Sixty years ago this month, a comic book with a very new type of story hit the newsstands. Avon’s Out of this World one-shot, cover dated June 1950, sported a classic science fiction cover by Gene Fawcette featuring a menacing robot carrying off a hapless damsel while her would-be rescuer fires his ray gun. The comic was an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories, including “Lunar Station” by Joe Kubert. But it is the final story in the book whose title should raise the eyebrows of Robert E. Howard fans — “Crom the Barbarian.”

Written by Gardner F. Fox and illustrated by John Giunta, “Crom the Barbarian” is listed by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as the first sword-and-sorcery comic story. Whether this designation is accurate or not is probably a matter for debate. There are fantasy stories and characters — primarily Arthurian and mythological — that appear earlier in comics (Prince Valiant would be a notable example), but “Crom the Barbarian” is very likely the first true Howardian sword-and-sorcery story. It is littered with tropes and place names that can found in the Conan stories — the name of the titular protagonist, “Crom”, being the most obvious example.

"Crom the Barbarian" first appeared in Out of This World #1 (June 1950).

Crom and his sister Lalla are members of the wandering Aesir tribe, who find themselves separated from their people during a battle with a group of monkey-men known as the Cymri. Fox’s “Aesir” are not the gods of norse mythology to whom the name originally referred, but rather the blond-haired race of wandering Nordic barbarians from Howard’s Conan and Steve Allison tales. Likewise, the name “Cymri” comes from a Welsh tribe whom Howard made into descendents of the Cimmerians in his fictional pseudo-historical essay “The Hyborian Age” (though the physical appearance of Fox’s Cymri may be inspired by the monkey-men of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Pellucidar stories).

Crom and Lalla find themselves adrift in a Cymri boat on an inland sea (invoking the Vilayet Sea of Conan’s world) and eventually land on a island controlled by a wizard named Dwelf. Dwelf, using Lalla as a hostage, forces Crom to undertake a quest on his behalf. He must travel to the city of Ophir (another Howard place name) and retrieve of vial of water from a magical fountain of youth. Upon arriving in the city, Crom discovers that the tower which holds the magic fountain is well-guarded, but realizes that he might reach the upper levels of the tower from the adjacent city jail. He starts a bar brawl in order to get arrested, then, after nightfall shimmies along a rope from the window of his cell to the top of the tower. Once he reaches his destination, Crom must fight his way past two panthers in order to gain entrance to the tower; unfortunately his escapades are witnessed by Tanit, the queen of Ophir, as she is looking out of her palace window. One can see the influence of several Conan stories here — particularly “The Tower of the Elephant” and “Rogues in the House.”

Once inside the tower, Crom fights his way past a group of guards, then enters the chamber with the fountain. There he confronts and defeats that most Howardian of guardians: a giant serpent. As he goes to fill a vial with the youth-restoring water, Queen Tanit attacks him from behind with a dagger. Crom easily evades the threat, and nullifies his assailant. Having acquired the object of his mission, he rides out of the city, taking Queen Tanit with him as his hostage. Upon returning to Dwelf’s island, the somewhat predictable conclusion plays out as the wizard drinks the waters of yout, then turns on Crom and attempts to kill him. Unfortunately for Dwelf, he drank too much of the magic water and quickly de-ages into an infant, and then nothingness. Tanit meanwhile has naturally become smitten with Crom’s barbaric virtus and has fallen in love with him. The tale ends with the queen suggesting that they return to Ophir where they can rule side-by-side and Crom, in a very non-Conan-like move, accepts the proposition.

The pulp Out of THis World Adventures contained a comic section which reprinted "Crom the Barbarian."

It seems clear that Fox had read Howard’s Conan stories, most likely when they first appeared in Weird Tales, though he also seems to have been familiar with “The Hyborian Age” essay, which had only been published in fanzines and Arkahm House’s Skull-face and Others by this point. Gnome Press’s Conan the Conqueror would also appear sometime in 1950, though it seems likely that it would have post-dated “Crom the Barbarian,” as the latter must have been written by March at the earliest.

