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Post by jbruel0 on Feb 27, 2015 9:44:12 GMT -5
I really dislike the art of Eye of the sorcerer...
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 27, 2015 13:42:38 GMT -5
I'm usually a fan of Alfredo, but his best Conan work was by then behind him. As for Ernie, he's in my opinion a better inker than penciller.
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Post by berkley on Feb 27, 2015 16:22:22 GMT -5
I have to agree, Alcala's work doesn't look too good there, certainly not compared to his usual standard, which was of the highest. And Chan's art does look a little dull and plodding. I think his solo stuff works better in colour; maybe the colour adds a bit of life to what is otherwise some rather tired looking artwork.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 9:32:27 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #70, November 1981The cover is by Earl Norem, and although the theme of a giant man-ant hybrid is germane to the story it heralds, the creature itself is noticeably different from its in-story incarnation. I much prefer the one on the cover! The frontispiece is by Gil Kane. At the time, Kane was also handling the art on the Conan the barbarian color book; he pencilled and inked issues 127-130 to my utter delight. (Then his lovely pencils were marred by inappropriate inking... but that's another story). Table of contents:Dwellers in the depths, where Conan fights ants A Cimmerian in Hollywood, an article on the upcoming Conan movie Like father, like daughter, a pair of illustrations by Judith Marcos and her dad Pablo.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 9:42:14 GMT -5
Dwellers in the depthsStory by Bruce Jones Artwork by John Buscema and Steve Mitchell Action-comedy adventure. That's how Bruce Jones interprets the Conan series, and that's how he writes it. These are not tales in the vein of Kubrick's Spartacus or Eastwood's Unforgiven; we're into Jacky Chan territory. In the interest of fairness, I must confess that I do find his dialogues amusing. Yes, even when the normally tight-lipped Cimmerian is overly verbose or when he uses the vocabulary of a scholar, when he makes puns or jokes or when he's clearly not taking matters seriously, I do chuckle and enjoy myself. The supporting cast usually counts at least one goofy and endearing character, making it hard not to like the story at all. Still, it must be said: this is not the Conan that Robert Howard came up with. Oh, and of course, Jones' Hyborian Age map is all over the place, as if all these made-up names didn't matter anyway. That aspect is more reprehensible in my eyes, because it suggests that the writer takes his material less seriously than the fans do. (Granted, there will always be fans who take imaginary stories way too seriously, but here I'm talking about general, non-fanatical, ordinary fans; only a very small percentage of them could enjoy the idea of Cimmerian Olympic games involving giant monsters). This issue we find Conan entering a village he knows as a nice place to relax and party. The town turns out to be decidedly unwelcoming, though: the town's women accuse him of being some evil being who lured all their menfolk away with some kind of infernal music! Conan tries to fight off a mob of stone-throwing viragos without harming anyone when a whip-wielding pretty blonde shows up and tries to take him down. Making remarks about how best to use a whip while on horseback Conan unhorses her, daringly kisses right right on the lips and makes good his escape. Later the girl manages to catch up with him, and after some playful banter and mock sparring she invites the Cimmerian to her cabin (a very well-built and furnished cabin, I thought, for someone who's been around for only a month, as per her own statement. She explains that she's looking for her father who came to these parts earlier and who seems to have vanished. She hires Conan to help her in the task of finding ol' dad and the two become rather intimate. (The lady, Fhala by name, seems to have a fun-loving and independent spirit!) The logical place to start the search is the castle of the local king. Crossing a solid stone bridge that a caption erroneously refers to as a drawbridge, the pair find a shabby and almost deserted place... king Vhalken, a surly fellow, explains that most of his men are gone and that his treasure vaults are being emptied in some unfathomable way. When he learns Fhala's father's name, Laroughe, Vhalken grows incensed and calls for his guards to arrest these two ruffians, who are in cahoots with a despicable libertine! Conan and Fhala race hither and yon in the castle in a rather comical scene, as we learn that Fhala is absolutely awful with directions. She