World Famous Comics: Conan Vol. 4: The Hall of the Dead and Other Stories
Conan Vol. 4: The Hall of the Dead and Other Stories
By: Kurt Busiek Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 200 Publication Date: June 27, 2007
Product Description: Conan: The Halls of the Dead concludes writer Kurt Busiek's (JLA/Avengers, Astro City) critically acclaimed run, paving the way for new writer Tim Truman (Conan and the Songs of the Dead) and featuring a story by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola! Eisner award-nominated artist Cary Nord (Daredevil), and Eisner award-winning color artist Dave Stewart (Ultimate Fantastic Four, DC: The New Frontier) continue their groundbreaking run on Dark Horse's best-selling Conan series with three of the best writers in comics today.
Great book, great art. If you buy this book you should have bought the previous 3 books, then you'll understand the art and the stories. You won't regret to have this one if you have the previous ones.
UNFINISHED HOWARD TALE Robert E. Howard wrote a number of fantastic Conan stories in his lifetime but The Hall of the Dead was not one of them. Not that The Hall of the Dead isn't fantastic, but rather Howard didn't write it, at least not in full. Years after his suicide in 1936, numerous Howard material was found, which included a number of unpublished stories as well as various fragments and outlines for other stories. Among those was a brief outline for The Hall of the Dead. This story first saw publication in 1967 in Conan, the first in the series of paperbacks published by Lancer books and later reprinted by Ace Books. The story was credited to both Howard, and writer L. Sprague De Camp.
De Camp is a bit of an anti-hero among Conan fans...On one hand, he played a pivotal role in renewing interest in Howard's work in the 1960's. De Camp, for a time, was the overseer of Howard's works. Conan might have been a mere pulp footnote were it not for De Camp. On the other hand, De Camp set himself up as a posthumous collaborator of Howard's from which he benefited greatly. But he also took it upon himself to edit Howard's original work. Those Conan tales in the Lancer and Ace versions were not pure Howard, and it would still be decades before these tales would be reprinted in their pure forms for the first time since originally published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in the 1930's.
That now brings us to the Dark Horse version of the story, with its own unique take on the tale. Kurt Busiek, Mike Mignola, and Timothy Truman share the writing chores, while Cary Nord handles the art. For those interested in chronology, this story takes place shortly after the events in Tower of the Elephant, one of Howard's most famous Conan stories. This is fairly early in Conan's life, he's around twenty years old at the time and already has made a name for himself as a capable thief.
The story is set in spider-haunted Zamora and its infamous City of Thieves. Conan is fresh off a daring robbery of a rich magistrate and added insult to injury by sleeping with his wife. The Magistrate sets a trap for Conan but instead captures another thief, Nestor the Gunderman. Nestor negotiates his release by pledging to capture Conan which the magistrate enforces with a sorcerous bond. The two thieves eventually set aside their rivalry when they discover the ruins of a forgotten civilization, rumored to hold a vast horde of treasure. But the treasure has powerful guardians, and no one who has visited there has ever returned.
What Busiek and Co., have done is take the basic Howard plot and bookend it with a meatier beginning and end, all told collecting eight issues of the monthly Conan comic series. Mignola, who handles the middle portion of the story, infuses it with distinct elements of H.P. Lovecraft lore. While perhaps not intended by Howard, he was a fan of Lovecraft's work and wrote a number of stories that were heavily influenced by Lovecraft.
Nord continues to improve as a Conan artist and his work here is very solid and bolstered greatly by color artist Dave Stewart. Two minor complaints about Nord's art is the sometimes goofy facial expressions of his characters in close-ups which sometimes border on caricatures. The other minor complaint is the inconsistency of Conan's physique. He will sometimes look broad and brawny in the Buscema tradition and other times nearly as slender as Barry Smith's interpretation.
No one can ever truly say how Robert E. Howard might have completed Hall of the Dead, but Busiek, Mignola and Truman have given readers an epic, book-length adventure in the best Howard tradition.
REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
Best, and likely to remain the high point This 4th volume will be hard to beat. Unlike a complaint I read that the art is not Cary Nord's best, that it's "sketchy", well I cheerfully disagree. In fact I'd say this was Nord's most solid looking work to date. The coloring affects created by Dave Stewart are also the best so far. These tales are an uncluttered stream of the closest attempts at Getting Robert Howard's feel into these stories yet. What's funny about that is that other than the fragment, "Hall of the Dead", an unfinished Conan tale that has been finished almost masterfully by Mike Mignola, there not a lick of Howard's prose in the lot. Kurt Busiek, sadly, finally comes into his own at the end of his run. His writing feels downright channelled by Conan's creator and author. Even Tim Truman delivers a gutsy tale of Nestor coming to Conan's aid when you least expect him to do such a thing. The focus on Mignola's tale finishing out the fragment was a natural selection. His Hellboy and BPRD tales are very evocative of H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror tales. Robert Howard was very much an admirer and also a colleague of Lovecraft's and this tale is one of the the best invoking that spirit of the ancient horror which Lovecraft loved to weave his tales around. I have a prediction: despite the best efforts in the future I find it hard to believe this will ever be done better. I know that sounds pretty arrogant and cynical but this machine was really rolling despite having three different writers. The fact that these stories flowed so seamlessly is an example of a good vibe, a sound spirit and a solidly shared, creative effort. For me this series could end right here and I'd be happy. Here's hoping I'm proven wrong.
Story continues, and starts to build It seems that some poeple tend to think this was the lesser of this volume, but I think that is unfair. This is a excellent continuation that I feel has a great sense of building up for the next installment. A lot of things happen, and though you can certainly tell where Mignola contributed, it still feels like a true Conan story throughout. It just wasn't as rip-roaring as some of the previous ones. I eagerly look forward to the next installment.
The Changeover The fourth volume of collected Conan comics from Dark Horse is a good read. But if you've been following the writing of Busiek, you will be a little disappointed in this collection. Mignola picks up the reins and does an adequate job but he isn't able to capture the vitality that Busiek was able to portray. Personally, I am not a fan of Mignola so I was disappointed when he was chosen as a replacement. To me, his work in the past has always had a disjointed chaotic feel which hindered the telling of the story.
Physically, the book is pretty but not as nicely done as when Cory Nord had more control. I am a huge REH and Conan fan, so I grabbed the book as soon as it appeared on Amazon. I, however, did not notice that I had picked the paperback copy. After two readings, the pages started to come unbound. So, get the hardback if you can.
It's not a bad book, but it's not as good as the previous three. If you're a fan, it won't matter a lot but you might feel a little uncomfortable with the adaptation of REH's outline. I sure wish REH had actually written it.
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