THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #3 opens with a long Conan story called “Wolves of the Tundra” written by Frank Tieri and drawn by Cary Nord. I’ve seen Nord’s work before and liked it, and his black-and-white art in this tale, while not as lush as his color work, is quite good and very effective. However, after reading a few pages of the story, Tieri’s script takes a turn that came really close to making me say, “Nope,” and not finishing it. In order for the plot to work, the reader has to accept something that I just couldn’t. To say more would be to venture too far into spoiler territory. Despite that, I actually did read the whole story, and while it never worked for me, I have to admit that the ending did give me a little chuckle. I didn’t care for this story, but as they say, your mileage may vary.
Next up is an excerpt from John C. Hocking’s CONAN: CITY OF THE DEAD, followed
by an excellent autobiographical essay by Hocking detailing the background of
the two novels in that collection. I’ll read anything Hocking wants to write featuring Conan, or anything else, for that matter. His work is always top-notch.
There’s a nice Howardian poem by Jim Zub with a good illustration, then the
conclusion of Patrick Zircher’s three-part Solomon Kane story. The wrap-up of
this yarn is just as good as the previous two installments. It’s a very
satisfying conclusion to a fine tale.
A short, wordless Conan yarn with story and art by Alan Quah concludes this
issue. The art is good, the story wry and entertaining. I don’t know anything
about Quah, but he’s done a pretty good job with this one and I’d read more by
him.
Despite my complaints about the main story, I enjoyed reading this issue of THE
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and I think most Howard fans would, too. I’m looking
forward to the next issue.
