A Look at "Savage Tales" Comics

The first few issues of Dynamite Entertainment’s new comic series “Savage Tales” left me flitting with geekish delight. Many of the stories can best be classified as traditional “Sword and Sorcery” epics and Atlantean tales with elements of horror, and it originally piqued my interest due to the inclusion of a Lovecraftian story. This tale, called “The Elder Things that Fell to Earth,” is an original one tucked at the back of the first three issues and imagines the earthly origins of Cthulhu. Each magazine features about 10-15 pages per story, of which there are three or four per issue. Thus far, it includes heroic tales spiked with elements of fantasy.

I admit I am not well schooled in the “Sword and Sorcery” or heroic cycles of the sort appearing in pulps of the past, despite Conan’s creator Robert E. Howard being a close friend of HP Lovecraft. The current comic seems to take its inspiration from an earlier “Savage Tales” magazine of the 1970s and 1980s. Still, I enjoyed the three tales in each issue preceding “The Elder Things that Fell to Earth.” One, involving a character from Dynamite’s other comics named “Red Sonja,” who puts me in mind of Xena, was fairly predictable, but not awful. I particularly enjoyed the piece called “The Battle for Atlantis,” depicting a powerful island kingdom of great antiquity branching out onto the mainland. Not surprisingly, it also detailed the beginnings of Atlantis’ legendary fall. Overall, an effective, fantastical work mixing ominous fate with mythic imagery. “Where Walks the Hunter” seems a fine bit in its own right, but seems to highlight another character from Dynamite’s “Red Sonja” series, a venerable and spiritual hunter. Without previous context, it initially left me a bit confused, but was a solid enough story of a hero seeking to restore his fallen Lord against a dark, defiling sorcerer.

However, the Cthulhu mythos tale remained of most interest. And here, Dynamite did not fail. Like the previous fantasy stories, it joins beautiful artwork with innovative storytelling. Interestingly, both the overarching storyline and conceptual art is quite original for the Lovecraftian universe. Writer Mike Raicht imagines an ancient human tribe on an island next to R’lyeh, who become token players of ancient, cosmic beings in their struggles. A spaceship of the highly advanced Elder Things crashes to Earth, and the noble aliens recruit human aid to help them contain the madness of Cthulhu, who is imprisoned on the ship. As one can guess, Cthulhu is hardly a passive captive, and soon reaches out with his own powers to corrupt humanity, while seeking his own liberation. Though the tale becomes something of a good and evil story, with brother turned against brother by the competing alien powers, it does not suffer greatly for this. Indeed, since the mechanics of imprisoning Cthulhu were left somewhat vague, and the Elder Things portrayed by HPL as honorable, the story remains within acceptable boundaries set by Lovecraft. The portrayal of the Elder Things using advanced, but somewhat tangible sci-fi technology (including the spaceship they hurtle to Earth in) is rather new, but here, it works.

Undoubtedly, the piecemeal format of “Savage Tales” will annoy some. However, Lovecraftian collectors will want to pick up the first three issues for the Cthulhuvian yarn, and it should be an obvious purchase for those who also love epic fantasies. At around $5 per comic book, “Savage Tales” provides superb value for an exceptional Cthulhu mythos piece, as well as several other wonderful fantasies.

-Grim Blogger