and Conan finally escape by jumping from the castle's wall into the moat. Fhala does not understand why the king would call her father a libertine, as her dad was really not the type. She and Conan camp overnight some distance from the castle, until awakened by some high-pitched ululation. The strange music leads them to a shallow lake in the middle of which a small island bears a featureless earthen tower. As they wade into the water, the spy a deer that appears in distress: it is being eaten by a swarm of ants! Recovering on the lake's shore, Fhala and Conan next witness the arrival of a column of empty-eyed shambling men carrying heavy sacks. These zombies make their way to the earthen tower and get inside via a single narrow door. Curious about the bags, Conan waits for the last man in the line to pass in front of him, and punches him hard )while saying "excuse me"). The zombie gets up unharmed and lunges at the Cimmerian, who finds his opponent quite unkillable! In fact, Conan has to tear out the head of the man (bare-handed!) for him to finally collapse, letting a heavy stream of ants escape from his body. He had been controlled by the insects, like a flesh puppet! Conan checks out the sack that the man dropped when opunched, and discovers it contains sugar.(Sugar? In the Hyborian age?) Conan and Fhala enter the tower through its single door, and descend into the ants' kingdom. There they meet more zombies and also some kind of ant-headed men. They furthermore discover Fhala's father, prisoner of the ants but unzombified, who conveniently explains what is going on!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 9:44:53 GMT -5
The story over, escaping proves to be a little difficult because the place is literally swarming with enemies. After some more comical "turn right, no, turn left" confusion on Fhala's part, the trio gets close enough to the lake's bottom that Conan can stab the ceiling and let the lake's water cascade down and flood the subterranean ant farm. (How the ceiling can have been so thin and not collapse naturally, I have no clue). Thanks to the distraction provided by everybody drowning, Conan, Fhala and Laroughe escape through the island's tower's door and they manage to reach the shore. Then, due to some miracle of hydrology, Conan explains that his closing the tower's door must cause the water cascading down the ant tunnels to build up pressure in the tower, and the building falls apart! (Wait -- WHAT???) As the earthen tower collapses, we see that it was hiding a giant statue of Meara (as the beautiful woman she used to be), carefully shaped out of Vhalken's gold coins by what must be extremely art-oriented ants! Drooling when faced with such a fortune, Conan gets back to the island, where he is surprised by Meara's son, an elephant-sized ant with a sort of human face (kind of like the pink monstrosity in Aliens: resurrection). The beast is killed when the statue falls on it, and the island is drowned by the lake. The art looks nice for the first dozen pages, as John Buscema inks his own pencils. Fhala looks particularly good! Then Steve Mitchell takes over the inking, perhaps to meet the deadline, and accordingly the result looks a little rushed. Notes: - The story is set right after "the dragon from the inland sea in CtB #39. Conan is 22 at the time. - This might be a fantasy tale but biology, hydrology and ants don't work that way. Good thing Meara was said to have learned some magic; it makes the pill a little easier to swallow. - Why didn't Conan retrieve the golden statue and live off it for, like, ever? It is RIGHT THERE, at the end of the story, under just a few feet of water!!! And it's not as if it's cursed or anything!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 9:54:53 GMT -5
A Cimmerian in HollywoodA few low-res promotional pictures from the first Conan movie directed by John Milius. I really, really disliked that film even if I went it having already decided it must be fantastic. Think you were disappointed by The Phantom Menace, you Star Wars fans? I thought it was a masterpiece compared to Conan the barbarian. But I have to admit it: Arnold Schwarzenegger looked the part. I'm not sure the idea of casting a bodybuilder (which was done for the Conan TV show as well, as I understand) is such a good idea, though... Conan is not about big muscles, although he is strong; he's about strength, about determination, about presence. He must also be sympathetic, because in the Howard stories everybody who's not trying to kill him seems to want to be Conan's friend. You know who would be a great Cimmerian in my opinion? Ray Stevenson. He's got the "gigantic mirth" part down. (Might be a little too old now, though... except if Hollywood decides to do The Hour of the Dragon).
