‘Conan’ and the ‘Fall of the House of Slaughter’…

Nope, it’s a not a ‘Conan’ book that no-one has ever heard of… I had a hospital appointment, yesterday afternoon, and followed it up with a trip to Forbidden Planet on the way home. It made sense ;o) They didn’t have exactly what I was looking for but that’s OK, I can always go back. In the meantime then, here’s a what I came home with; a small lesson in remembering to stay up to date with single issues…


‘Conan the Barbarian #30’ – Zub, Braithwaite, Rodriguez (Titan Comics/Heroic Signature)

This one would have made a lot more sense if I had picked up #29 but, here I am; that’s on me, not the comic. What we have here then is Conan as seen through the eyes of an assassin on a mission to kill him; there’s just no context as to why etc.

And that’s not the showstopper you’d think. It was very interesting to see Conan’s character (and the lands of Shem) unfold under the gaze of the Son of the Tooth and I could see this issue working very well as a starting point for new readers. It looks like there will be a big ol’ scrap in #31 and I’m there for it. I’m probably going to have to go back and try and find a copy of #29 now, I’m well and truly intrigued as to why the Son of the Tooth is on the trail of Conan.


‘Fall of the House of Slaughter #1’ – Brombal, Tynion IV, Turtuulici, Dell’Edera, Napolitano (Boom!)

Every time I’m in a comic shop, I always seem to end up picking up a random comic that I wouldn’t normally go for, just to see if it’s a hit or not. Seeing as I’ve been reading ‘Something is Killing the Children’, ‘Fall of the House of Slaughter’ doesn’t quite fall into that category but, it’s close enough and the title certainly caught my eye. Again, I really should have finished the main storyline first but there’s still plenty here to engage and it did. It’s all a bit political in the House of Slaughter and that’s where the fun lies, not so much in the artwork (for me anyway). ‘Chemo-Brain’ notwithstanding, I think I’ll be following this series a little more closely going forwards.


‘The Savage Sword of Conan Reforged #4’ – Thomas, Buscema (Titan Comics, Heroic Signatures)

I was actually after the latest issue of ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ but I think I’m about a week ahead of myself so thought I’d have a little ‘old school Conan’ instead, especially when I saw that this issue had ‘Black Colossus’ inside (a favourite tale of mine). There are no surprises in the telling of this tale, Thomas doesn’t have a lot to do here to adapt the plot, REH did it all already, but I found myself spending a lot of time poring over Buscema’s gorgeous artwork that captures both the plot and the wider world that it moves through.

I don’t think I’ll be picking up every issue of ‘Reforged’ but whenever there’s an old favourite featured, I reckon I’ll be there.

Comments

  1. Bookstooge22 May 2026 at 17:51

    Oh, oh, oh, I just read the Black Colossus! A review should be up in about 2 weeks :-D

    So what is the "Reforged" line of comics? Just redoing the original comics or something?

    ReplyDelete

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