Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories (Conan (Graphic Novels))

Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories (Conan (Graphic Novels)) | Kurt Busiek | Great new look at T.H.E. H.E.R.O.!!!

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Conan Volume 1: Th...

	Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories (Conan (Graphic Novels)) Kurt Busiek Dark Horse, 2005 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of the Top 5 Comic Books of 2004

One of the hardest things to do in comics is taking on a well-known character loaded with history and making him seem fresh and exciting without "updating" or "ultimizing" him. Even moreso when the character isn't at least somewhat based in the world we live in. Kudos to Kurt Busiek for pulling it off masterfully. Plus, Cary Nord was born to draw Conan and Dave Stewart's coloring complements him perfectly, making this one of the best looking comics around, too. Robert E. Howard would be proud.

Great new look at T.H.E. H.E.R.O.!!!

Sure, this isn't Buscema's Conan nor Windsor-Smith's, but hey, who cares? Can't it just be time for a new look at things? We certainly don't need another neverending storyline about a guy from the early times who basically just chops off heads. All we need is a tight story with a hero, great art - in short, a book to get lost in, just for a few hours. If you're looking for something like that and you're open to Cary Nord's "European" style, you'll be in for a treat. If not, reread the old books and admire Windsor-Smith's artwork.

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Good. Good. Good.

Beautiful book. The art by Nord and Stewart is fantastic - really captures the raw nature of the subject matter. Busiek's writing is great - giving us a young Conan venturing into the world. This Conan is not the unconquerable hero we are accustomed to. He is young and naive, makes some big mistakes, and lets down everyone counting on him. His survival from this first adventure is, for him, bittersweet.

Unbelievable how good the first seven issues of this new series is.

Not perfect but certainly inspired

Some have complained about the lack of Robert Howard's prose in this collection. What did they expect? A series about Conan with only material written by the creator would last about a year or so of monthly books. I admit that when I heard Kurt Busiek was going to be writing Conan I was very skeptical. After all his comic writing has focused on superheroes, a subject he's admitted to be his favorite, so, him being selected to write Conan had me wondering. However, his work on Conan has been quite good. His writing has drawn deeply from Howard's prose and best of all, Howard's mood, frenetic battle scenes, bloody violence and Conan's well known vigor and indomitable passions. These stories are far better than those written by other other popular writer like Robert Jordan. While Busiek's Conan is not necessarily Howard's Conan in the pure literary sense, how could he be? What Busiek has managed to do is make his take on Conan come from his own perspective as if he entered Howard's world and reported on it. That makes his efforts sincere, more true to the source and at the same time make it his own while remaining as true as possible to Robert Howard's own vision. This is the only way to write another person's characters. Sure I'll take Howard over Kurt Busiek any day but that's how it should be. Busiek is not replacing Howard, he trying his best to elaborate on his ideas, taking them a little farther than Howard had the chance to. So far this is a far cry from some of the other Conan projects in that rather than rely on recognizable cliche's Kurt has made an effort to actually do as close to Howard as possible.
The art is a rare mix of technology and good old drawing skill. This hybrid of pencils and digital "paint" is, so far, pretty impressive and very consistent with moments pure artistic grandeur. Sometimes there is an unfinished aspect to it but the mood and the pace and the settings are marvelous. Conan himself is portrayed very well, kind of a mix of Frank Frazetta, John Buscema and Michael Ploog all rolled into one. Cary Nord is spot on in his emotional and powerful depictions of the young savage trying to make sense of the world of civilized men.
I hope they can keep this pace going.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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