Wednesday Cover: Claw the Unconquered

Yep, another Wednesday, another sword & sorcery comic cover from the Seventies. Crom help me, I love this stuff. This time around it's the cover to DC Comics' Claw The Unconquered #2, their attempt to cash-in onrival publisher  Marvel's runaway hit Conan series. The art is by the great Ernie Chua (a/k/a Ernie Chan), a terrific Filipino artist who passed away just last week.

I first noticed the artist's work on Batman and Detective Comics, where he drew a damned fine Dark Knight. He was also DC's go-to cover artist for a couple of years there in the mid-Seventies. Later, he was praised for his work on Marvel's barbarian, where he often inked John Buscema on both the color Conan comic and the Savage Sword of Conan B&W magazine. I'll always associate him with the short-lived Claw, though. His Conan work was more polished, and his Batman stuff more widely-seen and appreciated, but Claw was his book. He was the first artist on it, and defined the character's fantasy world.

I always loved his lush inkline, and thought he was a great storyteller. He'll be missed.