Conan #41

Dark Horse Comics

Writer: Tim Truman

Penciler: Cary Nord

Colorist: Richard Isanove

LOOK OUT SANTA!!!!

Here we are, about to encounter Robert E. Howard’s greatest simian villain, and monkey-master Frank Cho isn’t doing the cover. I am seriously peeved.

THE OBLIGATORY WARNING: female nudity, medieval style violence.

Tim Truman goes for subtlety this time, and it works. This issue, chapter one of an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “Rogues in the House,” actually improves on the source material. The layout grants this Conan story a pacing that heightens the eeriness and intrigue. Truman’s early issues of Conan were rocky at best. Starting with issue #39, though, Conan ceased to be a brute and suddenly gained the depth of character Howard imbued him with. Bravo to Truman for a greatly improved performance. Bravo, also, for toning down the gore and playing up the real horror of the tale.

It’s a misnomer to say ‘Cary Nord’s Conan.’ It’s more accurate to refer to the ‘Nord/Stewart Conan,’ or, now, to the ‘Nord/Isanove Conan.’ Nord is talented, but former colorist Dave Stewart endowed Conan and Hyboria with their lean fierceness. Richard Isanove, who gave Marvel’s 1602 a vibrant palette, makes the demon-ridden Hyborian age lumpy and warm. Isanove’s technique is lovely—painterly, even—but it doesn’t suit the story, or Nord. Dave Stewart’s style balanced Nord’s; Isanove and Nord’s similarly hazy, indistinct styles are a compound blur.

Worth the money? Yes, for the layout, and because Tim Truman seems to be coming into his own.