[Strom]

The first phase of Conan's career is over at Dark Horse Comics and after 51 issues, 8 trades, 5 mini-series' and a one-shot the comic has started over and relaunched as Conan the Cimmerian.

Looking back over Conan the series, I'm very happy with the overall level of quality and respect given to Conan and also to his creator REH. The comic definitely had it's highs (Jim & Ruth's REH strip, Howard adaptations, Nord, Truman & Busiek) and it's lows (inconsistency, guest artists, lackluster covers & lack of canonical adherence), but overall I would grade the series as an A-.

As mentioned, I was very disappointed by the entire series as a whole on the most iconic staple of Conan in comics - the comic book cover. The industry of Conan in comics has always included incredibile paintings and inspired covers that lept off the shelf almost demanding at the very least you pickup the comic and flip thru the pages.

Unfortunately, the DH Conan could never match the supreme inspiration of the artists from CTB or SSOC - IMO - and we were left more often than not with talented efforts but not inspired efforts that many of us were use to seeing from the heyday of CTB or SSOC. The list of Dark Horse's cover artists is impressive as well, but for whatever reason only few struck me as truly inspired by REH's Conan.

Here are my favorite covers from the Dark Horse Conan series:



My number one cover of the series. IMO, the Dark Horse Conan comic was Cary Nord's comic. He achieved an incredible feat by creating a Conan that both paid homage to Howard's description and also to the iconic image Buscema created while at the same time creating a Conan that is unmistakably Cary Nord's. This cover finally captured the action scene Dark Horse seemed to deliberately stay away from and I remember this cover matching the excitement and enthusiasm that the iconic covers from CTB and SSOC used to create. This cover leapt off the shelf at you, making you examine the tableau in your head, creating the story in your imagination, all in just a few seconds. For me this cover came the closest to matching the entertainement and excitement Conan and comics should be about.



This cover by Greg Ruth is awesome in it's simplicity. This was a bold choice of cover layout and Greg pulled it off. I love all his covers but this cover communicates traits and adjectives all of us are familiar with Conan. Primal. Ferociousness. Unflinching courage. Slayer. Of course all of those immediatly recognized traits and adjectives also belong to the wolf. Who wins? Great cover by Greg!



Shocker for some but for a Thoth-Amon fanatic like me this cover was nothing short of powerful. Kelly Jones pulls off the floating head image like no one I have ever seen! Usually the floating head image (you comic geeks know what I mean) looks cheesy and lame. Yet this cover by Kelly Jones totally captures the power and evil dedication to Set that could only be Thoth-Amon! The eerily cool snakes in the background with their glowing eyes and the candle (incense) smoke image of Thoth combine to leave no doubt that this is a sorcerous villain worthy of Conan's attention. Rumor has it that if you turn off all the lights, burn incense from the land of Eygpt and look hard at the cover, Thoth's eyes will glow! Madness!

Well, maybe not. But either way, that is the type of imagination this cover stirs in me. Use haga.

What are your favorite covers from Dark Horse's Conan series?

Here's a link to almost all the covers:

www.darkhorse.com/Search/Browse/conan/PpwNwkt8?page=1

[Croms Bones]

Your choices are very good. I like these:

[deuce]

Y'all have posted some worthy candidates. Basically, I've enjoyed all of the Nord and Truman covers.

[Taranaich]

My personal favourite, and one of my favourite Conan images of all:



Ever since I read the phrase "born on the battlefield", I've been entranced by the imagery of a newborn being held aloft in a sea of rattling spears and swords, the cries of new life mingling with the screams of the dying, the duality of birth and death quite poetic and powerful.

[brakkk60526]

I like conan 18 alot.there our couple of other nord covers I really like but I dont have them in front of me[the cover he did for rafs issue,also nords covers for the trades were nice].Does not issue1 have a optical illusion.Sometimes conans left foot looks like a horse hoof.

[Officer Aggro]

Conan and the Midnight God #3. I really love how Conan is depicted here, and the snake women are especially creepy. I think it captures the darkness that is displayed in the interior story.



Conan #45. Just awesome :



And #22, because it's so different and it's original. The fact that the Tower of the Elephant is my fav Conan story doesn't hurt either:

[realbigguy]

I loved Greg Ruth's covers. Im glad to see them represented here, he did a great job on those. I think the cover to #15 is my favorite in the regular series. I think Tim Truman's cover the the first issue of Songs of the Dead might be my favorite DH to date.