Comic Books
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #5
Brian Wood and James Harren turn up the intensity in “The Argos Deception” Part 2!
Conan’s pirate days may already be over! Captured for his past crimes in Messantia, the Cimmerian faces public execution before a mob baying for his blood. But will he really lose his head—or is it all part of Bêlit’s plan?
* Brian Wood’s (DMZ, Northlanders) red-hot run on Conan continues!
* Art by rising star James Harren (Nation X, B.P.R.D.)!
“Brian Wood is not a writer that pulls punches.” —Comic Book Resources
“James Harren knows how to dig down deep and channel some fear for his monsters.”—ComicsBulletin
Artist: James Harren
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Massimo Carnevale
Price: $3.50
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 1.5%
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James Harren blew me away last issue. fantastic artist.
Becky Cloonan >James Harren
Both are great but I agree with you fully.
You have to take into consideration that Cloonan has quite a few years experience on Harren too. And yeah, both are ridiculously good. DH is pulling in some amazing talent right now.
Becky Cloonan || James Harren > (0.99 * all_artists_in_the_world)
The above evaluates to TRUE.
I am so happy Conan is back to its Busiek-Nord greatness of a few years ago.
i could not agree more
If you truly want to see Harren shine, pick up BPRD Hell on Earth – The Long Death. That book was simply incredible. Looking forward to this issue! This new Conan series has been a lot of fun.
Very true. That’s the best of Harren’s work I’ve seen to date. The battle in the third issue might be the most well-paced action sequence in any comic I’ve ever read. Most comic books fights it’s tough to tell exactly what’s going on 100% of the time. This fight keeps you engaged and makes the short beats between punches and bites just an intriguing as the punches and bites themselves.
I’ve been picking up BPRD in trades, so I can’t attest to it (though seeing Harren & Crook on the book was what sent me to pick up the series to begin with), but this issue, Harren’s artwork was absolutely amazing.
OMG, this has been the best one yet. That fight scene! Wood and Harren are knocking it out of the park.
This is my first Conan book and I love it so far. My one gripe has been how in love he is with Belit (I like her too but c’mon). I mean he thinks he is going to die and she is what he thinks about? Again, I don’t know anything about the character, but is this a romance book or what?! Maybe she has some kind of hold over him?
You should check out the original story “Queen of the Black Coast” by Robert Howard, his relationship with Belit is more understandable in the short story. Plus: young, wild barbarian + beautiful pirate lady = love
Fair enough. I’m kind of in love with her too, lol. I’m going to check that out after this story finishes. Thanks.
Man, I was just thinking, this taps in exactly to how I felt as a teenager “in love”. I see a lot of truth in the relationship, & it’s a really refreshing take on Conan. – Plus, we’re talking about a young dude who’s been all about war, fighting & survival his whole life. That first rush of being in love is a crazy, senseless thing.
Yes, this feels like the over-the-top love many guys fall into sometime during high school.
Did anyone wish the fight wasn’t so super-heroic? I dunno, I liked the last few issues how Conan has been portrayed as a gifted but still learning warrior…I didn’t like that after being beaten, starved, legs chained, with no weapon (at least at the start), he was able to defeat the champion. I think the story would have been better if the champion had more flawed, or perhaps some sort of clever trick got Conan out of instantly being killed.
I read it as the flaw of Crom was his need for attention. Conan even goes so far as to state that in the book. Crom had chances to end the fight easily, but he wanted to look good doing it, so he wasted time gloating and playing to the crowd.
Great issue, I’m really enjoying Conan so far. The story has been cool, and the art by both Cloonan and Harren has been fantastic. This is the third book drawn by Harren that I’ve read, and he just keeps on bringing the awesome. I thought Cloonan was coming back after this arc, but the solicits say otherwise. I hope she isn’t gone for good, because I think her style and approach to the storytelling worked so well in the first arc.
Agreed, I hope we get more of both artists. And yea, I know Woods did explicitly say the attention thing (youre right to bring it up) but I still didn’t buy the fight. But really, a minor quibble when what I really want to say is, “this series is awesome”.