A Little ‘Sunday Conan’…
It really is the wrong end of the week for me to try and get ‘creative’ with post titles but… Here I am :o)
I really should make a decision and stick with either collecting trades or single issues but every time I find myself in Forbidden Planet, I end up walking out with whatever ‘Conan the Barbarian’ comic happens to be on the shelf. Last week’s ‘Forbidden Planet Trip’ saw me leave with two comics; ‘Conan the Barbarian’ #21 and ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ #9. I’ve had a bit of a nightmare getting into the first ‘Savage Sword’ collection, no idea why but I didn’t want to miss out so I thought I’d see how I got on with what looked like a fairly self contained single issue.
Let me tell you what I thought, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ first…
‘Conan the Barbarian #21’ – Zub, Dagnino, Rodriguez (Titan/Heroic Signatures)
Fresh from an eldritch confrontation in the Vale of Lost Women, Conan and his companions chance upon something far stranger, a Stygian village where the inhabitants are overjoyed to see strangers marching in out of the wilderness. Conan is suspicious of course but even he cannot see how this will play out and who it will lead him to. Once caught in the coils of the Great Serpent, is there any escape…?
I always count it as a bit of overdue good luck when I pick a comic off the shelf and it’s only the beginning of a brand new tale. No searching out back issues for this Graeme :o)
And that’s exactly what #21 is. You can kind of see where it’s headed, I say ‘kind of’ because I never saw the reveal coming, but for me, the real fun lay in Conan thinking that he finally has a handle on the supernatural elements of the world, only to promptly get caught up in something possibly far bigger than he realises. It’s only the opening of the tale, we don’t know quite yet. Either way though. Zub really gets that Conan is such a force of nature that things can’t help but happen to him. The kind of person who gets a mention in the Nemedian Chronicles years later ;o) And Zub uses this as the hook to draw you in as well as the impetus to keep things moving forward. We know something big is coming because Conan is at the centre of it.
I might have found a new favourite ‘Conan’ artist with Dagnino really capturing the essence of Conan as a lone wolf prowling the edges of civilization, especially as he moves through the village under cover of darkness. And any comic that ends with Conan facing off against a giant foe, in a fighting pit, automatically has my full attention :o) I’m going to have to see if I can remember to pick up #22.
‘The Savage Sword of Conan #9’ – Zircher, Nicieza, Chen (Titan/Heroic Signatures)
This issue was as self-contained as I was hoping for with Conan and Valeria’s adventures (post ‘Red Nails’) taking the lions share of the book and room for a quick trip to Kull’s Valusia at the end.
Starting with Kull’s story first… As much as I really want to talk about ‘The Invisible Assassin’, I’m deliberately not going to say much other than to say that it really didn’t go where I was expecting it to… There’s a nice twist here that says a lot about who Kull is as a King. There are many different kinds of battle to fight, even if the war has ended. Well played, Nicieza, well played.
And then to Conan and Valeria… I’m really not sure how I feel about the artwork here. My tired eyes really appreciated how clearly drawn it all was but at the same time, there was something about it that didn’t quite click for me. I can’t quite put my finger on it and if I went away to think about it, the chances are you’d never see this post here ;o) If I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
The plot did a great job though with a giant crab and regressed tribesmen providing decent obstacles for Conan and Valeria to fight their way through. What I really enjoyed though was watching Conan and Valeria’s relationship play out. Valeria totally has the measure of Conan and Conan may not like it, at times, but you can see that he respects her and I like that. The whole point of Conan is that he is not just any old barbarian and Zircher makes that clear here. If Patrick Zircher has written any more 'Conan' tales, I'd definitely give them a go.
I really should make a decision and stick with either collecting trades or single issues but every time I find myself in Forbidden Planet, I end up walking out with whatever ‘Conan the Barbarian’ comic happens to be on the shelf. Last week’s ‘Forbidden Planet Trip’ saw me leave with two comics; ‘Conan the Barbarian’ #21 and ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ #9. I’ve had a bit of a nightmare getting into the first ‘Savage Sword’ collection, no idea why but I didn’t want to miss out so I thought I’d see how I got on with what looked like a fairly self contained single issue.
Let me tell you what I thought, ‘Conan the Barbarian’ first…
Fresh from an eldritch confrontation in the Vale of Lost Women, Conan and his companions chance upon something far stranger, a Stygian village where the inhabitants are overjoyed to see strangers marching in out of the wilderness. Conan is suspicious of course but even he cannot see how this will play out and who it will lead him to. Once caught in the coils of the Great Serpent, is there any escape…?
I always count it as a bit of overdue good luck when I pick a comic off the shelf and it’s only the beginning of a brand new tale. No searching out back issues for this Graeme :o)
And that’s exactly what #21 is. You can kind of see where it’s headed, I say ‘kind of’ because I never saw the reveal coming, but for me, the real fun lay in Conan thinking that he finally has a handle on the supernatural elements of the world, only to promptly get caught up in something possibly far bigger than he realises. It’s only the opening of the tale, we don’t know quite yet. Either way though. Zub really gets that Conan is such a force of nature that things can’t help but happen to him. The kind of person who gets a mention in the Nemedian Chronicles years later ;o) And Zub uses this as the hook to draw you in as well as the impetus to keep things moving forward. We know something big is coming because Conan is at the centre of it.
I might have found a new favourite ‘Conan’ artist with Dagnino really capturing the essence of Conan as a lone wolf prowling the edges of civilization, especially as he moves through the village under cover of darkness. And any comic that ends with Conan facing off against a giant foe, in a fighting pit, automatically has my full attention :o) I’m going to have to see if I can remember to pick up #22.
This issue was as self-contained as I was hoping for with Conan and Valeria’s adventures (post ‘Red Nails’) taking the lions share of the book and room for a quick trip to Kull’s Valusia at the end.
Starting with Kull’s story first… As much as I really want to talk about ‘The Invisible Assassin’, I’m deliberately not going to say much other than to say that it really didn’t go where I was expecting it to… There’s a nice twist here that says a lot about who Kull is as a King. There are many different kinds of battle to fight, even if the war has ended. Well played, Nicieza, well played.
And then to Conan and Valeria… I’m really not sure how I feel about the artwork here. My tired eyes really appreciated how clearly drawn it all was but at the same time, there was something about it that didn’t quite click for me. I can’t quite put my finger on it and if I went away to think about it, the chances are you’d never see this post here ;o) If I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
The plot did a great job though with a giant crab and regressed tribesmen providing decent obstacles for Conan and Valeria to fight their way through. What I really enjoyed though was watching Conan and Valeria’s relationship play out. Valeria totally has the measure of Conan and Conan may not like it, at times, but you can see that he respects her and I like that. The whole point of Conan is that he is not just any old barbarian and Zircher makes that clear here. If Patrick Zircher has written any more 'Conan' tales, I'd definitely give them a go.
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