Conan the Cimmerian: The Black Stranger review

aka Conan Le Cimmérien - Le Maraudeur noir

Clearly inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and never published during his lifetime, The Black Stranger by Robert E. Howard gets poorly adapted in France. Robert just can't get a break.

The amateurish art of Jean-Luc Masbou is not ready for prime time.

The human form is not mastered at all. Enthusiasts of anatomy will be severely upset.

Faces look all too often like boiled potatoes or rotting pumpkins.

Nonetheless lots of work is put in the vegetation of the Pictish wilderness, rock formations, the fort, masted sailing ships, weapons and clothes.

The strange black Stygian mage/demon also disappoints by not being consistent or creepy enough.

The terrible lettering makes the tale almost illegible.

The pin-ups for The Treasure of Tranicos are all embarrassing except for the one by master Philippe Druillet, but it's cropped. Cropped? What the heck? Yes, and this is extremely disrespectful. Shame on you Glénat, Jean-David Morvan and Patrice Louinet!

The exclusive introduction by Patrice Louinet is always informative and as usual smells somewhat of arrogance.

I give it a 1/10. Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Josef Rubinstein and Klaus Janson did a much, much, much better job of adapting this story in Savage Sword of Conan #47-48. Seek it out.

A Touching Tribute To The Late, Great, Bottalk Bulletin Board + Renaud FAQ!

The smartest and the most handsome podcasters on the Internet: The Fanholes and a collection of exceptional guests say au revoir to the legendary Bottalk board. Click to download or listen to this remarkable recording. And don't forget to get out your boxes of tissues! Thanks, guys! Much appreciated! Renaud FAQ

Void Rivals #17 review

Void Rivals Has Secrets To Reveal! It does and it continues here with issue # 17! Void Rivals is Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s sci-fi comic that tells the tale of two crumbling planets linked by a “Sacred Ring” (it’s not Halo), their peoples at war for generations. When a member of each culture are stranded together, the two find they must put aside their differences if they want to survive. This story takes place in the so-called “Energon Universe”, Skybound Entertainment’s initiative to relaunch properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe within a shared universe that also happens to include the original characters and setting of Void Rivals. In this seventeenth issue, the secret of Zerta Trion is revealed, Darak has a “friendly” chat with his father, and Proximus is on the rampage! Proximus? He was cool. He was! And that continues here as him and his new kid sidekick go on a quest together. It’s unclear exactly what Proximus wishes to get out of it, but he’s clearly no longer...

Transformers #18 (2023) review

Is Shredhead totally in my face? Yup! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s Energon Universe, noted writer/artist rolled-into-one Daniel Warren Johnson takes the reins on the linchpin of this initiative, the flagship Transformers comic series! Well, he maintains the reins on the writing of this series at least, as does Mike Spicer on colors. Jorge Corona has taken over regular penciling duties with a style all his own. In this eighteenth issue, Shredhead kills some guys you may have liked, Ultra Magnus boxes a helicopter, and the Decepticon civil war comes to an end with the return of… well, c’mon, you know. Does Shredhead arrive at the fireworks factory? There’s actually relatively little to do with Shredhead here, aside from an opening fight scene where he showcases how badazz he is by killing some name characters. One of the victims in particular I was kind of annoyed by, considering he just got his first new toy in decades and has always been a fan favorite f...

BotTalk Reviews

Search This Blog