693 replies to this topic

[Taranaich]

Geez guys. All this wind and thunder over a handful of rough sketches.
Can we wait until we see some finished work from this team before we start rending our garments and swearing off reading the magazine forever?

Hey, maybe I'm hardened, since I read my way through the Marvel 90's when Conan was drawn to look like the Hulk's mentally disadvantaged albino brother by guys nobody's heard of before or since.

Personally, I'm more concerned about what they do with the story. Yeah, Conan's too skinny for my liking - but Belit looks great, and I'm intrigued by the art style. It's light years beyond '90s Marvel Conan:



That what he looked like inside the issue.

But I like her Belit. Looks more like Belit than Buscema's version. Perhaps Cloonan is trying to depict a Belit who was capable of manipulating Conan. But she makes Conan look too weak, psychologically as well as physically.

I love big John, but he had a habit of making his girls all look like Maud Adams facially. Clood's Belit looks different from the women in previous issues and arcs in the series, which is good, because Belit should be memorable even without a "uniform."

Possibly a woman's take on how Conan should look. I guess the other 50% of our species should have a crack at it.

Well, we've already had Marian Churchland:




And Judith Hunt:


And, of course, Ruth Keegan (albeit as a collaboration with Jim)



So, I don't think it's 'cause she's a lassie.

[Mark Finn]

Did anyone have a problem with P. Craig Russell's Conan? Or early Barry Smith? I think this new direction is evocative of that. Personally, I don't WANT every artist to emulate Buscema. The whole point of having new blood on the book is to have new looks, new interpretations, new directions. You guys worry too much about having to look at something that might not be exactly like the picture in your head. Give it a chance, will you?

[Almuric]

Aw, man, '90s Conan! Great shades of Liefeld!

[RafaelKayanan]

Becky and Brian are both stellar talents in the comic industry.
QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST is one of those stories many comic creators would love to get a chance to interpret and I'm looking forward to what they do.

[UrbanBarbarian]

Becky and Brian are both stellar talents in the comic industry.
QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST is one of those stories many comic creators would love to get a chance to interpret and I'm looking forward to what they do.

I agree with Rafael. I think Becky's run is going to impress a lot of people. I'm really looking forward to this!

[Slashing Sword]

Possibly a woman's take on how Conan should look. I guess the other 50% of our species should have a crack at it.

Not at my $3.50 expense

[Slashing Sword]

Personally, I'm more concerned about what they do with the story. Yeah, Conan's too skinny for my liking - but Belit looks great, and I'm intrigued by the art style. It's light years beyond '90s Marvel Conan:



That what he looked like inside the issue.

And why do we need to compare aginst the worst? Obviously, anything will look light years better than this crap.

[Ironhand]

This Conan is too young and slim; looks like a refugee from a Twilight movie.

Possibly a woman's take on how Conan should look. I guess the other 50% of our species should have a crack at it.

A cute, waif-like Conan, that a woman can imagine mothering.

[Taranaich]

Did anyone have a problem with P. Craig Russell's Conan? Or early Barry Smith? I think this new direction is evocative of that.

I think most of my problems stem from this picture:





Russell's and Smith's Conans were certainly not as massive as Buscema's, but they could still be considered large, muscular and massive. Russell's Conan wasn't defined, but his biceps, chest and shoulders were still brawny; Buscema's Conan was lithe, but he was still strongly defined. Cloonan's Conan looks like Adrien Brody in Predators: yeah, he looks large, muscular and massive for Adrien Brody, but not in comparison to others. I'm just wondering what the black corsairs are going to look like in comparison to Conan: it'd be somewhat perverse if Conan's the smallest man on the Tigress.


Overall, I'm still giving the team the benefit of the doubt, and I'm still very excited to see what they do with Conan - all we've seen so far are sketches and one full page that doesn't show much of Conan, so it very well could be that Conan ends up looking more like Smith's or Russell's Conan. It IS just a sketch, after all. Certainly we've seen more muscular men from Cloonan elsewhere. I have every hope, and confidence, that the final look of Conan will be pretty good, and that he won't look like
Władysław Szpilman just starting the Charles Atlas workout.

Huh. This is the first time I've actually felt like being optimistic about an upcoming Dark Horse comic. That's gotta be a turn up for the books, hasn't it?

