Books for Prep | |
 - Finally the conclusion of the story of BelitFinally the conclusion of the story of Belit, the pirate queen, which began in Volume 8. As usual a nice job of coloring and printing these. It is frustrating that they didn't reproduce the covers. In his Afterword Roy Thomas refers to one of the covers which was sort of a spoof of a Frazetta Conan painting, but you have to go look it up if you want to see it for yourself. There is also a typo in the Afterword where Thomas explains that he continued to script 15 more issues of Conan "after 115"... apparently he meant to say "after 100" or "up to 115"... and the next volume of this series continues with those stories. Rating: - Chronicles of Conan Classics!If you are a hardcore fan of Conan - or are a newbie to him - then do yourself a favor and collect all of thse excellent classics reprinted beautifully and updated to give new and old fans collected editions to relive yesteryear in awesome classic fashion. Dark Horse just sent me the next volume in this terrific series: The Chronicles of Conan Volume #12, The Beast Kinf og Abombi And Other Stories. A collection of one of the greatest drawn and told storylines by the illustrious Roy Thomas and artist extrodinaire, John Buscema, (RIP, Mr. Buscema, my all-time favorite Conan artist!), and also the ever-skillful illustrator, Ernie Chan. I remember reading these back in the 70's, along with these and Joe Kubert's Tor and awesome classically done Tarzan series, I loved and preferred these type of comics over Superman and Spiderman and Batman, due to their more fantasy-based and savagery world-building that was a more heady and primal reading experience that superheros gave to me. These collections are timeless, and still stand up to today's standards. Written and drawn back in the latter part of the 70's, Conan was reaching it's pinacle in both storylines and illustrations, right up until issue #100, the untimelt death of Conan's love, Belit. (I dug her much better than Red Sonja.) Pirates, beautiful babes, savage monsters, and even more savage men, along with fantastic imagery in a bloody and action-packed fantasy series and hero that transcends time, The Chronicles of Conan collection will surely satisfy readers of both comics and paperbacks until the wee hours of the morn... Rating: - The Missing Story Arc from this Volume:Just to clarify what is missing from Chronicles of Conan Volume 9: As Roy Thomas points out in his notes at the end of the book, Conan #66-68 were left out of the Dark Horse book apparently because Dynamite Publishing had secured the rights to the Red Sonja character who appears in the story. For anyone interesting in tracking down the missing part of the story, it should be pointed out that Conan #67 was actually continued not in Conan #68 but in in Marvel Feature (Presenting Red Sonja) #7, which then leads into Conan #68. Marvel Feature #7 is reprinted in the recent trade paperback "The Adventures of Red Sonja Volume 1" published by Dynamite Publishing. If you didn't know anything was missing you probably wouldn't even notice it, as it is only alluded to very briefly. The story with Red Sonja sort of went off on a tangent not really necessary for understanding anything that happens before or after it. Rating: - A worthy entry in the series, includes the introduction of BêlitThe only sensible way to read these books is to start with Volume 1 and read them in order, so if you're considering getting this one you probably have a pretty good idea what to expect. The artwork by John Buscema continues to be quality work and there is also one story very competently illustrated by Mike Ploog. The last two stories, which are probably the main selling point of this volume, introduce the pirate queen Bêlit. As usual the stories are followed by Roy Thomas reminiscing and shedding some light on them for his readers, which is always entertaining. Rating:  - CRUSH YEH ENEMEHS!!!Dark Horse continues with their reprints of the classic Marvel Comics series CONAN THE BARBARIAN with the trade paperback THE CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOLUME 6: THE CURSE OF THE GOLDEN SKULL, reprinting issues 35-42. These stories are written by Roy Thomas, with art by John Buscema and one issue each by Neal Adams and Rich Buckler. They primarily feature Conan's adventures in Turan as a member of King Yildiz' Turanian army, in spite of the fact that Yildiz' son Yezdigerd, who is off conquering new lands to the east, wants Conan's head. Animated statues, wizards encased in gold, and palace intrigue are just a few of the challenges facing our favorite Cimmerian as he makes his way in the lands of so-called "civilized" men in the Hyborian Age. After a questionable start with earlier volumes, the re-coloring finally serves to make the artwork look even better than originally presented. Some of that could be due to the fact that Barry Smith's art on the early Conan comics were either just too detailed or reprinted directly from pencils. In those cases, the colors completely overwhelmed Smith's art and made it almost ugly at times. In contrast, Buscema's heavier lines work much better with the re-coloring; however, his style is more generic. In any case, the wonderful art is unfortunately countered by careless re-lettering which often transposes letters or entire words, or omits them altogether. It's difficult to understand just why Dark Horse is having these kinds of quality control problems this far into the series. Anyway, Roy Thomas' detailed notes in the back of the book provide interesting information on the creation of these stories, as well as some hilarious insights (Neal Adams is a sneaky guy). Dark Horse is providing all types of comic fans with a great service by putting these original Conan comics back in print... they just need to proofread them more carefully. In association with Amazon.com | |