I was actually going to write more than one post here about King Conan so that I wasn’t covering such a huge swath of it at once, but time and life get in the way and I found myself more absorbed by the comics than by the need to write about them. I guess that’s a good sign, although I might not have told you at the start of these issues.

I’m probably sure I said this in the prior entry about King Conan, but the problem you run into with a series like this and a character like Conan is that you run the risk of repetition. How many dragons can one may slay to fight for his kingdom? #14-19 kind of have that feel and I think it’s because there’s turnover in the creative team as Doug Moench leaves for DC (although he still has some Marvel credits) and within a few months starts his first run on Batman. The editorial team changes three times in three issues with Louise Simonson (then Louise Jones) giving the book to Denny O’Neil who handed the book off to Larry Hama who gave the book to Christopher Priest (then James Owsley). And the art goes back and forth between a few people–more inkers than pencillers, though. Again, that’s not the say that the book is bad, but it does meander for a couple of months until we hit issue #20, which is where we get a title change and the start of a long storyline.

“The Prince is Dead” graffitied on the shield of the fallen Prince Conn is rendered beautifully by Michael Kaluta (who does some outstanding covers in this year or two of the book) and that’s pretty much what seems to have happened in the book, except that Prince Conn is actually spirited away to what I believe is supposed to be the Far East and Conan and Zenobia are led to believe he is dead. At this point, the book has two stories–a main Conan story–and a backup, as we see the prince’s efforts to return to Aquilonia while Conan both grieves and finds himself being plotted against. Amidst this, his younger son Tarsus has become the apprentice of an evil sorcerer and his daughter Ragemund falls in love with one of his knights then decides to become a “nun” for that evil sorcerer when he dies.

Conn eventually does return–conveniently when Zelenetz leaves the book and Don Krarr comes on as writer, but the treachery remains and a lot of the book through issues #30-34 is a war story where the leaders of three separate kingdoms have conspired with that sorcerer (who assassinates his way to being the kingdom’s high priest) and lay siege to the castle. The war takes a few issues and at the end of issue #34, Conan is victorious but his daughter is still hostage and it looks like the next storyline is about her rescue (and probably that of her younger brother whom apparently has been held captive for a while and the one who was working evil was a changeling posing as him or something).

What started as a book that was mostly adventure-to-adventure of an older Conan has become a long-running narrative that deals with the heaviness of a crown and the obligations one has to his people and his family. Not surprising, when Conan slew the king he replaced, he wasn’t exactly prepared to rule. His people take notice that he’s always off on an adventure or fighting in a battle, as does Zenobia, and this is what does eventually lead to more than one war in the kingdom–there’s a rebellion he puts down and then the war I just mentioned. Futhermore, there are some emotional beats that work really well when Conn supposedly dies.

Despite having more than one writer throughout this part of the series, the stories transition from one to another very well and I found myself not wanting to put this book down from issue to issue. Plus, the artwork is often outstanding. This is some very early work by Marc Silvestri, whom I’d only ever known from his run on Uncanny X-Men during the late 1980s and while I thought it was good, I was never the biggest fan, especially since Jim Lee was the next superstar artist on the book. Rereading those comics in recent years has warmed me a little to Silvestri’s work, especially because it was so consistent throughout his tenure even if I thought that book meandered quite a bit.

But here? He’s perfect for the title, especially when he’s being inked by Geoff Isherwood. In fact, Isherwood is really the hero of the artwork here because when Silvestri leaves after issue #29 to go do Web of Spider-Man, Mike Docherty takes on the pencils and it’s pretty seamless beacuse Isherwood’s inks were not only strong but great. And I know that because Vince Coletta does an issue or two and … well, you know. And while it was the Kaluta cover to issue #27 that hooked me when I saw it in a grab bag several years ago, it was this storyline that kept me grabbing back issue after back issue. In fact, I wasn’t going to collect anything prior to issue #20 and decided “Ah what the hell, I’ll grab the entire series”, especially since I got every issue for just about $1-$2.

Anyway, as I wrap up issue #34, I have just about 20 issues left in the run of the book as well as a six-issue miniseries that Marvel put out a few years ago that I have read but am going to tack on to the end of this particular series. I’m leaning toward keeping it when I’m done, but I’ll give you the final verdict after I do.