Solomon Kane: Red Shadows
- targetmediawebs
- Jun 22, 2016
- 2 min read
Solomon Kane: Red Shadows, by Bruce Jones & Rahsan Ekedal, Dark Horse Books
ADAPTING THE work of Robert E Howard that first appeared as a pulp story within the August 1928 edition of Weird Tales, Solomon Kane is a Puritan wandering the latter parts of the 16th century in search of evil in all its forms and attempting to put an end to it.
The book begins with the prologue styled short tale that is Skulls in the Stars, featuring Kane as its hero but he can be said to be somewhat peripheral to what is basically a ghost story. The tale takes off in earnest s in France where our sombre-faced hero is forced to play the role of avenging cavalier when a young girl falls victim to Le Loup, the leader of a group of brigands terrorising the terrain.
It is a journey that takes him half way across the world, ending up in Africa where fiendish traps, ravenous crocodiles, rival tribes and mindless zombies must be faced as the epic nears its conclusion and justice is met.
Page turning pulp thrillers like this are Bruce Jones’ forte - or one of them! - though Rashan Ekedal wouldn’t be my natural choice as an artistic partner in this endeavour for his loose exaggerated anatomies often drawn side-one are more impressionistic in style, though his splash pages have impact and expressive movement. Also Dan Jackson’s Dayglo paint-effected colouring work detracts from the overall drama of the adventure story.
Jones rounds out the book with an essay on Robert E Howard, Solomon Kane and his own approach to adapting such work (having also worked on Conan at Marvel a decade or so previously).
Sponsored by Target Media.
