Tuesday 29 March 2011

‘Conan: The Hall of the Dead and other Stories’ – Kurt Busiek, Mike Mignola, Timothy Truman & Cary Nord (Dark Horse Books)

I’ll come straight out and say that my plans to read the Fantasy Masterworks editions of ‘Conan’ have rather hit a brick wall in the last few weeks (ok, ever since I said I was going to read them...) You’re not interested in all the details, trust me on this, lets just say that the whole ‘Conan’ reading project is still very much a work in progress... Thank Crom then for the Dark Horse collections! They may only be based on the original works but I’ve always thought that Conan was well suited to the comic book format and I’ve seen nothing to disprove that yet.

‘The Hall of the Dead’ made for some delicious holiday reading last week and will tide me over nicely until I get my act together and crack open the books themselves...

As a young man, Conan proved his worth as a thief in the narrow alleyways and tall towers of the City of Thieves. The one thing that he never learnt though was to curb his excesses and this led to him bringing unwanted attention both upon himself and the other thieves looking to make a living without being noticed...

Now Conan must escape the attentions of the City Guard as well as his fellow thieves. It looks like sanctuary might lie within a ruined temple just outside the city but Conan will find that this is where the true danger really lies...

Dark Horse have built up a more than decent reputation as purveyors of some gorgeous looking ‘Conan’ comics and ‘The Hall of the Dead’ does nothing but ensure that this reputation remains intact. Cary Nord’s artwork is such that I could spend ages looking at it before I remembered that there was a story to go with it. His backdrops are superb, carrying a dreamlike quality that cements this fantasy setting. When things kick off though, Nord shows that he is more than able to keep up with the pace, delivering action scenes that really capture what Conan is all about – derring do and a willingness to take on superior numbers armed with nothing but a sword and a whole load of attitude.

This all looks good on the page but what you can’t get away from is how simplistic the plot is. Conan constantly bounces from one danger to another and doesn’t do much else than that. In one sense that is the whole point of Conan I guess, the guy is a force of nature and will solve his problems in that manner. It’s worth mentioning though that while you can really immerse yourself in the setting, Conan himself doesn’t have that same depth to him. Depends what you want out of the story as a whole I guess.

earing this in mind then, how do the writers rise to the challenge of telling a story where the main character perhaps doesn’t carry the plot in all the ways that would really benefit the book as a whole? In the words of Mike Mignola (from the introduction)...

‘Robert E. Howard wrote only a two-page outline for ‘The Hall of the Dead’ but all the big stuff (ambush, lost city, living skeletons, snake in a bag) was already there. I just had to fill in the weird atmosphere and throw in some frogs.’

Howard has given the contributing writers the bones upon which to flesh the story out and they all do a fine job of filling in the gaps. Mignola’s take on ‘The Hall of the Dead’ is the stand out effort here; a great exercise in weirdness with a fearsome frog monster for Conan to take on. Nord’s artwork shows off the fight in the best possible way but it was Mignola who took Conan right into the belly of the beast and going off on that kind of tangent is what makes the story work so well.

Busiek’s opening chapters capture the spirit of Conan without necessarily expanding on it.; it’s all in keeping with the character himself but I couldn’t help but wonder if there was more tale to be told. Truman, on the other hand, delivers an exciting dose of action by taking the simple approach of filling in any gaps with more foes for Conan to vanquish. It may be a simple approach but is certainly effective.

Despite the odd niggle ‘The Hall of the Dead’ has a lot going for it and was a great way to idle away a few hours last week. Now, onto the books themselves...
Eight and a Half out of Ten

5 comments:

Heloise said...

Comics aren't really my cup of tea, but one of the few I've actually read is Conan and the Songs of the Dead, because it was written by Joe Lansdale, who I'm rather a fan of, and which was great fun. Still you don't know Conan until you've read the originals, and I wish you good luck in smashing that brick wall and look forward on your take on Robert E. Howard's stories!

Graeme Flory said...

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to give it a go if/when I get a chance :o)
I've actually read the first Conan 'Masterworks' edition but that was at least ten years ago... I'm way overdue a re-read!

Taranaich said...

Don't feel like you have to rush into Conan, or any author: hype aversion is the worst thing in the world to experience. That's one thing that soured me on A Song of Ice & Fire.

I agree that the setting is much deeper than Conan, though I wouldn't agree that's because Conan isn't deep: he's a character whose depth is a lot subtler. With some characters you can see the depth, like the ocean under clear ice: others are obscured by opaque frost. The Hyborian Age itself is a character, as much as Conan is.

That said, I didn't mind "The Hall of the Dead": though it takes a Lin Carter title (Howard never gave the two-page synopsis a name), it doesn't mess up that much, mostly because there aren't enough details to mess up! The beauty of the "monstrous guardian" of the ruins is that it really could be anything, so Mignola's frog is as reasonable enough a supposition as any. I imagined something more Lovecraftian, or Smithian to keep with the frog thing (Tsathoggua's spawn and whatnot), but it's one of those cases where just about anything could work.

Heloise said...

Oops, sorry then. Still keeping my fingers crossed that you'll make it through the volume and have some fun along the way. ;)

Conan and the Songs of the Dead is a bit unusual, in so far as Conan gets a sidekick here and a lot of comic banter ensues (which Lansdale does exceedingly well, as any reader of his Hap & Leonard novels will attest). Does not mean that's it's short on action and violence, though, with some horror and even a bit of sex thrown in - in short it has everything a good pulp story should have, and makes for a very enjoyable read (well, did for me, in any case).

Taranaich said...

I'm afraid I can't be as charitable as Heloise in regards to Songs of the Dead: Lansdale's brand of humour worked great for Bubba Ho-Tep, but I felt it was infuriatingly out of place and distracting in the Hyborian Age.

Then again, I'm generally highly critical of Dark Horse's run as a whole: a lot of other Howard fans enjoy them.

The second Chronicles of Conan is chock-full of the very best Conan stories. Most of the lame ducks were in the previous volume: with the exception of "The Servants of Bit-Yakin/Jewels of Gwahlur/Teeth of Gwahlur", every story is simply, excellent.