Friday, August 24, 2012

Aparo Of Bagarth!


Thane of Bagarth was a back-up series in Charlton's late 60's comic Hercules. In addition to reviving the mythic Greco-Roman he-man, the folks at Derby also picked over the Anglo-Saxon lore of Beowulf and developed a sequel of sorts to that epic tale. The intrigue in and around the court of King Beowulf made for a very entertaining Prince Valiant-esque adventure. Jim Aparo was the perfect man to illustrated the Steve Skeates scripts.

Here are a few pages from a later chapter.




The series never got name-checked on the cover of any Hercules comic until issue #10, which ironically enough was Jim Aparo's last as artist. Sanho Kim took the reins the next issue and a few more saw the cancellation of the series.

Cover by Sam Glanzman

Some of the early Thane of Bagarth chapters have been reprinted. In 1985, a Charlton teetering on its last legs brought out two reprint comics featuring the character and together they reprinted the first four installments alongside other "sword and sorcery" style stories from Charlton's vaults. The books featured covers by Mike DeCarlo (sometimes Aparo inker at DC) and Rudy Nebres.

Mike DeCarlo

Rudy Nebres

Later still in 1999 Avalon reprinted some again, using the lush Rudy Nebres artwork again for a cover.


If you hanker to learn about the saga of the Thane of Bagarth, you might check out my own Hercules Reports right here at this very blog from a few years ago. The storyline is detailed month by month including the arrival of a time traveler. Things got weird for sure.

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2 comments:

  1. Thanks For All The Aparo Art This Week
    I'm A Big Fan Of His

    Off Topic:
    This Is A Link To A Recent Movie Tarzan Yell Post
    http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/138952

    The Highlight Is The Clip From 1929 Tarzan The Tiger
    I Had Never Seen (Heard) This

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  2. You're welcome. The Aparo stuff has been fun to research and assemble.

    Tarzan the Tiger is certainly a very different take on the character, at least compared to what we've grown accustomed to.

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    ReplyDelete