The Complete Marvel Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 2

Conan the Barbarian (1970-1993) #4-6

by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith (Illustrator)

Book by Barry, Scott

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1979

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Osama Siddique · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Roy Thomas and Barry Smith collaboration is credited with introducing Robert E. Howard's iconic character Conan the Barbarian, and indeed the genre of cloak and dagger, into comics. It was joyful to read this and revisit childhood and also experience again the impact of the message emblazoned across the cover - STAN LEE presents.

The volume has three stories -The Tower of the Elephant; Zukala's Daughter; and Devil-Wings Over Shadizar. The first two have a sinister sorcerer hiding in his safe abode as a commonality. There is the characteristic mingling of an ancient culture with super-evils villains who also have access to forces from realms, eons and distanced too extraordinary to imagine. The illustrations are powerful even if the coloring is somewhat smudged in appearance. Yag-Koshna, Yara, Zukala, Zephra, Hajii and the Night-God are the kinds of characters Conan meets in places called the Arenjun, Thief-City of Zamora, a remote Zamorian village and Shadizar as he traverses distant lands in a very remote past. The charm of pulp - its wild imagination, outrageous characters, impossible plots and pure escapism - is known only to those who have experienced and enjoyed it. This is pulp as its best, especially in the cloak and dagger genre.

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things were moving at the right direction at this point with Conan. The first story, The Tower of the Elephant, is pretty damn good one. Also, this collection features a story (Devil-Wings Over Shadizar) that was nominated as the best comic story in 1971. Surely things weren't that bad.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of the Conan comic stories into paperback form.