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 9:58:12 GMT -5
Like father, like daughterTwo pages drawn by Judith Marcos and inked by her father Pablo.
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Post by jbruel0 on Feb 28, 2015 10:22:43 GMT -5
Yep... Glad to retreive Jb (John Buscema) Jb
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 10:34:54 GMT -5
Yep... Glad to retreive Jb (John Buscema) Jb The impact of John's presence will be even more obvious next issue, where his layouts make Ernie Chan's work look stellar! Ernie's rendering is almost always interesting, with a raw and earthy quality to it... but when it comes to drawing human bodies in dynamic poses, Buscema is hard to beat.
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Post by berkley on Feb 28, 2015 15:58:25 GMT -5
I'll stay away from this one. The story sounds so completely mis-conceived that even the best artwork might not be able to get me to read it.
Actually I think the Mitchell inks in these samples look very close to John Buscema's own self-inked work, but they are a little sketchy, unfortunately - as Buscema was himself sometimes when he did his own inks.
The Judith Marcos art looks exactly like Pablo's, to my eyes - which means I love it!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 28, 2015 16:37:15 GMT -5
I'll stay away from this one. The story sounds so completely mis-conceived that even the best artwork might not be able to get me to read it. Actually I think the Mitchell inks in these samples look very close to John Buscema's own self-inked work, but they are a little sketchy, unfortunately - as Buscema was himself sometimes when he did his own inks. The Judith Marcos art looks exactly like Pablo's, to my eyes - which means I love it! Heh! heh! I put that up just because I know you like Marcos' work. Mitchell's inks are indeed very sketchy; he reminds me of Klaus Janson in some ways. I remember his work mostly on Iron Man, where it was fine. Even here it's not bad; it's just that after twelve pages of Buscema's inking his own pencils, anyone's work is bound to look a little outclassed.
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Post by berkley on Feb 28, 2015 16:48:59 GMT -5
I'll stay away from this one. The story sounds so completely mis-conceived that even the best artwork might not be able to get me to read it. Actually I think the Mitchell inks in these samples look very close to John Buscema's own self-inked work, but they are a little sketchy, unfortunately - as Buscema was himself sometimes when he did his own inks. The Judith Marcos art looks exactly like Pablo's, to my eyes - which means I love it! Heh! heh! I put that up just because I know you like Marcos' work. Mitchell's inks are indeed very sketchy; he reminds me of Klaus Janson in some ways. I remember his work mostly on Iron Man, where it was fine. Even here it's not bad; it's just that after twelve pages of Buscema's inking his own pencils, anyone's work is bound to look a little outclassed. oops - I only skimmed those posts and the pages I thought were Mitchell's inks were actually Buscema's - no wonder I thought they looked alike! I see now that Mitchell's style is completely different - missed the page he actually inked the first time through. Thanks for the Marcos! Did Judith go on to have a career of her own in comics or other art? I wish Pablo had had a long run as solo artist on some sword and sorcery series, preferably in black and white. Some day I must try to track down all his solo artwork.
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Post by foxley on Feb 28, 2015 18:30:36 GMT -5
Not the anachronism is might first appear. Ways of creating crystallized sugar were discovered on the Indian subcontinent by the time of the Imperial Guptas in the 5th century AD. Certainly within the general time frame of technologies that seem to exist within the Hyborian Age.
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Post by benday-dot on Feb 28, 2015 20:22:24 GMT -5
Without wishing to intrude too severely on RR masterful thread, I thought I's draw attention, for those unaware, to the recently arrived "Savage Sword of Criminal" by the phenomenal pairing of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. It's done as a one-shot retro faux Savage Sword of Conan book, even keeping the magazine size. For those familiar with the terrific noir and pulpish Criminal series by Brubaker and Phillips you are probably wondering "What the heck?" Savage Sword?! Well there actually is a barbarian story, black and white no less, buried within the regular Criminal plot. It plays out as a comic within a comic. Very much recommended for fans of sword and sorcery, SSoC and Criminal alike. Hey... that's certainly me!
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