Conan The Barbarian #22 - A Review

Conan The Barbarian #22 proves that any work - no matter how good - can be completely destroyed in translation by unskilled adapters.  If it weren't for the fact that this is the final arc on this book for this creative team, I'd consider dropping the title completely.  As it is, this issue inspired nothing within me save a desire to reread the old Roy Thomas Conan comics to see it retold properly.


Brian Wood does not adapt Robert E. Howard's original text - he butchers it, like Conan chopping his way through a horde of Stygians!  While the dialogue in this book does capture the basic gist of Howard's original story, much of the original passionate dialogue is gone.  For instance, Conan's famed musings on the nature of reality and how it matters little if life is an illusion so long as he is part of that illusion is cut completely.  Curiously the only text Wood leaves intact is the written descriptions of things that could be more clearly conveyed in the artwork.



Then again - considering artist Riccardo Burchielli - Wood may well have good reason to trust the text over the art.  Burchielli is not a bad artist but his sense of cinematography is odd.  Many is the conversation where we cannot see the characters talking, being instead treated to a far-shot of the ship or the surrounding environment.  When the characters do appear, they are often turned away from the reader - the better for Belit to flash her half-bared backside to the reader!

Conan The Barbarian #21 - A Review

Anticlimactic is the most succinct way to describe Conan The Barbarian #21  I can say little more than that without spoiling the whole book.  I can say that little is made of last issue's cliffhanger, which saw Belit possessed by some spirit/deity and declaring her love for the evil sorceress whose cult has been hounding Conan and Belit for the past two issues.  Brian Wood's script tries to inspire the unknown horror of a Lovecraftian mystery cult but fails to provide enough details to evoke the proper mood.


Another problem with this issue is its' treatment of Belit, reducing her to a damsel in distress role and only allowing her true personality to emerge in the final pages.  Even then she has no dialogue!  The only sequence that truly works depicts Conan escaping his pursers by showcasing the Cimmerian's hereunto seen ability to make friends with wolves.


The artwork of Paul Azaceta and Dave Stewart continues to be this book's weakest point.  The sequences in the wolf caves are quite effective and Azaceta's tendency to over-ink and Stewart's dark palette work well in this context.  The rest of the book, however, looks dark, dull, drab and lifeless. 

Conan The Barbarian #20 - A Review

As in last month's issue, Conan The Barbarian #20 proves to be a lackluster affair.  The best moments are the quiet ones between Belit and Conan at the start of the issue.  Brian Wood has done a fine job of developing the relationship that Robert E. Howard - by virtue of the format he had to write in - was barely able to hint at. 

The love between the two warrior thieves is obvious but not perfect.  We see this when Belit fails to find amusement in the Cimmerian children's tale Conan tells when she asks for a story to ease her worried mind.  True to form, she notes with dark sarcasm - given their current problem with being hunted in a dark forest by crazed cultists - that Conan seems to have failed to learn the lesson of his own story. 


It is once we move past these quiet moments and into the action of the issue that things fall apart.  Paul Azaceta is a good penciler but his work seems too stiff and posed for a high-action series like Conan.  Dave Stewart's dull palette doesn't help matters, with most of the colors being muted greys and off-whites.


Wood's story almost makes this worth reading but the book still struggles against its' own static artwork  As it is, this series can only be tolerated by the most devout of sword-and-sorcery readers.  Go read Red Sonja if you seek gigantic mirth to go with your gigantic melancholies.   

Conan The Barbarian #19 - A Review

If I had to pick one word to describe Conan The Barbarian #19, it would be uninspired.  The story, centering around Conan and Belit's efforts to ransom a stolen holy object back to its' owners, is as uninspired and lifeless as the book's artwork.  Paul Azaceta's artwork is far too static and posed for what is mean to be an action & adventure book.


