Review by Ian Keogh

As before, The Savage Sword of Conan combines three magazine sized issues in an oversized paperback, but as in Vol. 2, despite the title, the content stretches beyond Conan the Barbarian to feature other creations of Robert E. Howard.

The first and longest inclusion, though, does star Conan, and it’s welcome back to Roy Thomas, the man who’s surely written more Conan stories than any other. ‘The Beast’ inserts Conan into an adaptation of a Rudyard Kipling story. In fact with artist Roberto De La Torre doing his best John Buscema impersonation (sample art left) this could be a 1970s Conan tale. It certainly has a meandering mood as Conan has several encounters, enabling Thomas to fill a gap in his own Conan continuity, but any good feeling is nostalgic rather than modern.

Several other Conan stories also feature, but a malaise afflicts some, the scripts all adhering too closely to expectation and not featuring enough surprises. The exception is ‘The Wuthering’ by Liam Sharp. Even with bis art being a known quality these are amazingly drawn pages. The decorative work of Barry Windsor-Smith is an inspiration, but unlike De La Torre, this is no slavish imitation. There’s a lot of talent and a lot of work, and the story’s better than those provided by known writers. Also hitting the target is Patch Zircher’s teaming of Conan and Valeria, which keeps the motivations strong, the action moving and the dangers constant. Zircher’s art doesn’t quite have the poise of his Solomon Kane material (sample right), but he’s drawing a more action-oriented story.

Further outstanding art is provided by Max von Fafner on one of Conan creator Robert E. Howard’s lesser known heroes, Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, a crusading knight. The art is to be admired, but Zack Davisson’s script is slow and ultimately slim. Of Howard’s other creations, Breckenridge Elkins may be obscure, but his comedy Western tales were actually a fine earner for Howard in the 1930s. Zircher and Juan Alberto Hernández’s version adapts the twelve labours of Hercules to a Western setting and provides the desired laughs.

Fabian Nicieza and Sean Chen close the volume with the dour Kull, but most will surely feel there’s not enough Kull present in the tale of an invisible threat.

All anthologies are patchy, but Sharp and Zircher really deserved better company as we head to Vol. 4.