I recently got my hands on the CONAN comics from darkhorse.
My recent interest in Conan was the result of reading Conan: The Phenomenonhttp://www.amazon.com/Conan-Phenomenon-Paul-Sammon/dp/1593076533/ref=pd_sim_b_2 from the neighborhood library - basically the book's talking about everybody's favorite Barbarian (Thundarr gets no love from me), Robert E. Howard (REH) - the original author/creator for Conan, and Conan's appearances in various media (REH's stories, the Carter/Camp pastiches, the movies, the comics and so on). I had read a few of the Marvel comics and I remember an early Windsor-Smith novel about the passing of the grey god, Borri that powerfully affected me (not an original REH composition but I thought very much in the spirit of some of his work which I discovered much later). To me, Sal Buscema's Conan is still the Conan I picture in my mind when I think of Conan. (it's not Arnold even tho' I like the movies). Well, anyways, the book praised Dark Horse' take on the character recently and so I started searching for this series.
I finally found it and have read about 30 issues (they are unputdownable) of about a 50-issue run - Dark Horse terminated CONAN but now are publishing another line called Conan The Cimmerian which I have not read.
However, I am quite taken up by the artwork - it's not what I typically like (I like detailed and semi-realistic rather than fancy work) but this is quite good. Also the writing (Kurt Busiek wrote quite a few of these) is great. While I didn't like The Tower of the Elephant (I preferred Marvel's take on it), it was "fleshed" out more with the introduction of multiple recurring characters (Jiara, Nestor the Gunderman, Janissa, Thoth-Amon, etc.).
Also they don't shy away from the violence - several decapitations can be seen in these books. There's one graphic nude (alternate cover, I think) and some artistically nude (ie, things can't be seen clearly) in it too. Which I don't mind.
The only thing that I didn't like was that they initially said that they would present Conan chronologically (stopping at various points to cover the important REH material) but I was surprised to see them do a much later story when Conan is a mercenary and is with Kalanthes, (which shouldn't be possible since Kalanthes sacrifices himself early on in the series).
I particularly liked the Scheherzade (sp?) take of a price listening to the Wazir discovering Conan's exploits a few centuries later via tales (the Nemedian Chronicles!). And how they've twisted it around (that Wazir looks mightly familiar to me!)
Here's the amazon list that I've been using for this series.
I am completely hooked. It's the whole telling a long interconnected story piece that's got me hooked. I can't wait to see what will happen with Nestor for example!
Anybody else like this series? Was it well received when it came out? How does the Conan the Cimmerian series compare to this?
My recent interest in Conan was the result of reading Conan: The Phenomenonhttp://www.amazon.com/Conan-Phenomenon-Paul-Sammon/dp/1593076533/ref=pd_sim_b_2 from the neighborhood library - basically the book's talking about everybody's favorite Barbarian (Thundarr gets no love from me), Robert E. Howard (REH) - the original author/creator for Conan, and Conan's appearances in various media (REH's stories, the Carter/Camp pastiches, the movies, the comics and so on). I had read a few of the Marvel comics and I remember an early Windsor-Smith novel about the passing of the grey god, Borri that powerfully affected me (not an original REH composition but I thought very much in the spirit of some of his work which I discovered much later). To me, Sal Buscema's Conan is still the Conan I picture in my mind when I think of Conan. (it's not Arnold even tho' I like the movies). Well, anyways, the book praised Dark Horse' take on the character recently and so I started searching for this series.
I finally found it and have read about 30 issues (they are unputdownable) of about a 50-issue run - Dark Horse terminated CONAN but now are publishing another line called Conan The Cimmerian which I have not read.
However, I am quite taken up by the artwork - it's not what I typically like (I like detailed and semi-realistic rather than fancy work) but this is quite good. Also the writing (Kurt Busiek wrote quite a few of these) is great. While I didn't like The Tower of the Elephant (I preferred Marvel's take on it), it was "fleshed" out more with the introduction of multiple recurring characters (Jiara, Nestor the Gunderman, Janissa, Thoth-Amon, etc.).
Also they don't shy away from the violence - several decapitations can be seen in these books. There's one graphic nude (alternate cover, I think) and some artistically nude (ie, things can't be seen clearly) in it too. Which I don't mind.
The only thing that I didn't like was that they initially said that they would present Conan chronologically (stopping at various points to cover the important REH material) but I was surprised to see them do a much later story when Conan is a mercenary and is with Kalanthes, (which shouldn't be possible since Kalanthes sacrifices himself early on in the series).
I particularly liked the Scheherzade (sp?) take of a price listening to the Wazir discovering Conan's exploits a few centuries later via tales (the Nemedian Chronicles!). And how they've twisted it around (that Wazir looks mightly familiar to me!)
Here's the amazon list that I've been using for this series.
I am completely hooked. It's the whole telling a long interconnected story piece that's got me hooked. I can't wait to see what will happen with Nestor for example!
Anybody else like this series? Was it well received when it came out? How does the Conan the Cimmerian series compare to this?
