'The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories' – Roy Thomas & Barry Windsor-Smith (Dark Horse Books)


'Born on a battlefield, trained to be a warrior, destined to be king, he rode from the north, searching for adventure and dealing death to any that stood in his way. His name was preceded by legend and none could stand against his strength and cunning. Adventurer, Pirate, Barbarian... His name is Conan!'

I'm no scholar of Robert E. Howard (not in the least bit actually, I just enjoy the stories) but I've read enough 'Conan' stories (books and comics) by now to have a decent idea of what works and what doesn't. It's pretty much 'every Conan story by REH works and the rest kind of work to varying degrees' ;o) I've still to find out how Robert Jordan's 'Conan' stories work (I can't quite bring myself to try these, am I missing anything special?) and until recently, I hadn't read any of Roy Thomas' original 'Conan the Barbarian' comic book run either. I don't know why, I'd heard good things but just never quite managed it. Well that changed last night when I thought I'd give one of my recent 'comic book finds' a go. What did I think? Well, I'm glad I stuck with it but it wasn't an easy ride, not to begin with anyway.

Volume 1, of 'The Conan Chronicles', gives us the early adventures of a young Conan, fresh out of Cimmeria and looking to see the world and get rich along the way. Being Conan though, he has a habit of finding himself in the kind of trouble that makes for some good stories. Well, once you get past the opening couple anyway, 'The Coming of Conan' in particular. While the story does an adequate job of introducing us to our hero, the script and the artwork come together in the worst kind of clunky awkward way to form a story that you may want to read (it's Conan...) but it's not going to make it easy for you. I've always like the fact that Conan's world is our world thousands upon thousands of years ago but there's a disconnect, between the worlds, that lets Conan's world stand on it's own. With that in mind, sorcerous visions involving astronauts really didn't work for me and I was glad to see the back of 'The Coming of Conan'.

I kept going though and I was glad that I did. Roy Thomas eventually finds that 'sweet spot', in his writing, where he not only gets Conan as a character (in particular as a callow youth starting to explore a much wider world) but is also able to effect a smooth transition, into comic book format, for classic REH tales like 'Tower of the Elephant' as well as blending fragments of other REH tales (not all Conan either) into his own stories. Stories like 'Twilight of the Grim Grey God' (try saying that quickly after a couple of drinks) have enough of REH in them to hook you but enough Roy Thomas to make reading them a fresh experience. I think the greatest compliment that I can pay here is to say that if I hadn't read Thomas' afterword, I wouldn't necessarily known which bit was which.The bottom line is that once Thomas finds his feet, the stories improve immeasurably and we get a great mix of Sword & Sorcery along with a fascinating glimpse into the character of young Conan.

The same thing can be said for Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork. Once Windsor-Smith finds his feet (funnily enough, somewhere around 'Twilight of the Grim Grey God') and lets loose, we're looking at an artist who gets the setting and isn't afraid to go all out and detail the opulence of the cities (I'm thinking Shadizar) and the menace that lurks behind a welcoming grin; the wide open spaces of Conan's world and what lurks within the shadow of the trees. Honestly, the further I got into the book, the more the artwork was just a joy to sit and gaze at.

I'm not normally one to say 'stay with a book', life's too short for that and there are plenty of other books, but in this instance I would advise you to do just that. The opening couple of stories aren't special but it all kicks off after that and the rest of the book is just classic 'Sword & Sorcery' really. If you find a copy, give it a go.

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