Brian Wood is writing a strangely enjoyable off-beat sort of take on Conan the Cimmerian over in the ongoing title, but if you’re pining for a classic sword and sorcery comic that would be fit for the weather-worn and yellowing pages of an heirloom title, then look no further than the latest “King Conan” miniseries.
Written by Timothy Truman
Illustrated by Tomás Giorello
Colors by José VillarrubiaKing Conan has faced many threats to his throne in Aquilonia—but none more deadly than a traitorous alliance backed by the resurrected sorcerer Xaltotun, at whose command mountains crumble!
Conan tends to be thought of as the imposing barbarian battler that the classic image of Arnold Schwarzenegger brandishing a broadsword suggests. It tends to be undersold that Robert E. Howard’s Conan led a vast and varied life, filled with many different roles while maintaining his very specific personality and psyche. Truman chooses to adapt Howard’s only actual “Conan” novel in the tried-and-true manner of having an aged Conan detailing his adventures to a young scribe. These early scenes capture Conan’s inner turmoil and, perhaps, the pangs of some manner of regret. It’s a turmoil that is revisited as a recurring motif in many of Conan’s adventures, including the one he is about to speak of, and it’s one of the reasons why Conan endures as a character who is more dimensional than he appears on the surface.
As Conan drifts into his tale, Truman highlights the melancholy and nostalgia that Conan feels for some of the most important people he’s met along his journey: the women who were able to capture his heart. This will no doubt inform the rest of the story throughout its remaining five issues. It’s one of the many weights of the long and trying life that Conan carries with him and Truman is careful not to lose sight of it. As a group of men conspire together and resort to black magic in an attempt to best Conan, we always get the sense that there are unseen and unspoken conflicts at play. There is an army-on-army war, to be sure, but Conan is at his best when he is shown to be wary of ethereal or potential conflicts and obstacles. There’s an intuition, sometimes bordering on superstition mixed with precognition, that Truman recognizes in the character that is true to the way he was presented by Howard all those years ago and acts as another strong aspect of Conan’s mystique.
At times, the imagery in the dialogue borders on too overt for its own good, yet this is a mark of a faithful adaptation of source material. After all, for all the complexities in the Conan character, his sword-and-sorcery tales wear their (soap) operatic nature on their sleeves. The ornate dialogue, stark imagery, and the unmistakeable symbolism of Conan’s turmoil is entirely present with all of its strengths and its time-worn weaknesses.
That stark imagery is captured in lush detail by the art combo of Giorello and Villarrubia, who work in concert to achieve a look that works as both a modern comic book that is not visually dry for one second, but acts as a visual pastiche of the sorts of Conan comics that were written and drawn in the 1970’s. Villarrubia uses a lush variety of ever-so-faded colors to create a look to match the era that the writing is coming from. Tans, browns, and faded golds of a bygone age dominate, with splashes of purples and reds to add color to the adventures when appropriate. Giorello begins the issue establishing the aged Conan as an object of intrigue and success in his kingdom, with the tinge of the aforementioned turmoil present in his appearance and behind his eyes. As the story unfolds, Giorello shows the ability to evoke dark magic and sword-and-sorcery with a keen sense for what the original Conan stories were going for. As Conan is tormented by unseen fears in the night, there is a sense of build-up in the visual pacing when the multiple conflicts begin to reveal themselves. The heavy use of blacks that scratch and fade give the effect that the art may be giving way to the paper beneath it. Again, this evokes comics of decades past while maintaining a style of linework that is relevant for the current comic marketplace. If there is any aspect of the art that misses any beats, it could be in the visual sound effects, which are produced with a digital opacity that doesn’t match the rest of the art or the lettering, and juxtaposes oddly with the intentions of other conscious art choices.
In some ways, sword-and-sorcery is as relevant as ever. As modern fans of visual storytelling in a variety of media come to discover a new appreciation for fantasy and fantasy-based dramatic machinations, there is no doubt that Conan will continue to maintain his throne among them. Books like “King Conan” endure because they find ways to stay relevant and satiate fans who like to see reinterpretations of classic stories. With a sense of comic book storytelling that is an expert mix of modern and vintage, “The Hour of the Dragon” satisfies the every need of “Conan” fans of any era.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – Buy. Immerse yourself in classic Conan.
