Customer Reviews

Conan Volume 7: Cimmeria (Conan (Dark Horse))

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The relaunch of Dark Horse's Conan begins with this volume, which collects the first seven issues of Conan the Cimmerian by returning writer Timothy Truman and artist Tomas Giorello. With this story, Dark Horse seems to have stabilized the quality of the book from the last two volumes, albeit at a baseline level.

Giorello is still lacking in style and skill, but this volume shows a vast improvement over the last one, "The Hand of Nergal". The pencils still pale in comparison to the first four volumes by Cary Nord, and even without comparing to what has come before, the work is not quite where it aught to be for such a prestigious book which many fans have been waiting a long time to see done right. The main problem is that Mr. Giorello is not an artist, but rather an artist in training. The selection of Giorello as new regular artist shows an editorial disregard for the importance of continuity of art style rivaled only in the pages of Batman, whose editors have the same knack for getting it wrong.

Thankfully, Richard Corben lends a hand to draw the sequences featuring Conan's grandfather, Connacht. His artwork is sharp and of a consistent and professional quality, but it does not make up for the weaknesses of the main penciller. It is a shame that this book has to rely on the strengths of the fill-in art and cover artist Frank Cho to offset the deficient art in the rest of the book.

The introduction by colorist Jose Villarubia points out what a natural combination Conan and Corben are; that finally the esteemed artist gets to draw Conan, but the fact is that he is not drawing Conan, only the flashback sequences in a Conan comic; so we have yet to see this team come together.

Villarubia's coloring on Giorello's art in the main story does not help either. The coloring is drab, muddy and overly complex where less would have been more; in contrast to his work over Corben's art which is simple and elegantly handled. Had he kept the coloring consistent it would have helped the book considerably.

On the writing side, Truman finds his groove here after the botch job that was "Nergal". The story is well paced and well crafted. I would only fault the scenes featuring the Skrae; the supernatural adversaries sent to capture Conan halfway through the story. It seems that whether the foes are human or supernatural, Conan can dispatch 20 of them at a time with the ease of defeating a group of cub scouts. This is in contrast to REH's Conan, who in stories like "Iron Shadows in the Moon" and "the Devil In irons", would much rather avoid confronting the supernatural until absolutely necessary or until a workable plan is formed. Being able to defeat 20 giant demonic warriors at a time does diminish the drama and some thought should be put into what one man can actually do when faced with a small army in future stories.

As with all comics, to truly work, both story and art must be of good quality, so this book is still standing on only one leg. After much praise over their worthy effort on Conan during it's first three years, Dark Horse has really dropped the ball to where the best fans can expect is Conan done to workmanlike standards.

Perhaps the slump in sales (the new Conan book has dropped of the top 100 chart for monthly comics) will tell Dark Horse they are on the wrong track. Better yet, perhaps they will realize another creative relaunch is in order, one which improves on the previous effort, and not the other way around. I hope that future volumes present better than this.

This is the first of the Dark Horse relaunch of the Conan franchise I've read. I was a fan when Savage Sword was in its heyday, but lost interest sometime in the eighties. Browsing some of the earlier Busiek/Nord collections, they never seemed to beckon me to read them like this one did. I enjoyed the art, and was a longtime fan of Tim Truman's. It was worth a shot. And Crom, was I delighted with the results.

This is a slow, melancholy tale. It rings true to both Howard's work and the Roy Thomas adaptations. It's beautifully drawn, though looking at the Giorello pencils at the end of the book, I wish it had been published in black and white. The balance between Corben's underground style and Giorello's classical modernism works. The story takes its time, which to my taste pays off beautifully when it's all over, and I think the only misstep is the Skrae which seem more like a nod to the bloodthirsty readers than to the story... but what do I know.

I'd heartily recommend Cimmeria to Howard fans, and to old school Conan fans. It's moving, well thought out story that has emotional resonance far beyond your average hack and slash.

I'm writing this under slightly false pretenses (I read this arc in its individual components) but I just had to offer my two sheckels' worth. I have much preferred the series since Truman and Giorello took over, and I loved it before. In this arc Conan is more world weary, disillusioned with civilization, and the Truman/Giorello team capture this perfectly. Cimmeria is basically a mood piece, a kind of 'getting our bearings' before throwing Conan into the Black Colossus arc. I'm so surprised at all the negative reviews because I really love the Giorello Conan over all others. When he guested on 'Rogues' I was like "oh yeah, this'll be great". I also liked Isanov's coloring so I guess that shows how much I know!
Again I'm just offering this by way of an alternative viewpoint. I thought 'Nergal' was really imaginative (especially given Howard's original fragment) and I loved that it was so different to the Decamp/Thomas Marvel version. So as the series moved into the 'Cimmeria' phase I really felt Conan had never been better. But then I clearly recall Nord getting a real beating throughout his tenure too so hopefully things are actually as bright as I think they are. I'd hate for such a great series to end.

Probably the least exciting of the series. Conan visits home. You get to see his mom & his ex-girlfriend. You get heavy handed metaphors about Conan's wanderlust. You get stories about his grampa interwoven with the main story, about 50% of the book, and you see the end of the main story coming miles away.

