Customer Reviews

The Savage Sword of Conan, Vol. 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have to say that I disagree with the negative reviews about this product. For the sheer volume of material vs. price, this is a great bargain. Consider the fact that the DH reprints of the "Conan the Barbarian" comic (Chronicles of Conan) are printed on high quality paper and cost approximately the same price as this volume. But they also only contain seven or eight issues per volume and run less than 150 pages. This volume reprints over 500 pages and contains material from 15 seperate issues. So, I guess DH could have just reprinted issues 1-5 on high quality paper, and made us wait two months for the next volume, or the could have charged us $40.00 to $50.00 for each volume. You do the math.

Yes, the size has been shrunk from the normal magazine size, but I don't actually have a problem with that because the artwork is left completely intact. I know that one reviewer claims otherwise. Maybe he just obtained a bad copy. I don't know. But NONE of the artwork is hidden from view, at least not in my copy. The quality of the paper is the same as the original magazine, which is what I anticipated. No surprises there. Bottom line: I didn't buy this as an investment that would increase in value over the years. I bought this because I get to see great stories and artwork that I thought I would never see again. I threw out my old SSOC magazines years ago, and ever since the Howard revival that started in 2002 or so, I've been regretting that decision.

Ah, the memories! For those who've never seen SSOC, in the 70s and 80s, this was the "hardcore" big brother to the comic book. It was completely unrestrained by the comics code, and the artists took full advantage of that fact. While this volume is pretty tame, in the subsequent years it became racier and racier. This is Conan the way Howard wrote Conan: R rated. Being 9 or 10 at the time, I remember hiding these from my parents. Even the covers, which often featured a well endowed female wearing only brass pasties, would have sent my mom into a hissy.

There are beautifully rendered adaptions of great Howard stories: Black Colossus, The Frost Giants Daughter, Red Nails, Iron Shadows in the Moon, A Witch Shall Be Born, and Hour of The Dragon. Also included are non-Conan Howard stories adapted for Conan, including Curse of the Undead Man, People of the Dark, and The Dark Man.

My only disappointment is that they didn't reprint the other material from the magazine, such as the King Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane stories, as well as the excellent essays. And they only feature the last few chapters of Hour of the Dragon, but not the complete novel. But all things considered, I'm very pleased with the purchase, and look forward to volume 2. I just hope that it doesn't prove as difficult to obtain.

If you're a Conan fan, this is a must have. Five stars!!!

I can still recollect that summer day in 1974 when, at the tender age of 12, I first encountered Marvel's "Savage Sword of Conan". I happened to have about $1.50 on hand and I was eager to go to my local drugstore (my only source for comics at the time)and see what all was new on the racks. So, I hopped on my trusty bike and rode like the wind over my 1 1/2 mile trek. When I got inside the drugstore the first thing that caught my eye was a magazine sized comic with one of the most glorious covers I had ever seen. It depicted a huge muscled sword wielding guy and a buxom sword wielding red haired woman apparently fighting for their very lives against a horde of scary looking axe wielding skeletons!! I was hooked. I had to have the magazine and find out just who this Conan guy was and how had he managed to get himself and this woman in such a dire predicament. Well, needless to say that was the day I first encountered sword and sworcery fiction, Conan, Robert E. Howard, Boris Vallejo, Barry Smith, Neal Adams, Esteban Moroto, John Buscema, Roy Thomas and a slew of other very talented folks. And all in one issue!!!

I still have a few of those original comics and to this day they still manage to evoke that same feeling of excitement and sense of adventure whenever I look at them all these long years later. Truly, this was Conan done right and no interpretation of Howard's barbarian hero done since feels quite as authentic as "Savage Sword" did. Which isn't to say I dislike Dark Horses recent Conan series. Its just that the new series is often hit or miss and the writers sometimes seem to be giving us what they think their interpretation of Conan should be as opposed to Howard's original conception. But SSOC, to me at least, seemed to be consistently firing on all cylinders and the storytelling and artwork were often nothing short of breathtaking. If you aren't familiar with SSOC just do a search on the internet for "Savage Sword of Conan" and check out the covers on some of those old issues. Or, better yet go to your local bookstore or comics dealer and check out this latest omnibus edition from Dark Horse and glance inside at the art.

Now I know that there are some purist folks out there who have some major complaints about page formatting, paper quality etc. (and their points are well taken) but in the end I'm just content to have access to these fabulous stories once again and at a very reasonable price to boot. This volume BTW collects issues 1-10 of SSOC as well as 5 rare story appearances in the magazine called Savage Tales. Thats over 500 plus pages of sword and sorcery action and barbaric mayhem! All rendered in some of the most fantastic fantasy art and comic book story telling you are likely to ever see.

Now, I would love to have seen SSOC given a deluxe treatment but then it probably would have broken my bank account to have collected all the volumes of such a series so I have to be happy with what I got, which is still pretty good BTW. So, if you are new to Conan and the genre of sword and sorcery and you are looking for a good introduction then by all means get a hold of this volume ASAP. If you are looking for the definitive editions of SSOC you may be sorely disappointed by this collection. Either way you look at it though I am just happy to see the re-emergence of this classic comic which, combined with the new series and the reprinting of Robert E. Howard's original works from Ballantine, helps to keep Conan and his creator well within the eye of current pop culture. Long may he stay there!!

