''Sword of Sorcery'' was an American

sword-and-sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of ...

comics anthology A comics anthology collects works in the medium of comics, typically from multiple series, and compiles them into an anthology or magazine. The comics in these anthologies range from comic strips that are too short for standalone publication to co ...

featuring

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two sword-and-sorcery heroes appearing in stories written by American author Fritz Leiber. They are the protagonists of what are probably Leiber's best-known stories. One of his motives in writing them was to hav ...

, heroes and rogues created by

Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Along with Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber is one of the fathers of sword and sorcery. Life ...

. Published bi-monthly by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, it ran for five issues in 1973, with a cover price of 20¢. The title was written by

Denny O'Neil Dennis "Denny" Joseph O'Neil (May 3, 1939 – June 11, 2020) was an American comic book writer and editor, principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until h ...

and featured art by

Howard Chaykin Howard Victor Chaykin (; born October 7, 1950) is an Americans, American comics artist, comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett an ...

Walt Simonson Walter Simonson (born September 2, 1946) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' ''Thor'' from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned ...

, and

Jim Starlin James P. Starlin (born October 9, 1949) is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, an ...

. The book was cancelled after five issues due to bad sales. In June 2012, the series returned with a revival of

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (Amy Winston) is a superheroine published in American comic books created by DC Comics. Created by writers Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn (comics), Gary Cohn and artist Ernie Colón, she debuted in ''Legion of Super-Heroes' ...

by writer

Christy Marx Christy Marx is an American scriptwriter, author, and game designer, especially narrative designer. She is best known for her work on various television series including ''Jem (TV series), Jem'', ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series), Te ...

and artist

Aaron Lopresti Aaron Lopresti (born January 7, 1964) is an People of the United States, American comic book artist who has worked for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, CrossGen Comics and Image Comics. Early life Aaron Lopresti was born January 7, 19 ...

. The title included a backup feature starring

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

written by

Tony Bedard Antony J. L. Bedard is an American writer and editor who has worked in the comic book industry since 1992, and in the video game industry since 2012. His best known video game works include several installments in the ''Call of Duty'' franchise, s ...

and drawn by Jesus Saiz.

Publishing history

''Wonder Woman''

A prequel to the series appears the ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

'' series, in the last panel of #201 and all of #202. In this story, written by

Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...

team up with Diana Prince (Wonder Woman minus her super-powers), her kung-fu mentor

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

, and

Catwoman Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman' ...

, to defeat the dimension-spanning wizard Gahwron.

Original series

The first issue featured an adaptation of

's story, "The Price of Pain Ease" by writer

Dennis O'Neil Dennis "Denny" Joseph O'Neil (May 3, 1939 – June 11, 2020) was an American comic book writer and editor, principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until h ...

and artists

and the

Crusty Bunkers Crusty Bunker, or the Crusty Bunkers, was the collective pseudonym of a group of comic book inkers clustered around Neal Adams' and Dick Giordano's New York City-based art and design agency Continuity Studios from 1972 to 1977. The group was also ...

. It featured a cover by

Michael Kaluta Michael William Kaluta, sometimes credited as Mike Kaluta or Michael Wm. Kaluta (born August 25, 1947), is an American comics artist and writer best known for his acclaimed 1970s adaptation of the pulp magazine hero ''The Shadow'' with writer Den ...

. The same creative team adapted Leiber's story, "Thieves' House" in issue #2. O'Neil wrote an original story in #3 and then adapted "The Cloud of Hate" and "The Sunken Land" in issues #4 and #5 respectively.

The New 52

The series was relaunched with issue #0 in September 2012 (

cover date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

d November 2012), as part of DC's

The New 52 The New 52 was the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire Line (comics), line of ongoing monthly superhero American comic books, comic books. Following the conclusion of the "Flashpoint (comics), Flashpoint" Fictional crossover, cros ...

line. This series was written by

with art by

and featured the adventures of

. A backup story written by

and drawn by Jesus Saiz told the story of

. DC cancelled the new series as of issue #8 (July 2013).

Collected editions

* ''Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: The Cloud of Hate and Other Stories'' collects ''Sword of Sorcery'' vol. 1 #1–5, 128 pages, June 2016, * ''Sword of Sorcery Vol. 1: Amethyst'' collects ''Sword of Sorcery'' vol. 2 #0–8, 238 pages, September 2013,

References

External links

* *
''Sword of Sorcery''
at Mike's Amazing World of Comics {{The New 52, state=collapsed 1973 comics debuts 1973 comics endings 2012 comics debuts 2013 comics endings Comics anthologies Comics based on fiction Comics by Dennis O'Neil Comics by Howard Chaykin Comics by Jim Starlin DC Comics titles Defunct American comics Fantasy comics Sword and sorcery comics