Characters with sharp blades: Conan, John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan

I’ve expanded the Comics History part of my website, www.thewildstars.com , that started with a history of Carl Barks’s Disney Ducks.

Three comic characters known for weilding sharp blades were Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, and Tarzan of the Apes. If you’d read any of my 300 Retro-views of Tarzan that ran in the Comics’ Buyer’s Guide (issues #1596 through #1615), you’d  have noticed that in the Forties issues Tarzan wasn’t bashful with his knife, and made you wonder if the Apeman was single-handedly responsible for the extinction of many animal species. And if Jane were kidnapped and in trouble, he’d stack up a body count that’d make Wolverine blush (and probably explains why Wolverine no longer brags that he’s “the best there is at what I do”).

Tarzan First Edition collection

John Carter of Mars was another creation of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and known for using a much longer blade. Considered the greatest swordsman on two worlds, John Carter was often shown cutting down some not-so-little green men from Mars.

Conan covers in Weird Tales

Tarzan First Edition collection

Funnies #35

“Funnies #36

Funnies #35

And of course, Conan the Barbarian was equally adept with both a knife and blade, cutting his way to Kingship of the most powerful nation in the ancient Hyborian Age.

My examinations of these characters include their full histories from their beginnings in the Pulps, through their First Edition hardcovers and into the paperback boom of the late Fifties and Sixties, and their impact in comic form.

Starting out with a history of the art of manufacturing comics, which up until the Nineties was largely done the same way that the first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible, was made way back in the 1400s.

You’ll also find some pictures of some pretty rare books that you might not have seen before.

Conan covers in Weird Tales

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