‘The Cimmerian Vol. 3: Iron Shadows in the Moon & The Man-Eaters of Zamboula’ – Augustin, Gess & Sienty (Ablaze)

This is going to be a quick post today as damn how many emails did I come back after my week off…? Too many, that’s how many. I fought my way free of them, last night, but have to dive back into them today. Wish me luck…

There’s also the fact that I’m starting to run out of things to say about this series which, so far, has been consistently excellent. And that’s lovely but there are only so many times that you can say the same thing before you end up secretly hoping that the next book will be rubbish, just so you have so something different to say. And I don’t want these books to be rubbish, I just want to keep enjoying them 😊 I’m still going to collect them, I suspect this will be the last review you see though (maybe…)

And on that note, lets talk ‘The Cimmerian Vol 3’…

In Iron Shadows in the Moon, a young woman in danger is pursued by her vile master. Conan, whose family has just been wiped out by this same master, puts an end to the beauty's pursuer, and saves her with a blow of his sword. Bound by fate, the couple decide to hit the road together. Their journey takes them to an island where they discover strange ruins inhabited by dark magic. Their paradise-like refuge soon turns into a suffocating nightmare where shadows lurk. Who knows the extent of the dangers that lie there? They will quickly learn that on an island, the biggest threat does not always come from the outside...

In The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, the Cimmerian finds himself in the land of a thousand and one nights! A crossroads of beliefs, languages ​​and cultures, the mythical trading city of Zamboula is also the scene of many dark legends. Upon paying the city a visit, Conan is warned of the dangers of Aram Baksh's home. It is said that most of the foreigners who stay there disappear under obscure circumstances...and it is precisely there that the Cimmerian is spending the night. But by lifting the veil on these mysterious cases of kidnappings, the Cimmerian will discover another secret, even more terrible, linked to the whole of the city of Zamboula...

‘The Cimmerian Vol. 3’ is another fine example of just how consistently good this series is becoming. I thought Dark Horse’s ‘Conan’ was superb but ‘The Cimmerian’ is really pushing it hard, just by sticking to the source material. I’ve said it before but when your source material is Howard’s ‘Conan’ tales, you’ve pretty much got it made already but that shouldn’t take away from Augustin and Gess’ efforts here who adapt Howard’s stories into a graphic (and it does get quite graphic, ho ho see what I did there?) format very well; pruning each story into a streamlined affair that is incredibly readable.

It’s the artwork that I really love though and the way that it’s just as much a part of the story as the dialogue and plot. Augustin and Gess really bring Conan’s world to life, in their art, and that makes getting into the story so much easier to do. You get a very clear idea not only of how savage Conan’s world can be but that also leads onto realising just what kind of a man Conan is, not only to survive in this world but also to thrive and bounce back from setbacks with a ready grin and the nerve to go and do it again. That’s really important to Conan’s tale and both Augustin and Gess nail it with their artwork.

I’m going to stop here, just so I don’t repeat myself too much 😉 The bottom line is that any fan of Conan, or just good fantasy comics in general, should be reading these books if they aren’t already. And if that means you… Well, you know what to do about that.