Gath of Bal by Dan Lawlis

 I recently found this excellent render of Silke's Deathdealer by barbarian artist Dan Lawlis. It looks the same as I pictured him back when I first read the novel!

The New Deathdealer Comic

    It's been done twice before, and neither time has James' Silke's novel series version been depicted. Each has been the authors' own interpretation Frank Frazetta's character. That had been my own introduction to the Deathdealer, as an actual character, I wanted to see it in print. 

   I had some hopes for this new series at first: That red-tressed girl in the background. Could that possibly be Robin Lakehair? And that woman on the alternate cover--could that possibly be Cobra?

   No such luck. 

   This Deathdealer is not Gath either. He does share some similarity though, as he lives an isolated existence, and is bound symbiotically to the power of the helmet, which in this version has the uncanny knack of speaking in his mind. 

   As for the girl on the cover, it turns out, is the same as the woman clutching a child in the snow with wolves about to attack, in a totally different Frazetta painting. This, BTW, was one of Frank's works that always disturbed me. It was actually done for an old paperback novel about Atlantis called Atlan by Jane Gaskell. Whether or not the heroine (if it is a heroine) on the cover survives is something I don't know having not read the book. I recall someone on FB, in regard to the FF painting, remark: "the situation looks pretty grim, unless Conan shows up."

   It's not Conan who shows up in the comic, though, but the Deathdealer. And I can't recall what his name is this time around, but he does have one, it just isn't Gath. After saving the woman and child from the wolf pack, and taking them to his lair, both end up getting kidnapped, and its up to the hero to save them again. Then there's battles with a giant saurian, a ride on some kind of desert shark, and city on the back of some colossal beast that rears up out of the sand! And a sorcerus who is dogging deathdealer's heels and has some manner of sinister design for him. 

It's an enjoyable enough series, better than the first two. Still not what I keep hoping for. 

Deathdealer

The Deathdealer is an iconic character created by the late legendary artist Frank Frazetta. He appears as an inegmtic figure in black armor with a sinister horned helmet, slitted eye-holes smoldering redly beneath, and a gore-encrusted war-ax. In his initial depiction, he is also asride a great muscular war-horse.





He was such a powerful vision, that frank returned to him again and again in his art, as the following shows:







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In the 1980s Frank commissioned auther James Silke to write a series of sword-and-sorcery novels based on the character. Silke christianed the character Gath of Baal, a barbarian hermit who dwelled deep in a vast forest basin that is now covered by the Medeterranian Sea. Like the Hyborian Age of Conan, this fictional era existed beofore recorded history, but even before Atlantis rose. Gath acquired his powers from the horned helmet, which was crafted ages ago by dark sorcery. Once he donned the helmet, its power transformed him into a blood-mad berserker, the agent of carnage we see depicted in Frazetta's paintings. Gath needed the helmet to defend his forest realm from the invading Kitzakk hordes, a pseudo-Mongol race. But te helmet could only be removed by an innocent and pure maiden. Such a miad was redheaded Robin Lakehair, who became Gath's love interest throughout the series. Gath was also amnipulated by Cobra, a voluptuous queen of serpents, who became. terribly jealous of Robin. There were also the characters of Brown John and his sons, the leader of a troupe of traveling performers, who became major players in the series.



The third entry in the series re-introduced a sadistic villain named Big Hands Gazel, also known as the Cat-Man. This novel, called Tooth and Claw send Gath deep into the southern jungles where he confronted Noon, the Cat Girl, and battled Chyak, a gigantic saber-tooth smilodon. It also introduced the slave-girl Fleka, and Bilbarr, a kid with the psychic gift to communicate with animals. Most of the characters returned for the third entry, Plague of Knives, save for Gazul, whom Gath slew at the end of Claw form his earlier treatment of Robin.

The famous painting of the Cat Girl below, and the one beneath it called "Princess and the Panther," were not likely comminssioned for the the Deathdealer series of novels (as were some of the above paintings), but they could very easily be interpreted as depicting Noon, Queen of Cats.




Here's a slightly earlier version of the Cat Girl, NOT the one that appeared on a magazine cover. A great shot of that leopard:


Then there's this little gem, apparently intended as a peliminary a fully painted version for a future entry in Silke's novel series. It has Gath battling a swarm of reptile-men ( or possibly frog-men from the batrachian appearence). Sadly, according to the Fritz blog (where this came from), it was never completed, though there is a further one Frank painted called "Snow Queen." Hmmm....makes one wonder both at the painting, and the intended story by Silke that inspired it.


And finally his, another Fritz grab. Revealed at last, the Deathdealer unmasked! Frank did this just for the novel series, so this has to be none other than Gath of Baal himself without the horned helmet. Yes, he's a bit like Conan, but different.


There were two separate Deathdealer comic book series, neither of which I'm not overly fond of, one back in the ninties, with art by Simon Bisley, and then Arthur Suydum. The other was the more recent Image series. Both were essentially reboots, and had nohing to do with James Silke's novels. I rather wanted to see a comic book take on the character's Silke created, but it was never to be. The latest series, with art by Joshua Ortega, did have a rather novel approach to the character, depicting him not as human, but some sort of demonic entity irrevocably drawn to battle and slaughter. That's certainly one interpretation, given the visceral quality of Frank's art. The story (I think) had the Deathdealer taking over a new host-body every hundred years, or every time a new war started up. He would emerge in full armor astride his monstrous balck steed from the great, gnarled "grandmother Tree." Do you see the resmblence to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow?
Anyway, it's not bad, I suppose, but in my opinion, Silke's version remains definitive. And if you want a REAL, bona-fide, Frazetta comic, then seek out the first two issues of Thund'a, or the one page Monster Lore panels he did for Eerie, or the Werewolf story he did for them, or even his Romance comics. The Frazettaverse comics produced by image really didn't do too much for me.