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Comics & Graphic Novels |
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Conan Volume 6: Hand of Nergal (Conan (Graphic Novels))
written by Tim Truman, Tomas Giorello, J. D. Mettler, Jose Villarrubia
Studio : Dark Horse
by Dark Horse
Publisher : Dark Horse
Released : 2008-10-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781595821782
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 2 reviews)
List Price : $17.95
Our Price : $9.52
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Product Description |
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This latest collection in Dark Horse's smart, innovative Conan series finds the cunning Cimmerian chased by both unfinished business from his past and a strange novice magician who seeks to deliver a dire warning to the wandering barbarian. Fleshing out Robert E. Howard's unfinished "Hand of Nergal" tale, Timothy Truman weaves several plot threads together in an ambitious culmination of ideas, and his skill at characterization is apparent in both his handling of Howard's beloved, iconic hero and a colorful supporting cast of thieves, royalty, seasoned soldiers, and magicians both good and evil. A great evil from Conan's past moves ever closer while unfathomable terrors awaken and come into view. Conan is, of course, eager to meet both head on! |
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Dark Horse's Conan Hits Rock Bottom |
The biggest question a reader will have after reading this latest story arc from Dark Horse may be "How did this series get so bad?".
After four outstanding story arcs from Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, Conan hit a major bump in the road with Volume five; "Rogues in the House", which was obviously rushed to meet impending deadlines and plagued by creative team strife. The outcome of that volume was some bad fill-in art by Thomas Giorello and a botched coloring job half way through the book by Richard Isanov.
In The Hand of Nergal, Dark Horse promotes Tomas Giorello to regular artist and straddles him with another round of poor coloring. Giorello, who is obviously not ready for such a prestigeous assignment, also ruins his own pencil work with some heavy handed inking. Judging by the sketches in the back pages of the book, Tomas can do much better than what we see throughout the story, but he has yet to fully master perspective and some of his figures are very blocky and rigid. His creatures also look quite clumsy in places. With all the artists who have contributed to the Conan relaunch, he is by far the poorest.
Tim Truman, who I think is very talented as both a writer and artist, has yet to impress with either of his two adaptations so far. Former writer Kurt Busiek was much better at adapting Robert E. Howard's work to the comic book medium seamlessly, as well as building a framework of original stories around each adaptation. I feel Tim's approach is not quite as reverent or in keeping with the tone of the original work. Some of his added dialogue sticks out from the rest of the work, and while Busiek took minor stories from the Conan canon and built an epic around them, such as with "Frost Giant's Daughter" and "Bowl", Truman appears to go the opposite direction, diminishing the impact of Howard's fragment. His conclusion of the "Nestor saga", building since the Hall of the Dead storyline, is very anticlimatic.
This is the last collection of work from the current Dark Horse comic book series, ending the stories of Conan's career as a thief. Dark Horse recently relaunched the book as Conan of Cimmeria with the same creative team, but with the awful results of this volume, I doubt I will be back for more. Tragic. |
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Cool Rendition of Howard's work |
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I've really enjoyed this series, because the authors have tried to be faithful to Howard's creation, and they've done a fine job. Savage Sword and the Dark Horse series are the two best comic titles I've ever read. The King Conan series is good too. Hopefully Dark Horse will publish it once they finish the regular Conan title. |
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