Almost Good: Frank Frazetta & James Silke’s Death Dealer novels
Taking a beloved character from a painting and creating their story is no easy feat. Especially if it’s not even your character to begin with. Was James Silke doomed from the beginning? Probably, yeah.
Put your hand up if you’ve read James Silke’s adaptations of Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer paintings. I can raise my hand about halfway up if I’m being honest. I’ve read book 1: Prisoner of the Horned Helmet a couple of times, and book 3: Tooth and Claw once. I’ve only recently acquired book 2: Lords of Destruction in the last few weeks and I do plan on reading it soon. I promise…
It’s just that… well, they’re good, and they’re also not so good.
Prose for pros
James Silke, who only passed away in February 2025, probably considered himself a visual creator more than an author. He was an artist himself and earned a few credits as a film Art Director before taking up writing. I think it’s safe to say that Silke thought in visuals. The prose of The Death Dealer novels certainly reads like that.
“Gradually the mists burnt off, and the midday sun spilled light down through blue sky to grace distant black clouds with crowns of dusty gold. The clouds clustered over the flaming mouths of several volcanic craters, the largest of which rose directly in front of him. The Land of Smoking Skies.”
– Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, Chapter 30.
There’s lots of this kind of word-painting throughout the books. It is a very fine line between serving the purpose of the description and injecting an element of artistry to it that can quite easily turn to word salad. James Silke had a distinct method in depicting his scenes, not all instances of which I could honestly say were effectively achieved.
Style that takes a while
If you so happen to find yourself picking up these books with the intent of reading them (always a wise move when dealing with books), I think it’s important for you to know that there’s a bit of a learning curve involved with them. Personally, I found the first 20-30 pages a slog as I got used to Silke’s prose stylings. It can be jarring at times, and you’ll definitely find yourself having to read a paragraph over again to make sense of what in the Dark One’s name Silke is talking about.
After a while though, you’ll find the flow comes to the story and what I believe is Silke’s strength will come to the fore: his building of atmosphere. Swamps positively ripple with life, the heat of the tropical forest shimmers over the pages and the bustle of the villages almost reaches your ears. It’s a well-realised world, even if I don’t agree with the setting choice.
A Land Beyond Time, Not Space
I think I can imagine Silke’s thinking…
‘I’ve got it! Frank Frazetta is of Italian descent. So I’m going to set these stories in the Mediterranian, long before the rise of Atlantis. He’ll love that, surely!’
I’m not sure Frank did. I know that a lot of readers and critics certainly didn’t, myself included. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at any of Frank’s Death Dealer paintings and thought that he was depicting a person of this world. That just never came into my mind. To me, the Death Dealer was always this violent hero from another world, parallel to ours perhaps, but distinctly different. Like a Dungeons & Dragons setting.
I think that Silke’s idea of placing this story ‘In an Age before Atlantis rose’ was to claim it as a complimenting bookend to Conan’s Hyborian Age, which came about after Atlantis had fallen. It’s a cool enough idea, but I don’t know if it fits.
It’s a Kind of Magic
Gath of Baal (the Death Dealer himself) is a magical being. Not in a Gandalf kind of way though. His magic is far more brutal than Mr. Greyhame. Some sort of death power is passed into his victims as he hacks into them. Individually hewn sections each contain this magic and are highly-sought after protective totems by those that can afford them. There is an actual black market for these bones.
It’s a gritty and barbaric form of magic that plays into the idea that Death Dealer isn’t too far flung from Conan, or any number of other pre-historic barbarian types. But I think this is where Silke went astray. I’m not sure Death Dealer is supposed to be viewed as such a being. Maybe it’s just my own perspective on the character as seen in the paintings, but I don’t see him as a barbarian. I see Death Dealer as dark Knight in an even darker world, where magic is as common and as terrible as the beasts that wander it.
But that could just be me…
Manly Men, Few Females
The main problem I have with Silke’s writing, and I’m not alone in this, is his depiction of women. There’s really only a few women in the stories – the virgin Robin and deceitful Cobra (both named after animals, I’ve literally just realised!). Each woman is objectified in different ways. Cobra oozes sexuality and desire, while Robin radiates purity and beauty. The problem being, each character is not much more than these traits. Cobra seduces, Robin is to be seduced.
It’s hard to say whether Silke was deliberately focusing on the sexualisation of these characters in order to appeal to the readers who must surely be almost entirely male, or if this is his own objective desires injected into the prose. Either way, it can be quite uncomfortable and often repetitive. Seemingly every scene with Cobra has her cheeks flushing with lustful need at some point. And this quote is taken from Robin’s introductory scene:
Robin was no taller than a full-grown deer. Her breasts stood high on her little barrel chest, as smooth and firm and plump as river-washed pebbles.
-Prisoner of the Horned Helmet, Chapter 12
Super, super cringe.
Good & Bad
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a series of books to be good more than the Death Dealer ones. That character, as depicted by Frank, has had a space in my brain for many, many years now. But as much as Silke gets some things right, or should I say, does things well, he gets a lot more wrong. I ultimately think that the character deserves better than these books serve up. Gath of Baal is two-dimensional in the extreme, and the world he inhabits lacks the invention such a great character needs to be fully realised.
I rate these books-
They look cool on your bookshelf, but just leave them up there.
Here are my copies of the first three books. I don’t think it’s actually possible for there to be a bad Frazetta book cover. Yeah, it’s not possible. I may not read every book featuring his artwork on it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the look of it! His work is suited to book covers in a way that few artists have equalled. The paintings always elevate the appeal of the book, even if the book isn’t to your liking.
I’m probably going to get around to reading both books 2 and 4 at some point. They may not be the best use of my reading time, but I don’t know if they are a waste of it either. Whichever way they fall, I’ll be using my trusty Death Dealer bookmark that I drew many years ago.
My buddy, famed comic creator Bart Sears, drew an insanely good version of good ol’ DD recently, and I definitely want to give it a showcase here. So keep an eye out for that one!
If you’re interested in getting your own copies of the James Silke books (be ready to fork out more for them than you’d expect!) or want to know more about Frank’s Death Dealer, here are some useful links-
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