Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="rowport" data-source="post: 3650051" data-attributes="member: 9729">Let me second Wayne's suggestion here.&nbsp; The Marvel Conan series was an absolute highpoint of 70s comics in general, with fantastic art by John Buscema and Ernie Chan, but especially so because Roy Thomas kept the writing tone so consistently true to Howard's source material.&nbsp; Although it is derivative work, it is still very well done.&nbsp; The stories hold up tremendously well, too; I liked them 30 years ago because I liked the Big Guys With Swords (heh), but now I appreciate the subtle storytelling. For instance, in the most recent volume Conan and his allies are trying to sneak into a city planning to use both of his &quot;African&quot; (not sure of the Hyborian Age name!) allies to bluff in as part of the city's mercenary army.&nbsp; One comments to the other that he looks nothing like the mercenaries, and the other answers, &quot;most white men do not notice differences beyond darker skin.&quot;&nbsp; That is some clever social commentary, still relevant, that works within the story.&nbsp; Great writing!&nbsp; Along the same lines, enhanced by the modern printing, computer coloring offers lots more tricks than the original printings; in the TPBs the &quot;Africans&quot; and the &quot;Egyptians&quot; (Stygians) do not have the same skin tone, as they certainly should not.&nbsp; It improves the story IMO.Thomas' forewards in the collected TPBs are great, too-- they give you a sense of his thinking at the time.I have bought the whole TPB series even though I own many of the comics.&nbsp; I cannot recommend them highly enough.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rowport, post: 3650051, member: 9729"] Let me second Wayne's suggestion here. The Marvel Conan series was an absolute highpoint of 70s comics in general, with fantastic art by John Buscema and Ernie Chan, but especially so because Roy Thomas kept the writing tone so consistently true to Howard's source material. Although it is derivative work, it is still very well done. The stories hold up tremendously well, too; I liked them 30 years ago because I liked the Big Guys With Swords (heh), but now I appreciate the subtle storytelling. For instance, in the most recent volume Conan and his allies are trying to sneak into a city planning to use both of his "African" (not sure of the Hyborian Age name!) allies to bluff in as part of the city's mercenary army. One comments to the other that he looks nothing like the mercenaries, and the other answers, "most white men do not notice differences beyond darker skin." That is some clever social commentary, still relevant, that works within the story. Great writing! Along the same lines, enhanced by the modern printing, computer coloring offers lots more tricks than the original printings; in the TPBs the "Africans" and the "Egyptians" (Stygians) do not have the same skin tone, as they certainly should not. It improves the story IMO. Thomas' forewards in the collected TPBs are great, too-- they give you a sense of his thinking at the time. I have bought the whole TPB series even though I own many of the comics. I cannot recommend them highly enough. [/QUOTE]

Verification