Esad Ribic's Conan the Barbarian: Exodus #1
(It finally got ripped, so now we're going to storytime it.)
I don't think Marvel even mentioned this fact in the promotional material, but the issue has no dialogue whatsoever (unless you count a few words spoken in a made-up language written in a made-up alphabet). And it's a gatdam masterpiece with some of the best art you could ever hope for. This is almost inarguably the best release of the year. You don't want to miss this shit.
STORYTIME
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Bump!
thanks OP, bump to let you know i'm reading
FUCKING BUMP THIS
I want to have this artist's babies.
One thing I still don't get about the intros: how the hell does Conan have "gigantic melancholies?"
this is pretty, thanks and proves my theory all Jason Aaron books would be better without Jason Aaron words
It means his melancholia and his mirth are more intense than the normal man. Dummy
it's not a true Conan book unless he climbs something
>melancholia
>"deep sadness or gloom"
Sadness is NOT something one associates with Conan.
This is fucking gorgeous
Check this out! Ribic's sketches for each page!
Will read after work. Bump
And that's that.
Download links are in the Win-O' Thread.
Wonderfull storytime OP
Im hyped, Ribic is one of my favourite artists but he's always either paired with shit writers or when he gets a good one the writer fumbles It. Maybe doing It all himself the curse Will be broken.
Thanks a lot OP i had no idea this series was even happening.
The preview I saw mentioned a wordless issue but that was the only promo i saw
AGE OF CONAN: VALERIA #1 STORYTIMED HERE:
No problem.
You haven't read enough Conan then. He's seen some shit
Aaron's Conan is actually good though
Yeah, the new Marvel ongoings have actually been pretty decent.
Far and away better than the Dark Horse stuff post-Busiek/Truman. Not that that's a very high bar.
It's a small thing but I love how the new books have a map at the start of every issue and the area where the story takes place is marked.
Main book and new Savage Sword are meh, Belit is terrible
This is the only new Conan book that approaches Busiek and Truman on Dark Horse, though Born on the Battlefield is still better I could see this happening after.
>He's seen some shit
Maybe, but a true barbarian shouldn't be melancholic or gloomy. How are you supposed to enjoy crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of the women if you're gloomy?
Please read some Conan before speaking
at a certain point you lose something you love, maybe several times. Even savages feel loss. Also check out Norse literature. That shit is doom and gloom
This was great thanks op
This makes me want to get into Conan more, anybody got any recs?
Aaron's Conan is passable.
... that's a bit harsh. His Conan is fine. It's not great though.
One problem I have is he isn't doing a good job framing each issue as an encounter with the cult spawn kids or whatever leading to the "present day" segment. It's obvious what's going on sure, but narratively it's not conveyed very well. I think that problem would become more apparent in a trade than monthly.
The very first fucking Conan story has him speaking about how the future won't remember him and his like, but will rather remember the words of poets for ages to come.
My dude what are you on about? Did you only see the Arnold movie?
Belit was fine. But this is the idiot board that whined that she was being treated as a hero just because she's the main character. It's pretty clear she's became more villainous each passing issue.
Anything Marvel published when Roy Thomas was the editor is fucking amazing. Basically the whole 1970s era of both Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan. I think Thomas left sometime in the early 80s, but I'd have to look it up to be sure.
Then there's the Dark Horse series. The first volume (just titled "Conan") is arguably one of the best comics ever published period. It has a direct sequel titled "Conan the Cimmerian", which is also awesome.
How was Roy Thomas's Road of King's maxi series over at Dark Horse? It seems to be past his best days, but it is Thomas on Conan again with modern art.
Weird how Roy Thomas of all people may be the second most important person in Conan history.
I'm glad that present day story is only in the background. I'm here for the 1 shots
Yeah, it's not the most horrible of situations, but it's a thing, so there we are.
I wonder how damn long he's going to stretch that gimmick out for. And I wonder how the creative process came out on this? A fear of doing one shots in the current market? Or a desire to tell that story, and it happened to be really one shit centric?
Anyway, I love the map. Maps are always really fun. Though I do wonder if it's smart to really lock Conan down to a rigid map. Was Howard consistent enough with his geography that a map works?
Since this is sort of the default Conan thread for now, I got some Red Sonja questions I might as well ask here.
Is it worth reading?
Is the recent run a reboot, or just a new number one?
