Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3

March 15, 2004
In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics began publishing its versions of Robert E. Howard's 1930s pulp-magazine tales of Conan the Barbarian, thereby launching a sword-and-sorcery fad that rivaled the popularity of its superhero titles. In the third in a series reprinting Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith's entire run with Conan, the barbarian faces wizards, witches, demons, and even a band of everyday pirates. Burdened with convoluted plots and excessive dialogue, most of it in various shades of purple, the vintage stories lack the comparative sophistication of today's comics; however, most of that lack derives from Howard's original conception, which Thomas adapted too faithfully, perhaps. The main appeal, now as then, lies in Windsor-Smith's elegant, meticulous artwork (obscured here by sometimes-murky recoloring). His Conan possessed an underlying nobility that subsequent artists have failed to capture. This collection also includes two fill-in stories by veteran artist Gil Kane, which serve mostly to play up Windsor-Smith's indispensability. The stories may have lost luster, but Windsor-Smith hasn't, and his fans will welcome this volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)