‘Valeria’ and ‘Thongor’…


This could be the title of a new ‘Sword & Sorcery Sitcom’ but it isn’t, unfortunately… ☹ Nope, what we’re about today is looking at the results of a short trip through the back issues of Mega City Comics and Notting Hill Comic & Book Exchange. I love reading fantasy comics, especially when they’re about a quid each and touch on older ‘Sword & Sorcery’ works that I’ve been interested in reading. I’d had my eye on the ‘Valeria’ trade collection but picking up the first couple of issues, on the cheap, seemed like a better way of checking this story out. And ‘Thongor’… I’ll admit it, I’m lazy 😉 I’ve got a load of these books waiting to be read but time is at a premium these days and a single issue is quicker to read so… Lets take a look…

Lets just say that if I had to choose between which story to continue reading, well… It wouldn’t be ‘Thongor’, not based on this issue. It does the basics well enough (Thongor is on a mission to steal the ‘Black Mirror’ and has to fight something pretty grim along the way) but there’s nothing here to suggest that Thongor is anything more than a riff on other, better heroes (and we all know who I mean). I know it doesn’t really feel fair to make that call based on one slim comic but, that’s what I came away with here. It’s not a bad story (although I’ve never been keen on throwing random letters at a name to make it seem more exotic, just saying…), it’s just not really it’s own story if you know what I mean… I did enjoy Mayerik’s artwork though. It’s simple but damn it’s dynamic at the same time, you really feel the action happening and that is what ultimately kept the pages turning.

One thing I would say is that while I’m not going to go dashing out to find more ‘Thongor’ comics, this issue has got me interested in seeing what the books are like, maybe I’ll pick up the first book sooner than I thought…

And onto ‘Valeria’…

You don’t see a lot of Valeria in the ‘Conan’ tales, you probably see more of her in the 1982 movie to be honest… I was interested then to see what Marvel made of her and… Well, Valeria is another heroine who is getting by on the promise of revenge for the death of her brother. Which is ok I guess, every hero or heroine needs a back story after all, but sometimes you just want there to be another motive for adventuring and that’s what I felt here. Oh well, revenge will just have to do 😉

‘Valeria’ is worth sticking with though, not only is there a decent looking mystery unfolding here but Meredith Finch also gives us a lot of insight into what it takes to survive as a woman in Howard’s world. Valeria is not going to take shit from anyone and that propels her into any number of sword fights where cunning can be enough of a match for brute strength, or can it…? I had fun finding out and issue two left me wanting more, especially as Aneke’s art recovers from a dodgy start in issue one (from where I was sitting anyway) and complements the plot incredibly well. I’m definitely up for reading more, just a question of whether I hunt down the last three issues or buy the trade…

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