As with any collection that spans multiple years, writers, and artists, this is of varying quality. Having said that, however, it is actually quite good overall.

The stories, while often following a bit of a pattern of a woman having to either be saved or avenged, are uniformly great. The art tends to be more varied in quality.

However, I think the standout is the fact that Roy Thomas was able to revisit an older REH story and provide not only a sequel to it, but to bring in Conan and still not make it schlocky.

I've never felt Solomon Kane ever got the same recognition as Conan, but I love this character so much. I'm glad there's collections like this out there that show how good he can be in the hands of the right writers and artists. ( )

Marvel produced several Solomon Kane stories for their black and white magazines. Beginning with the Roy Thomas/Ralph Reese adaptation of "Skulls in the Stars" in Monsters Unleashed #1 (August, 1973) and culminating with "Death's Dark Riders, Part Two" (The Savage Sword of Conan #220, April 1994), written by Thomas (inspired by a REH story fragment) and drawn by Colin MacNeill, Marvel published 26 stories plus two prose Solomon Kane biographies by Fred Blosser (Kull and the Barbarians #3, September 1975 and The Savage Sword of Conan #219) and a publishing history by Glenn Lord (The Savage Sword of Conan #220, April 1994). The overall quality of the stories varies greatly and the art for the most part is of inferior quality. Adaptation highlights include the Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin version of Howard's story "Rattle of Bones," the two-part "The Hills of the Dead" by Thomas and Alan Weiss, and Doug Moench, and Steve Gan's "The Right Hand of Doom." Several writers attempted new tales, mostly unmemorable except for the Thomas-Weiss chronicle of the first meeting between Kane and Dracula. "Castle of the Undead" (Dracula Lives! #3, October 1973), which surprisingly captures the essence of both iconic characters in an entertaining story. Dark Horse recently collected all of the Marvel magazine Solomon Kane appearances, the fascinating text pieces, and pin-ups from the likes of Berni Wrightson, Don Maitz, Gene Day, and Neal Adams in The Saga of Solomon Kane. ( )

I've been hoping that Dark Horse would reprint the other tales that appeared in the Savage Sword of Conan.

Many of REH's Solomon Kane tales have been adapted here, as well as many of his poems.

This collection is fun, there is a lot of great artwork through out. There are a couple of different versions of Solomon Kane's Homecoming, and it's neat to see how different artists interpret REH's poem.

There are a couple of other neat portions, such as the introduction, "The Trail of Solomon Kane", an informal biography by Fred Blosser. It gives some idea of REH coming up with Kane and getting the stories into Wierd Tales, and a good history of Solomon Kane.

Another is Solomon Kane, A Publishing History by Glenn Lord. It's another good history of the published Solomon Kane tales (up to around 1993 or 1994). If you want a more recent copy of the original tales, pick up "The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane" by Del Rey. (Great book by the way)

And finally, there is Kane the Avenger - The Life and Times of Solomon Kane by Fred Blosser. Here he details all of SK's comic appearances (til around 1994). I believe Dark Horse has had a couple more recent comics.

I'm always wary of anybody creating tales in REH's worlds, and here we have quite a few. There is a couple of tales of Solomon Kane vs. Dracula, Solomon Kane vs a dragon at Castle Frankenstien, Solomon Kane vs a succubus (lol), etc. I was half expecting Solomon Kane vs Dionysius, just so they could sneak a satyr in there. Ah well, if you can turn off the "pastiche-ometer", then you can at least enjoy the artwork.

I really enjoyed this, and can recommend it to fans of sword and sorcery with a historical twist. ( )