MRP reviewed, oh, about 1/2 the series in his 'from the Sorceror's scroll' thread a while back.. I ended up getting the first 20 issues or so after reading it.. I agree it's some good stuff before it kinda peters out.

I'm not actually sure DC owns the character actually. Roy talked about continuing the series in another medium (prose I think) and possibly doing something film-wise with it in the letters pages of the last handful of issues after it's cancellation had been announced, so he may have had some ownership of it, not DC. Someone would have to check with Roy to confirm this, but from the nature of those comments in the letters pages it seemed Roy was free to do what he wanted with the character outside of DC.

-M

Thanks for the link - great reviews.  I didn't know Arak had been focused on in that thread.  

Re: possible collected editions of Arak, I never thought high-end HC's were the way this title should be reprinted; more like a series of color Trades.  And, though I'm probably in the minority here, but I would rather pay more to see this title reprinted with remastered art/color - even if the individual floppies are cheaper.

That being said, I may end up purchasing the floppies - since the likely-hood of a CE of this series ever being released is almost impossible.

I started collecting Arak a couple of years ago. So far, I have the first seventeen, plus the annual. I like it a lot. It's comparable in quality to Roy's Conan work but feels more freewheeling, thanks to not being restricted by the Howard canon. The rest of the run sits fairly high on my want list.

Cei-U!
I summon the Son of Thunder!

Yes, when Arak was killed and resurrected as a shaman/wizard of ill-defined powers. He met his dad in heaven.

That's when the series stopped working for me. The Serpent, which earlier might have been an avatar of Satan, was treated as if he were just a wizard with a weird-looking head. Arak, who had been so grounded in the real world despite the occasional, started using mystical powers that worked whenever convenient and didn't when the plot asked for it. 

Unlike Roy, I didn't particularly care for DeZuniga's art on the series, either as full artist or as inker on Colon's pencils. For my money, the Rodriguez/Alcala did an equally good job... and sometimes a superior one. The art was never bad, though.

What I regret the most is that early issues suggested that the climax of the series would have Arak return to America and settle things with the Serpent and the enemies of his scattered people, the Quontauka. Unfortunately, after the truly rousing storyline incorporating the Prester John mythos, we spent a lot of time dealing with other antique subjects (the golden bough, Sinbad's voyages) which, while certainly good story material, were in the final analysis a collection of distractions. 

I got the early issues back in the day and liked it especially because of DeZuniga's artwork, but I'm a big fan.

My brother has the entire series somewhere.

If in fact Thomas owns the rights, that would explain why we haven't seen the character again outside of an issue of All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars, both titles Thomas wrote.

The character could be really cool.

I remember enjoying the early issues of Arak, especially the ones Tony DeZuniga inked, but lost interest shortly after he was given a mohawk haircut (Arak, not DeZuniga, that is). GCD says Valda the Iron Maiden appeared in a handful of later comics not written by Thomas circa 2005-6: Day of Vengeance #1, Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special #1, Infinite Crisis #6 and Shadowpact #1 & #5, and James Robinson used Arak's descendant Arak Wind-Walker in Justice League: Cry For Justice #4 in 2009. Comic Vine says the character Telos, introduced in 2015's Convergence crossover, has been revealed to be Arak.
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