The Chronicles of Conan, Vol. 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories (v. 5) [Paperback]

Robert E Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2004

Conan, the greatest sword and sorcery hero of them all, hacks a bloody path through this latest collection of adventures that makes 'epic' an understatement! Adapted from Robert E. Howard's legendary, genre-defining stories, this fifth thrilling collection continues Conan's daily battle to survive. Each tale is as rich in pathos and depth of character as it is in adventure and swordplay -- proving there's more to Conan than just blood and muscle! Featuring the mould-breaking artwork of classic comic artist John Buscema, these previously uncollected strips have also been digitally re-coloured, bringing these legendary stories to life once more for a whole new generation of fans!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roy Thomas wrote classic runs of The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Avengers, Captain Britain and, of course, various other titles. John Buscema is one of the great names in comics art, and has drawn, amongst others, Captain America, Fantastic Four, andTarzan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Titan (October 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840239859
• ISBN-13: 978-1840239850
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,566,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Big Visuals Undone By Weak Scripts, March 22, 2009

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories (Paperback)

After reading through the first four books of the Marvel Conan comics saga, I expected the version I grew up loving to start coming to life here, with penciler John Buscema now firmly on board alongside scripter Roy Thomas. New guy Buscema holds up his end of the bargain, but Thomas seems to be a bit lost.

Collecting issues #27 to #34 of the series, published in 1973-1974, the book shows Conan shaking off the dust of doomed Makkalet and taking on new opportunities. This includes somewhat forced duty as a soldier and spy for Turan, the country that crushed Makkalet and gave Conan much of his past grief. Thomas downshifts on his multiple-issue story arcs, with five stand-alone stories in a row, before a trip to distant Khitai is spread out over the final three installments.

First, though, Conan has to survive a fortress full of thieves and cutthroats. Issue #27, "The Blood of Bel-Hissar", taken from a great non-Conan story by Conan creator Robert E. Howard, is masterfully adapted by Thomas, Buscema, and company and represents an early peak for them. Conan must fend for himself in an environment where friends are secret enemies, seeming enemies not as they appear, and all are held together by violent lust for a blood-red ruby with a long trail of death behind it.

The problem with adapting Howard's non-Conan stories for Conan is that not all of them are good fits. That includes the next two stories featured here, "Moon Of Zembabwe" and "Two Against Turan". The first sticks Conan in the jungle to fight a giant gorilla, the second pits him with a wizard wanted by the law. Buscema's pencils are on fire, especially with swampy "Zembabwe", where he depicts the gruesome carcass of a headless snake in brilliant detail. But Thomas seems to be dog-paddling here, with Conan up against boring wizards plotting odd ends. In his Afterword, Thomas himself calls "Two Against Turan" a "fairly minor affair" which served mainly to get Conan in the service of Turan and thus in position for the next big development in the original Conan-Howard canon.

The dichotomy of great art and dishwater scripting continues with the next two installments, "The Hand Of Nergal" and "The Shadow Of The Tomb". "Nergal" is a story Howard wrote about Conan, only didn't finish. (Lin Carter did, years after Howard's death.) "Nergal" lacks the typical polish of a Howard-Thomas adaptation; too much mystical mumbo-jumbo about amulets and ghostly bats that kill without being killable. The art is even a let-down, with the final battle looking like its being fought in a vat of Pepto-Bismol.

"Shadow" is better. Maybe being forced to scramble when L. Sprague de Camp withdrew his permission for Marvel to adapt his Conan story kicked Thomas out of his rut. Here, for the first time, Conan's service for Turan develops into something moderately interesting, as a group of Turanians soldiers he is serving with are cornered into a cave by hill people and the standoff is to be settled by a mano-a-mano fight to the death. Guess who the Turanians pick to represent them? A drawn-out flashback sequence is the major debit here, tied in unconvincingly to the main story at the end.

