It’s been busy/crazy here in Essi-Keh. Thus, Clark Ashton Smith’s birthday crept upon me like a thief out of eons-forgotten Commoriom. I didn’t have anything thought up beforehand, obviously. Then it struck me that we are in the eighty-fifth year of Roy Thomas’ sojourn on this mortal plane. As soon as I remembered that, an essay looking at Roy’s mighty efforts to introduce the readers of Marvel Comics to CAS seemed a natural topic for a post. Plus, I’m familiar with most of it from its inception.

As many know, Mr. Thomas was instrumental in bringing Conan the Cimmerian and many other creations of Robert E. Howard to mainstream comics. Not long after--which I will look at in a future post--he was also the driving force behind Lovecraftian concepts appearing in Marvel Comics. However, I couldn't find anything on the Interwebz discussing where and when Roy introduced Marvel Comics readers to the (adapted) tales of Clark Ashton Smith.

The setting was this: Roy had come back from self-imposed exile at DC and then working at Dark Horse Comics--where he'd done some great REH adaptations---and was back at Marvel Comics. He was approached to do a new Conan series, a sort of 'untold adventures', named Conan the Adventurer. Conan would start out as a teenager in Cimmeria and journey through Nordheim and Hyperborea and on to Zamora.

Thanks to my old buddy, Jimmy Jarman, I was kept abreast of all this. He was running his chain of hobby stores and held back anything he thought I might dig. So it was, in the summer of 1994, that Jimmy presented me with the first four issues of Conan the Adventurer. Roy's writing was still sharp and that Rafael Kayanan guy was cranking out some very good art. It was in early 1995 when I got the next batch.

Issue #8 was titled "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan". That immediately caught my attention. I knew a story by that name. A Clark Ashton Smith story. Mr. Thomas had taken one of CAS' Hyperborean tales and turned it into a Hyborian Age yarn starring Conan—giving due credit to Clark Ashton Smith. I thought Roy pulled it off rather well, with Conan suffering ironic setbacks as in tales by Clark Ashton Smith himself.

All of that, for me, occurred thirty-plus years ago. I no longer own those issues, all of them being lost in the Flood of 2012. There is no fourth volume of 'Barbarian Life' to consult--though I wish there was. Since there was no mention of Clark Ashton Smith by Roy in the 1970s, I assume that he got around to reading the works of the Bard of Auburn in the 1980s, the same as myself. Probably by way of the classic Timescape editions, which is where I got my first strong dose of CAS.

Issue #8 was set on the Zamoran border. Very fitting. If there is one land of the Hyborian Age that can be called Klarkash-Tonian, it's Zamora. I've said elsewhere that Smith's "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" provides the template for many classic Sword-and-Sorcery stories which came after, including "The Tower of the Elephant". As I've also said elsewhere, Howard's Zamora is one of the most 'fantastical'/non-historical lands in all of the Hyborian Age world. A land of thieves and Eastern mystery. It could easily be dropped into the middle of Smith's Zothique without a second glance.

Most of the next six issues would be concerned with adapting CAS tales and also with Tolometh. ‘Tolometh’, you ask? Roy making Tolometh the center-piece/McGuffin of the final issues demonstrates his laudable knowledge of Clark Ashton Smith's works. Tolometh--the god of cosmic thunder and dark depravity--was never mentioned in any CAS poems or tales that appeared in Weird Tales during Smith's heyday. "Tolometh" was a dark god in a poem Clark wrote in 1958 after the Atomic Age was well under weigh.

The through-line of the last six issues of Conan the Adventurer is the attempt to resurrect Tolometh. Without a doubt, that is the widest cultural exposure Tolometh has ever had. From what I can determine, Conan the Adventurer sold between fifty thousand and sixty thousand per issue. In today's comic market, numbers like that would be an occasion to bust out the champagne. By early '90s standards, that meant cancellation.

I knew all of that already, basically. However, checking in with the Marvel Database--which appears to be generally accurate and legit--I found that Mr. Thomas got the word out for Clark Ashton Smith in a few other venues even earlier. In an issue of The Savage Sword of Conan and in a Conan graphic novel--both 1992--Roy name-dropped several CAS creations.

More importantly, in a pop culture sense, Klarkash-Tonian creations are part of an incantation from the Scroll of Cthon in Savage Sword of Conan #195, March 1992--in a tale written by Thomas. The Scroll of Cthon was known in later ages as the Darkhold. The Darkhold is the Necronomicon of the Marvel Universe. Clark Ashton Smith, in an adulterated form, is now part of that mega-pop-cultural artifact. Perhaps that Marvel Fandom entry will cause others to seek out Clark's works. I know for a fact that the adaptations in Conan the Adventurer brought two comics readers to CAS.

To sum it up, I think Roy Thomas did well by Clark Ashton Smith. Every Smith tale was acknowledged on its respective splash page. From what I can tell, even the “Inquisitors of Ong” issue was noted as “inspired by Clark Ashton Smith”, even though it was a ‘prequel’ written by Mr. Thomas. For the snootier purists out there, I can attest that such acknowledgements in comics absolutely can inspire readers to seek out the source material. The same can be said for mentions in role-playing games.

While some Clark Ashton Smith fans of a more delicate temperament may decry the mere idea of Conan even ‘touching’ Clark’s creations in any way, the fact remains that CAS created the ‘second branch’ of Sword-and-Sorcery almost simultaneously with Howard’s ‘first branch’, which topic I have covered several times over the years. Most recently here. There is also the fact that Clark was starting to agree with Bob more and more in regard to ‘civilization’ when REH checked out. Who knows what might’ve ensued had Howard lived? All of that would require coverage in a future post.

There is zero chance that Marvel Comics—or any other substantial comics company—would’ve greenlit an anthology series of Clark Ashton Smith tales in 1994. Mr. Thomas did a fine job of getting the word out to comic readers within those parameters. A far better job than many who whine on social media and do nothing otherwise.

Happy birthday, Klarkash-Ton. Thank you, Roy.

As always, the essential Clark Ashton Smith website is The Eldritch Dark.