I'm trying to see if anyone can give me some information about a comic book I came across in the early 1960s. It would have had to been about ’63, but it may have been a little older than that. I only saw one issue (a friend had it), but it stayed with me.
The main character was some sort of barbarian with one name. Typical of the type, big, muscular, wearing a fur loin cloth. May have been blonde. Spoke pidgen English.
He seemed to be traveling through time and space with three “modern” people: an older scientist and a teen-aged brother and sister (who may have been the scientists niece and nephew). The story was a serial. In the particular issue I saw, the travelers wound up somewhere where they hooked up with a very ancient scientist/sage type who had two identical alien-looking allies or servants. These three had some very powerful futuristic weapons, but indicated they were running out of power. They were in a fortress or city that was under siege from barbarian hordes. Just before the barbarians overran the gates, the sage had everyone drink an elixir that greatly increased their strength. There was a huge battle, the two alien-allies were killed but just before the heroes were overwhelmed, something happened and they were teleported out, or fell through a hole in time. There seemed to have been an implication that they would go through this all again and again.
At any rate, this comic and story kind of stayed with me over the years. The tone was much darker than what I was used to (I was about 11 at the time) and the story was complex.
A couple of things I think I remember.
1. It was a full-length comic, inked in color. I remember the artwork was different than what I was used to seeing — it seemed more sophisticated.
2. It may have been a larger format than the usual comic book (for some reason, in my mind, I’m thinking of something about the size of an old Life or Look magazine).
3. There’s an outside chance that it was British in origin. My friend’s father was former U.S. military, his mother was English and the family had spent a few years in Great Britain before moving to the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area where I knew him. We moved back to the Midwest after just one year, and I lost touch with him. I always remembered that comic though.
Any clues? Thanks.
A barbarian time traveler from the 1960s
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By Falconcrest
Posted on: Aug 8th 2008 at 11:26 AM |
Replies: 3
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-08-09 at 05:20:01 AM
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Well, British comic books do tend to be larger than American ones, but their interiors are less often in color.
For the first couple of paragraphs, I was convinced you were describing Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle. While that series doesn't involve time travel, it would be easy for a young reader who only remembers one issue to get an impression that it did. The time frame is right, and it did involve a high-tech family traveling with a barbarian.
But I don't recall defending a city from barbarian hordes in that one, or an elixer that conferred great strength. And I'm positive there were no aliens.
Same objections to Mighty Samson, another contemporary to that time frame, tho I read fewer issues and can't vouch for the ones I didn't see. The 'British' theory is looking good, because I sure can't think of an American series fitting your description.
Dell did a couple of issues of Alley Oop, a time-traveling barbarian, a few years earlier, so there's an outside chance you might be remembering one of those. But the description is far from exact. Doc Wonmug could be the very ancient scientist, but it's hard to imagine his assistant Oscar and Oop's girlfriend Ooola passing for teenagers, and Doc didn't usually participate in adventures, so I doubt that's it.
I'm stumped. I hope someone else can do better.
Quack, Don
For the first couple of paragraphs, I was convinced you were describing Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle. While that series doesn't involve time travel, it would be easy for a young reader who only remembers one issue to get an impression that it did. The time frame is right, and it did involve a high-tech family traveling with a barbarian.
But I don't recall defending a city from barbarian hordes in that one, or an elixer that conferred great strength. And I'm positive there were no aliens.
Same objections to Mighty Samson, another contemporary to that time frame, tho I read fewer issues and can't vouch for the ones I didn't see. The 'British' theory is looking good, because I sure can't think of an American series fitting your description.
Dell did a couple of issues of Alley Oop, a time-traveling barbarian, a few years earlier, so there's an outside chance you might be remembering one of those. But the description is far from exact. Doc Wonmug could be the very ancient scientist, but it's hard to imagine his assistant Oscar and Oop's girlfriend Ooola passing for teenagers, and Doc didn't usually participate in adventures, so I doubt that's it.
I'm stumped. I hope someone else can do better.
Quack, Don
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Posted by: Falconcrest
Posted on: 2008-08-11 at 08:38:19 AM
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Don,
Thanks for your quick response. And it turns out, you were right about Kona. Following your suggestion, I checked out the entry on Toonopedia, and Kona certainly physically resembled the character I remembered. I did a little futher research and found that the issue that was the subject of my memories was Issue No. 6, which I found summarized on the Oddball Comics Web site, complete with some reproduced pages. It's definitely the story I remembered, although some of my memories were a little blurry, as you suspected. There were no aliens. The pair I remembered -- green skinnd with odd eyes -- were two inhabitants of the Kingdom of Pacificus -- a land at the bottom of the oceans. As you mentioned, no time travel, but I can see why my memory might have thought it was. It was also a regualr sized Dell Comic, not a larger one as I seemed to recall (sort of makes me wonder what other memories I have that have gotten a little frayed).
Thanks for your help. Shaky memory or not, I'd been wondering about that comic for a long time.
I always enjoy your site. Hope you'll keep up the fantastic work
Thanks for your quick response. And it turns out, you were right about Kona. Following your suggestion, I checked out the entry on Toonopedia, and Kona certainly physically resembled the character I remembered. I did a little futher research and found that the issue that was the subject of my memories was Issue No. 6, which I found summarized on the Oddball Comics Web site, complete with some reproduced pages. It's definitely the story I remembered, although some of my memories were a little blurry, as you suspected. There were no aliens. The pair I remembered -- green skinnd with odd eyes -- were two inhabitants of the Kingdom of Pacificus -- a land at the bottom of the oceans. As you mentioned, no time travel, but I can see why my memory might have thought it was. It was also a regualr sized Dell Comic, not a larger one as I seemed to recall (sort of makes me wonder what other memories I have that have gotten a little frayed).
Thanks for your help. Shaky memory or not, I'd been wondering about that comic for a long time.
I always enjoy your site. Hope you'll keep up the fantastic work
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-08-12 at 04:29:37 AM
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Glad I could help!
Y'know, sometimes I feel like a time traveler from the 1960s myself. Certainly, I never imagined myself living in this far-flung future era. The only thing that makes the transition plausible is that I never imagined myself this old, either.
But you'd have to see me, and decide for yourself whether or not I'm a barbarian.
Quack, Don
Y'know, sometimes I feel like a time traveler from the 1960s myself. Certainly, I never imagined myself living in this far-flung future era. The only thing that makes the transition plausible is that I never imagined myself this old, either.
But you'd have to see me, and decide for yourself whether or not I'm a barbarian.
Quack, Don