The final three issues are also an adaptation, but of a non-Howard source, a novel by Norvell W. Page originally set in medieval Asia but here located in the Hyborean China-substitute of Khitai. It's one of Conan's most phantasmagoric adventures, but seems scripted almost entirely with visuals in mind. Seven wizards, color-coded for easy identification, rule the city of Wan Tangri with the help of mysterious flame winds. Conan, sent to spy by Turan, is soon on the run, battling an octopus and a tiger. Again, magic dominates the proceedings to a distracting extent.

I think Thomas was tailoring the stories at this point around his new heavy-hitter Buscema. Big John was delivering, but Conan was starting to get lost.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thomas and Buscema begin reinventing Conan the Barbarian, December 4, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories (Paperback)

With Dark Horse securing the rights to turn Robert E. Howard's seminal sword & sorcery hero into a comic book for a new generation of fans, they began reprinting Marvel's original comic books written by Roy Thomas and drawn (mostly) by Barry Windsor-Smith (and Gil Kane). Since my original comic books are all sitting in sealed plastic and backing boards it was great to have these available without touching those classics with my bare hands. I was also impressed with the computerized coloring they came up with, and when Windsor-Smith's run ended with the stories collection in "The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 4" so did my interest in the reprints. But now there is reason to reconsider.

"The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories" reprints issues #27-34 of Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" comic book. Thomas is still at the helm, as he would be for the book's entire run, and John Buscema has taken over the penciling duties, with Ernie Chua as the primary inker. With Thomas continuing to adapt Howard's original stories, such as "The Blood of Belshazzar," it was Buscema's vision of a more muscular Conan that became the standard image of the barbarian, especially when Arnold Schwarzenegger played the role in a couple of movies.

What we have here to begin with are a series of one-issue stories. "The Blood of Bel-Hissar" finds Conan making his way across the desert and getting caught up in an effort to get an infamous blood jewel. "Moon of Zembabwei" has Conan fighting an ape-god in the jungle, while "Two Against Turan" takes place in the capital city of Aghrapur where Conan becomes involved in the intrigues of an ambitious wizard named Ormraxes before being "persuaded" to join the Turanian army. But most of "The Hand of Negral" is Conan dealing with palace intrigue in Yaralet rather than fighting with the troops. "The Shadow in the Tomb" has Conan's detachment trapped by hill men and before facing their champion in a duel to decide their fate, Conan recalls fighting his shadow as a lad (giving Buscema a chance to draw Conan with the horned helmet and three medallions of his youth that Windsor-Smith finally made a point of getting rid of).

The cover design here comes from the splash page of "Flame Winds of Lost Khitai," which is actually adapted from a Norvell Page novel. This is good because it finally means a multi-part story. Conan is given a mission to sneak into Khitai and deal with the Wizards of Wan Tengri. "Death and 7 Wizards" contains a nice two-page spread where Buscema gets to take Conan down memory lane again in terms of the Windsor-Smith years, as our hero ends up in the arena fighting for his life again. The story concludes in "The Temptress in the Tower of Flame," where Conan ends up getting out of Khitai alive having once again learned a lesson about why you never trust wizards when it comes to anything.

This (free) adaptation is the best story in the book but it is nothing special. But we know that Thomas and Buscema do not really hit their stride until they get to their epic "Queen of the Black Coast" storyline where they stretch out Howard's original story and flesh it out in detail. At this point they are figuring things out and Thomas is apparently too tightly wedded to adapting everything Robert E. Howard ever wrote in his entire life.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars way cool, March 3, 2006

By 

James C. Mcknight "skullcrusherswordweilder" (CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories (Paperback)

It took me a while to get used to the new digital coloring. It's not bad, just different. As for the artwork....You cannot go wrong with John Buscema(whom I personally prefer over Barry Windsor Smith). Buscema's Conan will always be how I see Conan in my mind's eye. It's how I envision him when I read the original Robert E. Howard stories as well. The stories are always good when Roy Thomas is at the helm, so we're covered there. You should buy all these editions reissued from Dark Horse, they're superb and I bought them all.