When I heard that Titan Comics was going to do a black and white The Savage Sword of Conan comic, I was pretty excited. I have fond memories of Marvel’s black and white comic magazines, especially Planet of the Apes, but I also read a number of issues of The Savage Sword of Conan.
My local comic book shop sold out the day of release, but I was able to pick up a copy at another larger shop a few days later. They had one copy left of the Zaffino B cover and about ten copies of the Jusko A cover. The Zaffino cover looks great, but I got the Jusko cover as I love his work.
The cover, the stories, the pinups, the prose story, and the essay all combine to make a pretty nice package just like issues from the original run. I’m glad it’s back and I hope it does well, but I have mixed feelings about this first issue. As other reviews have pointed out, there was a problem with the printing and a number of pages appear much too dark. Hopefully that will be addressed in future issues, but my main critique is of the art in the lead story.
Conan and the Dragon Horde by John Arcudi and Max Von Fafner
Conan is working as a mercenary for a prince seeking a treasure in a story with intrigue and lots of action. It’s great getting an extra-long story that’s complete in one issue and while I thought the story was fine, I did not care for the art at all, and not because of the dark pages. I enjoy all kinds of comic book art but to me what was presented here was wildly inconsistent. Conan looked fine and I liked the action scenes, but so many other things bothered me.
Some spoilers here as I’ll be describing scenes from the story.
The first panel with elephants appears to be an awkward photo collage with randomly slapped on ears. After that, the elephants are drawn differently throughout the rest of the story.
The splash page introducing Conan looked great at first glance but when looking at it again the perspective looks odd. He looks like he’s riding a pony. (I haven’t read all the Conan stories yet so if this is some kind of Cimmerian battle pony that I was unaware of, I stand corrected. Great, now I’m picturing Arnold Schwarzenegger in a King Conan movie saying, “Get to the pony!” I'd watch it though...)
The panel of a large group of characters arriving at a mountain gate looks like more photo collage, with the hand drawn characters pasted in. When the characters wind up battling a dinosaur, all the panels with the dinosaur are more awkwardly placed photos.
When Conan meets the prince and sees an animal skeleton and pelt, he comments on the lions he killed earlier. Is that supposed to be a lion skull on the chair in the tent? In the first panel it looks like it has weird tusks, but on the next page it looks like the cartoon skull of a monkey. What's up with the tusks? Is the goofy skull on the next page a gag? I'm used to seeing gags like that in manga...but this isn't manga.
Finally, Ineah the engineer looks like she was drawn by a different artist in a different art style throughout the entire story.
I looked up the artist and didn’t find very many examples of his work. What I did find I liked more than what I read here. Some reviews I've read mention the “photo collage” art but almost every review I've come across is fine with the art. But for me the art kept pulling me out of the story. It just came across as lazy. Am I being overly critical? Maybe so, but I was expecting more, especially from the lead story of a first issue.
Sacrifice in the Sand by Jim Zub
A prose story by the author of The Conan the Barbarian color comic book series from Titan. I enjoyed it. Pretty good for a two-page story. It fits as part of the package.
Master of the Hunt, Part One by Patrick Zircher
Solomon Kane investigates as animals are killed and people go missing at a village. This was the highlight of the issue for me. I really enjoyed the story and its cliffhanger, and I loved the art. The poses, closeups, backgrounds, and the inks were all very well done. Luckily Zircher’s art is clear and wasn’t affected much by the printing issues. I'm really looking forward to part two.
“Men Shall Die for This!” — Robert E. Howard and the Vengeance of Soloman Kane by Jeffrey Shanks
A good essay with background information on the sword wielding, pistol packing avenger of wrongs, Solomon Kane.
Final Thoughts
A mixed bag. As I mentioned, I’m glad The Savage Sword of Conan is back and I hope it does well, but if artwork like that of the lead story shows up regularly, I’ll bow out and stick with the color comic book.
You've basically echoed my exact thoughts here. I hope Max Von Fafner doesn't draw any more Conan for Savage Sword. It all came across as a bit silly to me. And... Dinosaurs???? Not in Conan's time!
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