Thursday, August 07, 2014

Today, Conan vs. the 90's:


I've been wanting a copy of Conan the Barbarian #275 for some time, but I keep finding copies of Marvel's nineties Conan books. Like this one! From 1995, Conan #3, "Trail of Blood" Written by Larry Hama, pencils by Barry Crain, inks by Jim Palmiotti.

Instead of the by-then classic, expected art style for the book (like John Buscema or Ernie Chan) this series went with a more modern look. Well, for the time, anyway; although the cover and a few panels have what looks like an early computer effect? Or coloring? Creating an interesting in-focus for closer objects, and blurriness for further away. In effect, keeping the "camera" focused on the warrior-woman's backside in the second panel above. Still, overall the art is kinda ugly.

But that almost works in the story's favor, since Conan has been shot by an arrow poisoned with the black lotus, and is tripping something fierce. Even though he's lost in the desert and hallucinating, Conan's not about to lay down and die; since he has to get even with the back-stabbing Sligo. A trio of scavengers consider stealing Conan's sword, but wisely decide to wait for him to die first. They don't wait long enough, and Conan hacks them to bits thinking the scavengers are his god Crom and his frost giants.

This storyline was side-tracked a bit by the Rune crossover, but I'm pretty sure everyone who crossed Conan received their comeuppance by the end...

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Yeah, those Conan stories from the emails90's didn't really age well did they? Even when Roy Thomas took over as the series writer around '96/'97.

SallyP said...

Man there was some seriousy fugly art in the 90's. Of course art appreciation is highly subjective...but still!