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

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The Scorpius Run #1 review

The Enterprise picks up a distress call and moves to investigate. Onboard they find one survivor who tells them she has a debt to pay to a local crime boss. Later, the Enterprise arrives at Celius Prime in an effort to help their passenger. Pike and some of the bridge crew are beamed off. They face the crime boss who tells them the only way out of the dangerous Scorpion sector is by way of the most dangerous race in the galaxy. Pike agrees to the race but members of this crew are placed among various other ships in the race. The idea of a race in space is nothing new. It's not even new in the realms of Star Trek. You have 'The Great Starship Race' from the old Pocket Book line. And thus far, I feel the novel is superior. Though the Pike of Strange New Worlds is laid back I hardly think he would so easily agree to all the terms and obviously laid traps he faces here. six out of ten.

Void Rivals #2 review

What’s this then? Why, it’s Void Rivals # 2, the second issue (shocking, I know) of Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, and Matheus Lopes’ new sci-fi comic. It 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 new 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. Any good? You know what, yeah! I’m enjoying it so far and I guess I’m not surprised. Robert Kirkman does well with cosmic space stuff and I was a big fan of Invincible. In two issues he’s already crafted an intriguing dramatic setup and a compelling dynamic between our two lead characters Darak and Solila. We’ve seen the “enemies

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