Printed as issue one of the second era of the Spanish fanzine Sword (which has been unavailable for some 15 years now) and undoubtedly an incredible find for any Spanish fan of Robert E. Howard as it's so rare that even the artist, Joseba Acebes Acha, has never seen a copy other than the one he owns, it's Terror En La Costa Negra (Terror On The Black Coast), a 48 page Conan adaptation of REH’s “Pigeons from Hell”!!
This REH classic totally gives me the hebejebes every time I read it, so you can imagine my joy (yup, a big s**t eating grin) when I first laid eyes on this particular Conan comic!
If Joseba’s memory serves him correctly, there were but 500 copies printed (a small number using the colored version for the cover), but it was never republished.
Terror en La Costa Negra was his last (published) collaboration with
Sword, and although Joseba now finds his artwork quite naive (it was, after all, only his eighth or ninth comic), he was still kind enough to share it with us. Joseba candidly explains:
“The second era of Sword began with "Terror en La Costa Negra" that took me over 3 years to finish because by the time I didn't have too much free time and I was determined to do a good job. I think it is better than my previous work and especially the backgrounds, but the characters are still rigid and change their appearance from page to page; and of course I had serious problems drawing tigers and lions (it looks like I didn't know their real size).”Featuring a script by the one and only
Carlos Yáñez García, an introduction by the immensely literate
Manuel Barrero (as I quickly discovered while attempting to translate said introduction), and sent to us by none other Joseba himself, it's here for your viewing pleasure, and in English of course!
Download ALL 48 pages of
Terror On The Black Coast via Megaupload by clicking
HERE and NOW, you flea-ridden Pict!
Personally, I consider Joseba’s contributions to Conan fandom to be both a hidden treasure and an utter delight, so Mitra’s blessings to you sir, both for sharing with us, as well as for your assistance with the English translation!
Oops, i almost forgot this: a card for the new year,
at the end of Terror On The Black Coast!
One last thing...Joseba's work has evolved greatly since this comic, as witnessed in my previous post, and as you’ll see for yourself soon enough!
Read more...
Back in April Mike Hawthorne the fella who currently draws CONAN over at Dark Horse comics played a cool little April fools prank on his adoring fans. He got me pretty good as I got my hopes up nice and high for a CONAN/HELLBOY crossover. Well...He revealed it was only a prank after he had at least 20 replies to his post. SHITE!!! Ok well being the cool dude he is Mr. Hawthorne offered up a sketch card to the first 10 people who contacted him by e-mail. Well I checked in. I do not know particularly what number I was but I was one of the lucky few. Here it is ...a cool profile shot of CONAN by Mike Hawthorne. Dig that hatching makes it look all antiquie and what not. Thank you Mike.