The script by Brain Wood seems more like an H.P. Lovecraft story than a Robert E. Howard one.  There's precious little action and far more weird babbling by strange priests about dark secrets than there is honest bloodshed.  Hell, the most exciting moment of the comic comes when Belit stabs a man who asks Conan about buying her.



Dave Stewart's muted coloring is another strike against this book.  His muted palette made sense in the issues set in the gloomy land of Cimmeria but it seems dull and drab here.  There are splashes of color here and there, primarily in the few moments of action.  While it's an interesting stylistic choice, it would have been far more effective for the artist to make the action scenes exciting rather than trusting the colorist to define everything. 

Conan The Barbarian #18 - A Review

Fans of action and high-adventure, rejoice!  Brain Wood's yellow lotus psychodrama has reached it's conclusion after three months.  And I for one couldn't be happier to wake-up from "The Nightmare Of The Shallows". 


Did you ever want to read a story about Conan having kids, growing old and dying after living a peaceful existence with Belit on a deserted island?  If so, then congratulations!  This issue has been written to your incredibly specific tastes.  For the rest of us, this issue has little to offer.  Wood is generally a good writer but this issue lacks the punch of the first two chapters as we only see things from Conan's perspective this time and there is precious little thrill in a story we know to be the result of a dream. 


At least the artwork of David Gianfelice and Dave Stewart continues to impress.  Gianfelice is an excellent visual storyteller and what little action there is in the issue is choreographed well.  Stewart's palette gives everything a vibrancy that defies the dream-like nature of the sedate story.  With any luck they'll have a chance to illustrate something more exciting in future issues. 

Conan The Barbarian #15 - A Review

Last month, I wrote a fair bit about Robert E. Howard, his view of women and the thin line between chivalric Romanticism and sexism.  This was inspired, in part, by a story that centered upon the character of the pirate queen Belit without really involving her directly in the action.  Conan The Barbarian #15 is a similar beast, despite Belit being directly involved in the action of the story.


Brian Wood tells a tale of two romances in this issue.  These romances are, perhaps, not worthy of the name by modern terms and the characters involved lack the words to describe their emotions in those terms.  Hyboria is not a land that inspires sweet words of woo but it is a classically Romantic place, where passions run wild and the power of nature and natural things is greater than any civilization.  It is a place where love is forged amid lust when a pirate queen watches a barbarian rogue fight her men to a stand-still single-handed.  It is where love blossoms where a slavegirl is purchased by a warlord's son with more gold than sense, to be freed rather than to be used.  This later story, we find out later, is the origin of Belit's parents but it offers echos of Conan and Belit's own romance later on, when Conan meets Belit's father and discovers why Belit has returned to the Shemite fortress where she was born.  I've never thought of Conan as a romantic hero, in either sense of the word, but Wood's dialogue firmly establishes Conan as both.


All of this is lovingly illustrated with equal boldness by Andrea Mutti, Pierluigi Baldassini and  Dave Stewart.  Mutti's pencils are detailed without being dirty and Baldassini's inks offer just the right amount of definition and shade.  Stewart's color palette, while being largely a collection of greys and browns, proves quite rich and visually inspiring in spite of that.  This book is as visually amazing as it is well-written and if you aren't reading it now, you should start immediately.

Conan The Barbarian #14 - A Review

Robert E. Howard has been written off by many fantasy fans as a sexist author.  I personally find this to be an unfair consideration but I understand it given how many of the original Conan stories featured women in peril and everyone's favorite burly barbarian slaying the monster, saving the girl and then 'saving her' again several times that night, if you know what I mean and I think you do.  (Thanks Joe Bob Briggs!)  While many of Howard's personal views are undeniably backward by modern standards, his views on the fairer sex and gender equality are less clear.

The original Conan stories do possess many sexist elements but that may have stemmed less from Howard's personal beliefs and more from his catering to the fetishes of his editor at Weird Tales.  Sex Sells and with The Great Depression in full-swing, Howard literally could not afford to stand on principle - hence all the slavegirls in bondage.  And yet, Howard's most memorable female characters - and the ones for whom he seemed to have the greatest personal affection - were the women warriors like the pirate Queen of the Black Coast, Belit, who refused to bow down to anyone or meekly accept society's expectations.   


