The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories [Paperback]

Roy Thomas (Author), Barry Windsor-Smith (Illustrator), John Buscema (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2004

The final collection of Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith's seminal run on Conan the Barbarian. As with many collaborations between two extremely talented artists, Thomas and Windsor-Smith were producing the finest work of their careers just as their partnership on Conan came to an end. And like those great collaborations, we're left to wonder, "what if they'd stayed together... " This compilation features two outstanding creators at the top of their game, working on a compelling character whose popularity has never faded. Also included is the first issue of acclaimed artist John Buscema's definitive run.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The fourth book in a series reprinting Marvel Comics' 1970s version of Robert E. Howard's 1930s pulp-magazine hero, Conan the Barbarian, includes the final and best stories illustrated by the fans' favorite artist, Barry Windsor-Smith. The book's high point--arguably Conan's finest moment in comics--is "Red Nails," based on a Howard novella in which Conan is trapped with she-pirate Valeria in a walled city inhabited by two tribes engaged in protracted warfare. Compared with other slam-bang sword-and-sorcery tales, this one unfolds leisurely--but Windsor-Smith's ornate, detailed artwork is at its most polished. The volume also introduces Red Sonia, a sort of female Conan, provocatively clad in improbably skin-tight chain mail; she subsequently starred in her own popular comics. Rounding out the book are the first Conan stories drawn by John Buscema, whose more conventional dynamism better suited the look of Marvel's superhero line. Buscema drew Conan for another two decades, and his issues far outsold those of his predecessor. Yet Windsor-Smith's depiction of the character is the one longtime fans most fondly recall. Gordon Flagg
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Review

Lincolnshire Echo, 21 September 2004: " ...the action is first rate...the art is amazing" Comics International Issue 173: " It's Barry Windsor-Smith's finest artistic hour...pure magic." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (May 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159307025X
• ISBN-13: 978-1593070250
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barry Windsor-Smith's final and greatest Conan stories, May 16, 2004

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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. 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (Paperback)

The one substantive complaint about these reprints of the "Conan the Barbarian" comic books that Dark Horse has been reprinting as a prelude to launching their own version of Robert E. Howard's brawling barbarian has been that the original covers drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics have been omitted. That omission is mitigated somewhat by Volume 4 of "The Chronicles of Conan," which has the splash page from "Red Nails" as the cover. I have a strong affection for this particular piece of Windsor-Smith art because my college debate partner took the original black & white drawing from "Savage Tales" and blew it up on a 6-foot board that I have colored in and which has dominated my "office" for about half my life.

This collection has issues #23-26 of Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" and the acclaimed "Red Nails" (For those concerned with continuity #22 is omitted because it was a reprint of #1) Of those two issues, all of which were written by Roy Thomas, Windsor-Smith drew the first two and John Buscema, who would be Conan's artist for most of the rest of its original run, took over as penciler on the last two. The second of those was inked by Ernie Chua (later Ernie Chan), who would be Buscema's primary inker on the comic book (the way Alfredo P. Alcala tended to do the inking over Buscema's pencils in the black & white magazine "The Savage Sword of Conan"). However, the chief attraction here is Windsor-Smith's final work on Conan.

Issue #22 "The Shadow of the Vulture," freely adapted from a Howard short story, is inked by Sal Buscema, Dan Adkins, and Chic Stone. The Vulture is Prince Yezdigerd's right-hand sword, who is sent to dispatch Conan. However, the story is more noted because this is the first Conan adventure with Red Sonja. This sets up #23 "The Song of Red Sonja," which Windsor-Smith inked himself (be sure to read Thomas' reflections in the back of the volume that cover some of the changes the Comics Code forced them to make with the artwork). When you compare how far Windsor-Smith came from the first issue of "Conan," let alone the infamous "X-Men" #53 that he drew on a New York City park bench, it is amazing how far he came as an artist. "Red Nails" has more scope and Thomas and Windsor-Smith are unfettered by the Comics Code, but all things considered "The Song of Red Sonja" is the best of their joint efforts. This explains why it gets to be the title for this final volume.

The Buscema issues are included, rather than whatever odds and ends Smith ever did of Conan and Howard related stories, because they finish the siege of Makkalet story line. Issue #25 "The Mirrors of Kharam Akkad," inked by Sal Buscema and John Severin (the latter does the King Kull flashback pages in a nice touch), is inspired in part by Howard's "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" story, another one of those stories where a sorcerer tries to get the better of Conan. In #26 "The Hour of the Griffin" the city finally falls and Conan tries to save Queen Melissandra. Conan's big fight is with a giant rat, which is not exactly a big thrill, but he does get to see the face of the one true Tarim, the reason for the war.

Buscema's Conan is a larger, more muscular version of the barbarian than what we saw with Windsor-Smith's art, which I always read as representing the fact he was a more mature character at that point. One of the interesting aspects of this final collection of early Conan stories is that the remastered color better suits the Windsor-Smith artwork. I know that part of why this works is that these stories are reprinted on much better quality paper in these volumes and that another key part is that this sort of thing is now done with computers, but Windsor-Smith's attention to detail in his drawings really gives the colorist something with which to work. Just look at the intricate lines on the shield on that great cover. Besides, now that we have this four-volume set of "The Chronicles of Conan" we can enjoy these classic comic books without having to take them out of the plastic that is keeping them safe for posterity.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hellos And Goodbyes, January 31, 2009

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Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (Paperback)

The fourth collection of Marvel Comics' "Conan The Barbarian" reproduces issues from 1973, and captures a major transition in the series.

Barry Windsor-Smith, penciller and lead artist of Conan since the series started, made his second and final exit after drawing the first two issues in this book. Chronicles 4 serves principally as a farewell to Windsor-Smith, and also an introduction to John Buscema, the artist who took over for Windsor-Smith and became most strongly associated with "Conan" the comic book's best days.

Another introduction, alluded to in the book's subtitle, may be of greater interest, being as it involves perhaps the most noted character to the series other than the Cimmerian himself. Red Sonja debuts in the opening storyline here, as a mercenary helping in defense of the besieged port city of Makkalet who takes up with Conan for somewhat shadowy reasons of her own.

Why Red Sonja became such a breakout character, when Conan was forever hooking up with different women (including some who could hold a blade as well as Sonja), was due less to her fiery personality than her penchant for chainmail bikinis and itsy-bitsy loincloths. Here, however, Windsor-Smith outfits her more practically if still alluringly in a tight chainmail bodice and high-riding shorts.

Windsor-Smith remains for me an acquired taste, but his work here represents the pinnacle of his Conan tenure. His atypical use of perspective lend a dynamic quality to each page, and compensate for the lack of smoothness in his lines. Especially striking is his work on the bonus story here, "Red Nails", taken not from the comic book but a 1973 installment of the pulp magazine series "Savage Tales" Marvel launched after "Conan's" success. Others complain of the color treatment, but I actually found details in Windsor-Smith's work became clearer, such as Conan's companion Valeria tossing away a head of a man who just begged her for mercy. I never noticed it in the faithful "Savage Tales" black & white reprint; it certainly added to the flavor of the story.

Writer Roy Thomas pulls in a couple of non-Conan stories written by Conan's long-dead creator, Robert E. Howard. By now, you really have a feeling for the world Conan inhabits. Thomas deftly juggles characters and storylines to maintain an engaging overarching flow from issue-to-issue, while Windsor-Smith never skimps on background detail.

The resolution of the siege of Makkalet is nicely done, especially when Conan discovers the secret of the man-god Tarim over which the war is being fought. His running feud with the hard-charging leader of the forces attacking Makkalet, Yezdigard, is amped up very satisfyingly. "If I could feel pity, I'd feel it now for the barbarian whose head sits so loose on brawny shoulders," Yezdigard says.

Little things still annoy, like Yezdigard's henchmen "the Vulture" who wears silly wings, or the giants rats and squid tentacles Conan must alternately do battle with. All seem designed to serve the lurid comic-book covers which triggered sales, and detract from otherwise taut, logical storylines. The formula of maidens and monsters is well established by now, and beginning to become predictable.

But Thomas and his artists do very well in their many detours, and "Red Nails" shines especially as a stand-alone adventure quite unique in the Conan saga. It's a fitting farewell to Windsor-Smith, and also a marker of just how far by the early 1970s "Conan" was defining itself beyond the merely adolescent entertainment usually associated with the comic-book medium.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars don't buy this book ???, August 31, 2005

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Philip L. Dickey "sandman300_1" (lunenburg, ma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (Paperback)

I have to begin that I was a casual Conan reader as I was growing up . I had the conan tresurary editon from MarvelComic's 1975 that had one of my most favorite comic stories Red Nails written by Roy Thomas and penciled and inked by Barry Windsor Smith , which just caught my imagination and will always be what Conan is to me. That out of the way I have to say don't buy this book unless you have the cash to buy them all because after you see the beautiful job Dark Horse did reproducing thes book you'll want them all !!! Each story is recolored and I love the job they did except for the Red Nails Story and if anyone has ever seen the orginal colored verion you know exactly what I mean . but other then that its a perfect collection and with an added bonus has an afterward by Roy Thomas that gives you back ground on the series and each story . Get these now before there out of print becaus you never know with the publishing rights kinda belonging to Dark Horse but getting permission from Marvel who knows if you ever see them again . [...]