I just received this book today and am very happy with the product. This book has been ridiculously denigrated by reviewers. I dont get it. It is just like a Marvel Essential or a DC Showcase book. Since these stories were originally presented in black and white anyway, you lose nothing in this format. There is no problem with binding or margin at all. I can read every panel including those on the inside of the pages. I ordered the Predator Omnibus from Dark Horse and was surprised at the smaller size of the book. Not this book. This volume is the exact same dimensions as any standard sized TPB. Maybe my copy came from a second printing but it is larger than I expected.

As far as the content goes, this is classic Conan. Some of the best writing and art in the history of Conan's existence as a comic character is found in these pages. I am pre-ordering volume 2 right now. BUY THIS BOOK if you are a fan of Conan and his adventures.

Too too many people knock this as art being too small blah blah, whatever...Conan is going thru a renaissance right now(THANK YOU ROY).I have not read these stories in years and now I am happy to have them in my hands again! Dark Horse is even doing a DOUBLE SOLID by realeasing a volume a month!!! Yeah my only complaint is that the volumes only hold what? 15 tales? So what? I look forward to next month's volume where it showcases MY favorite REH tale. 'Beyond the black river'!!!! And funny thing when I picked this book up...Lionsgate got the greenlight for a new Conan movie! THANK YOU DARK HORSE AND KEEP SSOC COMING!!!!

I too grew up with Savage Sword in the 70's..

Although I would have preferred this book be printed at the original size, I can still make out all the detail in the artwork. I was very dissapointed that Barry Windsor-Smith's "Cimmeria" was not included... but I found a fair online version posted so I am satisfied.

Seeing the Alfredo Alcala inking again, Barry's early work (athough this stuff has been reprinted numerous times already elsewhere), and the fantastic Alex Nino "People of the Dark" make this book worth every penny to me.

I too wish these were full issue reprints, with all the art porfolios, articles, and stories featuring other characters. But for this price you do get quite a bit already.

This is a fine collection. Yes, it's all black and white in a SLIGHTLY reduced size, but it's an afforadble reprint of over 500 pages of material. Personally I can't afford all the deluxe editions I'd like, the pricing of which tends to be OUTRAGEOUS - the DC Omnibus hardcovers at 50-75 bucks a pop? Come on! The reproduction is pretty crisp and clear for the most part, and I'm thrilled to get these back in collected editions. I bought all the magazines when they first hit newsstands but lost them over the years. This is a good replacement for essential Conan tales.

Say the word "barbarian" aloud and ask for word association, and it is almost guaranted that one of the first things people say will be "Conan". Pulp author Robert E. Howard created the famous sword-and-sorcery hero in the 1930s as an outlet for his own repressed desires; chronically introverted and shy arund women in real life, Conan is the archtypal hyper-masculine swordsman and proto-anti-hero, defeating the bad guys and getting the girl. The character received a new boost in the early 1970s when Marvel Comics legend Roy Thomas (best known for his work on "The Avengers" and later DC projects "All-Star Squadron" and "Infinity Inc.") and a bevy of talented artists (Barry Windsor-Smith being the most associated with the run) brought his adventures into the realm of graphic fiction.

This volume is the first of a number that collect Thomas' work on "The Savage Sword of Conan" (and, in this first one, five earlier stories). This is similar to both DC's "Showcase Presents" and Marvel's "Essential" lines: phonebook-sized black and white reprints. Unlike most of those, "Conan" adventures were originally in black and white, so there isn't any sense that you are getting a downgrade version of the product. It is quite a nice package for those interested in getting a sense of a the "Conan the Barbarian" property.

There are fifteen separate stories here, and somewhat limited utility in discussing them individually. On a certain level, if you have read one "Conan the Barbarian" story, you've read read them all. Each is wholly self-contained, to the point that reading them in close proximity to each other may throw you off when certain characters or status quos disappear between issues. There are common elements to most of them: Conan is on the move in search of fame and fortune (and the kingdom he is prophesied to eventually possess), arrives in an exotic locale where nasty rogues abound (often with a bonus bizarre monster) for Conan to vanquish, and the woman (there is rarely more than one) is dressed in a bikini and jewelry. There's nothing in the way of character development to be found; Conan is a man not to be changed by time, place or experience: mercenary, lustful, eager to resolve conflicts with violence, and oddly noble when the situation presents itself. There's a notable guest appearance by his female counterpart, Red Sonja.

When you consider the content of Thomas' superhero comics from the same period, it is notable to see how much more adult "Conan" is. There is gory violence (though generally not so gory as more modern superhero comics), occasional nudity and plentiful near-nudity, and all manner of allusions to sex (consenual, as Conan has all the time, and non-consensual). Conan, an anti-heroish figure, is an amusing thug with moments of nobility through it all.

Recommended for fans of the genre, or those interested in looking into one of the seminal works of the sword-and-sorcery genre.

