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Sword of Sorcery #3 DC 1973

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Sword of Sorcery #3 DC 1973

3639 views • Feb 3, '16 • (0) Comments

This scene doesn't quite happen as depicted on the cover.

 


"Betrayal". This comic has no credits, but Wikipedia says it's written by Denny O'Neil (Batman, Green Lantern) with art by Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, Black Kiss, Hawkgirl). (Other issues in this series are inked by Crusty Bunkers, aka Neal Adams' studio.)

This book features Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, a couple of rogues created for the pulp magazine genre in 1958. Fafhrd is a redbearded, loincloth-wearing "Norse" barbarian. Gray mouser is a diminutive thief. They travel together in a world that looks like Renaissance Europe. They look for adventure and they banter throughout, as event after event seemingly befall them.

When the ship they are travelling on is boarded by pirates, the duo are taken as slaves and set to work. When that ship is attacked, they are set adrift. They wash up in the port city of Lankhmar, whose overlord Glipkerio had ordered their first ship to be attacked. They infiltrate the palace by telling the guards they bring gifts of "stones". What they give Glipkerio is a rock.

Glipkerio explains that the pirate he hired, Dugim, was to capture a princess travelling on that same boat. Her father wants her returned but doesn't want to pay a ransom. Hiring the duo, Glipkerio introduces them to his staff sorceror, a Da Vinci type character. The scorceror gives them access to his prototype flying balloon and a deck of cards that will be a source of powerful magic if moistened by water from a cloud. He also sends them off with the aid of Lyssa, a mute beauty cursed by a rival necromancer with enormous wings. They immediately head out after Dugim.

Crashing Dugim's party, their balloon is pierced by catapults. They fall to earth and are captured again. Lyssa takes a cup from one of the revellers and flies skyward to collect some rain which she pours down on the captives. The drawings on the playing cards come to life and Dugim's men are routed by cardboard knights and swordsmen. They then free the princess who apparantly was in love with Dugim and wasn't being kidnapped in the first place. But Mouser's heart is broken when he finds that Lyssa took a knife for him in the melee.

Whew. All that in one stand-alone issue. If you like Conan and you like a bit of tongue-in-cheek that doesn't cheapen the action, then this is for you.

Check it out.

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