The Savage Sword of Conan The Original Marvel Years Omnibus 1 Hardcover – April 2, 2019

I could only afford so many comics when Savage Sword was first published, so I settled for the color comic & passed on the B&W magazine. Over the years I saw enough to realize how much I had missed … and now I have those stories in hardcover form, with their wonderfully detailed art, pinups, articles, AND a fine introduction by master Conan scribe Roy Thomas. His Conan remains the best comics version of REH's classic pulp character, remaining as faithful to the original as possible while still adding nuance & depth. But never at the expense of story! That always comes first.Interesting to read that artist John Buscema wasn't a fan of Alfredo Alcala's inking, because they made for a wonderful combination, as far as I'm concerned. The power & grace of Buscema was still present, and Alcala's intricate inks gave his pencils a print-like quality, full of atmosphere & lavish richness. Together with the writing, always using as much of Howard's own prose as possible, this made for a fully realized fantasy world of adventure, horror, and grimly beautiful storytelling.So, while I'm sorry to have missed these stories when they first appeared, I'm even happier to be reading them now, for the first time, in all their stark splendor & ferocity -- and isn't that what Conan is all about? This captures the intense, primal power of Conan's pulp origins with gusto & the glitter of sharp-edged steel -- most highly recommended for any fan of sword & sorcery!

Marvel acquired Conan in the early 70's, and within a few years he was a hit. While none could ever claim the main Conan series was full of rainbows and unicorns, more could be done in a magazine format-longer stories, more blood and more bosoms. In this first omnibus, which is oddly out of print for some reason, the classic rendition of "The Frost Giant's Daughter" by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith is reprinted, along with some non-Conan tales, such as the origin of Man-Thing and "The Fury of the Femizons", which was Stan Lee's take on second wave feminism gone bad....and it is as hokey as others have claimed. Still, this gave us Thundra and later, Lyra...Back to Conan...In this volume, you'll also get one of the more darker stories, "A witch shall be born", or popularly known as Conan on the cross, which was used in the 1982 film adaption of Conan the Barbarian. Essentially, a twin witch of the benevolent ruler usurps her rule. Conan sees through the ruse but is run out of town and nailed, literally. Of course, he gets better...The art is amazing, of course. I know people complained that this is not in color but I like the lines and action better in black and white, especially John Buscema's artwork. Sometimes, your mind fills in the color...If you can find this at a decent price, pick it up. Well worth a sword and sorcery fan's time...and money!

Reading these comics takes me back, to when mom used to tell me with a little sneak, "You always like that weird stuff,". She was right and 4 1/2 decades later I still do.But how can you not? This is the stuff of a young boys dream. High adventure, freedom, and beautiful women!They don't make them like this anymore.

The other reviews here give a good sense of what this book is about...........so I'll just say that here's the deal: if you want the contents of the Marvel / Curtis 'Savage Sword of Conan' (SSOC; 235 issues, August 1974 - July 1995) black-and-white comic magazine, as well as the first five issues of the black-and-white comic magazine 'Savage Tales' (May 1971 - July 1974) that featured Conan and other REH characters, you can:-try and buy more-or-less intact copies of the original magazines from dealers, often for very steep prices;-purchase the 22 trade paperback compilations of SSOC issued by Dark Horse from 2008 - 2016;-or purchase this new 'Omnibus' collection from Marvel, which apparently is going to compile all 235 issues of SSOC, and the first five issues of 'Savage Tales'.The photo attached should give you an idea of how Volume 1 looks size-wise compared to the original magazine, and a representative volume of the Dark Horse compilation.At 1072 pages, Vol. 1 includes the contents of the first five issues of 'Savage Tales', as well as SSOC 1 - 12 and the cover art from a Summer of 1975 reprint package, titled a 'Super Special'.Along with the comics, you get the cover in full color; the letters pages; the advertisements; and the photoessays that were used to pad out each issue.There's no denying that these early issues were the best in the series. Now that you can see the artwork reproduced on glossy paper, it's all the more impressive what talents like Barry Windsor-Smith, Alfredo Alcala, and John Buscema (among others) were able to bring to each issue.The verdict ? Scrape your dollars together, eat nothing but Ramen for a week if you have to, and grab a copy of 'Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume 1'.Because the sad truth is that the speculators will buy up their copies, and a year from now, when the book is out of print, they will show up at amazon selling the book for several hundred dollars. It's best to act now, rather than later.............