Howard's personal letters also point to a different sort of man than the one suggested by some of his fictional writings.  Here we find a man who, while defying all but the broadest definitions of a feminist male, could be said to have a chivalric or romanticized view of women without a hint of misogyny.  He wrote that he dreamed of one-day being able to write and sell a "Conan yarn without sex interest." and indeed did so with the posthumously published Beyond The Black River. And in one personal letter Howard chided a friend for his own attitudes about women's influence on Western Civilization and named a number of great historical women (Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great and Sappho among them) in proving his point that there were many great female leaders, poets and philosophers.

I mention all this because the script for Conan the Barbarian #14 by Brian Wood is very much in line with Howard as he wrote Belit, yet she barely figures into the action of the story at all.  After a flashback where Conan remembers the active warrior Belit he chased into the Shemish desert. he confronts the strange new reality of a Belit who passively watches battle from the ramparts of a besieged city.  Forcibly conscripted into the opposing army, Conan quickly grows tired of waiting and hearing his fellow soldiers discuss the mysterious woman on the wall.  He plots to invade the city with a small group to break the siege.  Here we see the early signs of a Conan who will one day become a captain of mercenaries and eventually a general and king on the battlefield. 


The artwork of Mirko Colak continues to amaze.  There is a clarity to Colak's pencils that is as simple and powerful as Cimmeria's favorite son.  The palette chosen by colorist Dave Stewart also deserves praise, for perfectly capturing the muted shades of a city and military camp at night. 

All in all, this issue is worthy of Robert E. Howard's legacy.  The artwork perfectly depicts the excitement of combat and the mystery of a covert mission.  The script provides plentiful action and intrigue.  There's even a curious twist near the end that will leave the readers anxious for the next issue.

Conan The Barbarian #12 - A Review

I'd complained in recent months that Conan The Barbarian had become something close to a talking-heads comic.  What little action existed was sparse and it seemed that we had more pages devoted toward Conan and Belit talking about their relationship than we had honest action.  That changes with this issue, though the opening does start with Conan brooding on his own in a tavern.  This time, however, Brian Wood is quicker about getting on with the story and we see more of the ready wit that lies at the heart of Conan's character.


I am somewhat torn on Brian Wood's script in one regard.  While the plot regarding the sickly crew of The Tigress is played-out well and the action scenes in the second act are well-paced, I am concerned about the surprise revelation that is tossed out at the end of the comic.  I cannot even hint at it without spoiling all, so I'll say nothing here.  Suffice it to say, it is bothersome that we only see this part of the story from Conan's point of view and not from Belit's as the tragedy involved touches her even more deeply than it does our favorite barbarian.  Hopefully we'll see things from Belit's perspective soon, if not in the next issue. 


Declan Shalvey's artwork is as amazing as ever, simple without being simplistic.  The inks and shadows are largely kept light, giving all the artwork an appearance not unlike that of painted woodcuts.  The coloring by Dave Stewart helps throw the action into sharp contrast, accomplishing with one tinted panel what a pint of drawn blood can not.

Conan the Barbarian is still a worthy read, though a slow-paced one that reads better in trade collections than as a monthly comic.  Brian Wood touches upon these classic characters with a thoughtfulness unseen since the days of Kurt Busiek.  The artwork by Declan Shalvey is top-notch.  Still the finest fantasy comic on the market, despite my issues with the pacing.

Conan The Barbarian #11 - A Review

I fear I've grown bored of Brain Wood's thoughtful take on Conan The Barbarian.  And by thoughtful, I mean there are more pages of people standing around talking than there are scenes of honest combat.  While this sort of thing is okay in moderation - and indeed, I enjoyed last month's issue which was mostly scenes of Conan and Belit discussing their relationship - two issues in a row of Conan brooding on his place in the universe is a bit much. 



