Titan's New Conan Comics (In General)

 

In general, as most other people are saying, Titan's new Conan the Barbarian is a return to the Conan comic's glory days, or at least as near as possible. Jim Zub is a solid writer, and Robert de la Torre, though a Buscema riff, is actually better, if anything, than the style he's riffing on. Doug Braithwaite has his own style, but is as good as most of the Old Masters of the 80s and 90s Conan comics. The first story arc, where Conan teams up with a Pictish female warrior named Brissa to defeat an army of Pict-zombies was pretty much excellent, but the Kull vs. Conan via sorcery tale that followed was even better. I believe it happened before back in the day--yes, at least once in a graphic novel. But here we get links to Conan's past (future?), notably the re-encounter with Yag Kosha, the emerald-skinned elephant headed extratrrestrial, who "remembers" what Conan did/will do for him in that future age.

Now when I first saw de la Torre's depiction of Kosha on one of the alternate covers, I suspected that they were either doing a new adaptation of that story (would have been fine by me), or just wanted to do a scene from that tale as cover, but with no connection to the Zub's current story. But now, the cover actually ties on with the story. Then, of course there is the revival of Thalsa Doom, a villain technically created by Howard, who Conan will later battle in the Hyborian Age. Note: the first Conan movie barrowed the name for the main villain played by James Earl Jones, but the original version was not the same. 

I'm not quite so sure about the new companion Savage Sword of Conan. Generally, yes, I'd say it's a return to the good old days; who would have thought B&W Conans would really be available in the old format, complete with pin-ups, editorials and all? The first issue story though, seemed just okay, as barbarian comics go. Not bad, just okay--nothing to compare the old yarns spun by Roy Thomas and Micheal Fleisher. The art looked too computery, and some readers had issues with the grayscale (I didn't so much).  Like I said it's okay, but its the back-up story Solomon Kane, that has really excellent art and story, a bit like a reverse of the old Savage Sword, where the lead stories were the ones with the better art. The quality lasted throughout the Kane story, but the second issues lead Conan tale had art that again was okay, but seemed a bit sketchy. The werewolf story in the third was drawn by Dark Horse comics; great Cary Nord, who probably qualifies as one one of the New Masters of Conan art, but his more painterly techniques he used with the Dark Horse Conan's would have been better. 

    As for the Black Stone series, its a treat to see Howard's other lesser seen heroes like Steve Allison and El Borak get the comic book treatment. But the story and art I just don't care for so far. So basically, much as enjoy the return of Conan to comic form, I'm still a bit lukewarm on the latter two.