Weird Trail

Debut shill for forthcoming Robert E Howard adapt Solomon Kane. Kane, a solemn pulp adventurer, drifts across the world, matching evil in all its guises. Rather than ground the film in the fey realism of John Milius' Hyperboria, director Michael J Bassett pitches closer to the realised allegory of Howard's text. The trail boasts twisted, physical manifestations of satanic peril, and even a rumbling black angel. Being fairly pulp un-read, my nearest brush with Kane was a back-up strip in an old issue of Savage Sword of Conan. Able to flunk the Comic Code by virtue of technically being a magazine, the book skirted saucy. The Kane strip, in particular, struck quite a chord; Kane, trailing a brutal killer, happens across a a burning homestead and a weeping boy. Kane takes in the child, continuing his mission. Over the course of a few nasty accidents it becomes clear that the child is the perp. Kane flintlocks the minor with barely a tremor. Balls nasty!