Dynamite only did like five omnis, is that stuff worth reading? Anything else?
Is it one story?
(Really lots of general "How does this work?" shit.)
Finally, is it set in the same world as Conan and they just can't ever really legally meet?
Bad, shockingly.
Honestly not too shocking. I haven't read a ton of Thomas' work, but I got the feeling he was never a great writer, just the right one for the time.
The art doesn't do him a lot of favors honestly. The only DH Conan worth bothering with is Busiek/Truman
I'm buying the Epic Collection's as they come out. I think they're up to Truman, not too sure though.
I have a hankering for Sword and Sorcery schlock though, so I think I'd just keep on going.
When it comes to post-Busiek/Truman DH, I would try before you buy. Road of Kings is readable, but fuck me the Brian Wood/Lente/Bunn stuff that follows is just dreck. I want anyone who shits on Aaron's Conan to go and read THAT stuff for a reference point.
Wood I can see being to slow, self involved, and just unwilling to give you the big moment to make a Conan story work.
Van Lente I can also see just being a miss. He's never been a bad writer for me, but he just doesn't have much of a voice. His comics are functional, but unless he has somebody else helping him jazz things up, they're basically just really nice concepts and functional and that's it.
Bunn though I think should be able to hammer home a solid Conan story. He writes fast and snappy with some atmosphere to it, and he's not afraid of letting the violence get to work. How'd he fuck it up?
Amazing. Simply beyond my expectations by a large degree when I heard Marvel would be getting Conan back. This is well worthy of the originals.
I'll second the '70's Conans. They really captured the spirit of the character and stories very well, as well as did some excellent adaptations.
Read 'Queen of the Black Coast'.
>How'd he fuck it up?
It's been a while since I read it but I just remember the writing and art being sophomoric, found Conan to be written shallowly. Bunn's always been sort of hit or miss, but he's so prolific it's understandable. I judge the art at the same time as the writing so If I say a run is a bad that's also a reason why. Conan is famous for attracting the best artists in comics but I guess DH didn't care to invest much after the Busiek/Truman stuff.
Ah yeah. Art. That's fair. I think I tend to be far more forgiving of bad art than I really should be. I'm not sure Dark Horse is capable of attracting top tier talent. Outside of maybe Hellboy stuff. I love the company, but they don't seem to be trying very hard the last few years.
Bunn also writes so damn much he never lets a story breathe. That same snappy pace that can be a benefit also works against him when you need some smarter, moodier, art driven character moments. I think it's a fault that will prevent him from ever writing anything that becomes a classic. It's a shame, because things like Harrow County and the Sixth Gun have fantastic art with so many great ideas going for them. Plus I had Bunn and Hurtt sign Sixth Gun 1 at NYCC and they were both really nice and friendly in a way that felt more earnest than most people there.
Fuck, i love these colors.
If you're forgiving of bad art you might like Road of Kings. It's competently written, but the art wasn't enough to do it for me.
>Roy Thomas of all people may be the second most important person in Conan history
>may
There's really no question about it. The movie was called "Conan THE BARBARIAN" because of the comics. Marvel's series did more to revive public awareness of the character than anything else did. It was one of the biggest IPs in comics in the 70s when comics were far more mainstream than they are now and being "one of the biggest IPs in comics" was actually a big deal on a larger cultural level outside of just "geek culture".
Just flipped through a few issues online to see what you mean by the art. And... it really isn't bad. Nothing great. It's a bit too cartoony. But it's not bad. Serviceable. Yeah, I guess I hope Marvel gets to it sooner than later.
>Wood I can see being to slow, self involved, and just unwilling to give you the big moment to make a Conan story work.
It wasn't even that. Dud flat out knew NOTHING about the character and thought it was acceptable to write generic "olde tyme medieval dialogue". The shitty plots weren't helping either. Arguably the low point of the character's entire history.
This is true. REH Conan was out of print for basically the entirety of the 70s. To get Conan you were reading Marvel, and the series was doing like 250k an issue. That popularity gave us the movie and have us reprints.
Also credit needs to be given to the artists who made Conan who is he. In my opinion Conan doesn't TRULY become Conan until he's illustrated by the likes of Frank Frazetta, Barry-Windsor Smith, Gil Kane, Ernie Chan, Neal Adams, and ESPECIALLY Big John Buscema.
Look at Conan's eyes man. Tells you everything you need to know about the man. This is when Conan becomes CONAN.
