You know the sword-and-sorcery heist story by heart: From 1933, The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard. A strange, blood-freezing story of an idol that wept on its throne, and a valiant barbarian from the fringes of an elder civilization.
What I did like:
25 impassioned paintings by French comic book artist and illustrator Valentin Sécher starring David Boistault as Conan.
1) The Maul neighbourhood, the City of Thieves, Zamora, street level.
2) In a tavern, a Kothian, a professional kidnapper schools a young Conan about the Elephant Tower that houses the great jewel called the Elephant's Heart (the secret of Yara's magic).
3) The lacerated corpse of the kidnapper.
4) Conan the Cimmerian hits the streets.
5) The temples of the City of Thieves (Arenjun) and Yara's impenetrable tower.
6) Yara, the high priest.
7) Yara's mysterious gardens. A Zamorian royal guard lies strangled. Conan encounters Taurus.
8) Conan converses with Taurus of Nemedia aka the Prince of all Thieves (in 1982 Valeria was the Queen of Thieves).
9) Taurus flaunts his copper tube as Conan gazes straight ahead.
10) Taurus' black lotus powder takes out two of Yara's big cats.
11) The remaining lion jumps on Conan.
12) Taurus and Conan scale the Tower of the Elephant.
13) At the top of the tower, Conan finds Taurus poisoned, dead.
14) Conan enters an UNGUARDED treasure chamber. Or is it?
15) A gigantic black arachnid tries to sink its fangs into Conan.
16) Conan squashes the spider with a jewel chest.
17) In the next room, Conan catches sight of Yag-kosha the Extraterrestrial, a green-skinned elephant creature, sitting, shackled with its eyes closed, as if asleep.
18) The blind Yag-kosha touches Conan with its trunk to learn more about the barbarian.
19) Yag-kosha's spaceship in outer space.
20) A younger Yag-kosha is teaching white magic to his students.
21) Conan holds the freshly extricated heart of Yag-kosha in his right hand and the magical jewel (the Heart of the Elephant) in his left hand.
22) Conan orders sorcerer Yara to awaken from his lotus-dreams of evil.
23) Conan sees Yara being pulled into the jewel.
24) Conan looks over his shoulder as the Tower of the Elephant crumbles behind him.
25) The cover.
As a nice bonus we get to peek inside the sketchbook of Valentin Sécher. A digital sketch for the cover art + 14 illustrations in orange felt pen from his storyboard + 9 final sketches before the oil painting stage.
What I did not like:
Yag-kosha was not reimagined.
I give it a 9.5/10. First published in French by Editions Bragelonne in 2022 and now translated into English by Titan Comics. This sublime adaptation of Robert E. Howard's famous science fiction story will be the jewel in the crown of your Conan collection. Don't dawdle. Get this spectacular Hardcover before it disappears!
