King Conan #2 - Video Review by ComicBook.beer

Welcome back to ComicBook.Beer where today I am taking a look at King Conan issue number two from 1980. That is right, King Conan. For a while there Conan was so popular that he had like three or four different comic book series. There was Conan the Barbarian, there was Savage Sword of Conan, and King Conan, which I always thought was the least interesting of the bunch because it is basically like middle aged Conan with back problems. And really, who wants to read about that. The title could have been something different, like Conan who has a kid so he is tired, Conan who is broke and miserable and collects old school comic books while watching Galaxy Rangers episodes trying to reclaim the feeling of 1980. We are talking about Conan, not anybody else. And you know what time it is. It is time for a drink, except it is also dry January, Wednesday, and it is 1130 in the morning. So let us see what I got. The kind of drink that King Conan would drink. Not the kind of drink that Conan the Barbarian would drink. Conan the Barbarian would be wenching and getting drunk at like 830 in the morning. But King Conan, King Conan probably sprained his ankle. He has to pay taxes. No, he is the king, he can get out of that stuff. Nevermind, I take it all back.

Seltzer. It is not even non alcoholic beer but this does come from one of my favorite breweries, East End Brewing in Pittsburgh. So how does it taste. It is not bad. I am not usually a huge fan of seltzers but you know obviously there is no booze in here but a bit of a hop flavor and it is very mild hop flavor. Not a bad drink, though certainly not a flagon of ale like Conan the Barbarian would drink. Or even King Conan who still keeps his cool. Hey look, it is the Juice. Show them your heels OJ. Spot Bilt. Hell, I cannot say I remember Spot Bilt. I remember Kangaroos. Those were cool. Not Spot Bilt.

Juice is loose in The Black Sphinx of Nythu. The death from the story by L Sprague de Camp. That is one of my favorite names of all time. If I could go back in time and plant the seed into my parents’ heads, instead of naming me Mark, which is boring, I want to be L Sprague de Camp. That is just an awesome name. Here is the creative team, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, who I am a huge fan of these days, Ernie Chan. So you know the artwork in this issue of King Conan is solid. And I did not really think I was going to get into this to be honest with you. I started reading it. I do not have issue one. I found this one for a dollar out there rummaging for old comics. Started reading it and it is really dense for a comic book. A lot of text. And you know, I am starting to appreciate that more now. Modern comics, you blow through them in like 20 seconds. It took me like a day and a half to read this. I liked that. I was pondering King Conan’s adventure. There is a lot of it, but the artwork is so good.

There are actually a lot of reasons to revisit this issue and it is a lot of fun to read the first time through. It is pretty good. A little heavier than most of the Conans though. So let us check it out. All right. Now even though we have a battlefield filled with bodies with arrows sticking out of them, this issue starts out with all the fun and excitement of Star Wars Episode I. It is like they are talking about the Trade Federation and taxes and tariffs and this guy here. It will put you to sleep. The throne of Zingara lies vacant and for that prize Panthro gambles with Thundercats invading Argos, southernmost province of Aquilonia. Get on with it, I want the killing. Well, you have to make it through the first couple pages first. Good Jambisama is. I have read a couple other King Conans and honestly once Buscema stopped drawing them they were not nearly as good. This one is pretty good. So let us get to it. How many pages do you have to go before there is killing. I forgot about this. It is a big issue too. It is like forty some pages. Damn.

Now all fans of Conan know that Conan hates sorcery. He smells sorcery. Nice frosty beverage. There is a lot of Conan lore in this issue. There is a lot of reading. So if you are really big into this series you can read the stuff in depth and maybe even make notes. There are so many names that all sound like gibberish, but basically what has to happen is that Conan is going to kill a bunch of things, but not before we meet the Queen and his son. It is like Billy Madison. Conan has to think. He has a responsibility. He has to get his ass out there and kill some undead things to protect his son from whatever. Basically that is how parenting goes. Somehow they end up at this place which seems kind of spooky to me.

It is like a trap. Conan is maybe not that bright. He is lucky though. That is how he survived all these issues. So they go to enter the Sphinx of Nythu. I want to point this out to a couple of things I really like about Yusha Yama’s artwork. That expression he gives Conan frequently and the way he draws hands. Hands are really hard to draw and he is so good at it. Conan’s hands are pretty badass. Also check this out. I am going to back up a few pages. Buck Rogers action figures. Three ninety nine. Anyway, this issue is so big it is broken into multiple parts here. Part two. Chapter two. The Black Beast Slays. This is where the action starts to pick up. Of course it looks incredible because the art is incredible. We have got sorcerers, we have got fighting and action and magic, creepy people with hoods, all the good stuff. The reality is this oversized issue has it all. We have got a fight between mad sorcerers, we have got magic gems, we have got people on fire, and giant monsters. This is what you are reading Conan for. And he is throwing back flagons available. And at the end of the issue we get an ad for the other Conans. Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan. And then an advertisement where OJ is hawking more footwear.

King Conan issue number two of the series. The King Conan series eventually changed names to Conan the King, presumably because they wanted them to be alphabetical on the shelf. It did not run as long and at some point they did not have Buscema doing the artwork so they lost some of the classic Conan flair, but this one is terrific and I like a bunch of the earlier ones. There are a bunch of the other earlier ones I will be taking a look at here on the ComicBook Beer website. You can find it for cheap, which you should be able to do for just a buck or two. I recommend it. King Conan issue number two, the mightiest monarch of a time lost land approved by the comics code, which means we get no nudity.