The End.

Not a total waste of time and money, but not the thing I'd tell my friends about.

When I first opened this graphic novel, I was immediately frustrated and scared. Here I saw a departure from the Conan I knew, drawings of a modern desk with modern quotations, a new opening for "know oh prince...," and especially very odd drawings throughout. However, as I read on I soon found my initial impressions fade and be replaced with amazement. This was honestly my favorite entry in the Dark Horse relaunch of Conan.

For me, this entry fit perfectly in the setting of Hyboria with powerful strangers, distrust at every turn, and great drawings to convey it all. For me, I was stunned how well the comic was able to convey ideas and surprise me, there is a really good reason why the stranger tells Conan a story of werewolves. However, what amazed me even more was the odd drawings within that are used to describe the adventures of Conan's grandfather (the one who told young Conan of the world beyond Cimmeria). These drawings were different, I did not like them at first, but as I soon discovered they conveyed emotion like no other, I honestly long for more.

I should note that this is probably the largest Graphic Novel I've encounted for the price, it is the quantity and quality of the Conan series that has always kept me captivated.

This is still a good book for the collection. The gorgeous typewriter and classic car reminding all of us of the inspirations for Conan's Cimmeria open a great book that delves occasionally into a weaker art, reminiscent of some of the weakest work in eighties and nineties Heavy Metal. It's almost a literary conceit as the art is used to describe Conan's grandfather's story as something perhaps grainier, less powerful, but still part and parcel of the legend of Conan. The art for Conan's aspect of the story is sharper, definitely from an age of steel and iron, where his Grandfather lived in an age dominated more by Brass, Bronze and Copper. The story is moving the venom in Conan's brooding is growing deeper. The man who will be king of Aquillonia is growing more disgruntled, even with the identity and homeland. His own people disappoint him. I hope the next book in this much collected series keeps the momentum built in this book and focuses more on the great work and less on the conceits.

First of all, I`d like to say that I really hated The Hand of Nergal story which was confusing and featured a very poor artistic effort by the main artist.
Having said that, I was pleased to give this volume 7 a try. Richard Corben art is perfect. Although his style may not please every reader I thought it was very refreshing and kind of balanced Giorello`s style.
And when it comes to the artist from Argentina, his work is clearly improving and in many aspects it is even better than Cary Nord`s. The only thing that needs polishing are the battle scenes. Conan`s movements in many panels don`t look natural and that bothers me.
As for the story, although I didn`t like the idea of getting to know Conan as a guy who cares for his family members, his mother and friends, the idea of mixing Conan`s grandfather story with the present one was interesting and appealing.
If the next books improves over this one, I`ll give a 5 star rate. It will be a must buy!

Okay, so the show is on the road again and the players are the same with the incredibly talented addition of Richard Corben doing the art work for an interlaced backstory about Conan's grandfather.
Had the book been only this backstory that would have earned the volume an easy 4 stars.
What's wrong is simple. Giorello is not without talent. You can see a concentrated effort on his part to improve his storytelling skills. The problem is he's swinging wide. Proportions are often off. Unrequired details win out when dropping them would have been better. Too many panels feel cluttered. The coloring leaves a lot to be desired while also being an improvement over the last volume. Again, Villarrubia shows some considerable talent but he too often misses the mark. When I studies watercolor some years ago the one thing that stayed with me was the fact that too much pigment muddies the art. He seems to have missed that lesson.
Timothy Truman's sin is the same. It's too much. Too many angles and subplots ruins the tale. It's still a good read but it could have been wrapped up at least one issue earlier and that's easy to see and not just in retrospective. The supernatural elements were a waste of time. They were not needed to tell this story. Timothy Truman needs to reread Howard's Conan again and realize that the tales are much heavier on the Sword than on the sorcery. Sorcery is the spice, not the meal.
And for one last time I have to ask, why is a 20 year old Conan looking and built like a guy almost 20 years older than he's supposed to be? How hard is this to get? It's sloppy and it was old a few years ago when Cary Nord lapsed into the same look.
Dark Horse comics has a chance to get this right the way Marvel didn't. Stop looking to past comic books to get your ideas for how this guy looks and walks and talks.
Throw out your reams of Marvel comics pages and pick up the Del Rey edditions of the prose stories and start from scratch.
It's really great that you took Conan out of the loincloth and actually armed and dressed the man.
We even see a conscious effort to have different architecture and settings that feel genuine.
Take it one step farther because all of this is just window dressing when the character looks, talks and acts the same as what came before.
I love the talent, but they seem reluctant to break with that wasted past effort other than to dazzle us with technical printing improvements.
All that said, this effort is not without it's charm. It's just that the story and the subject deserve better. The guys bringing it to us are capable if only they made the effort instead of falling into a well worn groove.

One of the great, epic Conan tales. The book starts off with a new collage of images depicting scenes from the Conan stories until now - the God in the Bowl, the Tower of the Elephant, the Hand of Nergal, and others. It's great great artwork.