Basically, Savage Sword of Conan is a great read, as long as you only read one or two stories, put the book down, go do something else for two weeks, come back, and read a couple more.

Don't get me wrong, most of the stories are downright fantastic! I'm particularly fond of the Barry Windsor Smith stuff at the begining, especially "Red Nails" which is an incredibly good read with excellent visual storytelling.

But the problem is all the stories are out of order chronologically, and they basically repeat the same patterns: Conan meets hot chick (usually a different one every time) who doesn't like Conan at first, fights some monsters or warriors or wizard bent on destruction, hot chick is captured, Conan defeats evil and saves hot chick, hot chick falls head over heels for our beefy warlord, and like James Bond, the story closes with them about to do the nasty. Oh, and there's an occassional magical relic.

Therefore, the stories can get very formulatic and its difficult to get excited from one story to the next if you read a lot of them at once. There is barely any character development with Conan, and with no continuing storylines, there are no other characters to care about.

In closing, this book is very good in small spurts.

After reading the negative reviews about this product, I was hesitant to buy it, but I'm glad I did. The printing and illustrations were just fine on my copy and I feel there's really nothing to complain about. The pages are a bit smaller to fit standard comic size, but the pictures and text are still clear and well proportioned... very cool looking. This graphic novel is just like a marvel essential; it's the best way to get lots of reading material at an unbeatable price.

I agree with some negative reviewers in that I would like to see luxury editions available too, and I would pay more for one, but that doesn't mean that I disregard the value and utility of this one. It includes Savage Tales 1-5 and Savage Sword 1-10. That adds up to 544 pages of pure unfiltered Conan... it's a thick novel that includes all the Conan stories ever published in those magazines.

If you only like the luxury style trade paperbacks like Chronicles of Conan, then maybe you want to wait, but if you really want to read the best comic book stories of the stellar Cimmerian, this is the perfect book. All the people who bashed this book have no valid argument whatsoever, and by Crom, Conan would agree.

Dark Horse has been reprinting Marvel Comics' color Conan comics for a few years but now they are adding the Conan stories from the black & white Savage Sword of Conan Magazine. This volume one Omnibus edition features 544 pages and includes the Conan stories from Savage Tales # 1 - 5, and Savage Sword of Conan # 1 - 10. Back in the day as a young Conan fan, Savage Tales was like the Holy Grail. These first five issues pre-dated Savage Sword and within a few years had already escalated in price beyond my pocket change. With this volume we are seeing theses stories again for the first time in over 30 years. What immediately strikes you about the book is the incredible roster of artists. These are truly legendary names: Barry Windsor Smith, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Mike Kaluta, Frank Brunner, John Buscema, Boris Vallejo, Esteban Maroto, Alex Nino, and Tim Conrad. From a purely artistic standpoint, Savage Sword and Savage Tales were dwarfing just about anything else going on in comics at that time.

The volume leads off with one of Robert E. Howard's shortest, but most well known Conan tales, The Frost Giant's Daughter. This is one of Conan's earliest tales chronologically. Still a teenager, he encounters a beautiful woman in the frozen north who leads him into an ambush by her giant brothers. The story features some of the best art to grace the magazine by Barry Smith. I have a theory about present day comic book art... Comic art APPEARS to be much better than it was say 20 or 30 years ago but this is due to advances in technology as far as printing, colorization, and digital enhancing. Today we see so many artists working in a minimalist, cartoony style because it can be digitally produced much quicker than hand drawn artwork. But you can't really hide behind technology when working in strict black and white.

Jump ahead to the second story, and adaptation of Howard;s Red Nails and just marvel at Smith's detailed line work. Look at Conan in the wilderness as Smith painstakingly draws seemingly every blade of grass and every leaf on the trees and bushes. Look at the close-ups of Conan with so many individual follicles of hair illustrated and then compare it to a lot of art today where you might get a curl or two drawn in. Smith puts most modern day artists to shame with his unique, renaissance influenced style.

The second issue of Savage Sword presents another Howard Adpatation, Black Colossus in which Conan faces off against a three thousand year old sorcerer. This story teams long time Conan penciller John Buscema with his frequent partner Alfredo Alcala. Buscema always drew a great Conan but Alcala pushed his work a notch higher with a gritty detail that would only work in a black and white format.

Issue #5 of Savage Swords sports one of Boris' best covers depicting Conan being crucified, from the tale, A Witch Shall Be Born. This story features Conan at his most resilient, surviving his crucifixion in the desert to get revenge on the man who put him there.

The final story from Savage Sword #10 concludes the adaptation of Howard's only full-length Conan Novel, The Hour of the Dragon. In a way it's a strange inclusion because you only get the last third of the story or so. The first parts were printed in Giant-Size Conan the Barbarian and while this is a great Story it might have been best just to skip it rather than having it pickup in the middle.

The art does lose some of it's potency since it is reduced down to regular comic size from it's original format but that's about the only negative I can come up with from this superb book. This was one of the best comics that Marvel ever produced and a we have to thank Dark Horse for making these stories available again to Conan fans.