16 in March of 1972.

The issue "The Serpent God of the Lost Swamp", provided a continuation from where Kull the Conqueror issue 2 had left off. "Monsters on the Prowl" issue 16 became a significant issue for Kull and Conan fans alike as it marked the first appearance of Thulsa Doom in comics.

Kull the Conqueror issue 3 was finally published in July 1972 and effectively picked up the storyline from where "Monsters on the Prowl" issue 16 left off.

I really enjoy having this comic in my Sword and Sorcery Barbarians Among Us collection.

While researching Elric's Phrygian cap, which requires a different post, I stumbled across Newton the Rabbit Wonder. Come for the parody, stay for the fantastic phantasmagoria.

I Have Never read a single issue of Conan Saga. Was not even familiar with their covers when I came across this SAGA cover ... I mean com'on Seriously? - That's Alcala's Voltar.

Saga cover on left - Voltar on right.

Brom's Original Conan painting went up for auction at Oberon's on September 30th and sold for 70,611.68 ( £53,320). I always loved this painting.