Review: Conan and the Songs of the Dead TPB

Conan and the Songs of the Dead TPB
Written by Joe R. Lansdale
Art by Timothy Truman
Published by Dark Horse Comics. $14.95 USD

This would be a positive review for a book one will forget in the time it takes to set down. And that's okay--it's not meant to be anything but a lark, and it's not like Conan ever had much depth, anyway. This story is kind of fun in that it's not often one finds Conan in a buddy comedy. Here he's teamed up with a lusty, hungry, lazy scoundrel named Alvazar, and Lansdale gets a lot of mileage out of their sniping at each other, even giving Conan some dryly funny putdowns. It doesn't really cover up the fact that there's not a whole lot of story here, but it's enjoyable to come up with an offbeat bit like Alvazar's love for rice and play it out for a few pages. Actually, this is about as close to GROO as Conan has ever gotten in tone and joke quotient. There's not really a sense that much is in jeopardy and it's clear the objects they're in search of are merely devices to get the two adventurers moving and getting into one violent sequence after another, but hey, that's adventure fiction for ya. Truman puts in a hell of a lot of effort here and something so silly, with some fantastic character designs and a strong depiction of Conan, while Dave Stewart does his usual sensitive job with the coloring. Even if you never read it again, keep it, because you'll want to look at the art.