Conan And The People Of The Black Circle #4 - A Review

The final issue of this adaptation of Robert E. Howard's People of the Black Circle proves to be as problematic as the previous chapters.  Unlike most of other writers to handle the Conan comics since Dark Horse took over the license, Fred Van Lente liberally removed whole scenes from the original Howard stories in his adaptations.  He also cuts much of the original Howard narration, trusting the art to tell the story.



This might not be a problem if artist Ariel Olivetti were a better visual storyteller.  He's a fine painter but there's very little sense of story from panel to panel.  His choice of expression for some of the characters is also questionable, particularly in the case of our heroine who smiles vapidly when she is meant to be arguing with Conan!

In the end, People of the Black Circle will only be of interest to Conan completists.  And even they might rather skip this story than being subjected to a half-hearted adaptation.