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Post by johnnypt on Oct 24, 2019 13:00:25 GMT -5
I have the Dark Horse omnibus reprints of Savage Sword of Conan volume #1 through #6 and #11 and #12. IMO, #11 and #12 there is a huge drop off in the quality of the art and the writing compared to the earlier issues. Before I consider dumping anymore money into my collection, where did the quality taper off? Thank you #11 and #12 were Conanizations of other Howard stories, something you run into several times along the way throughout the series, whether it's via the DeCamp-Carter versions or Roy striking out on his own. The adaptations for the most part are #14-#30, mostly by Buscema but you get Neal Adams, Dick Giordano and Frank Brunner doing one here and there. Like Taurus said, once Roy goes, it's REALLY hit or miss until Roy comes back around #190. Follow the link Hun gave, RR put a lot of work into his annotations. |
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Post by Lonewolf on Oct 24, 2019 15:00:59 GMT -5
After Roy leaves, there is nothing great to be seen in the series. Everything after Roy is very disposable. Yeah, I think that's about right. Even when Roy Thomas returns it's not quite the same. Still, I do like some of the stuff written by Chuck Dixon, Larry Yakata and Don Kraar. ...and there's some great art by Gary Kwapisz, Ernie Chan and Mike Docherty in those issues beyond 100. So basically the first 6 Dark Horse Omnibus (which includes issue #1 through issue #71) covers the Roy Thomas years/"best of" SSOC? |
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Post by Taurus on Oct 24, 2019 17:00:10 GMT -5
Yes.
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Post by mindboggled on Oct 25, 2019 11:02:01 GMT -5
Yeah, I think that's about right. Even when Roy Thomas returns it's not quite the same. Still, I do like some of the stuff written by Chuck Dixon, Larry Yakata and Don Kraar. ...and there's some great art by Gary Kwapisz, Ernie Chan and Mike Docherty in those issues beyond 100. So basically the first 6 Dark Horse Omnibus (which includes issue #1 through issue #71) covers the Roy Thomas years/"best of" SSOC? No, not really. Avoid volume 4-11, as far as I can remember these are the worst collections. Even Roy's stories lose there magic. The rest vary from decent to fantastic-there are stories in the latter issues that are better than anything Roy put out. Volume 16 is a must buy in my opinion, I have not seen a bad thing said about it in reviews! Sixteen also happens to be the most expensive volume! I highly recommend collecting the original mags instead. As the Dark Horse volumes are very expensive at this point in time, quite frankly not worth the money being asked. The mags are a superior way to read these stories anyway, and MUCH cheaper. Check craigslist and go to local flee markets, they are very easy to find and cheap! Keep an eye open for issue #120 and later. Don't listen to the guys saying only the first #60 are the only worthwhile ones! |
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Post by Taurus on Oct 25, 2019 12:25:41 GMT -5
So basically the first 6 Dark Horse Omnibus (which includes issue #1 through issue #71) covers the Roy Thomas years/"best of" SSOC? No, not really. Avoid volume 4-11, as far as I can remember these are the worst collections. Even Roy's stories lose there magic. The rest vary from decent to fantastic-there are stories in the latter issues that are better than anything Roy put out. Volume 16 is a must buy in my opinion, I have not seen a bad thing said about it in reviews! Sixteen also happens to be the most expensive volume! I highly recommend collecting the original mags instead. As the Dark Horse volumes are very expensive at this point in time, quite frankly not worth the money being asked. The mags are a superior way to read these stories anyway, and MUCH cheaper. Check craigslist and go to local flee markets, they are very easy to find and cheap! Keep an eye open for issue #120 and later. Don't listen to the guys saying only the first #60 are the only worthwhile ones! Volume 4 is one of the best volumes in the whole series. I don't have a clue why you say it isn't. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2019 12:56:24 GMT -5
The first 60 issues of SSOC are so great that even DeCamp is tolerable when adapted by the great Roy Thomas, Big John Buscema and the incredibly talented Filipino inkers at Marvel those days.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2019 13:01:45 GMT -5
So basically the first 6 Dark Horse Omnibus (which includes issue #1 through issue #71) covers the Roy Thomas years/"best of" SSOC? No, not really. Avoid volume 4-11, as far as I can remember these are the worst collections. Even Roy's stories lose there magic. The rest vary from decent to fantastic-there are stories in the latter issues that are better than anything Roy put out. Volume 16 is a must buy in my opinion, I have not seen a bad thing said about it in reviews! Sixteen also happens to be the most expensive volume! I highly recommend collecting the original mags instead. As the Dark Horse volumes are very expensive at this point in time, quite frankly not worth the money being asked. The mags are a superior way to read these stories anyway, and MUCH cheaper. Check craigslist and go to local flee markets, they are very easy to find and cheap! Keep an eye open for issue #120 and later. Don't listen to the guys saying only the first #60 are the only worthwhile ones! Yeah, the prices have gone up considerably on the SSOC DH omnibus editions. |
