Creatures on the Loose #22
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCreatures on the Loose #22 marks the first comic-book appearance of Thongor of Lemuria, Lin Carter's sword-and-sorcery barbarian, delivering the character to a mass audience for the first time after several years of pulp-novel popularity. The issue carries additional historical weight because Thongor was the character Roy Thomas and Stan Lee originally pursued before Conan — failed licensing negotiations with Carter's representatives sent Marvel toward Robert E. Howard instead, so this debut can be read as the closing of a loop: the character who might have defined Marvel's sword-and-sorcery line arriving, three years later, in Conan's wake. It is also a showcase for Creatures on the Loose as an editorial laboratory, a title Marvel used to road-test licensed fantasy properties alongside monster reprints rather than risk a standalone series. The issue launched an eight-issue run that, while short-lived, demonstrated the breadth of Bronze Age Marvel's appetite for sword-and-sorcery beyond a single franchise.
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Thongor's road to Marvel was crooked. When Roy Thomas lobbied publisher Martin Goodman in the early 1970s to license a sword-and-sorcery character, he initially targeted Thongor because Carter's character seemed more affordable than Conan — Stan Lee reportedly liked the name most — but negotiations stalled when Carter's agent demanded more than the modest per-issue fee Goodman had authorized, pushing Thomas toward the Howard estate and Conan instead. After Conan the Barbarian proved a commercial success, Lin Carter relented and allowed Marvel to adapt his character in Creatures on the Loose. Rather than handling the scripts himself, Thomas — occupied with Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Barbarian — handed scripting duties to science-fiction writer George Alec Effinger, who was then at the very start of his freelance career, while penciller Val Mayerik and inker Vince Colletta handled the interior art; Jim Steranko, whose cover for the Lancer paperback anthology The Mighty Barbarians had itself featured the source story 'Thieves of Zangabal,' was brought in to paint the cover, creating a neat intertextual link between the prose and comics editions.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic-book appearance of Thongor of Lemuria (Earth-616), a barbarian warrior character created by author Lin Carter for his 1965 novel The Wizard of Lemuria.
- The lead story, 'Thongor! Warrior of Lost Lemuria!' (subtitled 'The Demon of Zangabal!'), adapts the first half of Carter's short story 'Thieves of Zangabal,' which originally appeared in the 1969 anthology The Mighty Barbarians edited by Hans Stefan Santesson.
- Script by George Alec Effinger, pencils by Val Mayerik, inks by Vince Colletta, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Artie Simek; Roy Thomas served as editor-in-chief.
- Cover painted by Jim Steranko — the same artist whose cover had graced The Mighty Barbarians paperback that contained the source short story.
- Also includes a reprint backup story ('Gundar!') originally from Tales of Suspense #39, scripted by Stan Lee with art by Steve Ditko.
- The issue was on-sale December 19, 1972, carrying a March 1973 cover date.
- Also introduces supporting characters Kaman Thuu and the Thieves' Guild of Lemuria in their first comic appearances.
- This issue launched an eight-issue Thongor run in Creatures on the Loose (#22–29, 1973–74); the series ended on a readers'-choice cliffhanger, with subsequent issues never materializing despite promises in Savage Sword of Conan #2.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Tales of Suspense #39 (1963)
Reprinted in Frankenstein #2 (1975), Savage Sword of Conan #13 (1975), Savage Sword of Conan #14 (1975), Marvel Visionaries: Jim Steranko #[nn] (2002), Marvel Firsts: The 1970s #1 (2011)
Key issues in Creatures on the Loose
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