u/Locohenry

I'm now done with Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 3, which collects issues #6-#9 of the bi-monhtly series. Given that each story has a different creative team, I think it's only fair that I look at each of them separately.

This volume starts with issue #7 and what ended up being my favorite story, Mark of the Beast by Rob de la Torre and Roy Thomas. This was fantastic, there was a thematic through-line that evolved during the story, it took us to a variety of Hyborian locales and there was plenty of action, intrigue, humans being base and despicable but also noble and loyal. My favorite part was the art, which felt very tactile. By this I mean that the scans of Rob de la Torre's pages are so good that you can see the faint marks made with pencil that weren't completely erased, or dotted lines that are invisible to the naked eye if you don't hold the book right up to your eyes. I feel this makes the inks feel almost feral, always on precise but brutal, made with confident strokes, which makes then perfect for Conan. All of this plus Rob's designs, framing and action make it unforgettable. I think I might prefer his art in B&W rather than color now.

The B story that accompanied the previous tale did not dissapoint. Penned by Patch Zircher and illustrated by Juan Alberto Hernández, this was an action/humor story that introduced me to Breckinridge Elkins, another REH character. This felt like a complete meal in only 10 pages and the framing of "Appalachian Hercules" worked wonders for this tall tale and was a fun framing. The art was also moody and appropiately extreme 🤘.

Moving on to issue #8, I actually did a full review of this issue when it was released, since it was my first approach to the new SSoC magazine and what made me decide to collect it in trade paperbacks. My opinion on it hasn't changed, I enjoy the opening Conan tale by Culver and Burnham, I felt confused and lost by Kennedy's and Rudy's outing, Davisson and Von Fafner's Cormac Fitzgeoffrey story feels too much like an introduction to the character and lacks dynamism, and I loved Liam Sharp's Dore-inspired take on Conan meeting a fallen warrior. The prose story was also really strong, now that I read it again, it was concise, action packed and true to Conan.

Issue #9's main feature is all Patch Zircher in story and art. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by this, I thought the beginning was really strong with a lot of great narrative hooks and interesting character dynamics, but the rest of the comic was a pretty straightforward dungeon crawl. It's not bad by any means, the quest is fun and every character has a chance to use their skills, plus the Conan-Valeria relationship remains a strong point of the whole story. However, I felt the resolution should have been less clean, since there were opportunities for double-crossing or political maneuvers. Zircher's art remains as good as ever and treats the reader to a variety of fun creature designs and an illustration of the aftermath of REH's classic Red Nails.

The B story for this issue focused on Kull, or rather, the Kingdom of Kull. Written by Fabian Nicieza with art by Sean Chen, we are given a broader look into the military and guard structures of Valusia that is framed as a fun cat-and-mouse story, which has a satisfying and cool twist at the end. The art for this felt very classic, and I was impressed with Chen's ability to differentiate colors in a B&W comic, and also his depiction of "invisibility", which must have taken a lot of time to work out in the art room.

As a small aside I wanted to mention that I caught a typo and an incorrect use of a word, which uhh... shouldn't happen. It's not a lot, but still, I noticed.

Overall, this is a comic that I enjoy a lot and that I plan on collecting more of. The variety that is afforded by the changing creative teams is always a delight, and even if I had some criticisms, at least each story offered a complete creative vision in a stand-alone story, which is something that I appreciate a lot these days.

Yesterday I finished Prince Valiant vol. 7, by Harold Foster. This volume brought a bit of a back-to-basics approach to the adventures of the daring prince, after vols. 5 and 6 focused mainly on extended sagas that took up about a year and a half (around 75 pages) to be completed. Volume 7, on the other hand, illustrates several small adventures that usually last anywhere between 3 and 16 pages.

This renovated approach focusing on smaller tales allows Foster to portray a wide variety of scenarios, be it battles, cavalry charges, duels, natural wonders, ships at sea, etc. As always, Foster's brushstrokes are a joy to behold, being an absolute master of human form. However, he is also a great storyteller, and in this volume I found myself really noticing how well the story flows panel to panel, and how satisfying each page feels to read (which was obviously a priority considering the 1-page-a-week publication schedule).

This volume also shifts the focus of the story from Val to other characters pretty often, much more than any previous volume if I remember correctly. The undisputed most inportant side character is Aleta, who's given a great story that showcases her abilities, different as they are from Val's, and also gives Foster a chance to do domestic comedies with an elevated, medieval twist. Arf Geoffrey is also a new character that gets a lot of focus. He's a charming addition to the story that serves as a foil for everyone else and it works pretty well, since he adds levity and an unexpected element to these tales.

As with the other volumes, it's very easy to recommend to those interested in medieval fantasy, realistic art and newspaper strips. As for me, now starts the quest for volume 8... and who knows what in which darkened corner of the internet I might find it at somewhat reasonable price.

After receiving someone else's ebay purchase and having to wait for a refund, I finally managed to get my hands on Donald Duck Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks, which I read over the course of the last couple of weeks.