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Post by garbanzo on Oct 27, 2019 8:14:44 GMT -5
I definitely agree with taurus about collecting the original mags over the DH books. The DH books are too small, and the reproduction does not do justice to the art. They also don't reproduce the covers in color, and they skip all the non-Conan content - some of which is very good. Of course I probably poured a few thousand dollars into completing the run, but I'm picky about condition  I'm on issue 22 now. WOW. I wish Sonny Trinidad inked more issues. This is the most gorgeous issue yet! |
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Post by mindboggled on Oct 28, 2019 17:24:48 GMT -5
No, not really. Avoid volume 4-11, as far as I can remember these are the worst collections. Even Roy's stories lose there magic. The rest vary from decent to fantastic-there are stories in the latter issues that are better than anything Roy put out. Volume 16 is a must buy in my opinion, I have not seen a bad thing said about it in reviews! Sixteen also happens to be the most expensive volume! I highly recommend collecting the original mags instead. As the Dark Horse volumes are very expensive at this point in time, quite frankly not worth the money being asked. The mags are a superior way to read these stories anyway, and MUCH cheaper. Check craigslist and go to local flee markets, they are very easy to find and cheap! Keep an eye open for issue #120 and later. Don't listen to the guys saying only the first #60 are the only worthwhile ones! Volume 4 is one of the best volumes in the whole series. I don't have a clue why you say it isn't. I tried starting each story in it, but none of them did anything for me. The art is as good as in previous volumes, but the writing starts to tank. |
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Post by KiramidHead on Dec 2, 2019 0:47:53 GMT -5
I've recently gotten the bug to try collecting the Savage Sword paperbacks again, and figured I might as well post my thoughts every so often as I read through them. And just for the record, I've read Vols 1-3 before, and originally tapped out while reading that endlessly dull adaptation of Conan the Buccaneer in Vol 4. So, starting with Volume One:
"The Frost Giant's Daughter": story wise we all know this one, and it's very faithfully adapted, and well illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith.
"Red Nails": Another strong adaptation by Thomas with great Windsor-Smith art. I think it's paced a tiny bit better than the original story, too, as I always feel it spent a little too long on the ordeal with the dragon. Speaking of which, I only have two issues with this one. First, I don't care for the dragon basically being a stegosaurus. I know Howard's description is suggestive of that, but I would have preferred something a bit more fantastical. And second, it's a minor point, but Conan never explains how he knows that the Tlazitlans couldn't have built Xuchotl in this version. It comes off more as prejudice than anything, heh.
"Night of the Dark God": The art by Gil Kane and company is good, and while Roy Thomas does a decent job of adapting Howard's "The Dark Man" into a Conan story, it's a practice that I've never been a particular fan of. Swapping out Bran's likeness in favor of Brule's was a nice touch, though.
"The Dweller in the Dark": This is the first Roy Thomas original in the collection, and while it's not an all time classic, it's a pretty good little adventure, and the Dweller is a super creepy and cool looking monster. Getting to read some captions from its perspective was quite nice as well. And the Windsor-Smith art is great, but that goes without saying.
"The Secret of Skull River": Thomas adapts a plot by John Jakes here, and it's a fairly good adventure with some decent twists and some solid art by Starlin & Milgrom.
"Curse of the Undead-Man": Adapted by Thomas from "Mistress of Death", a non-Conan story I haven't read. Despite this, it was an okay yarn as these things go. It features Red Sonja, a character who admittedly has never done much for me. John Buscema and Pablo Marcos do a fine job on the art, though.
"Black Colossus": Another strong Howard adaptation by Thomas, with Buscema and Alfredo Alcala on art duties.
"At the Mountain of the Moon God": This is another Roy Thomas original, and while the concept of directly continuing from Black Colossus with Conan on a rescue mission to get the King of Khoraja back is a good one, and I like the set up for Iron Shadows in the Moon, I have some issues here. Specifically, Yasmela feels like a completely different person here, much more cold and vindictive. Buscema and Pablo Marcos are handy with the art, though.
That's it for now.
