This weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s 1970s adaptation of one of Robert E. Howard’s best Conan the Barbarian stories, published shortly after his suicide in 1936.
RED NAILS – I always like to emphasize that – despite the way Marvel Comics’ 1970s and 1980s Conan stories kept the character’s name alive and introduced new generations to him – the Cimmerian was not a mere comic book figure. Iconic author Robert E. Howard introduced Conan on the printed page in his 1930s stories featuring the character.
That being said, I acknowledge the excellent adaptations that Marvel did of many of Howard’s works. They also adapted REH’s King Kull and Solomon Kane. Previously Balladeer’s Blog examined the company’s version of Queen of the Black Coast and others.
And that brings us back to Red Nails. With Barry Windsor Smith’s art and Roy Thomas adapting the story, this three-part work originally appeared in the black & white Marvel magazine Savage Tales #2-3 (Oct 1973-Feb 1974). Full-color versions of the tale were later reprinted in the Conan Treasury and elsewhere.
I. This first installment introduces readers to a blonde female pirate – Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. She is the only female pirate among them and is as notoriously deadly as the others. NOTE: Yes, this is the character that Sandahl Bergman played in the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. That movie made her a standard thief instead of a pirate and – sadly – gave her the “ghostly return” scene that actually belonged to Conan’s true love Belit (Bay-LEET) from Queen of the Black Coast.
In the Stygian city of Sukhmet Valeria was in between seagoing adventures and was forced to use her sword to kill a powerful man who tried forcing himself on her. She fled to avoid arrest and Conan, already attracted by her beauty and fighting skill, rode after her. While following her he slew the brother of the man she killed to prevent him from avenging himself on Valeria. Continue reading
THE QUEER SIDE OF THINGS (1890s) – Written by James Frank Sullivan. Straight from the Gay Nineties, it’s a selection of Sullivan’s contributions to the Strand magazine’s short fiction column The Queer Side of Things. 
DEFENDERS Vol 1 #12 (February 1974)
Dr Strange, Hulk and Valkyrie are the only Defenders available who can be rallied to save the world from Xemnu. (I’d have thrown in Clea, too, myself.) Our heroes battle the alien, who is defeated and again seems to be destroyed in the explosion of a spaceship he made the enthralled citizens of Plucketville construct for him. 
GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS aka Lt. Gullivar Jones – His Vacation and various other titles and spellings, was published in 1905 and is one VERY odd piece of work. The author was Edwin L. Arnold, whose ineptitude made this novel very unfulfilling as he defeated his storyline at every turn. Before I get into this third and final part of my review of Gullivar Jones on Mars the links to the first two parts are below: 
MORNING ON THE ISLE OF BEASTS – We pick up the morning after our hero, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Gullivar Jones, survived the night on the Isle of Beasts – my name for the place, since Edwin couldn’t be bothered to provide names for places or characters much of the time. 
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s 1973 combination of its licensed War of the Worlds rights with its original IP Killraven (1973-1976). It was similar to how Marvel combined their licensed Fu Manchu rights with 
WAR OF THE WORLDS – Jonathan Raven, rechristened Killraven in the gladiatorial circuit of Earth’s alien conquerors of the “future,” leads a group of Freemen in an attempt to retake the planet. CLICK 
THE WARLORD STRIKES – On the run after the destruction and genocide of their Staten Island rebel colony, Killraven and his Freemen run afoul of the Warlord, a human quisling who has wanted revenge against the rebel leader ever since he escaped from the gladiatorial pens. CLICK 
A VOYAGE TO THE WORLD IN THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1755) – This intriguing work was published in London anonymously and no author has yet been decisively identified. The novel’s narrator – who remains as anonymous as the book’s author – parties away his inheritance and then ships out for Italy. 
AVENGERS Vol 1 #115 (September 1973)
Synopsis: The Avengers fly in a Quin-Jet to Garrett Castle in England to check up on their British member the Black Knight (Dane Whitman). He has been out of touch for an alarmingly long time. 
CASANOVA’S ICOSAMERON OR THE STORY OF EDWARD AND ELIZABETH WHO SPENT EIGHTY-ONE YEARS IN THE LAND OF THE MEGA-MICRES, ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF PROTOCOSMOS IN THE INTERIOR OF OUR GLOBE (1788) – Yes, that IS the actual, complete title of this obscure item and yes, it was written by THE Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, the legendary ladies’ man and adventurer. 
The pair of twenty-somethings prove their identity through that beloved fictional trope of birthmarks and scars, then proceed to tell their tale. When the ship that Elizabeth and Edward were aboard sank at sea the then-children climbed into an empty, water-tight coffin in the cargo hold. 
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #81 (Dec 1968) 
The team’s old foe the Wizard invades the Baxter Building to keep his recently confiscated Power Gloves from being reverse engineered by the Fantastic Four. 
WHO IS DEADWOOD DICK? For newbies to Dime Novels of the American West, let me recap. This character, whose name is practically synonymous with Dime Novels, was created in 1877 by prolific writer Edward L. Wheeler, who also created various FEMALE Dime Novel figures that I’ve reviewed in the past, like 
THE DOUBLE DAGGERS or DEADWOOD DICK’S DEFIANCE (December 21st, 1877) – This hero’s tales were republished over and over again into the early 20th Century, so readers will encounter references to this book supposedly being published years later than this. 
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