The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories
The fourth book in a series reprinting Marvel Comics' 1970s version of Robert E. Howard's 1930s pulp-magazine hero, Conan the Barbarian, includes the final and best stories illustrated by the fans' favorite artist, Barry Windsor-Smith. The book's high point--arguably Conan's finest moment in comics--is "Red Nails," based on a Howard novella in which Conan is trapped with she-pirate Valeria in a walled city inhabited by two tribes engaged in protracted warfare. Compared with other slam-bang sword-and-sorcery tales, this one unfolds leisurely--but Windsor-Smith's ornate, detailed artwork is at its most polished. The volume also introduces Red Sonia, a sort of female Conan, provocatively clad in improbably skin-tight chain mail; she subsequently starred in her own popular comics. Rounding out the book are the first Conan stories drawn by John Buscema, whose more conventional dynamism better suited the look of Marvel's superhero line. Buscema drew Conan for another two decades, and his issues far outsold those of his predecessor. Yet Windsor-Smith's depiction of the character is the one longtime fans most fondly recall.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved