The Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 9

The Savage Sword of Conan

by Michael Fleisher, John Buscema, Val Mayerik

The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 9 contains over five-hundred, jam-packed pages of adventure, betrayal, and revenge by some of the most respected names in comics Michael Fleisher, John Buscema, Ernie Chan, Pablo Marcos, and other familiar talents make sure that Conan has his hands full with a demigod that wields the awesome powers of the leopard, three deadly dwarves, a siren with an army of undead pirates, and the return of the Devourer of Souls This collection also includes the fan-favorite stories "The Blood Ruby of Death," in which a priceless gem turns even the staunchest of allies into enemies, and "When a God Lives," where the theft of a seemingly harmless statue unleashes the ancient, arcane energies of a god whose only goal is to destroy Conan and anyone else foolish enough to get in his way

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

500 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2011

About the author

Michael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.

Reviews

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these albums are better than others, and for me the main difference comes from the quality of the graphics. Welcome back, Big John Buscema. The experiments with guest artists in the previous album were more miss than hit.



After 102 issues, our mighty thewed barbarian has fought just about every monster and dark mage of the Hyborian Age, stolen every cursed gem and explored every long abandoned ruin; he has bedded all the tavern wenches and he has saved hundreds of princesses in distress from the clutches of giant spiders, giant apes, giant snakes, giant squids, demons from other dimensions and evil priests with giant ... ambitions.



Something keeps pulling me back to this mythical world (it must be my twelve year old self that had to make do with only the second hand French comics of Rahan). In the years following the fall of Atlantis ... are the opening lines of the Nemedian Chronicles that preface every issue of the Marvel series, lines that still give me a slight shiver of anticipation at meeting again with the first and greatest of all the Barbarian strongmen. With a whole Kothian continent as a playground, there must still be unexplored corners yet, legends and monsters coming alive, treasure to plunder and tankards of ale to be quaffed. The place names alone are still enough enticement to continue with the series, for all its faults: Nemedia, Koth, Aquilonia, the Vilayet Sea, the Pictish Wilderness, Far Saramis, Hyrkania, Cimmeria, Zamboula, Argos, Shem, Zingara, Ophir ... names that have become synonims to me for sword and sorcery adventure.



to quote the actor that first impersonated Conan on the silver screen : "I'll be back!"

[Tony Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is generally quite good, and the black-and-white format works well for Conan, but there is a certain sameness to the plots, although the last issue in the compilation was very different.

[Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was commenting to a friend while I was in the middle of reading this volume that almost all Conan stories follow a pretty set formula: Conan is working/looking for work; Conan is hired to protect or retrieve a princess; Conan encounters a wizard and his/her monsters; Conan defeats them/it, wins the girl, and heads back to her home (the long way around, usually).

Surprisingly, not all the stories fit this narrative, so I found this set of stories a bit of a refreshing venture.

[sohrab sitaram]

Incredible. Fantastic language, mind blowing dialogues, lovely artwork too. ! Incredible storylines

[Ralph L Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! I love these Savage Sword of Conan compilations. I have 9 of the current 13 of them. They are amazing! I haven't read these stories in a quarter century at least, but they are every bit as great as they were then, even the later stories which were written by Michael Fleischer and not Roy Thomas still shine compared the stories being marketed today as Conan by Dark Horse. Reading these again in this new format is actually wonderful.