Tales of the Black Diamond, Part 1(5): “Birth of Blood” aka “Blood Birth”

16 pgs. Appeared first time [B&W] in Horror in the Dark #1 (1991). Reprinted [B&W] in Tales of the Black Diamond (1993).
Story: Richard Margopoulos. Art: Richard Corben (signed as Richard Corben, 1991). Lettering: printed (Corben).

France [FRA]: as Contes du diamant noir, Part 1(5): “Naissance de sang”, in USA magazine [II] #59 (1992).
Germany [GER]: as “Der Fluch des schwarzen Diamanten”, as one (complete story) in Die phantastische Welt des Richard Corben #10 (1994).
Italy [ITA]: as Tales of the Black Diamond, Part 1(5): “Battesimo di sangue”, in L’Eternauta #113 (1992).
Spain [SPA]: as El diamante negro, Part 1(5): “Bautizo de sangre”, in Creepy [SPA] Segunda Época #10.

Style: Black line with CG tonals. Genre: Horror. Time Span: Ancient past. Nudity: Full frontal.
Keywords: War. Queen. Offering. Betrayal. Blood.
Synopsis: Fortress is surrounded by troopers and the queen has to sacrifice herself to save her people. Priest proposes her the Black Diamond, but he wants it back after seeing it’s powers.
Comment: Serials opening chapter is not yet much interesting. Mr. Corben examines possibilities of computer rendering with variable results.
Special: “Horror in the Dark” was originally aded (in “The Comics Buyer’s Guide”) as “From the Dark”, but Mr. Corben thought it was too close the title “Tales from the Darkside”. Jan Strand suggested the title “Den of Horror”.
Alternative: In Horror in the Dark story was named as “Blood Bath”; later in the Album they named all but one chapters as “… of Blood”.
Techinque: In both Comic Book and Album versions’ last eight pages of this episode are drawn on paper and scanned into computer. On those pages are no computer added borders and printed balloons like in the rest of the story.

Tales of the Black Diamond, Part 1, 8 pgs