By my count, this issue has two and a half pages of combat compared to five pages of Conan having hallucinations while on an inexplicable vision quest that serves no obvious purpose in the story apart from padding the page count..  This is, to my mind, unacceptable.  Does this mean I want nothing but mindless action in a Conan story?  Of course not!  Robert E. Howard wrote many thoughtful scenes of Conan philosophizing but those scenes were interspersed with scenes of Conan kicking ass.  This book, by contrast, is all talk with little action.



At least the artwork by Declan Shaley is appropriately atmospheric.  What precious little action exists is paced well and ably illustrated.  And Shaley manages the difficult task of drawing a Belit who looks sickly yet strong at the same time, though her appearance does not stay consistent between the two scenes we see her in - her blotchy skin vanished when it comes time for her to bail Conan out of a fight.

Conan The Barbarian #10 - A Review

As Conan The Barbarian #10 opens, Belit grows fearful that Conan may be getting tired of their life together.  She's certainly growing bored, as their reputation now inspires merchant ships to surrender their booty without a fight.  This state of affairs has made them wealthier than gods but holds little attraction for a warrior queen who lives for battle and she fears the same restlessness may drive Conan away. 

Naturally Conan hasn't put as much thought into this, being a straight-forward man of simple tastes.  He is as content as any man of action may be when he's offered regular combat, decent food and drink, good friends and a girlfriend who spends much of her time lounging on her throne wearing nothing but jewelery and a sultry smile.  Naturally this state of affairs won't last and a chance encounter with an abandoned ship and a sickly prisoner promises horrors aplenty next month.


One might accuse Brian Wood of feminizing Robert Howard's famous pirate queen a bit much with her mooning in this issue.  Yet this faucet of Belit's personality does not seem untrue, considering Howard wrote her as similarly thoughtful and brooding in Queen of the Black Coast, as she pondered the nature of the gods and asked Conan for his thoughts.  And while Belit may voice concerns about herself and Conan to her shaman, she is no shrinking violet and is quick to call Conan out on his behavior and equally quick to action when needed.


The artwork by Declan Shalvey is a step-up from the artwork seen in previous months, no less stylized but far less cartoonish and exaggerated.  Conan is once again lean and wolvish, as Howard described him.  Belit is a pale beauty, no longer white as a drowned corpse.  Skillful shadowing captures the somber mood evoked by Wood's script perfectly. 

If you had told me a week ago that I'd ever have nice things to say about a Conan The Barbarian comic with more scenes of Conan and Belit talking about their relationship than scenes of our favorite Hyborian heroes kicking ass and taking names, I'd be forced to call you a liar.  And yet - here it is - a Conan comic that is virtually all set-up and no action.  And I enjoyed it, as I suspect you might too if you are a fan of low fantasy and high adventure.   

Conan The Barbarian #9 - A Review

This most recent issue of Conan the Barbarian bothers me more than last month's, yet not for the same reasons.  Do not misunderstand me - the art by Vasilis Lolos appears as misshapen and overly stylized as ever and Brian Wood's scripts still seem more focused on the poetry of our characters' thoughts than on depicting action.  Indeed, the fact that this issue features a credible, well-paced action sequence with an effective resolution proves the only real difference between this issue and the last.


So what vexes me so much about this issue?  It is Belit's role throughout this story.  The idea of placing Belit in a situation where Conan's talents make him better suited toward taking the lead is not a bad one in theory.  The execution, however, leaves much to be desired. 

Belit is utterly helpless in the unfamiliar territory of Cimmeria and is reduced to the role of a damsel in distress for the entirety of the story.  While this might have worked early on  Belit isn't given a chance to redeem herself after her humiliation before Conan's mother and the women of his home town.  She is denied any chance to aid Conan in the battle against his enemy, being told to lay down and stay out of the way - something she does without complaint!  Indeed, she disappears for half of this issue until it comes time for her to taunt Conan's mother by basically saying "Yes, you think I'm worthless.  But your son likes me.  So, meh!"  A sad thing - to see the proud warrior queen who commends The Tigress be reduced to the level of a jealous sitcom wife 


This is far from the worst Conan story I've ever read but that is damning it with faint praise.  Hopefully the upcoming issues with bring Belit back to greatness - preferably with a better artist.