Great artwork! Especially the first page of the “Black Colossus” story. Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema and Roy Thomas — these are legendary names when it comes to the Conan comic during it’s first run with Marvel, and for good reason!As a kid, I didn’t read much of thr regular, color Conan comic, but lived the black and white Savage Sword Conan stories. And I wasn’t into black and white comics then (it was before I discovered manga, Charlie Chaplin and “Seven Samurai” — all great examples of black and white entertainment).This omnibus caught my attention right away: the price was right, and I remembered the art — thirty years later — and after mulling it over for a few days, I took the plunge. Great decision on my part.It arrived on Saturday (2-day shipping), and I’ve been reading fantastically drawn conan adventures over the weekend.

Um tesouro da decada de 70 em ordem cronológica e completo do bárbaro mais famoso de todos os tempos e agora tenho isso tudo na minha coleção. Orgulho demais muito obrigado Marvel e que venha muitos mais omnibus dele, pegarei todos. Todo colecionador deveria ler ao menos uma vez Conan, isso sim deve estar na estante e vale cada centavo.

La calidad de impresión y el papel es excelente

This book was obviously produced with much love. The artwork glows on the glossy white pages, and the detailed essays (especially the reminiscences of Roy Thomas) are insightful and fascinating.The stories are a little rawer than the ones in the colour collections, not having to bow to CCA guidelines, and there are more adaptations of Howard's original stories. I grew up reading these, and the versions here are respectful and well done.This is a must have for any Conan fan.

Worth every penny

Ich bin ein riesiger Conan-Fan, und Savage Sword of Conan (SSoC) gehört zu meinen absoluten Lieblingsserien. Vor ca. einem Jahr hatte der Hachette Verlag testweise damit begonnen, diese Serie in edlen Hardcover-Bänden zu veröffentlichen, das ganze aber nach nur vier Testausgaben leider leider zumindest in Deutschland eingestellt. Zuvor hatte der alte Lizenznehmer Dark Horse die gesamte Reihe in Paperback-Wälzern veröffentlicht, deren Papier- und Druckqualität nicht unbedingt dem heutigen Standard entsprachen. Ich habe sowohl die vier Hachette-Bände, als auch ein paar von Dark Horse. Mit dieser Marvel-Ausgabe dachte ich nun, das ultimative SSoC Compendium in den Händen zu halten. Dem ist leider nicht unbedingt so.Fangen wir mit der Bindung, Druck- und Papierqualität an: Das alles geht sehr in Ordnung und ist deutlich besser als bei den Dark Horse Wälzern. Von der Größe her passt der Omnibus perfekt zum Conan the Barbarian Omnibus, der vor gar nicht langer Zeit ebenfalls erschienen ist. Der Einband unter dem Schutzumschlag sieht auch exakt genauso aus. Soweit so gut.Aber: das Format des Comics ist kleiner als das Format des Buches, so dass sich unten und oben auf fast jeder Seite ein nerviger Platzhalter findet, der die Seiten ‚auffüllt‘. Das stört, mir wäre es lieber gewesen, wenn das Buch stattdessen kleiner wäre.Weiter: die klassische Story ‚the Frost Giant‘s Daughter‘ ist doppelt und in voller Länge in dem Buch drin. Ich weiß: in den entsprechenden Einzelheften wurde sie auch mehrmals veröffentlicht, aber wer bitteschön liest die Story in ein und demselben Sammelband doppelt? Schade um den Platz.Zum Thema Platz: in den alten SSoC-Heften hat sich eine Menge Text befunden zum Hintergrund der Stories oder gänzlich anderen Veröffentlichungen. Diese Texte sind für Historiker vielleicht ganz interessant, ich allerdings finde sie nur störend, nervig und teils vom Layout her auch ganz schön hässlich. Die tollen Comics werden hierdurch auseinander gerissen - wer will 40 Jahre alte Werbetexte in fieser Retrooptik lesen? Nicht ohne Grund hat Dark Horse diese Zwischentexte damals ganz weggelassen und sich beim Nachdruck auf die (grandiosen!) Comics beschränkt. (Das selbe Problem hatte ich im Übrigen beim Conan the Barbarian Omnibus auch schon.)Hab ich schon erwähnt, das bei diesem 1.000 Seiten Schinken kein Leseband dabei ist? Das haben die neueren Dark Horse Omnibusse übrigens alle (nicht aber deren SSoC Nachdrucke).Alles in allem bin ich ein bisschen enttäuscht von diesem Werk. Aber nur ein bisschen daher vier Sterne. Die Comics an sich hätten sechs verdient. (Den Herren bei Hachette sei gesagt, dass deren Veröffentlichung sicherlich die beste der drei hier erwähnten SSoC Nachdrucke ist!)