And why do we need to compare aginst the worst? Obviously, anything will look light years better than this crap.

Just a friendly reminder that no matter how bad things seem, it could always be worse. Always.

[emerald]

Personally, I'm more concerned about what they do with the story. Yeah, Conan's too skinny for my liking - but Belit looks great, and I'm intrigued by the art style. It's light years beyond '90s Marvel Conan:



That what he looked like inside the issue.

And why do we need to compare aginst the worst? Obviously, anything will look light years better than this crap.

I brought up the worst because folks were wailing that Cloonan's page and a half of rough sketches were going to kill Conan, make them stop reading the magazine, and cause the sun to drop out of the sky.
There was a two-three year period back in the 90's where the image of Conan above was Conan in the comics.
The Cimmerian survived, as did his readership.

Cloonan and Wood have won much acclaim. Am I certain their Conan will be great? Nope. Frankly, the author's lack of REH knowledge worries me more than the paltry few roughs we've seen from the artist.
But I am going to read a few issues of their work before I judge it. It seems only fair.

[Arcadian]

I'm a bit surprised by Wood's lack of knowledge about Howard; I've felt that Wood's Northlanders' series was the most Howardian comic books going that wasn't published by Dark Horse.

For one thing, Wood appears interested in the historical research, not sitting on people's assumptions about the past and how kick-ass Vikings are, but interested in getting the background as right as he can (without some college-level background) to write interesting stories of historical fiction.

Then there's a Northlanders' story that's a take-off on the Battle of Clontarf, . . . but more intriguing was another storyline "Metal." This is a story about Christianity invading Norway, in which ambiguously it appears that pagan mythological beings play a part, or do they? It's not clear, but the storyline has both gritty action and a religious plane of consequence that's reminiscent of . . . a weird tale.

Edited by Arcadian, 21 October 2011 - 05:37 AM.

[Roquefort Raider]

I think most of my problems stem from this picture:

Say, that looks pretty good. Conan is a bit on the light side, true, but he's got a kind of Russ Manning Tarzan vibe. I like it.

I've no worry about the art; if it's all like this and the other glimpses we've seen, it'll be good. It's the script that I'm a little worried about. I enjoyed Wood's Northlanders, but beyond writing ability I want whoever is in charge of Conan to put as much research effort into it as Thomas, Busiek and Truman did. Thankfully, the interview suggested that Wood does care about the way Conan's world is depicted.

[Kortoso]

I admit, it's just a sketch, but he looks to cutesy and anime-like for a barbarian. Guess we'll see...

[Croms Bones]

Yeah, despite being a big fan of Northlanders, and not being entirely disappointed with the art she did for that series, I am not a fan of the way she is drawing Conan here. I thought this series might bring me back into the Conan comic fold given I have already unsubbed after buying and issue or two of Hawthorne's work and cringing at what appears to be his pencil vomiting all over the page... but I think I'm going to wait on this one.

Edited by Croms Bones, 21 October 2011 - 06:13 PM.

[PFunkJAzz]

I'm just wondering what the black corsairs are going to look like in comparison to Conan:

I'm less concerned about Conan's physical appearance than the portrayal of the Black Corsairs. Buscema made 'em all look like rejects from a Tarzan cast party. Something besides grass man-skirts, headdresses and leopard prints, please.

[Taranaich]

I'm less concerned about Conan's physical appearance than the portrayal of the Black Corsairs. Buscema made 'em all look like rejects from a Tarzan cast party. Something besides grass man-skirts, headdresses and leopard prints, please.

The oars on each side drove her swiftly through the water, and the low rail swarmed with naked blacks that chanted and clashed spears on oval shields.

The rowers were protected by a line of raised mantlets along the sides, but the warriors dancing on the narrow deck were in full view. These were painted and plumed, and mostly naked, brandishing spears and spotted shields.
The plumes on the warriors’ head-pieces nodded in the wind, and the gems on sword-hilts and harness sparkled frostily.

She was the first to spring ashore, closely followed by Conan, and after them trooped the ebon-skinned pirates, white plumes waving in the morning wind, spears ready, eyes rolling dubiously at the surrounding jungle.

White plumed head-pieces, mostly naked. No references to grass skirts, though there are references to leopardskins elsewhere (Belit's funeral pyre has some). The paint should make them distinctive, though.