Maybe I'm misremembering it or am too picky. This is why you always read things and decide on your own!
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I mean I'm not calling it a lost classic based on the art, but it seems like it gets the job done.
Yeah it's serviceable. I just remember reading the series and thinking "I don't need to own this."
That ending. Excellent.
Thanks for the storytime, OP. This was great.
Not gonna lie; the first stories of that run I still like, but mostly for the art from Becky Cloonan and James Harren. It is true that it betrays a lack of knowledge in the character right from the beginning because when Conan speaks he's eloquent AS FUCK.
But if the artist is not top notch, then it becomes pretty painful.
The art wasn't bad, once I got over the fact that Conan was going to be a pretty boy. But man.. turning Belit into ineffectual girlfriend #123 was retarded
Now this really doesn't feel like something Marvel would publish in 2019. Very nice.
BUMPED!
Amazing issue.
If this fag is supposed to be a man, why doesn’t he cuck bictches and why doesn’t he have a gun? Poser art is shit. Dialogue should be in American. 2/cucked.
Even the Arnold movie has Conan constantly riddled with sadness.
>Conan murders random animals and a vanir: the book
I liked the nod that the mountain Lion is the only animal not to attack him.
Was probably mirin his thews.
Finally, some good shit. Bump
wow that is some nice fucking art
It's not a made up alphabet, it's elder futhark. It seems to be gibberish though.
The first bubble on this page is transliterated as "shrthr zkethlae"
It's not murder if they come to eat you first.
that was so weird because you would think that with Wood and Cloonan going on about how more female friendly their run was you would think they would avoid that.
Fuck that's dumb. Why bother with a real alphabet we can use as cypher and make it junk?
Okay I'm literally just starting the REH stories in publishing order, but he's not exactly inelegant in them. Is it just that Queen of the Black Coast is so early in his life he should be rougher around the edges?
>Conan murders random animals
It was a pet peeve of mine that in the video game Conan Exiles you always get food poisoning any time you try to eat raw meat which will drain your health and kill you. It's risky to eat raw meat, but not that risky where every single time you try it it's gonna kill you. Kind of took away from the realism the game was going for.
Yeah, if you just want the aesthetic of words, but want the language to remain mysterious, make up your own symbols. If you want to use letters with actual sounds associated with them, maybe make it a neat Easter egg for people who care enough to translate it. Oh well
something something hickman arrives
It might be a cipher actually. There's two runes not from the futhark, and two that are missing, which would give a total of 26 unique runes. It also looks like there's punctuation and double letter patterns. Will see if I can get anything out of it
It is in fact a cipher (or rather, the letterer probably just made a font out of runes). The first thing the guy says on is "Hello barbarian"
You are too smart for Yea Forums.
Hey neat! Pie on my face for reading it in bed when I'm already nodding off.
Alright, here's a chart. I can't be bothered to translate everything
neat
Wait, that's an actual (presumably fictional?) alphabet? From where?
Someone said in the Valeria thread that the dialogue is just generic modern comics dialogue. 100% agreed on that. Glad that the other Conan books haven't had that problem.
Bump.
Read the thread. Keep up
Anyone wanna translate the bullshit made up letters and shit?
I would but I'm watching riot videos on youtube instead
...
bump
And Steel, user. Riddled by Steel
Hopefully that'll the full extent of Mickey's involvement in and influence over the Conan books from now on.
Horny-helm has to be the villain here - he's got kohl around his eyes. Eyeliner on guys in fantasy books is a sure sign they're villains. He could only be more of a villain if his title was 'Grand Vizier' (as per the Pratchettian Rules of Fantasy).
bump
What are you saying here?
mystery.
Conan killed the mouse and the comic is made by marvel and Disney owns them
Geez, at least cook it first. Barbarian.
I ain't got time for that shit. Someone translate it.
Ribic is always a treat.
That last panel, hnnng
Thank you!
It's kinda funny that all it takes to make a good marvel book, is the lack of dialogue
Cover so good he signed it twice.
good eye
To be fair I think I remember Ya Boy Zach seeing it first.
The Who?
Some Comicsgate guy on Youtube. Currently suing Mark Waid.
That sounds based, fuck waid
It looks like the signature is identical both times. I wonder if that was a printing error.
They might have moved it for printing reasons and ended up forgetting about the old one.
Thanks, OP!