When you mention John Jakes (1932 – 2023) to the average reader, they’ll probably come back with, “The Kent Family Chronicles guy?” or “the guy who wrote that North and South trilogy they made that mini-series from?”

I have some of those books but I’ve never read them. I know John Jakes, and probably most of you do, from Brak the Barbarian. There are 5 books.

[Click the images for barbarian-sized versions.]

Brak the Barbarian (Avon Books, July 1968). Cover by Frank Frazetta

The copies I have are those at top:

Brak the Barbarian 1981, Tower Books, Uldis Klavens cover. Thomas Miller interior illustrations. (Original published in paperback by Avon Books in 1968, shown above, with a Frazetta cover). These are connected short stories.
Brak vs the Sorceress 1977, Pocket Books, Charles Moll cover. (original pub 1969 with Frazetta Cover)
Brak vs the Mark of the Demons 1969, Paperback Library, Michael Leonard cover
Brak: When the Idols Walked 1978, Pocket Books, Charles Moll cover
The Fortunes of Brak 1980, Dell, George Bush cover, Douglas Beekman interior illustrations. Short stories.

Brak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress (Paperback Library, April 1969). Cover by Frank Frazetta

Brak is a barbarian and a big one. He carries a broadsword and is an outcast from his people. He wears a lion hide about his hips with the tail attached, and his yellow hair hangs in a long braid.

The artist who illustrated the first story in a magazine added the lion tail and long braid (see below). He was Vernon Kramer. Jakes reveals this in the preface to Brak vs the Sorceress, and says he tried to contact Kramer but could find no information. He dedicated that book to Kramer.

Fantastic Stories of Imagination, May 1963, containing the first Brak story,
“Devils in the Walls.” Note the lion tail and long braid. Cover by Vernon Kramer

The first Brak story was “Devils in the Walls,” published Fantastic Stories of Imagination, May 1963. Jakes revealed in a preface to Brak the Barbarian that it was very much a Howard pastiche by a Conan fan (Jakes). But the character soon took on a life of his own.

I read both Gardner Fox’s Kothar and Jakes’ Brak before I ever discovered Conan. I didn’t understand until many years later the debt both writers owed REH.That doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the Brak stories.

Brak the Barbarian (Pocket Books reprint edition, July 1977). Cover by Charles Moll

They are simple tales mostly, and less colorful than Howard’s Conan stories, but fun.

Brak’s various adventures lead him south toward a fabled golden land called Khurdisan. In a prefatory note to Brak vs The Mark of the Demons, Jakes says he’s already written and locked away an outline of the final tale, where we find out whether Brak reaches Khurdisan. That tale has yet to appear but someone will eventually hire a writer to finish it. I humbly offer my services. 😊

Jakes, of course, wrote quite a few other fantasy tales before becoming a full-time writer of fictionalized American history. Here are some other Jakes books I own and have read:

1. Witch of the Dark Gate, 1972, from Magnum. Cover by Frank Frazetta. It’s a sequel to Master of the Dark Gate, which I haven’t read. Could be classified as Sword & Planet (S&P) fiction, although earth is here too.
2. The Planet Wizard, 1969, Ace books. Cover by Jeff Jones. Also part of a series, called Dragonard, though I haven’t read any others. This is definitely S&P, though fairly light on the swords.
3. The Last Magicians, 1969, Signet, cover by Sanford Kossin. A standalone S&S novel.
John Jakes was a member of SAGA, The Swordsmen & Sorcerers Guild of America, with such luminaries as Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Jack Vance. This book was dedicated to that group.
4. I, Barbarian, 1976, Pinnacle Books. Historical fiction about a European who joins the horde of Genghis Khan and finds a woman to love. Originally published in 1959 under the pseudonym Jay Scotland and was certainly one of Jakes’ earliest books. I enjoyed it pretty well, although parts moved slowly. The cover has a signature that I believe reads Dean Cate.
5. Best known of these is Mention My Name in Atlantis (1976). The cover is uncredited but I’ve seen it suggested as Jack Gaughan. This is a total spoof featuring “Conax the Barbarian” from the land of “Chimeria,” who doesn’t save the day but sinks the continent. Some folks like this book and find it funny. That’s fine, of course, but I don’t particularly care for it. When I first read it I felt kind of insulted. I like S&S and I like Conan & REH, and this made fun of all that. Jakes even dedicates it to Howard, though possibly he should have apologized. I’ve long since gotten over my irritation but still don’t find it very funny.

6. A Jakes book that I own but haven’t read is his novelization of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, based on the screenplay by Paul Dehn. (The cover is a still photo from the movie.)

I’d forgotten I had this until Greg Cox mentioned the title. That’s what happens when you still have thousands of unread books in your piles.

Chamber of Chills #2, containing a Brak the Barbarian story by John Jakes
(Marvel Comics, October 10, 1972). Cover by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer

The only other Brak story I know of is a comic book story, scripted by Jakes with art by Val Mayerik and Joe Sinnott, with plot and layout credited to Dan Adkins. It appeared in Chamber of Chills #2 (1972) and is called “Spell of the Dragon.”

I’ve been able to read it courtesy of a fellow Brakophile, to whom I owe thanks, but I understand the issue is pretty hard to come by. It’s a very simple story but certainly invokes a sense of Brak.

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a look at Marvel’s Conan The Barbarian. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.