Trash Day #1: Bargain-Bin Barbarians

This past weekend was Free Comic Book Day, an occasion that led me over to Comicazi, one of my favorite spots in the Greater Boston area for back issue bin diving. In addition to taking advantage of their big premium back issue sale, I scooped up a nice pile of two-dollar sword and sorcery comics. I was never a big Conan The Barbarian fan as a kid, but as an adult who has been dabbling in collage art I have found myself gravitating a fair bit to the great art I come across in inexpensive back issues of Conan, Warlord, Kull The Conqueror, and similar fare.

My recent collage workflow when it comes to comic book material has been to flip through an issue and cut out the particularly interesting pages. Usually the next step is to think about how I want to use the text and imagery in my work, but in some cases I just set the entire page aside for future scrapbooking and research. In other cases I am just keeping the book intact and saving it for future reading.

The barbarian books have been particularly fun to work with this year. I'm already familiar with Barry Windsor-Smith's early Conan issues, which I have enjoyed mostly in digital formats. I did pick up the newly-published Fantagraphics collection of early Marvel Comics BWS work; I'll probably chat about that massive volume in a future installment (once I have time to dig in a bit more). I was less familiar with the barbarian work of folks I have encountered in more traditional superhero fare like John and Sal Buscema.

It was hard to resist a story titled "Goblin Moon," especially written in that manner. I especially like the juxtaposition between the title and the story's opening splash page. It's clear that our hero Kull can sense the danger that awaits he and his companion, even if he is unable to see the text we can see. And it's a playful arrange by penciler John Buscema to have Kull positioned in the image's background so that he seems to be staring right at the title. Klaus Janson is on inks and colors, filling Kull's portion of the scene in shadow and the setting sun. I also love that Janson colors the plants the princess is picking in the same blues that Kull resides in, suggesting that despite her happy demeanor she inhabits the same dangerous world of her protector. We learn a lot about these two from the artistic decisions made on this page. I hadn't actually read the details contained in the voiceover text boxes until writing this post. They still feel extraneous, to be honest.

The opening scenes of "Blade of Justice!" by John's brother Sal aren't as memorable as "Goblin Moon," but I do enjoy what we do have here. Kull is once again on horseback but no longer in motion. He is positioned at the top of the page in a manner that suggests that his perspective is more honorable than the remarks uttered by the speaker condemning the man to death. Kull is also among the people and aligned with buildings that seem to connote civility if not wisdom in the shorthand of fantasy comic book fare. There is also the suggestion that Kull is not aligned with the act of executing this person in this fashion. I also like the decision to keep Kull out of the larger panel, ceding the floor to an unnamed executioner who is then able to inhabit the scene in a more menacing and foreboding manner. Kull's absence also suggests that the man proclaiming his innocence will not be saved by our hero.

Buscema and his artistic collaborators foreshadow everything that comes to pass on the story's next page through their layout and blocking, as you can see below. "Much law, I think, but little justice."

Really cool stuff.

I also dig this house ad for Red Sonja's third series, which crops the awesome cover art and scraps the not-as-cool Red Sonja cover logo from the image. And if comic book internet forums are to be believed, the pencils are by Jerry Cocchiola and the inks are by Walt Simonson. The latter definitely seems true but now I wonder what the image looked like before Walt's contributions.

I am learning that I am a bit too old for midnight movies that are screened away from my living room couch, but I try to rally and check out screenings of stuff I haven't seen. I was a latecomer to the Evil Dead series, so while I own Army of Darkness and have seen the original movie, I had never actually seen Evil Dead 2. The Coolidge Corner Theatre's After Midnight program just kicked off a Sam Raimi repertory series, and as an added treat they paired up with Wicked VHS to project a VHS copy onto the big screen.

At this point we are a decade (or two?) into the VHS renaissance, though the format seems to continue to pick up new acolytes regularly. In his brief remarks before this screening, Wicked VHS founder Craig Silva noted that one of the appeals of VHS for him is its ties to experiences watching movies with friends while growing up. I have similar memories for sure; my own love of schlocky horror is due to late-night basement sessions with high school friends rewatching Splatter University, The Stuff, Sleepaway Camp, and occasional homemade horror by one friend who inevitably included scenes in every movie where a character was drowned by the killer in a toilet.

I also share a love of physical media and especially VHS artwork. And I love the work that artists like VHS Girl, Kadi Video, and others put out to pay tribute to this particular format. I probably would be murdered if I started collecting VHS tapes, and to be honest I really enjoy my trips to movie theaters and my 4K player. But I definitely see the appeal in terms of the aesthetics, the investments in physical media, and in the fun of getting a group of friends (or strangers!) together to watch something as a group in lieu of staring into our personalized digital screens (as Silva noted to the Boston Globe in a 2025 piece).

Evil Dead 2 more than lived up to the hype, and it was great to watch with an audience full of folks like me who had never seen it before. After Midnight seems like a labor of love for Coolidge Program Manager Mark Anastasio, who has been curating amazing stuff like the current Raimi retrospective for most of my time living here in Boston. Mark does a great job of building community and conviviality around these late-night screenings; part of the reason I know a lot of us were new to Evil Dead 2 was because he typically asks about first-time viewers at every screening. Mark also gently asks the audience to refrain from MST3K-style unsolicited commentary tracks, which is always appreciated. And it was very cool to see Coolidge After Midnite and Wicked VHS team up instead of compete with each other for the hearts of the city's horror fans.

OK, it's almost Monday, so let's just leave a few links at the bottom of this installment and scram.

• On Wednesday I saw The House with Laughing Windows as part of The Brattle's recent "Halfway to Halloween" series and it blew my mind. The print was a great restoration by the fine folks at American Genre Film Archive.
• I update Letterboxd pretty regularly with little diary-style movie reviews. Other recent faves include Dolls and Godzilla vs. Biollante.
• Speaking of John Buscema, I spent a bit of time this week with my copy of IDW's Silver Surfer Artisan Edition. 40 bucks is not a bad price for some great scans of his pages from a classic run.
• New Day no more! I really hope those two show up over at AEW soon. I haven't been keeping up with wrestling in recent months due to competing interests and obligations but I will rearrange my schedule and my life to watch those two mix it up with the crew over there. I was fortunate to see The New Day live a few times as the WWE crowd started getting behind their antics. I hope they end up somewhere that truly appreciates what they can do!
• I didn't mention Real Housewives of Rhode Island but rest assured I am listening and I am learning. It is very entertaining to watch the rest of the world learn more about certain elements of Rhode Island culture.
• Still not loving Bluesky as much as some other pals but I am trying to be over there a bit more to share these posts and to disseminate horrifying images I come across in my collections.