I feel a bit ridiculous trying to write a review of this comic, since the only thing that I can think to say about it is that it's perfect. This is simply a perfect comic, all the jokes land, everything pays off, the art is fantastic, the characters are endearing, and the ducks get put in such creative situations and are drawn with so many shapes and expressions that makes whatever is happening look interesting.

Since I don't have that much more to say about the comics beyond that they're great, I want to focus a bit on the panel layout of the comics. I think Barks' background in animation influenced the layouts a great deal, with each page being comprised of 8 panels that are usually similar in size, which reminded me of the animation medium in which each cell has the same dimensions. In that sense, each panel becomes a bit like a frame, although without in-between animations, which is something that the reader has to imagine for themselves. This is where Barks genius comes in again, because the sense of motion is so clear and easy to follow, coupled with the expressiveness of the poses and the staging of each panel, makes for very clear and engaging storytelling that is always gebtly nudging you to next panel or page.

It never ceases to amaze me that these are almost 80 year old comics that still hold up today, all because of the quality of Barks' scripts and cartooning. If you're interested in golden age comics that have stood the test of time, look no further than this (although keep in mind that it does contain stereotypical depictions of non-white people; it was still 1949, after all). Sadly, this particular volume is unlikely to see print again since Disney banned the reprinting of stories featuring Bombie the Zombie because of him being a racist caricature, although it really is because they want an excuse to screw with Don Rosa, but that's another matter. Anyways, read this book if you can, although it's difficult to get physically, I'm sure that it can't be that hard to find as an ebook.

I finally finished this series after reading the first compendium back in 2023. Sandman Mystery Theater, by Wagner, Seagle and Davis ran for 70 issues, and this compendium collects the second half, plus some short stories from 2 Vertigo specials. In my opinion, this compendium should also have included the Sandman Midnight Theater one-shot, given that its events are pretty vital to the lives of the main characters, but since it was plotted by Neil Gaiman, I can't say I don't understand why they chose to omit it.

SMT deals mainly with the ordinary lives of its two protagonists, Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont, as they navigate 1939 New York with political and social tensions rising and war on the horizon. This focus on everyday happenings helps set the series apart from other superhero stories, in fact, I would call it a noir comic rather than a superhero comic, and this also helps the more bombastic moments of crime and action stand out.

The series is also, weirdly and almost imperceptibly, a romance story. The relationship between Dian and Wesley takes a very long time to develop, but its texture becomes that much richer because the authors didn't rush anything (except maybe the ending of the series, because it was abruptly cancelled). We see these two lovers go through the highs and lows of a relationship, with each arc adding another block or etching to the edifice of their love. This aspect was probably my favorite thing fron the comic, because it felt like one of the most real and tangible love stories I've ever seen depicted.

Moving on to the subject of art, Guy Davis is the artist for the bulk of the series (with the exception of a few arcs), and he's work feels very idiosyncratic. There are no clean lines nor defined shapes, every figure is scratchy and bulky, occupying space as they would in the real world. And this is the greatest strength of the art, both people and places are there in the way you expect them to be, and if you're reading through the series at a brisk pace, you might not even notice it, but the level of enviroment design present in these pages is staggering. My only complaint is that a lot of the characters have extrenely similar faces, which sometimes makes it difficult to tell them apart. I would also be remiss not to mention that Paul Rivoche illustrated an 8 page story that I would almost say is enough on its own to justify buying this book, considering how rare and excellent his work is, but luckily the rest of the compendium more than justifies this purchase.

Now, I want to be clear, I really liked this book, but I did think there were a few minor problems. Firstly, the endings of the arcs usually felt incomplete, since the final pages of each story ran a protracted confrontation with the current villain, offering very little closure for the secondary characters introduced in each arc and for some of the themes that were explored. The second issue I had with this book was the lettering, by which I mean that the dialogue balloons and captions were placed awkwardly and in several instances I read the text out of order because of this. This also exacerbated another minor flaw, that being that the narrative captions were somewhat hard to follow, since they talked about some pretty complex ideas but the reader has to jump from the captions to the action in the panels, which felt a bit clumsy.

These are all not huge problems, and in the end I greatly enjoyed my time reading SMT, and I'd go as far as to say it's a great comic. The deft worldbuilding, fantastic and natural character developement and engaging mysteries make this an easy book to recommend (unless you have problems with gore and violence, since some of the crimes can get pretty grisly). It saddens me that the creative team didn't get to complete the final arc of the comic, but I'm happy it exists as it is and the final issue does a good job of concluding things, even if it was obviously not the intended ending.

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Since I read the first Corto Maltese graphic novel last year, I've really liked Hugo Pratt as a writer and artist, but man, this third volume of Corto Maltese stories (which I guess would be called "Always a Bit Further Away") really made me realize how good he was as a writer.

