Dark Horse released a comic book last week for twenty-five cents to promote their newest license capture that they shall be publishing a new on-going book of starting February 2004. The book was Conan #0, a full length, stand-alone story that also serves as a prologue/introduction for what DH's PR people are calling "a faithful return to Robert E. Howard's original version" for the barbarian turned king.
This book is only the beginning of the revival for Conan. An RPG/Action game from TDK Mediactive will be coming available for the Playgamebox (sic) and computers sometime in 2004 with new music by noted composer Basil Poledouris. Todd McFarlane Toys will be releasing new Conan figures, Rittenhouse will be releasing a new card set, Dark Horse released their first Classic Conan Remastered (the Thomas/Smith Marvel series) Volumes in October which has 4 scheduled volumes, TOR Books is publishing new Conan stories by noted sci-fi and fantasy authors (the first by Poul Anderson, the second by Harry Turtledove), there are new editions of REH's stories as well from Wandering Star Press, a Gary Gianni sketchbook, a bust sculpt, just tons of killer stuff. Luckily the new governor of California is not involved, not to say that the Conan films weren't good, but that was young Arnold who knew he didn't speak good English and had a good body and attractive, but foreign looks with a modicum of intelligence hidden under bravado… the perfect person to portray a Barbarian in many ways... I will still not make an actual opinion of the film themselves; they're those type of films, the kind best forgotten and harder to remember, yet, you crave to see them again.
Let's get back to Conan #0 though. The artists for the book are Cary Nord on pencils and Dave Stewart on colors/paints. I off the top of my head can't recall what books Cary has drawn, research presents me with that he drew many issues of Mutant-X, the Havoc book that I never bothered to get into, some Green Lantern one-shots and about 15 issues of Daredevil on top of other stuff. None of this meant a thing for me, but his work on Conan is excellent. The piece above and the Conan statue which is one of my new icons and the one accompanying this post cemented for me that Dark Horse and Scott Allie truly chose who they thought was best to illustrate the stories that Kurt Busiek shall/has scribed, and I fully approve of their choice. Dave Stewart, of course, is automatically known to any comic nerd who keeps up with just the inkling of stuff as a master colorist and known automatically to music nerds as that guy from the Eurythmics and an excellent song writer & producer, but they are not the same person (it'd be bloody brilliant if they were one and the same though). The man (Dave Stewart, the painter) is as prolific as Chris Elioupolus (the letterer) or as Warren Ellis (the sometimes hack, sometimes brilliant writer) was a few years ago, or as Brian Michael Bendis (the also sometimes hack, usually brilliant writer) and Mark Millar (the total fucking hack at this point) are these days. The man has won awards for his work. The work here is just another notch in his belt. It takes on the style that has been used in books like X-Treme X-Men and I think some other book, pencils straight to colors. Cary's pencils are extremely strong and represent a very powerful world devised from the mind of REH and Stewart's colors only accentuate and bring those pencils to a breathing life.
The actual text of the book is half written by Busiek and half written by Robert E. Howard. This makes it very hard to tell if Kurt himself will be able to capture the spirit of the character. I have trust in him as a writer, as nothing he has done has ever disappointed me personally, from Marvels, Astro City, his Gorilla work, his Marvel work and the issues of Power Company I read when I bought comics regularly, I've always been pleased. This is something new though. The dialogue in this preview was readable and flowed the story fine, but there was nothing truly innovative about it. It doesn't tell me that Busiek positively will have the understanding and handle on the characters and universe of Conan like Roy Thomas had so long ago. That doesn't mean he won't. I don't think they would of allowed him to take over the job if they didn't think so. Scott Allie has worked with plenty of writers that I'm sure would love to work on this book. Allie himself is a fantastic writer in his own right. Busiek secured the position though, just like Nord secured his through submissions and it'll just be the waiting till February to see what he's developed and how the book shall progress.
That's the only major complaint I have. The book prepares you to know if you'd buy it on Nord's pencils and Stewart's paints, you'll just have to either trust in Busiek or not in the writing, but I have no clue if this book truly is a prologue and the framing device will be the one set in the book, or if it's gonna herald the return of Conan in the time that the framing device exists or if there shall be no framing device and it'll just be tales by Howard adapted into script form. The original Conan comics weren't, they were original stories that took quite a few liberties on the actually history and happenings of Conan and how he developed as a character. If I recall, he was much nicer in Marvel than he ever was in the books. Conan truly was a Barbarian in the books, an intelligent Barbarian with scope and vision and goals, but he still prayed to a pagan deity, he was raised as a murderer and did it with no mercy, never considering the after affects and he was quite the philanderer, a true gothic man, one whose beauty could only be seen through his brutality. The images presented promise that is the Conan we shall see in the on-going book, but is it the one who's dialogue and plots will present as well?
I have my high hopes and it'll be the first on-going book I'll be buying in over 5 months if it's as brilliant as DH is pimping it, and if you enjoy swords, sorcery, fantasy, blood and sex (the things that make Conan so great and if the book has them, it shall be), then I'd grab Conan comes out, or at least go grab Conan #0 if you haven't so you can decide for yourself if you would.