Monday, July 21, 2008

Savage Sword of Conan is back


Although the current Conan comic book series is pretty cute, it's cotton candy in comparison to the hard edge of the legendary Savage Sword of Conan magazine, published by Marvel in 1974. In Savage Sword, we are transported to the merciless Hyborean age by the fantastic scripts of Roy Thomas and the powerful lines of such masters of the craft as John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala and Neal Adams, in all their black and white glory. Many times, I've heard comic book fans state they dislike black and white books. Years ago, I met a famous Spanish editor who taught me that color is very often used to hide mediocre art (he wasn't this polite). That statement has proven to be especially true in the age of Photoshop, where kids can make a bird dropping look like a splash page with a little software wizardry. Therefore, congrats to Dark Horse for reprinting those hard-to-find issues of Savage Sword without giving in to the temptation to color them. The first volume is available now, loaded with muscle-bound savages, monsters and curvaceous amazons. If you're into rugged barbarian art, I invite you to visit the gallery of brilliant original covers available at Cover Browser.

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