Dark Horse Conan comics collections

After my review last November of John Clute's outstanding collection of Robert E Howard's short fiction, Dark Horse was kind enough to send me all seven collected volumes of their superb Conan graphic novel series.

The series ran from 2004-2008, cycling through an assortment of writers and artists who've taken Howard's work and paid it great justice indeed. Cary Nord, who illustrated the first three books, set a high standard for the art, devoting himself to a Frazetta-esque attention to anatomy, blood, and action. The writers, meanwhile blended Howard's own storylines with original material that serve to connect one adventure to the next (there wasn't much continuity in Howard's original Conan saga, which ran more like a series of discrete adventures, each intended to stand alone).

As I've noted before, I have enormous affection for Conan; these stories are the origin node of the modern network of heroic fantasy, the original strong brew that has been diluted for a million mighty-come-lately adventures. Howard's muscular prose, his romanticization of "uncivilized" life ruled by passion and honor, and his faultless pacing (when in doubt, insert an epic battle with an army of the undead, a pack of thieves, a gang of ice-giants, or, if necessary, a dalliance with a hot-blooded swordswoman that ends with the two fighting back to back against a pack of lions or similar) make each Conan adventure a perfect, blood-pounding escape.

The comics form is especially kind to Conan. The artists are able to do the heavy lifting of setting the scene and depicting the action, whittling away Howard's prose to the unselfconsciously heroic dialog: blood oaths, curses, seductive grunts, defiant yells.

I devoured all seven volumes in three days, reading one at the office and one before bed every night, waking up my wife to show her particularly gore-spattered panels (she's the illustrator in the family and enjoys this stuff as much as I do). It was just wonderful returning to Conan's world, to the heroic lands I'd lived in in my imagination as a boy.

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Billy Blight

I picked these up issue by issue at the Generation X comic book shop in Bedford. This post is making me want to break out the shoe box I keep them in. A good chuck of my dish washing money went to those.

I was very pleased with how true they were to the style and original story. Great stuff.
MrJM

My favorite will always be “Conan the Half-Nekkid”
JuliANSR

I found my uncle’s 1970′s Conan comics when I was 14 or so. Great stories all around and in pretty much every form I’ve encountered.
Robert

He is Conan. He will not cry.
defacebook

The Dark Horse series is strong, but I personally prefer the old B&W comic magazine from the ’70s/’80s The Savage Sword of Conan (which Dark Horse has anthologized). Because the SSC artists (John Buschema in particular) were limited to pen and ink they had to put in a lot more detail than one sees in most color comics. Plus, SSC was geared toward an adult audience, which means there’s more gore and skin — definitely inspired by Frazetta. Naturally, SSC also adapted Howard’s stories, and — for my money — they can’t be beat.
- Thoth Amon
  
  I second that!! I would be at the door of my local convenience store the day the Savage Sword of Conan showed up. I loved the writing and the artists would change frequently which gave it more allure.
greengestalt

I totally LOVE this modern incarnation of Conan by Dark Horse comics. Not that the 70s stuff (esp BWS) and the long term Ernie Chan wasn’t great, but this new lineup is pure awesome! They also don’t just re-do the stories, they lovingly work on them, and also at the same time play tribute to the “Pulp” media they sprang from. There’s a lot of stuff that’s really deep, like some priests/magicians/philosophers talking about how demons fly like fireflies outside the celestial sphere while Conan is hiding over the wall and snickering, preparing to rob someone, etc… It’s one of the so-so Howard stories they are setting the stage for, on how mr “Wizards look cute on the end of my sword.” had picked up weird gnostic knowledge to close out a “Rescue the girl” cliche story.

The “Cimmeria” poem made a beautiful standalone issue. It was actually seeing that poem that got me into reading the stories, not just the comics, for personal reasons.

There is always the “Purist” versus the “I just like Conan” crowd. Some freak that novels like “The hour of the Dragon”, “The Flame Knife” and others were adapted (Carter and DeCamp) from some of REH’s other stories, but oh, well. And I liked the movie, though it made some fans froth with rage. But I saw it as a grade school kid in the big theater! I was kind of POd that they kept calling Arnie the “Governator” when “Arnold the Usurper” would have been cooler!