This volume is comprised of 5 short tales that take place around the northern region of South America and in the Caribbean. In these pages, it became more clear to me how important the search for freedon is to the author, be it through armed rebellion against oppressors or in the mobility that a boat affords an adventurous man. Corto Maltese remains a lovable rogue, although he is often a vehicle for stories focused on other characters, which are often tragic, strange, oniric and lyrical. This comic really succeeds at transporting the reader to the locales it portrays, which is aided by Pratt's straightforward storytelling that doesn't hold your hand, he just takes you into these romantic historical dramas and makes you learn about the characters and world through actions rather than through exposition.

Something that I realized as I was finishing this book was that the appearamce, disappearance and reappearance of some plotlines reminded me of seawaves, receding, rising and crashing, then receding again. This plot structure, besides being very appropiate for a swashbuckling maritime comic, enriches the world and makes the character seem more real, how some people will take on some task, but their mind will still be focused on the real object of their interest.

A real stand-out for me in this volume was "The Lagoon of Beautiful Dreams", an extremely well-crafted tale in which a character is characterized entirely by showing the opposites of his current situation. The whole book is full of great moments and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in comics that trabsport you into their worlds and that are deeper than they first appear.

Yesterday I finished The Savage Sword of Conan vol. 2, from a variety of creators an published by Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures. This volume collects issues #4-6 of the anthology series, and because it is an anthology series, I reckon the best way to review it is to talk about issue #4 first and then issues #5 and #6 (since it's a two-part story).

So, issue #4. This is a tie-in to the Battle of the Balck Stone, the Howardverse event from 2024, which is the last book I read before this one, so it's pretty fresh in my mind. This issue offers 6 stories starring the Heroes of Man, as they were called for this event. Now, I understand writing these types of tie-ins can be hard because they can't be required reading, but you also don't want the stories to be completely inconsequential. In this regard, I think it was a good idea to use this issue to show us how each of these characters exist in their own contexts and what their deal is, so that people like me, who are only familiar with Conan, can get better acquainted with the larger cast of this event.

-As for the stories themselves, I sadly have to say that I didn't like Conan's short story by Jim Zub and Fernando Dagnino all that much, since I've never been a big fan of stories that are only dream sequences, all the important stuff happens when we're awake, as they say; Dagnino's art was fantastic though, and I can't wait to get to the issues of Conan the Barbarian that he pencilled.

-The Solomon Kane yarn by Patch Zircher worked great though, managing to create a pretty compelling cast in only a few pages and greatly upping the stakes as the story goes along, and it has an appropiately bleak tone.

-After that we have Jim Zub once again with art by Dean Kotz to finally tell us what happened to Brissa at the end of Bound in Black Stone. I really liked this one, the fight was well coreographed, we learn more about Brissa's life and we also get closure on what happened to her in that previous story.

-The fourth story is a Conrad and Kirowan mystery by Jeff Shanks and Eryk Donovan. This story was fine I thought, it payed off on everything it set up, but it didn't really wow me. I was glad to see Mr. Shanks write a story though, and I hope he keeps at it.

-Then we come to a Dark Agnes story by Fred Kennedy and Andy Belanger. Belanger took a big swing with the art that a lot of die-hard fans of the magazine didn't like, but I thought it was great, it gave the story a unique identity and made it stand out from the rest, not to mention the lush backgrounds that adorned every scene. The plot, however, perplexed me; it read like the first chapter of a longer tale, but this won't get a sequel, at least as far as I know. Overall, the plot felt incomplete.

- The final story from this issue is an El Borak tale by Ron Marz and Mike Perkins. This was my favorite story in this issue, succint and to the point, but paced very tightly with some incredible layouts and use of gray tones from Perkins that made the action pop and heightened the already great script.

Now we've come to issues #5 and #6, which are certainly the main course of this collection, with an almost 100-page saga by Jason Aaron and Geof Isherwood. This was truly amazing, it felt like a story written a generation ago, but at the same time it deals with topics we can all understand today. Issue #5 deals mostly with the theme of scapegoating in society and how it affects the psyche of both the persecutors and their victims. Issue #6, on the other hand, deals with the more personal topic of personal beliefs (or resistance to certain beliefs). Isherwood's art elevates this story, giving us an aging King Conan traversing a frozen landscape, emphasis on frozen, since Isherwood's use of white space really helps sell the feeling of cold, and I was particularly impressed by the contrast he managed to create between outdoor and indoor areas and the sensations of frost and warmth that they transmitted.

Finally I wanted to mention the back-up stories from issues #5 and #6, a Young Conan tale by Michael Kogge and Dan Parsons, and a Dark Agnes feature by Michael Downes and Piotr Kowalski. I wanted to talk about them together because I think they were both okay, but I wish these back-ups tried to steal the show to be something that truly captivates the reader, like the 3-part Solomon Kane story from previous issues, which was so succesful that it allowed for a published Solomon Kane miniseries with another on the way.

All of these stories plus pin-ups, prose stories and some short vignettes make the reading experience of this magazine something truly especial, and makes me wish more publishers of popular characters took chances with creator driven books in longer and larger formats like Savage Sword.