By Roy Thomas & Barry Smith (Marvel/Ace Books)
ISBN: 0-441-11692-2
Perhaps I have a tendency to overthink things regarding the world of graphic narrative, but it seems to me that the medium, as much as the message, radically affects the way we interpret our loves and fascinations. Take this little treat from 1978.
The comicbook Conan had become a mighty success, pre-production was beginning on the John Milius movie barbarian and the prose stories themselves – according to the introduction from Roy Thomas – out of print for half a decade, were once again about to grace the bookstores of the nation.
It’s easy to assume that a quickly resized, repackaged paperback book collection of the early comics extravaganzas was just another Marvel cash-cow in their tried-and-tested “flood the marketplace” sales strategy – and maybe it was – but as someone who bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years I have to admit that this version is one of my very favourites and the one I probably re-read most.
Intended as a paperback library of the Cimmerian’s adventures, The Complete Marvel Conan the Barbarian was far from that, only lasting for 6 volumes (it took losing the franchise to Dark Horse Books to properly accomplish that goal over the last few years) and being forced by format restrictions to abridged the source-material was never a satisfactory proposition, but nevertheless these garish little tomes still capture the gritty essence of those landmark tales, whilst Smith’s art actually gains impact delivered at two panels per page, and positively vibrates with power when a non-standard shaped panel layout forces the page designers to get creative with white space…
The book collects the first three adventures commencing with the dramatic, prophetic ‘The Coming of Conan’ (inked by Dan Adkins), through our young hero’s enslavement and liberation in ‘The Lair of the Beastmen’, and concluding with the seminal apocalyptic masterpiece ‘The Twilight of the Grim Grey God’ (both inked by Sal Buscema), three incredibly accessible barbarian tales that actually lured two of my then-school friends into testing the comicbook waters themselves after years of good-natured scorn…
I suppose in the final reckoning how you come to the material is largely irrelevant as long as you do, but I’m certain that different people are receptive to different modes of transmission and we should endeavour to keep all those avenues open…
© 1978 Conan Properties, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Edition © 1970, 1978 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.