I'm wondering how they're going to design the Tigress myself: she should be fairly iconic in design.

[Darkstorm Dale]

After spending the last few months wondering why I ever liked Roy Thomas as a writer, I'm ecstatic to have some new blood take a crack at Conan. As for the art, while the Cimmerian may look a bit on the young side in these preproduction sketches, that may change somewhat. Belit, however, looks fantastic to me. She actually looks like she could be a daughter of Shem.

[PFunkJAzz]

I'm less concerned about Conan's physical appearance than the portrayal of the Black Corsairs. Buscema made 'em all look like rejects from a Tarzan cast party. Something besides grass man-skirts, headdresses and leopard prints, please.

The oars on each side drove her swiftly through the water, and the low rail swarmed with naked blacks that chanted and clashed spears on oval shields.

The rowers were protected by a line of raised mantlets along the sides, but the warriors dancing on the narrow deck were in full view. These were painted and plumed, and mostly naked, brandishing spears and spotted shields.
The plumes on the warriors’ head-pieces nodded in the wind, and the gems on sword-hilts and harness sparkled frostily.

She was the first to spring ashore, closely followed by Conan, and after them trooped the ebon-skinned pirates, white plumes waving in the morning wind, spears ready, eyes rolling dubiously at the surrounding jungle.

Granted the headdresses were part of Howard's original vision and they had to have grass man-skirts for the Comics Code, but I'm really talking about how John Buscema portrayed the Black corsairs without any kind of an individual look to them; just stock caricatures.

[brianwood]

Hey all

This is Brian Wood, the writer of discussion here. I just wanted to pop in and say a couple things related to this book and Becky's art, etc.

Those sketches, as some of you have assumed, are first-round rough takes on Conan, not final executed pieces. So yeah, they are rough and she is clearly trying out a range of facial expressions and looks for the benefit of the client (in this case Paradox). Really, this sort of sketch should never be made public, since it is so far removed from what you will actually see in the book. It's like looking at scraps of fabric on the floor and jumping to a conclusion as to what the article of clothing must look like.

That said, the direction she was given, and that I was given, is to take the "panther-like" description of REH's and apply it to this younger Conan, rather than make him so beefy. He's still impressively built, but in more of an athletic way than a bodybuilder way. All this talk here of "cute" and "anime" and "waif" doesn't apply. I get it if someone doesn't like Becky's art, because no one likes everything, but that's a decision I hope people make based on the art in the book, not the art in her sketchbook she made before she was even hired!

I also wanted to say something about my lack of knowledge, apparently, regarding Conan and REH. I guess I must have said something to that affect in an interview? I know I did close to 20 interviews at this last New York Comic Con. Anyway, its true that I am no expert and I'm sure a bunch of you here could run circles around me in this regard, but I am not completely ignorant. I do have to, have done, and am still doing research, and this is what writers do for a living. It's not like we can only ever write about the things we are already experts on and never grow beyond that. And I have editors at Dark Horse checking my scripts, and the people at Paradox as well. I can say that in the first 3 scripts I've written, the only changes that I was asked to make were (very) minor geographical ones... place names and such. I seem to be doing a pretty solid job all things considered.

One of the mandates I was given, in general, is to bring a more well-rounded humanity to Conan, the whole "gigantic mirth and gigantic melancholy" thing, and to keep in mind he is young and prone to error as much as anyone. This is what made Dark Horse want to hire me, this same sort of approach that I employ in my viking series Northlanders. Conan is not a superhero; he is not infallible. That, combined with the events of the story I'm adapting, are going to call for a lot of ups and downs for him.

I'm signed on to Conan for 25 issues. I think I'll do a good job. I know Becky is. We both love the material, and the genre, and feel blessed to have been given the responsibility of adapting this well-loved story. But like I said, its not going to appeal to everyone, but just know we are taking it seriously, and the REH estate holders are approving it every step of the way.

Thanks!

brian wood

[duaneshadow]

Brian - I'm excited by this new direction, as I've said before on this thread. I like the art we've seen, and I am interested in the development of the character re: mirths and melancholies. As stated elsewhgere, the account of him lopping the head off the judge is classic deadpan humor, and the scream he makes when Belit comes back from the grave is the most poignant moment I've read in Howard. Go for it bonny lad, and I look forward to seeing your interpretation.