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Savage Sword of Conan Volume 15

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  •  
    Todd Jordan
    Smut is good.

  • Savage Sword of Conan Volume 15



    Published by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: 12/4/2013
    Writers: Charles Dixon, Gary Kwapisz, Don Kraar, Jim Owsley
    Artists: Gary Kwapisz, Ernie Chan, Mike Docherty, Dale Eaglesham, Andy Kubert, Terry Tidwell
    Cover: Joe Jusko
    Purchase at Amazon

    Dark Horse continues its ongoing reprint series of Marvel Comics' Conan titles, with its latest installment of a collection of issues of the great black-and-white comic magazine that had its heyday in the 1970s and into the mid-1990s, The Savage Sword of Conan. This edition reprints portions from issues 151 through 160, which were originally published in 1988 and 1989. The cover is by Joe Jusko, which was the cover for issue 159, and the covers for all the issues are inside (in black-and-white), with artwork by Earl Norem, Doug Beekman, Joe Jusko (more than just the cover of this volume), Dorian Vallejo, and Ovi Hondru . Also in these pages are pin-ups by Ernie Chan, Kelley Jones, Dale Eaglesham, and Tony Salmons. The 546-page book features scripts and illustrations from a host of talent for a good variety of Conan stories. Here's an idea of some of the stories within:
    • “Fury of the Near-Men”: Conan finds himself stranded in the flats plains, where he befriends a family out on the hunt for live creatures to sell for whatever purpose. An attack by monkey men separates them and Conan becomes the leader of wildcat men and he teaches them the ways of fire and war. He saves the chick in the family (of course) from the monkey men and she doesn't shut up the whole time he is saving her.

    • “Valley Beyond the Stars”: In an effort to save some pilgrims from robbers and murderers so that he may rob them himself, Conan finds himself tagging along to help them on their quest to stop the re-entry into this world of Sothath, an evil and disgusting (and gigantic) entity from the Netherworld.

    • “Phantasm”: Red Sonja and Conan have a friendly bout of fighting and ball-busting, with a great amount of sexual tension between them. The story intersperses images of them in romantic embrace, which is in their heads. It's what they really want to do to each other, but instead they chose to beat the shit out of one another

    • “Behind the Walls of Night”: Conan hooks up with a wrinkled old man looking for mercenaries to conduct a mission unrevealed to them until they are at their destination. Once they are there, they meet with another man looking to reclaim his family heirlooms from a village they've reached. Once there, it is revealed to them a plague overtook the rich man's village and the heirlooms are inside. The village is covered in roofs, and according to the man this was done to contain the plague a few years back. Well, the plague it would is one of the blood-sucking variety and they are more than happy to see humans, as they've been barricaded in the village/tomb for quite some time. Conan does his thing, and has little if any compassion for those who entered the village with him.


    The black-and-white format may turn some folks off, but to this reader black-and-white comic magazines were the best. And as a horny kid, the b+w books were always good for a flash of some female skin and they were always far more violent than the regular comics. Conan mags never pushed the envelope too far, but just far enough to be desired over the standard color books. The look of the Dark Horse book is clean and very white, compared to the pulpy gray paper of the day, which does take away from the nostalgia a bit, but it's nice all the same. The artwork is certainly fitting for Conan, but also certainly a product of its time, and far less flashy than the newer (last 10 years) Conan material from Dark Horse. There's nothing wrong with that at all, just something to think about if you're looking for something more “modern”. There's enough detail for certain, but most of the artwork, aside from the painted covers lacks anything noteworthy, although the Ernie Chan stuff rocks. The painted covers are great, though less stunning in grayscale.

    It's Conan, and it's the Conan so many of us grew up reading: cheesy one-liners, talking through every activity whether alone or not, giant beasts, giant breasts, womanizing, and the most macho man ever to wear a loin cloth. The stories are pretty predictable but that doesn't take away at all from how fun they are to read. And a book like this, filled with 50 page stories, is great reading when you're in your quiet room completing the last stage of the digestion process. It's great quick reading without the need to retain any info.


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