Conan, Vol. 20: A Witch Shall Be Born

Conan: Dark Horse Collection

by Fred Van Lente, Brian Ching (Illustrations), José Luís (Illustrations)

Writer Fred Van Lente's incredible run on Conan reaches its epic conclusion! Taramis, the beloved queen of Khauran, was born with a twin sister, Salome--but by an ancient doom placed on their bloodline Salome's chest bore a scarlet half-moon birthmark: the mark of the witch! Left to die in the desert, Salome survived instead, and grew up to embrace her malevolent destiny . . . and now she's back, to take vengeance on all of Khauran! Featuring perhaps the most famous event in the Conan mythos, Conan's crucifixion, this spellbinding volume collects Conan the Avenger #20-25.

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

152 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 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 2 out of 5]

I'm usually a fan of Van Lente's but I couldn't get into this Conan run. There's so...much...exposition and the dialogue is very stilted. It felt like Ven Lente tried to use too much of Robert E. Howard's original text and it just feels old and wooden today.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a darn good book, but one I was just not in the mood for. There's a lot of Conan here, applied with a liberal dose of court intrigue, spies, rebellion, military battle, desert survival and a dash of off-page witchcraft and the ages-old barbarian-vs.-civilization argument. An adaptation of the original Robert E. Howard story of the same name.

I thought the art and colors were sumptuous, without any noticeable errors of continuity or costuming, and the writing was sharp. There were occasional interface issues, where the text did not provide enough context to explain the point of the art, or vice versa, where the art seemed at odds with the text. I was troubled by some facial expressions, as mouths and smiles had a occasional cartoon-y look to them. Some of the narration is in a typewriter font, which struck me a hella out-of-place in a tale of ancient kingdoms set 13,000 years ago.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a surprising ending to an otherwise poor Conan series. The last 3 issues are pure Conan gold. Nothing better than Conan banding together various tribes and taking down an army lead by an evil witch.

I'm not sure I can get excited about Cullen Bunn helming the next series... but I'll be here.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice adaptation of the Conan stories into comic format. Good art and plotting. Recommended

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

This is one of my favorite Conan stories, although I have to admit I enjoyed the version from the early Savage Sword of Conan series better. However, this was still the best volume of the "Avenger" series. The crucifixion scene was immortalized in the original Conan film, and is one of the most memorable moments in any of Conan's stories.

Overall this was a really good volume, even if the early volumes of the "Avenger" series were a little bit of a letdown.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lente had an uneven run of the Conan series, overall, but he ends with a bang: a comic book adaptation of the original Howard story of the same name. No page is wasted to tell additional stories: it is all Howard. I've read the original and all the other comic adaptations before, so the story is a bit too familiar to me, as is, but this was still an enjoyable read.

Lente was clearly at his best when adapting original Howard stories and the intermissions of his own stories did not match the adaptations in quality. Still, it is a shame that his run is over and we, again, look at the future of the series in trepidation and fear.

[Richard Radgoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and classic.story epitomized by Conan's crucifixion on the cross in a desert. Everyone who favors our Barbarian hero needs to read it. This Dark Horse version is good... but for one.exception (and why only 4 stars) I hate Conan's rendition. All the other characters are good... but Conan looks.terrible in most panels. (its.a.face.thing)

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun take on a middling Conan story, "A Witch Shall Be Born" that somehow loses some of the power of Conan's crucifixion scene as it appeared in the text, but regains things a bit with the action that follows. As before, though, Ching's artwork really starts to deteriorate in this, which is a big downside.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so previously I have said that I really liked Brian Ching's artwork for this series, despite having a much less realistic style than some other artists. However, it is an attractive style, and it is far better than some of the seriously crap art which been foisted on this series. So, pretty much a whole volume by this artist and with Van Lente, who is a pretty solid story teller even if he is not my favourite, had me expecting to be more impressed than I was. There is an early chapter where Ching takes a break, and another artist takes over for that one part. Traditionally, this irritates me and I find it disruptive to the feel of the book. Here, however, I thought it worked well enough and I did not mind it. Then as the book went on and Ching's chapters came one after the other, I realised that I am forced to say that he has a tendency to draw only a few variations of faces. Particularly coming so soon after having read Conan Volume 19: Xuthal of the Dusk, the later half of which is illustrated by Ching as well, I was struck by how many of his characters look just like another. Disillusionment. Still, as I said before, a lot more attractive to look at that some of the crud from previous volumes.

The story as well is a bit lacklustre, mostly because so little of it actually features Conan. Is it a set up for the next series with a different author? It is not a bad story. It is just not actually terribly exciting or dramatic. Also the final 'big boss' clash was... underwhelming. Not the best way to end this run.

[Warren Nast · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel is good. Well drawn and a classic Conan story. This is probably my 10th time reading this story so I felt a little fatigued by it. But if you have never read this story it is a famous one for Conan and you should read it.