Tag Archives: Surrilana

The Girl in the Middle – Color

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nurrikalacolor

The woman standing behind Nurri Kala is a Silurian. In the pulp serial, Morgo the Mighty, the Silurians are described as scaled men not man-like lizards or lizard-like men so I’ve assumed that they are a type of human and therefore mammals.

This illustration is the last piece from the batch I sketched up in late 2015. Every sketch from that batch (along with a number of others that I sketched up during 2016) has now been inked and colored. I think some of them turned out really well. I learned something even from the ones that I was … less than satisfied with. There are more illustrations coming. I’m continuing the black and white to color project until the end of this year.

I’m hoping to have a themed illustration project ready for 2018 but, at the moment, I can’t promise that I will succeed. One day at time.

The Girl in the Middle – Black and White

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nurrikalabwNurri Kala, the heroine of the pulp serial Morgo the Mighty, has a dilemma.She is desired by three men: Zorimi, the evil despot who raised her from childhood; Jerry McRory, the dashing pilot from the upper world; and Morgo, the mighty young cave warrior. Who will she choose?

Not Zorimi. He’s evil.

McRory? He offers her a return to a world that she has forgotten.

Morgo? He is a fellow cavern dweller.

Choices, choices.

Mighty Morgo versus the Chicken Fiend – Color

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Morgo the Mighty was clearly inspired by both Tarzan and At the Earth’s Core. It features a feral white man who is the master of his jungle environment and that jungle environment is located in caverns beneath the earth. There are monstrous creatures that he must battle to survive.

Contrary to online descriptions of the novel (and illustrations that accompanied it when it was serialized in The Popular Magazine) there are no dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures in Surrilana. The beasts in the caverns are evolved (and often gigantic) rodents, bats, insects and birds. It’s a more realistic scenario than a land somehow populated by dinosaurs. I’m not saying it’s a better scenario. I love dinosaurs.

Birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs. So, perhaps, the chicken fiends of Surrilana can be considered dinosaur stand-ins.

 

Mighty Morgo versus the Chicken Fiend – Black and White

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In Chapter 15 of the pulp serial Morgo the Mighty, Morgo and Nurri Kala must face .. the Chicken Fiends! “The Chicken Fiends” is, in fact, the title of the chapter. Apparently chickens were considered to be more fearful beasts back in 1930. The creatures rule over one of the cavern environments in Surrilana, an underground realm beneath the Himalayas. I know a giant flesh eating chicken would actually be pretty terrifying but, as a city boy here in the 21st century, it’s hard for me to summon up any nervous emotions about chickens.

Morgo kills them dead.

Zorimi’s Winged Terrors – Black and White

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ManFacedBatsBW

Surrilana, the vast system of caverns beneath the Himalayas (as described in the pulp serial Morgo the Mighty), is home to a variety of weird creatures. The first such species that McRory and company run into (literally, with their airplane) is the giant manfaced bat. This creature is huge – about the size of a human being, and somewhat intelligent – enough to follow the orders of the masked tyrant Zorimi,

A Man of the Caverns – Black and White

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MorgoClimbingBW

Sometimes an author picks the wrong character to be his protagonist. For his novel Morgo the Mighty, Sean O’Larkin chose the pilot Jerry McRory. Jerry isn’t necessarily a bad character. I imagine O’Larkin figured that he needed an ordinary guy to lead his ordinary guy readers through the underworld of Surrilana. He is not, however, as dynamic as Morgo. Morgo fights the giant chickens, negotiates with the giant ants and does all the primitive man heroic stuff. Poor Jerry is a lost guy with a gun who knows that when he runs out of bullets he’s screwed.

Surrilana Vistas – Black and White

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SurrilanaVistaBW

Morgo the Mighty takes place in a series of massive caverns located beneath the Himalayas. Each cavern is lit by a different degree and spectrum of light. The deeper one goes into the caves the brighter the light becomes. The explanation of where the light comes from is a bit ridiculous but probably no more so than the idea of a series of massive caves, teeming with life, located beneath the Himalayas.

If I ever do manage to do a rewritten and illustrated version of the story I plan to have the light originate from a different source than in the original novel. That source will probably be no less ridiculous than the source in the original.