Conan The Barbarian (2012) #8 - A Review

The latest issue of Conan The Barbarian can be summed up in one word - filler.



Brian Wood's prose crafts a gloomy picture of Cimmeria. As well it should, given that the Bard of Cross Plains himself described it as a sombre land with "clouds that piled forever on the hills". I do not think, however, that Wood wished to inspire such gloom and boredom as Conan must have felt when he first left his dismal homeland seeking adventure. There is little action in this issue save for one sword fight. What we do get, however, is a lot of walking and several soulful talks between Conan and Belit (which prompted some critics to dub this book "Conan The Emo") as they peruse the warrior who has committed several acts of random slaughter in Conan's name. While I have no objection to soulful speeches in a Conan comic and am sure that we'll have action aplenty once our heroes catch up with the villain, this issue still seems slow-paced.


I have no such excuses for the art by Vasilis Lolos. Calling Lolo's work a step-down from Becky Cloonan's work in last month's issue would be inaccurate. This is not a step-down. This is a fall down a full flight of stairs. When Conan appears to be wearing eye-liner in an Egyptian wig and Belit appears to be a simpering geshia, things have gone horribly wrong somewhere.

Conan The Barbarian (2012) #7 - A Review

In his time since leaving home, Conan has become a thief, a reaver and a slayer. He has journeyed further than any of his race dared before, from the snowy plains of Hyperboria to the lust pits of Zamora. He has faced dark wizards, foul demons and gigantic beasts alike without fear. But now, as he returns to his homeland of Cimmeria for the second time since beginning his wanderings, Conan must face his greatest challenge yet - introducing his mother to his girlfriend!



Brian Wood takes this broad concept beyond its' sitcom stylings and tells a story that is both serious and seriously good. True, there is a another subplot involving a raider who has stolen Conan's name and identity to attack other Cimmerians. But this story takes the backseat to the main drama which centers upon Belit and her discomfort among the Cimmerian people. It would have been easy to play off the fish-out-of-water comedic tropes here but Wood is (mercifully) a better writer than that. There is very little comedy here - merely character development as Belit is forced to cope with a place where her ability for command and noble heritage mean nothing as Conan himself must cope with the realization that the place of his birth no longer has any place for him.



Becky Cloonan returns to the art duties on this book with this issue and the title is all the richer for her presence. Under Cloonan's pencils, Belit manages to look uncomfortable without ever looking weak, despite her continual discomfort throughout the issue. Her Conan is, true to Robert E. Howard's descriptions, a wolfish figure one can easily see sneaking upon an enemy in a dark alleyway. And her backgrounds accurately convey the majestic grandeur of Conan's homeland. Colorist Dave Stewart also deserves praise for choosing a palette that perfectly captures the bleak splendor of Cimmeria.

If you haven't given Conan The Barbarian a chance before, now is the perfect time to give it a try!

Conan The Barbarian (2012) #4-6 - A Review

It's been a few months since I did a review of Brian Wood's Conan The Barbarian. At first, I was planning to review the series one storyline at a time. But things got in the way - as they do - and the next thing I knew the series was into its' second storyline and I hadn't said a word about new artist James Harren, who took over the art duties from Becky Cloonan with Issue #4.




Sadly, the loss of Cloonan has sent the quality level of this book spiraling downward. Harren's Conan puts me in the mind of Brock Samson from The Venture Brothers. While this style might work for a more comedic tale (ala Bruce Timm's Conan's Favorite Joke) I find it ill-suited for depicting the dramatic story Brian Wood has been telling for the last three issues.

