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The Savage Sword of Conan, Vol. 1 by Roy Thomas
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Roy Thomas Illustrator: Barry Windsor-Smith Illustrator: John Buscema Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 2008-01-16 ISBN: 1593078382 Number of pages: 542 Publisher: Dark Horse
Book Reviews of The Savage Sword of Conan, Vol. 1Book Review: 'Just what it says on the tin'. Summary: 2 StarsTo be fair, this is a reprint series and it does indeed reprint selected stories from this ancient magazine. However, it it something of a missed opportunity. I had forgotten that for various reasons the SSOC was itself often full of reprints from the colour 'Conan the Barbarian' - but the thing is, I felt a bit cheated then, and doubly so now.
You might as well just buy the collections of these old colour comics - currently readily available from Amazon - the paper quality is superior, and has some fun and illuminating commentaries from Roy Thomas which puts the whole series into context.
It would have been so much more meaningful to confine this and future volumes to the stories which were unique to itself.
It was actually the covers which sold these magazines (not comics please note - different size page - another element lost in this volume) and it would have been marvellous to reproduce more of the best of them - Boris Vallejo was as big a name as Frazetta back then.
It's not all bad though - some of the old classics are there - 'Black Colossus', 'Iron Shadows..' 'A witch shall be born' etc
But there is one inexcusable crime - Tim Conrad was the hot artist of that period and genre - vying with Barry Smith for acclaim and you can see some of his first work on the 'Forever Phial'
Now....the very last panel in the original telling, was coloured red - not black - a courageous move in a Black and White medium - both artistically and commercially, but I remember the editorial clearly, where it was argued that - damn it all - it was just the right thing to do.
Dreadful decision to break faith with the original premise - shame on Dark Horse - I know it's only a small matter, but it's when no-one is looking that your integrity matters most. I guess they thought that nobody would remember - that they would get away with it - and that itself is simply disappointing.
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