The prologue shows Conan approaching Cimmeria, encountering a band of Vanir raiders. Naturally he wipes them all out, except for the youngest, clearly a musician and no warrior. The tale is book-ended by a pictoral of Robert E Howard himself climbing into the North Texas hills to write the poem "Cimmeria" on one cold, dark, rainy winter afternoon. Beautiful, sentimental tribute to the master.
The tale proper starts with Conan riding in to Cimmeria, surprised by another band of Vanir raiders; they fell his horse, trapping him under its corpse. He is surrounded by Vanir, and although he kills one, he's trapped. Until a lone stranger's approach frightens them off. The stranger rescues Conan, and takes him back to his lodging for warmth and nourishment. The stranger knew Conan's grandfather, Connacht, and tells his tale, how he wandered out of Cimmeria after killing a chief's son in a squabble over a nag, rescued boys who were about to be made human sacrifices, but the boys are werewolves that take joy at the kill... at least the bullying elder one is. In a battle, the younger one survives.

Connacht's wandering tales are illustrated by Richard Corben, who has a cartoony, inky style, while the tales of Conan's wandering back to Cimmeria are magnificently illustrated in high realistic/macho grandeur by Tomas Giorell, the tales shuffle back and forth throughout the thick volume. Both artists are very good, but also very different. It makes for a great contrast.

Conan returns to Cimmeria, meets Caollan, his first love, on the trail, fleeing a death sentence. She is pregnant by a chieftain's son from another village, the same who also killed a neighbouring Aesir kingdom's prince. To keep peace, the Cimmerian's traded Caollan to be the neighbouring king's bride. Cimmerian politics. Aesir hunt Caollan in the snows, with them the witch Ulva who raises Skrae maggot zombies to capture Coallan and kill Conan to avenge the death of fallen comrades. Burning the Skrae, he again battle the Aesir and is again rescued by the wolves. What action!

Connacht's tales of Arabic lands, where a lovely slave girl he likes is slaughtered, he avenges her by murdering the temple priests, he saves a businessman who betrays him, he becomes a galley slave, but fights for his freedom, joins raiders from Koth who slaughter kingdoms in the employ of mad kings; leaving the men of "civilisations" in disgust, he nearly freezes to death returning to Cimmeria, where he meets Conan's grandmother. They live happily ever after.

Conan returns to the village briefly, tells more tales of his grandfather to Caollan, with whom he is reconciled. She meets her husband, who murders her, closing the cycle. That's it, off he goes, wandering again - never to return.

The tales are wonderfully intertwined, making the whole book fulfilling in a way that it might not have been as a single tale, which would perhaps have been a bit too simple. The sights of Cimmeria are interesting - we've always known Conan as a Cimmerians, but we've not seen his homeland, nor have we seen any other Cimmerians during his travels either.

The story is great, and the art - from both artists - is stunning. Bravo.

----Possible spoilers....


Earlier adapters, most notably Marvel have "Filled in" their own stories and included before they had to make "new" ones to keep selling issues. This was also necessary for while Howard made a bunch of good Conan stories and some later fragments others adapted into full ones (Lin Carter, DeCamp mainly) he made no "Complete Conan History" and lots of Conan's background is nebulous at best. Yeah, they do it to "keep selling issues" but also they do it to add to something they love doing.


From the past, the best was Barry Windsor Smith's "Living Tarim" series, where the younger Conan got caught in a religious war over a "Living God" two empires were fighting each other to ruin over. He started as an outsider in civilization, then started to be a bit "Civilized" himself, learning the rules and customs of the city he became part of in defending it. But then that was all destroyed as one city state destroyed another and the revelation of the "Face of the Living Tarim" (woulda been really Non-PC today!!!) along with the deaths of many people he knew and loved. He ran north "to purify himself" and went back to Cimmeria for a while. Sort of an "Ultima Thule" thing, remember REH's time was the early part of the century, of the noble savage going to the north to "Purify Himself"...


I doubt Dark Horse will do the "Tarim" thing, but they did two good "Fill in the blanks" in that they had the earlier "Hyperborea" as a shock that got Conan to leave Cimmeria permanently, and then the weariness he developed for "Civilization" something to briefly bring him back there. Myself, I would have been trying to get permission to re-do that Tarim thing, but we could live without it. The despair of Conan witnessing the Tarim thing and barely surviving it to head north to his homeland reminds me of a song from Uriah Heep, "Blind Eye"...


This "Cimmeria" goes to explore his homeland and other peoples in it, including his Grandfather who also adventured south. Some stories are done by the legendary Richard Corben of this character.


There are some Howard "Purists" who hate these things. The stories that were "Finished" by other writers, the stories that were re-adapted from more obscure Howard characters (The Flame Knife) and hold a special place in the underworld for the "Completely New" ones...

I'm not one of them.

The reason REH isn't just another "Pulp Writer" that no one will remember because he isn't worth re-publishing royalties but the pulp will decay before the "Mickey Mouse copyWRONG" laws expire on them is that he is an author that other people really get into. He wrote with extreme emotion, living the stories himself, and that drew the reader in.


There's one story that's pure Howard, though it's a poem; "Cimmeria" stretched into an "Introductory" issue and about his homecoming appropriately. It alone is worth looking at this book.