Reading – Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil

Dark Horse Comics (website, Twitter) earned my respect years ago with their work on Star Wars and for publishing the always-enjoyable Hellboy series. In the past few years they’ve held onto my respect by publishing consistently-fantastic Conan comics and, even more recently, well-crafted and imaginable adaptations/expansions of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane stories. Though I was at first unsure of their expansion of Howard’s “Castle of the Devil” fragment (I wrote about this back in 2008) I can today say that the Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* story is truly excellent and every bit as much fun as their Conan books.

Fragment?

Yes, “Castle of the Devil” is at its core a story fragment, a partially-written tale that Robert E. Howard started and failed to finish before his death. In the massive Savage Tales of Solomon Kane* the fragment takes only four pages and merely sets a scene: Kane discovers a hung boy and cuts the boy free before he dies and then, a little while later, encounters John Silent, a traveler on his way to becoming a sailor (or maybe a pirate). The fragment ends with the simple line from Kane:

“Your speech is wild and Godless,” said Kane, “but I begin to like you.”

The Castle of the Devil* trade paperback, written by Scott Allie and illustrated by Mario Guevara (colored by Dave Stewart) takes that simple fragment and expands it into a full story . . . but this is not the first time that someone has used this same fragment to tell a new tale of Solomon Kane.

Ramsey Campbell’s “Castle of the Devil”

There sits in my collection of books a 1978 paperback, Solomon Kane: Skulls in the Stars*, in which the “Castle of the Devil” fragment is expanded into a full story by horror author Ramsey Campbell (Twitter). In Campbell’s version of the story Kane and John Silent work their way to the castle and are soon taken by the Baron’s men. Stripped of their weapons, Kane and Silent are treated as guests in the Baron’s castle where they learn that a woman is being held isolated from the world.

Kane and Silent soon vow to rescue the woman and are quickly overtaken by the Baron’s men and, in a slightly confusing turn of events in which the Baron almost appears to be in two places at once, must watch as the child that Kane freed from death by hanging is hung, murdered by the Baron. Why? Because the woman hidden in the room is being held safe from the world by the Baron. The Baron is blind and cannot see her and in the story, when asked if the woman is ill, simply says:

“By no means. She is perfect. But none may look upon her.”

Campbell does an admirable job of bringing the story to a swift close, revealing a horrifying secret about the woman hidden in the room and concluding with Kane and Silent riding away and eventually separating. It’s a fun story and feels about the right length; one of the things I like about most of Howard’s original Solomon Kane stories is that they are short stories . . . I do love a good short story. It is not one of my favorite Solomon Kane stories, and not even in the top five, but it is a good story.

Scott Allie’s “Castle of the Devil”

So how does author Scott Allie’s version of the story differ from Ramsey Campbell’s version? For one, Allie’s version is significantly longer and takes a more bizarre and supernatural tone than Campbell’s does. Several of Howard’s Solomon Kane stories — most notably “Skulls in the Stars,” “The Right Hand of Doom,” and “The Rattle of Bones” — feature supernatural elements and in the Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* comic Allie chooses to continue that tradition of the unknowable and unspeakable playing a major role in the story.

Trust me, this is a great thing. Where Campbell’s version relies on tragedy (there is nothing supernatural in Campbell’s “Caste of the Devil” story), Allie’s version relies on truly creepy and weird demonic creatures and, as the artwork here has already shown, a werewolf. And while the pacing feels a bit rushed at times I generally find this to be a very fun read. It is not necessarily better than Campbell’s version of the story but is, rather, just a completely different take on the fragment that Howard left us.

There are almost no similarities between Campbell’s and Allie’s versions of “Castle of the Devil,” save the meeting between Solomon Kane and John Silent, the rescue of the hanging boy, and the build up to visiting the castle. Even their entry into the castle is different here . . . but I’ll not go into specifics because my goal with this post is to alert you to a fun comic and not to give you a blow-by-blow retelling of the comic’s plot and the way in which the story unfolds.

Mario Guevara’s Artwork, Colored by Dave Stewart

Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* is beautiful to look at. Inspired by the Cary Nord/Dave Stewart artwork approach taken in Dark Horse’s ongoing Conan comics, Guevara pencils each page and then Stewart digitally paints every single panel. The images shown here should give you a clear idea of how this style of artwork looks; the image above shows Guevara’s pencils while the image below shows how the pencils look after the coloring process. I’ve no idea how much time it takes both of them to complete pages but the end result is incredible.

The Nightcomers

The trade paperback closes with “The Nightcomers,” a nine-page story in which Solomon Kane defends a village from attack . . . only to find that the victims and attackers are not at all what they appear to be. It’s a great story but I question the idea of placing this story at the end of the collection; were I the editor for this book I would have started with this story since the tale coming in the book feels a little anti-climactic after the longer and more detailed “Castle of the Devil.” But that’s a minor complaint and a personal approach; there is nothing wrong with the book closing with this tale and you can read either story first without negatively impacting your enjoyment of the two stories.

Sketches

Sandwiched between the two comic stories in the Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* trade paperback is twenty pages of notes, sketches, covers, and pin-ups. It’s all fun to look through if you love art, but Guy Davis’ (Wikipedia) sketches and monster/castle designs are truly the best part of this section of the book. The below image is just one example of the Davis sketches hidden deep inside the book; his monster designs are creepy as hell!

Closing Thoughts

Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* is a true work of art and a far better adaptation/expansion of Howard’s Solomon Kane character than the work Marvel brought us in the seventies and eighties. Actually, that may be an unfair statement since I also enjoy those older Marvel works . . . but for some reason Scott Allie’s and Mario Guevara’s take on the character just feels more fitting to Howard’s stories. I cannot quite place my finger on it, but I simply enjoy this story (and the second volume, Death’s Black Riders*, even if I do have a few complaints with that second volume’s story) more than I do the older Marvel Solomon Kane comics.

This book will not change your life, but if you are a comic book fan — and if you’re into non-superhero stories and historical horror — it’s tough to not have fun reading the book. Scott Allie and Mario Guevara make an excellent team and should be congratulated on their work on the character. And I am clearly not alone in this thought as this post at Mass Movement says:

No matter how good I thought this book was going to be, the end result is infinitely better, and it left me wanting more, more, more.

It is excellent, and I am really looking forward to the upcoming Red Shadows (mentioned here) . . . maybe even so much that I’ll buy the single issues. I’ve certainly done crazier things in my life that buy individual issues of a comic and then the collection. And I suspect I am not alone when it comes to that practice.

NOTE: Even though part of this post covers Ramsey Campbell’s “Castle of the Devil” as it appears in Solomon Kane: Skulls in the Stars* all of the artwork is from the Dark Horse Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil* trade paperback. The artwork is used here to give you an idea of how the comic looks and I felt it important to make it clear that none of this artwork is from that 1978 trade paperback (or from any of the other books mentioned).