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Post by KiramidHead on Dec 10, 2019 21:30:08 GMT -5
Continuing with the rest of Volume 1. "Demons of the Summit": adapted by Thomas from a Bjorn Nyberg story I haven't read, this one is a decent enough adventure story with some cool scenes, as well as some strong art by Tony De Zuniga. "Iron Shadows in the Moon": Thomas does a good job here of adapting one of Howard's more middling stories, and the way he ties it back to his Black Colossus follow up is pretty neat. Also, it's interesting to note that Howard's original title was used here, when the Weird Tales/De Camp titles are generally used elsewhere. The art is among the best in the book, with Alfredo Alcala's inking really standing out on this one and adding a lot of nice detail to Buscema's pencils. "A Witch Shall Be Born": This isn't one of my favorite Howard stories, and while Thomas does improve it in a few places, like having Thaug put up more of a fight and giving Conan a bit more to do, he still hews a little too closely to Howard's messy structure for my tastes. The art by Buscema and "The Tribe" (was this a catch all term for a group of regular staffers?) is generally strong, the look of Thaug is so ridiculous that the monster is hard to take seriously. "The Sleeper Beneath the Sands": Another Thomas original, and fairly good. Olgerd's return is reasonably handled, and the sleeper itself is one cool monster, if not a bit reminiscent of Shuma Gorath. Sonny Trinidad, while not quite Windsor-Smith or Buscema, acquits himself well in the art department. "People of the Dark": This is another non-Conan Howard story that Thomas has refitted to feature the Cimmerian, and it's probably the best one in my opinion, as the character is already called Conan, and only the setting had to change. The story itself is quite good, and Alex Ninno's art is fantastic, and very different to what has come before. "The Citadel at the Center of Time": We go back to Conan adventuring with the Zuagirs in another Roy Thomas original, and the hook of a sorcerer bringing creatures from different time periods to the Hyborian Age is a fun one, even if it does feel like an excuse to shove another dinosaur (the third by my count) into the series. I do like the idea of Shamash having come from a real historical time period, too. Buscema and Alcala provide strong art as usual. "The Forever Phial": This might be favorite of the Roy Thomas originals in this volume. It starts as what seems like the usual Conan vs Evil Sorcerer plot that was featured in a lot of pastiches (from what I've gathered), only told from the bad guy's point of view. The twist at the end really brings it home, though. And Tim Conrad's art is excellent. He also very noticeably draws a much leaner Conan than most other artists did, which is a nice change of pace. "Corsairs Against Stygia": Thomas adapts this part of Hour of the Dragon pretty well, even if it is a bit awkward to randomly read passage from that story sandwiched between two other pieces. The art by Gil Kane and Young Montano is okay, but not great, though. I know Marvel's HotD adaptation started in the full color book Giant Size Conan before moving over to Savage Sword, and it looks to me like the art here was intended for the color version and was hastily transferred to black and white. Shame, really. "Death Song of Conan the Cimmerian": Lin Carter's poem (adapted by Thomas, but I don't know the details) is pretty good, and the art by Jess Jodloman is very strong. Not much more to say about this one, I'm afraid. "The Curse of the Cat Goddess": Another pretty good Roy Thomas original. I like the hook of some ancient evil really getting a hold of Conan's mind, and it makes for a strong conclusion to his time with the Zuagirs. Pablo Marcos is on solo duty with the art this time, and does a good job as usual. "Conan the Conqueror": Thomas adapts the last third (maybe? I could be off on my estimation) of The Hour of the Dragon, I just wish the whole thing had been done in Savage Sword to begin with. And the art by Buscema and The Tribe is of the usual high standard. Alright, that's volume one covered. I'll come back some time in the future with the second. See you then. |
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Post by ollonois on Jun 23, 2020 7:47:20 GMT -5
hi, researching about the extra content in the original run of SSOC I now know that there were articles by such writers as Lin Carter and by Howard scholars of that time, pin ups, poems, the reader´s mail... my question is, does that material appear in the new classic SSOC omnibuses from Marvel? is it an interesting stuff or a bit outdated nowadays? have them new articles by Roy Thomas too?
Thanks in advance and excuse my poor English |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2020 14:57:24 GMT -5
Chuck Dixon live at Midnight's Edge in 5 minutes:
Talking Comics and the Industry with Chuck Dixon (Live Interview and Discussion)
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Post by kemp on Jan 6, 2021 9:16:18 GMT -5
The story 'Winter of the Wolf' from issue 133 was always one of my favourites. Good interior type by Gary Kwapisz and Ernie Chan.  |
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Post by kemp on Jan 6, 2021 9:25:09 GMT -5
Too often, the cover art had nothing to do with the interior story. For instance, this was the cover for issue 133. Looks like Conan is fighting Picts, not wolves.  The cover by Doug Beekman for issue 136 of SSOC would have been more appropriate. Conversely enough, issue 136, a pirate adventure, had nothing to do with wolves.  |
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