At least Brian Wood's story is still as strong as ever. Wood manages to make Conan a sympathetic figure, even in the midst of the tensest action scenes. Some have called Wood's take on Conan "Conan The Emo", due to the barbarian's brooding over the warrior woman Belit. I must admit to finding some of these scenes annoying, particularly the scene in Issue #5 where Conan is imprisoned and begins to despair that he will die alone and in a hangman's noose. Pondering dark truths and the ways of women deeply is one thing... but this just seems uncharacteristic of Conan. Still, the action scenes are well laid out and Belit is portrayed as a true equal to Conan.

Despite my reservations over the art, I'd still recommend this title to most comic readers.

Conan The Barbarian (2012) #1 - A Review

Continuing on from where Roy Thomas's 12-issue Conan: Road Of Kings mini-series ended, this latest Conan The Barbarian book starts in the the thick of it. As the book opens, Conan is rushing for the docks of Messentia with the guards in hot pursuit. Just barely making the leap onto a departing boat, Conan explains to all assembled just why he was in search a hurry to get out of town.

Luckily the ship's master, a merchant named Tito, proves to be no friend of the corrupt courts of Messentia and is all too glad to have an experienced swordsman on his ship given the recent troubles with raiders. One group of reavers in particular, led by the pirate queen Belit, has become particularly infamous. But while Conan is quick to pledge his sword in defense of his new friend, a part of him cannot help but wonder about this woman who sounds as fierce and dangerous as Conan himself...

Following Roy Thomas, who first adapted Robert E. Howard's Conan for comic books almost 40 years ago, would be a hard act for any writer to follow but Brian Wood proves to be up to the task. Wood is a wonderful adapter, thus far showing a perfect sense of when to quote from the original text and when to paraphrase or add a little of his own material. A prime example of this comes early on, as Wood captures the essence of Howard's original prose while still condensing it into language that will fit more easily among the illustrations.





I am glad to see that this scene remained intact, for this scene - to my mind at least - shows more of Conan's true character than any other scene in the Howard canon. Far from being the mindless brute he is so frequently portrayed as, Conan does have a certain wit about him and proves to be no mean storyteller, quickly winning over the sailors whose ship he has hastily boarded through sheer charisma. Conan is not one to waste words when action is needed but he can wax eloquently when necessary.

Later, we see see one of Wood's additions to the story, which I approve of as it makes a good deal of sense. As Tito tells Conan of the Belit, we see how Conan's mind wanders. Tito speaks of the evil that this dangerous she-devil has wrought upon the peaceable sailors but all Conan can think of is how much she sounds like the warrior women of his own people's legends. It's been long-established that Conan - while not being particularly picky about whom he shares a bed with - has always had a particular affection for women who share his own sense of adventure and that he always dreamed of a woman who had steel under her silken skin. Not only does this make Conan a more realistic hero (what young man DOESN'T think of his dream woman at least once a day?) but I believe it also will serve to make his later efforts to romance Belit somewhat less sudden. Those of you who have read the original story know what I mean.





The artwork by Becky Cloonan is equally praiseworthy. Cloonan stands among that rare group of artists who managed to design a Conan who does not appear boorish, brainless or bull-necked. Howard most often described Conan in comparison to great cats - tigers and panthers - a man as fast as he is strong, yet most Conan artists draw Cimmeria's favorite son as a mass of muscle. That is not the case here. Cloonan's Conan looks lean, cunning and wolfish.

Her Belit, from what little we have seen so far, looks equally formidable - looking like a goddess with ivory limbs and hair black as a Stygian night yet capable of handling herself in a fight. Colorist Dave Stewart, too, deserves praise for his choice of pallete. The day scenes, night scenes and dream sequences all have their own unique color schemes, which helps to subtly move the story along.

If you have not been fortunate enough to experience the adventures of Conan of Cimmeria yet, now is the perfect time to jump on board and set sail for high adventure!