‘Alien’, ‘Event Horizon’ And Some More ‘Savage Sword of Conan’

As a rule, I normally stay out of the centre of London when it’s Marathon Day; nothing against the Marathon, I’m just not keen on fighting my way through the crowds, that’s why I do all my Christmas shopping online these days. With that in mind then, why did yesterday see me in town, fighting my way through ‘Post-Marathon’ crowds? Because apparently, I’m the kind of person who won’t even listen to my own advice… Yep, it went about as well as ‘more sensible me’ thought it would. If I start talking about Christmas Shopping on Oxford Street, take me to one side and have a word?

Anyway…

Birthday shopping, for my eldest, took me into Forbidden Planet; once I’d fought my way past the Manga shelves, the comic book shelves persuaded me to stick around for a while. Not that I needed much persuading…

So, here’s what I bought and here’s what I thought of it.


‘Alien: King Killer #1’ – Ahmed, Nieto, Atiyeh, Cowles (Marvel)

Whenever I’m in Forbidden Planet, I like to take a chance on a comic book that I wouldn’t normally pick up, just to see what’s what. And yesterday, ‘King Killer’ was that comic. I’m not a big reader of ‘Alien’ comics but I did enjoy the ‘Black, White and Blood’ collection so figured I’d give ‘King Killer’ a shot. And…

I think there’s definitely a tale here that I’m going to enjoy – unknown stranger walks into a ‘wretched hive of scum and villainy’ (credit: Mr B. Kenobi) and takes care of business, very ‘spaghetti western’, I’m there for it. And I like the sound of a planet, in this setting, that isn’t being run into the ground by a corporation, it opens things up a bit. Having said that though, I’m also a little bit wary of any ‘Alien’ tale where the actual Xenomorphs are incidental to the main plot… That’s not what I look for in any ‘Alien’ story. I’m here for at least another issue then, I do want to see more Xenomorphs though…


‘Event Horizon: Inferno #1’ – Ward, Carey, Honchar (ID Dark)

Okay, this comic is the reason that I made the trip into town yesterday. You know how it is here… I love the movie, and the prequel comics did a very good job of setting the movie up. When I heard that there were sequel comics in the offing as well, well… Here I am.

There are only so many ways that you can ‘re-introduce’ a space craft that was wreckage, at the end of the movie, so on the whole, I think it was done very well here, concentrating on the dark motivations of the Durante CEO rather than potentially stretching credibility around the return of the ship itself. There are shades of ‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’ here but you know what? I like ‘Bloodline’ so I was happy with that. I was also very happy with the introduction of Rob Carey as artist. Nothing against the art in ‘Dark Descent’, Jones’ art is just a little easier on my poor, tired middle-aged eyes…

The ending threw me a bit though… I mean, I’m sure that was the intention but I’m very intrigued as to how Ward will square it with the end of the movie, or if he will even try to be honest. We’ll see but either way, I’m here for the duration.


‘The Savage Sword of Conan #13’ – Various (Titan Comics, Heroic Signatures)

And it feels like it wouldn’t be a ‘comic book post’ here without some ‘Conan’; this time, we get a little ‘Solomon Kane’, for our money, as well.

Two ‘stand alone’ tales for this issue and the lion’s share of the book is taken up with a ‘Conan’ tale – Roberto De La Torre and Roy Thomas’ ‘The Blue Orchid’. I’m not sure how common this is in comics but this has to be the first time that I’ve seen ‘plot’ and ‘text’ duties divided between two writers. Don’t get me wrong, it works, it’s just something that I’ve never come across. To be fair though, if Roy Thomas is on hand and is happy to flesh out your plot with the appropriate text, you don’t say no. The bottom line is that ‘The Blue Orchid’ is a lot of fun to read with a couple of decent twists that kept me guessing. And the more ‘Conan’ tales I read that are illustrated by De La Torre, the happier I’ll be.

‘Solomon Kane’ tale ‘The Wolves of Dundalk’ is a lot more straightforward but no less entertaining for it. Duenas’ commentary on Christianity making inroads into Irish folklore makes for thoughtful reading (dressed up in the best kind of pulp styling) while Castillo’s art makes for a suitably foreboding backdrop. The only issue I had was that Kane himself was a little too slender and cartoonish for my tastes but that’s just me though, don’t let that put you off.

I seem to be doing a lot better with ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ in single issues rather than the collections, maybe that’s how I’ll read these going forwards...

Comments

  1. Bookstooge27 April 2026 at 03:09

    Any idea how long the run for the Event Horizon comic is going to be? A sequel sounds great.

    ReplyDelete

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