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Checkout FunnyFact.com | SuperHeroBooks - The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories
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List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $8.85
Your Save: $ 7.10 ( 45% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781593070243
ISBN: 1593070241
Label: Dark Horse
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 156
Publication Date: 2004-02-11
Publisher: Dark Horse
Studio: Dark Horse
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Deeper Waters On The Inland Sea
Comment: Give Roy Thomas ample credit for not just banging out Conan stories designed to justify lurid maiden-and-monster comic-book covers. His respect for the world of Robert E. Howard's most famous creation went much deeper. Here, Thomas began plumbing the deep political and thematic waters of Hyboria's Inland Sea.
"The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3" presents more of the collected Marvel comic book series from 1972-73, a critical early period that helped make the series. While it starts off oddly, and feels only loosely tied together, Vol. 3 never lapses into formula. Better, it captures the established Conan team - Thomas and lead artist Barry Windsor-Smith - approaching full gallop.
As Lawrance Bernabo notes in his review, the seven comic books here comprise three storylines. The first finds Conan recruited to help out one Elric of Melnibone, a fighter with an enchanted sword who has entered Hyboria from an alternate universe to stop a power-crazed sorceress bent on controlling both worlds. It's overweighted with magic and mythic beasts, though also one nice callback - the return of a father and daughter Conan first met in issue #5.
Elric doesn't really fit in so well. He actually belonged to a series of fantasy stories by Michael Moorcock, and though Thomas doesn't say so in his afterword, it reads like a half-baked attempt at a Marvel spinoff. References to the Elric backstory, "Cymoril, the beauteous love of Elric...Cymoril, who sleeps beneath the dread spell of Yyrkoon, Elric's greatest rival...", only dilutes our fledging connection with Conan's world. Magic spells are cast, while Conan watches from the sidelines, uttering "Crom's bones" to remind us he's still there.
The other two storylines, both using the Inland Sea as a setting, work much better. In the first of them, Conan and a pirate named Fafnir wash up on the island of Bal-Sagoth where they save a beautiful woman who thinks herself a god. Never mind the girl; it's Conan's budding relationship with the affably homicidal Fafnir that's the standout element of this satisfying tale.
"Bal-Sagoth" has a different look than the other Conan stories; with Windsor-Smith briefly replaced by Gil Kane. Kane's heavy lines and sharp-focus compositions have their moments, particularly in close-ups, but lack Windsor-Smith's more lyrical visuals.
The final and meatiest storyline, as with "Bal-Sagoth", finds Conan caught in the middle of political intrigue spiked by religious zealotry, with loyalties shifting on a copper piece. Conan and Fafnir are commandeered to serve in the Turanian Navy, just then launching an attack across the Inland Sea on rival Hyrkania, which has stolen Turan's living religious icon.
Does Conan care? Of course not, by Crom, and that irreligious attitude earns him some enmity. Still, he and Fafnir do their best to help their Turanian host, winding up in a seaport battle royale and one of the most heartbreaking moments in the Conan comic saga so far. Windsor-Smith's art throughout these last three issues is remarkably atmospheric and lucid, as Thomas contrasts Conan's straightforward character nicely against the arcane political schemes of various Turanian and Hyrkanian rulers. Much blood is enjoyably shed.
Conan remains a pretty basic character, but Thomas and company were finding increasingly sophisticated ways of using him, an approach which would bear greater fruit in Vol. 4.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Super Reader
Comment: A crossover! Conan meets Elric, to fight Prince Gaynor the Damned, and the Green Sorceress. Not too bad either.
Thomas also throws in a homage to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd, for one.
Gil Kane actually drew some of this, in the adaptation of a non-Conan story of Howard's.
As before, Thomas' afterwords are very interesting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More Conan!
Comment: As in my previous reviews of this series, my only complaint is that they did not reprint the original comic book covers. Other than that, the art and storys are great!
Customer Rating:
Summary: I have to surrender
Comment: While the coloring in this book is a little better than the last one it's still too heavy handed and still obscures the line work ruthlessly, exploiting the art to serve as backdrop for overrendering yet again.
My suggestion is to buy the Conan Saga magazines (these came out in the late 80s and are still available to those who know how to look) with beautiful black and white line reproduction over these volumes if you want to get a better feel for why this series was such a critical success when they first appeared. Even as they too suffer a bit from bad reproduction from time to time at least the art is there to admire making the stories easier to access. What's sad about these volumes is the fact that with printing this nice and production qualities so advanced the editors had the chance to really produce some serious, quality reproductions in these collections. Also, for Roy Thomas to comment on these stories as if these were the definitive showcase for the talent that was is depressing.
Maybe, MAYBE one day someone will give these stories the treatment they deserve.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hither came, Elric, of Melnibone.
Comment: "The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories (Chronicles of Conan, Book 3)" continues the amazing Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith (and now Gil Kane) run on Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian." This collection presents issues #14-15 and #17-21.
The most exciting aspect of this volume is the infamous Elric of Melnibone crossover, that arcs through issues 14 and 15. The originals are quite hard to find, and having them collected is a treat. Elric, a dark creature of magic and Conan, a straightforward earthbound barbarian, make strange bedfellows, but the story is one of the best, bringing back Zukala and his daughter from issue #5, although they are now much changed as Thomas and Windsor-Smith have matured far beyond the early Kirby-influenced style of storytelling.
When Gil Kane takes over the artwork with issue #17, it is a jarring change from Windsor-Smith's delicate pencils. While an excellent artist, his work is more suited to the superhero genre than Conan. Adapting a Turlogh Dubh O'Brien yarn, "The Gods of Bal-Soggoth," into a Conan story works very well, and the Irishman easily becomes a Cimmerian. The giant Vanir Fafnir, who is an occasional player in the Conan series across the years, makes his first appearance here, and the two tackle an ancient city ruled by falsehoods and old gods.
Windsor-Smith reappears in issue #20, taking Conan and Fafnir into a Hyrkanian war, where Conan shows that he is much more than brute strength and sword-skill. His intellect is allowed to come out to play, as he navigates a castle raid.
All three story arcs are top-notch comic book storytelling, with the writer and artist working together in seamless harmony. They really have the "feel" of Robert E. Howard's Conan, more so than any other adaptation or pastiche. Any fans of Conan or just good comics should have this volume in their collection.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This is the third volume in a series collecting the early Conan comic book stories by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. Originally created in the 1930s, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian has survived to emerge as one of this century's most powerful and popular characters. Even more impressive than the character's lasting appeal over the past seven decades, is the caliber of talent involved in all of the various Conan incarnations. Of those, there are few that speak as clearly and as uniquely as artist Barry Windsor-Smith. Over the course of these early stories, Windsor-Smith's stunning evolution from comic-book cartoonist to full-fledged artist is apparent and thrilling to behold.
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