Robert E. Howard's vengeance-obsessed adventurer begins his supernatural adventures in the haunted Black Forest of Germany in this adaptation of Howard's "The Castle of the Devil." When Solomon Kane stumbles upon the body of a boy hanged from a rickety gallows, he goes after the man responsible - a baron feared by the peasants from miles around. Something far worse than the devilish baron or the terrible, intelligent wolf that prowls the woods lies hidden in the ruined monastery beneath the baron's castle, where a devil-worshiping priest died in chains centuries ago.
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More About the Author
Scott Allie writes and edits comics and stories for Dark Horse Comics and Glimmer Train Press. He's the longtime editor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hellboy, and brought The Umbrella Academy, Beasts of Burden, and The Goon to Dark Horse. His focus has been horror comics since a young age, which is reflected in his writing and his editing, including his first published work, Sick Smiles, a horror anthology. With Sick Smiles (1994-1996) he formed long-lasting collaborative friendships, including Kevin McGovern, with whom he created Exurbia in '94 and finally released the graphic novel in 2009. He rejoined Todd Herman, another Sick Smiles artist, in 2006 to create The Fog, a prequel to the great John Carpenter film. He's the writer or Dark Horse's adaptation of Robert E Howard's Solomon Kane, where he delves into the pulp traditions that his grandfather turned him onto as a young boy. He's currently hard at work on the sequel to his first creator owned series, The Devil's Footprints, set in his home town of Ipswich, MA. He now lives with his son in Portland, Oregon. Follow him on Twitter, where he mainly posts while on solo roadtrips through the Northwest, which he thinks extends east through the Dakotas and south through Nevada.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Feels Like A Robert E. Howard Novel,
By
This review is from: Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil v. 1 (Paperback)
When I think of hard-to-like heroes that I still root for, the first one that comes to my mind is Robert E. Howard's adventuring Puritan, Solomon Kane. The man dresses in black and can be an absolute downer with his puritanical ways, but when it comes to fighting men and the supernatural, few stand taller, swing a sword with more authority, or shoot straighter than Solomon Kane.
Because he died at such a young age, Howard didn't get to leave as sizeable a legacy of Solomon Kane stories as fans might have wanted. In the last nearly 80 years since his debut, other authors have penned more Solomon Kane tales than Howard. Nearly all of them have been in comic form. That venue continues in the latest graphic novel release from Dark Horse Comics: Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil. Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola drew the awesome cover which immediately drew my eye, and interior artist Mario Guevara kept up the tone throughout the story written by Scott Allie. The graphic novel collects the first five issues of the new Dark Horse comics series, and I'm glad I read them in the collected edition. I couldn't imagine having to get and read this story piecemeal month by month. In fact, the book would be better read late at night when the house is quiet, or on a camping trip after everyone else has gone to bed. The atmosphere then would be a perfect reading experience. The book opens with an excellent action sequence that shows off Solomon Kane's deadly skills to their fullest, as well as the supernatural that flavors most of the stories. Guevara's art is fantastic, and Allie shows good sense in staying off the page and letting his artist carry the weight at this point. Then Allie comes back with brilliant dialogue that transports readers back hundreds of years. You just can't lose with a narrative hook that involves two wanderers on the trail to danger and adventure. At the castle, the mystery really deepens, and this is when the author's storytelling skill really shines. As I turned the pages, I could see the movie take shape in my head, guided by the gentle nudge of the panels showing the action and the characters. By that time, I knew I was hooked, and that if I'd been having to wait those months in between I would have been greatly frustrated. This graphic novel reads like a novel as the characters and events progress. Truths and dangers emerge, constantly twisting and changing. It's really good and I don't think many will sit down without reading it all in one go. But the story and characters are dense enough that you need to allow some time for the experience. As I stated, this reads like a novel, not a flipbook to adventure. The action and adventure really hits its stride in the final pages of the book. By midway I knew I wasn't going to put it down, but then when all the pieces fell into place and I knew who and what Solomon Kane was battling, I was hooked. Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil is a wonderful reading experience for those fantasy lovers who want a trip on the dark side, and for those comics readers that want more meat and potatoes with their stories. Solomon Kane is a great hero that you'll probably always hold at arms length, but he's wonderful to watch in action.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Freaking Aweeesome!,
By Kozmik_Pariah "King of Dorkness" (Statesboro, Georgia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil v. 1 (Paperback)
This is a collection of 5 issues (hopefully with more on the way) of the Solomon Kane series from Dark Horse.
The adaptation is from a small fragment by ol' Two Gun Bob, but the author's take on the remainder is pretty awesome, including the sorcery to become a werewolf by donning a wolf's skin. The art and coloring is lushly colored and has a semi-gothic feel. Solomon looks like many artists' renderings of the character (IE, Pilgrim-ish), and he maintains that puritan frown and dour look, right down to his pointy chin. The art, in color, is beautiful and fairly gore-ful, as our righteous avenger impales and causes grievous bodily injury (at one point even swiping a face off with his blade). The story has some pretty sweet vampire-demons, and the only thing I can really frown upon is the way they use those translation brackets <like this>* [*translated from German], and sometimes translating and sometimes having the german speech there, but I assume this is because of whispered secrets between the Count and his wife, and to add a slight authentic feel. Still, without the translations, it's a fun romp in the world of Kane, and I think it's pretty cool to see a hero who gets offered the lady, and him slap her away as a harlot (I mean, he is a God fearing man and all). Kane gets offended at swearing by God and in the devil's names quite a few times in this story, which kind of made me grin since characters aren't that shockingly Christian these days. I didn't have any problem with the pacing of the story, but it could have perhaps been condensed into 4 issues instead of 5 with some minor eliminations, but I enjoyed it more than other stories I was reading at the time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil v. 1 (Paperback)
I didn't expect much reading some of the other reviews here but was very pleasantly surprised. The art is terrific and the writing solid, some of the best art you will see in comics is in this book. I read it 6 times straight over a few days.
This hopefully will be a long running series.
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