Conan, Vol. 19: Xuthal of the Dusk

Conan: Dark Horse Collection

by Fred Van Lente, Guiu Vilanova (Illustrations)

Writer Fred Van Lente takes on the world's most famous barbarian!

Conan and the former slave girl Natala wander the desert as the only survivors of a vast army. Finally they arrive dying of thirst to the unwelcoming and desolate city of Xuthal, where a mysterious horror lurks in the shadows threatening to take any who step within the city! As the inhabitants sleep under the spell of the Black Lotus, Conan and Natala must escape if they wish to live!

This enthralling volume collects issues #13--19 of the Dark Horse Comics series Conan the Avenger .

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

176 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a strange dichotomy here of an adapted Robert E. Howard story followed by one written by Fred Van Lente. Howard's story is strange with some stilted dialogue and his treatment of women only as sexual objects (There's actually a panel where a gang bang is implied. WTF!). Characterizations completely change in Van Lente's story. Conan is cracking jokes and his female companion talks about how good he is in bed. The art is better in this volume too. Guiu Vilanova handles the adaptation with a classic pulp style. Brian Ching then returns and his art isn't as off putting as it was in the previous volume, although he still needs to work on those long necks.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic was indeed written by one author. The first part of the book, however, is an adaptation of a Howard original. And the second part is a new story by Lente. There is a painful change of characterization between the two stories. We have the classic Conan character with his somber tone followed by Lente's modern action star, sly and wisecracking Conan. One would think he would have attempted to either update the Howard version or tone his character down a bit. Also, the first story ends with Conan injured and he is miraculously fully healed in the next issue (which takes place a day later) even though he says the plan is to spend a few weeks recovering at an oasis. Not only does he not rest, he starts doing back-flip somersaults over grown men - whacking heads off with his broadsword. Schwarzenegger just got fired and replaced with Bruce Lee.

The series is still pretty middling and for fans only. Who else would get excited for the return of Janissa? A character I thought Darkhorse had forgotten about. I was starting to feel bad for those fans that shelled out cash for her limited edition bust.

Also, a shout out for the three Eric Powell covers. The man gets better every day.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice Conan adaptation. Good art and story do a nice job of bringing this character to the visual comic world. Recommended

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art. Great coloring. Pretty darn good plot, but not yet the best the series has seen.

I want to talk about characterization. In graphic storytelling, a character's personality is revealed in action and dialogue, and more rarely in narration. Here in volume 19, there's plenty of action and illustration that is very good, and where the authors have used narration, it is good -- well tuned to the story. The dialogue is smart, but sometimes it seems like we're looking at a series of still phootgraphs, and there are pieces missing between the frames. The dialogue is, at times, that disjointed.

Conan seems to be developing a sense of comedic timing, never revealed in the Howard stories. I wish I could recall an example (book is back to the library). The mighty thewed barbarian does decide at one point, smart as he can often be, to announce that his plan is slay and break things, and then smirks to reveal his humor.

Well deserving of 4 stars.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite volume of the "Conan the Avenger" series so far. We get the return of Janissa the Widowmaker in a Lovecraftian style story. It also seems to signal a new beginning with the next story arc. The dialogue and humor sometime seem a little too modern for a Conan title, but it still works. Too bad the "Avenger" series ends with the next arc just as I really started to like it.

[Ripley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a step up from Vol 17. Janissa the Widowmaker finally returns.

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collect two stories, one following on directly from the other.

Story 1. Based on a REH story. Great story (of course, it's by REH) and the art is good too. The city and it's creepy atmosphere are well depicted, though Thog could have been better.

Story 2. An original story and it shows. Despite continuing immediately from where the first story ended it is wildly inconsistent in tone with that first story.

For example, right at the end of the first story Natala expresses her pity for Thalis but the second begins with her on a childish rant wishing all kinds of nasty, silly fates on Thalis.

Added to that, the plot is dumb, the characterisations are extremely simplistic and the dialogue is incongruous with the setting.

The art in the second story is by a different artist and does not fit with this story or character. It may be ok for a silly spandexhero tale but not for a sword & sorcery one. It is far too cartoonish.

The main threat is an elder god so vast it blots out the stars in the sky. Yet it looks like a large earthworm and is killed by Conan hitting a bell.

So, 4 stars for story one, 2 stars for story two.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A two part story, the first based on a Howard story The Slithering Shadow, is illustrated by Villanova and a pretty good job is done all around. The story was a bit lacking in any depth, which I am not sure is the fault of the source material or the fact it could have been adapted a bit differently. Not having read the original, I cannot really say. What was quite clear though was that the character of Conan is rather different in the second half of the book, which is incidentally illustrated by Ching, so even though Van Lente is the same author for the whole volume, the two halves have quite a different feeling. In some ways I preferred Ching's art in the second half of the book, which despite more 'cartoony', I felt were more attractive and helped tell the story in a better way. I also preferred the second story which held rather more in the way of intrigue and surprise.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Horse's adaptation of the Howard original: The Slithering Shadow is a relatively good version of the familiar story, but doesn't really bring anything new to it. It is followed by Lente's own story that a kind soul will call mediocre - another transition between bigger stories, like the previous whole TPB was. Let's hope that the next TPB brings some goods on the table, or Lente's run will not really be very memorable.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fred Van Lente, Guiu Vilanova and Brian Ching round out this particular run of Conan with a fun adventure in the desert and the welcome return of an old character (but one created for Dark Horse Conan) that lends some fun meta-continuity to this particular iteration of Conan. The art is fun as well, though by the time we reach the end, one really wishes Brian Ching either didn't rush his art so much or at least bothered to learn how to draw a proper sword.

[Leah Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading this series all out of order, but it still makes sense. I really loved the artwork for the last couple of scene's.

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I debated on if I should give this two stars or not with the first story, Xuthal of the Dusk, actually being not bad. Despite my previous complaint in the last volume about Van Lente's voice for Conan and his world, it felt a lot more palpable in this story, which I imagine comes from the fact that he was adapting a Howard story because he switches right back as soon as he moves on to the Blood Oasis story, which was terrible. I want to re-title this volume "What a Twist" due to sheer number of times I said it to myself during the Blood Oasis section, which is unfortunately the majority of the book. Nearly every plot problem from last volume is present and cranked up to 11. This volume did leave me with something to look forward to with the next one, Natala won't be around. She was unbearably annoying the moment she opened her mouth. How I wish Conan had stuck with her mute sister for this volume as well.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to rave about this volume! It starts with an original Robert E. Howard story which of course has a mix of sword play, the supernatural, and scantily clad women. But over 19 volumes that stew can get a little tepid...not with this volume. The writing is strong and so is the art work. I don't know how to describe the character art other than cheeky. The female characters are sexy, strong and more than window dressing. If anything the monsters and bad guys are almost a back drop to Conan's interactions with a number of interesting female characters.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun reading. Two connected but relatively stand-alone adventures. I enjoyed the second more than the first, personally. Both are fairly standard Conan stuff, except that he really stumbles into trouble both times instead of having the trouble actively look for him or seeking it out himself.

[Madkropotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crom!