To anyone familiar with Fox’s career, it should not come as a surprise that he was a fan of Howardian-style sword-and-sorcery and would be the one to introduce that genre to the sequential art medium. He is, of course, best known for his work on DC’s Golden Age and early Silver Age super-hero comics. His most famous story, “Flash of Two Worlds!” in The Flash #123 (September 1961) introduced the concept of DC’s “multiverse” that would serve as the basis for the many “Crisis” storylines of the last five decades. But, Fox also wrote prose fiction for a number of pulps in the 1940’s and 1950’s, including Weird Tales. He would go on to write more sword-and-sorcery in the 1960’s and 1970’s with his Kothar and Kyrik paperback series. Many of these stories were Howardian enough that Marvel was able to adapt them seamlessly into Conan stories for their comic series, Conan the Barbarian.

As noted above, Out of This World was a one-shot issue, and is quite scarce today. The Photo Journal Guide to Comics by Ernie Gerber, published in 1989, lists it as a “Gerber 8” on its Scarcity Index, meaning that there are an estimated 11 to 20 copies in existence. The actual number is probably two to three times that, as Gerber’s calculations were made in the pre-internet days, but it is most definitely a tough book to find. Many of the existing copies have a odd transfer stain on the front cover which seems to be some type of printing defect. It is possible that a number of copies were deemed to be too defective to release and were destroyed before reaching the newsstands. This rare one-shot would not be the last appearance of Crom, however.

The second Crom story, "The Spider God of Akka," appeared in Strange Worlds #2 (November 1950).

The following month, in an innovative publishing move, Avon released a pulp magazine called Out of this World Adventures with a comic insert in the center. Cover-dated July 1950, it reprinted the stories from the Out of this World comic book, including “Crom the Barbarian.” In August, a separate printing of the Out of this World comic book was published, this time without the printing defect that marred the earlier version. The two printings are easily distinguished: The first printing has “June 1950” printed in the upper right corner of the front cover, while the second printing has no date.

In November 1950, Avon published the first issue of a new on-going comic book series, Strange Worlds, dedicated to science fiction, horror, and fantasy stories. Strange Worlds #1 contained the second Crom story by Fox, entitled “The Spider God of Akka.” The story picks up where the previous one left off: Crom, Queen Tanit, and Lalla leave Dwelf’s island to return to Ophir, but upon reaching the mainland they are attacked and captured by the Cymri (now simply called “ape-men”). The captives are brought to the ancient ruined city of Akka, where Rou, the king of the ape-men, attempts to sacrifice them to the giant spider god, Spraa. Crom is able to defeat the giant spider and he, Tanit, and Lalla escape from Akka. The three return to Ophir, which has come under the control of the usurper, Bokris. Crom defeats Brokris’ men and hurls the tyrant from high walls of the palace to his death. The story concludes with Crom taking his place at Queen Tanit’s side as co-ruler of Ophir.

Following their previous model, Avon released the second issue of the Out of This World Adventures pulp a month later. Again it contained a comic section, this time reprinting material from Strange Worlds #1, including “The Spider God of Akka.” After this second issue, Out of This World Adventures was discontinued and the pulp/comic combination idea was abandoned. The Strange Worlds comic series continued, however, and Crom made his third and final appearance in the second issue.

The final Crom story, "The Giant from Beyond," appeared in Strange Worlds #2 (April 1951).

“The Giant from Beyond” appeared in Strange Worlds #2, cover-dated April 1951. In this story, a now well-groomed Crom has started become soft with the easy living at the court of Ophir (there is a Howardian theme for you). He is called back to action when a giant named Balthar begins attacking Ophirian caravans in the south. Crom leads a group of warriors from Ophir on an expedition to defeat Balthar and his savage followers who worship the giant as a god. Sailing down the Nexus River, into the jungles of the south, Crom and his men are attacked by a giant prehistoric reptile and narrowly escape. They finally come upon the city in the jungle built by Balthar and his followers. After a fierce battle Crom is able the blind the giant, while the archers of Ophir riddle him with arrows. With Balthar defeated, Crom and his men return to Ophir as conquering heroes.

There is no indication of finality with this third story, and Fox may have intended to continue the adventures of Crom. For whatever reason it was not to be however, and “The Giant from Beyond” would remain the last story of Crom the Barbarian. Strange Worlds would continue to print a few fantasy stories and prehistoric adventures, some more sword-and-sorcery than others, but for the most part, that would be the last true sword-and-sorcery in mainstream comics for nearly two decades, when a certain Cimmerian would finally make his four-color debut.