Conan set the stage for a lot of other stuff, such as the also mentioned “Slaine”… A fantasy enhanced re-telling of the “First High King of Ireland”, it’s pretty amazing and there’s a “Fan Trailer” that is beyond incredible… I so want to see that movie made for real.

I like best how it influenced Richard Corben, who made his own underground and adult comics for decades. They are an acquired taste, but they are incredibly good if you get to read them. At last they had him do some of the stories, the new ones about Conan’s parents.

I furthermore like there are some new movies in the works. A Conan one, likely a King Conan thing. There’s an animated feature that seems to be on hold. And there’s “Solomon Kane”.

I think “The Flame Knife” would make a good movie, or it’s original text, “Three Bladed Doom”. A lot of Howard stories are a bit short for a movie format, but with modern tech and production values they could make nice ‘mini-features’ to put on cable TV. “Bran Mak Morn-Worms of the Earth”, “Conan and the tower of the Elephant”, “The God in the Bowl”, “The Devil in Iron”, for instance…
jcfiala

I’m quite fond of these, although I haven’t picked them all up yet, I intend to in time.

Someone else mentioned that Dark Horse has also been collecting the Savage Sword of Conan stories from the 70′s, and I wanted to point out that they also collected together the various ‘Solomon Kane’ stories that had been done over time in one volume. Great stuff, and rather inexpensive for the wonders you get.
Anonymous

I saw a license plate earlier this week: “KROM”.
Only a Conan fan would get it.
- devophill
  
  That depends on if you live in San Antonio or not, I guess.
jeligula

It’s just not the same without John Buscema and Ernie Chan. Savage Sword all the way.
abulafia

Discovered Conan via SSC way back, then saw the Barry Windsor-Smith issues, then bought ‘The Studio’ book (Dragon’s Dream) which featured a studio of 4 artists working together. Ready? OK, Barry W-Smith, Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson and Jeff Jones. Talk about a 1st team!

From reading the comics, I bought the books. With Frazetta covers. Then the Frazetta books by Ballantyne (in the UK)and began painting seriously myself.

Robert E Howard and Frazetta are both national treasure. Hope somebody is looking after Frank. (see other BB stories, very worrying)

So, yeah, marginal influence :)
Stoo

It was a fantastic series but Cary Nord illustrated the early part of it (and did a fantastic job of it), Kurt Busiek (of Astro City fame) was the writer.
13strong

Cory, have you ever read the Slaine comics originally published in British comic 2000AD? They’re also available in paperback, and might appeal – written by Pat Mills, they blend Conan-style fantasy heroics with a very British tongue in cheek and fantasy pagan mythology, which works brilliantly.

The best of the Slaine stories were produced by Pat Mills and Simon Bisley, and are well worth seeking out. Some of the scenes in which Slaine undergoes his transformative “warp spasm” have to be seen to be believed!

The series is still running, but I haven’t kept up with 2000AD for a long time (it went seriously down-hill, IMO).
- Raum187
  
  @13strong
  Absolutely! I remember being stunned and unnerved by Slaine back in the day.
- Thoth Amon
  
  I had the graphic novel Slaine’ inked by Simon Bisley… amazing stuff. Bizley’s art was just so over the top it is perfect for the hero fighting the great worm.
Chentzilla

Like the look of surprise on the right zombie’s face.
planettom

For the record, there’s two more graphic novels in the Dark Horse series not shown here:

Volume 0: Born on the Battlefield (2008)

and

The Blood-Stained Crown and Other Stories (2008)

basically one-shots from the series.
Anonymous

I really enjoyed the Kurt Busiek books (really, really enjoyed) and found the Tim Truman ones pretty ordinary. My favourite parts of the series were the Mike Mignola arc and the Born on the Battlefield book that planettom mentioned. But, eyah, a great series.