Monster of the Day #2093

Updated on March 18, 2020 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

So here, apparently, was the introduction of Thongor. Again, you can tell they did not have their best people working on this. Generic skeleton guy, generic demons, generic beautiful woman in peril, and of course a rather generic hero. This is the sort of book that relied on people reading comics out of habit and tossing this into the stack of Spider-Mans and Fantastic Fours they were really there to get. Again, not awful-looking by any means, but not a world-beater to be sure.

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    The art is better than Johnny Romita’s from earlier, though. Looks kind of like Craig Russell. EDIT: No, Jim Steranko, apparently.

  • Gamera977

    So I guess Generic the Barbarian would be a little too on the nose eh?

  • Ericb

    I’d love to see Thongor battling it out in the House of Ideas.

  • I’ve spent all week thinking Thongor sounded familiar, which is a strange problem to have. I went to Google this morning and found out he’s Lin Carter’s Conan knock off and not Marvel’s. A fact I would have learned quicker here if I’d been reading the comments section, but never mind.

    The point I’m getting at though, is that when I thought the names Thongor and Zangabal were comic creations, I was okay with it. But the moment I learned it came from print, I became mildly offended.

    I mean, THONGOR! COME ON! Conan at least is an actual name. Kull is better than half of the best name in the universe (misspelled, natch, but still). Kane, too, is a name. Brak, Kothar, all could be names.

    But THONGOR! That’s a joke.

  • Rock Baker

    Well, speaking as a cartoonist, the anatomical depictions are solid and there’s a good sense of movement. The scene is well staged and has good depth of field. I can’t really fault the cover on any technical matters.

  • Eric Hinkle

    There was an even better(?) Conan knock-off by Gardner Fox back in 1950, Crom the Barbarian. Though he was based more on Howard’s John Allison stories where a man remembers his past incarnations as one of the barbaric Aesir, eventually making his way to die in antediluvian Texas.

    The whole set of Crom stories is for sale on the ‘Gardner Francis Fox Library’ site under ‘Crom the Barbarian’ for $10. Not bad for a full-color 84 page collection.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I’ll admit they’re not the best heroic fantasy ever written, but the Thongor books are fun if you like ERB’s Barsoom stories. Heck, I have the whole set. I think I’m in good company liking them — Lloyd Alexander of ‘Prydain’ fame was also a fan.

    Also Carter got the name from the Hindu Puranas where it’s ‘Mahathongoya’, an ancient warrior king who fought wicked Nagas and rakshasas.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Being a fan of the books I admit that I’d like to read the half a dozen comics that featured the character.

  • Ken_Begg

    Huh, you’d think Steranko would get higher profile covers than that. I originally thought it looked Mike Ploog-ish, until I looked at the faces.

  • Ken_Begg

    I can’t imagine they’d cost much on eBay. Or you could subscribe to Marvel’s digital service (or probably get a free trial, read them, and cancel before you get charged.)

  • Eric Hinkle

    Wait wait now, there’s a Marvel digital service? And they actually let you look at their older material? I’ll look into this. Thank you, Mister Begg.

  • Lloyd Alexander being a fan is definitely a selling point.