The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories

The Chronicles of Conan

by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith (Illustrator), Gil Kane

This is the third volume in a series collecting the early Conan comic-book stories by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. Originally created in the 1930s, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian has survived to emerge as one of this century's most powerful and popular characters. Even more impressive than the character's lasting appeal over the past seven decades, is the caliber of talent involved in all of the various Conan incarnations. Of those, there are few that speak as clearly and as uniquely as artist Barry Windsor-Smith. Over the course of these early stories, Windsor-Smith's stunning evolution from comic-book cartoonist to full-fledged artist is apparent and thrilling to behold. This volume collects issues #14, #15, and #17-#21 and features completely remastered color.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Marvel, Comic Book

156 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2004

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific continuation that nicely balances the reemergence of established characters with the introduction of all-new ones. This particular volume is famous for featuring a 2-part crossover with Michael Moorcock's Melnibone universe, and the result is suitably epic. It's great to see Roy Thomas consistently writing multi-issue story lines at this point, leading to bigger, more ambitious plots. My only real negative is that the regular artist took a couple of issues off, and the substitute artwork doesn't look quite as good. Story-wise, though, this series has really hit its stride.

PS: Issue #22 is a reprint of issue #1, so the omnibus version I bought doesn't include it. At first, I assumed it was a misprint, but a quick Google search set me straight.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overall good, but uneven in both story and art, collection of Conan the Barbarian contained issues 14, 15, 17 - 22 of the comic series.
The first two stories team Conan with Moorcock fantasy anti-hero Elric ( who I am also a huge fan of ) but this story is plotted by both Michael Moorcock ( who hated the conical hat that Barry Smith drew on Elric in the story ) and James Cawthorn while still being written by Roy Thomas who says later that he changed the nondescript wizard in the story for prior wizard Zukala for consistency purposes. Thomas does rather well with this team-up in that Conan is wary of Elric and more importantly Elric's sword Stormbringer and basically will join with Elric for the adventure, but not for any long run.
Gil Kane takes over art duties with issues 17 & 18 and I never felt that his version of Conan was that great. Kane is an excellent artist and I always liked his work on Green Lantern and the Atom, but just never got behind his version of Conan which to me looked too "thin" and just not as ferocious or as powerful as John Buscema's version.
The last stories contain some of the best artwork of Barry Smith's run on the series though issue 22 had spotty inking due to Dan Adkins being unable to complete the issue due to time allowances. Thomas adapts a couple of Howard non-Conan stories at Smith's behest and the story itself sees Conan switching sides in a war between two warring nations.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this early Conan comics. Barry Smith's art is probably at it's best here, and we also get some great Gil Kane art as well. Roy Thomas would also adapt non Conan REH stories into Conan stories for the comic and I'm starting to recognize the stories he's adapting. It was especially cool to see Conan face the giant frog monster from the Black Monolith. There's also a team up between Conan and Elric, which had to be unusual for the time as you didn't see those type of team ups too often. (Really you didn't see much of that until the 90s when crossovers between heroes of different companies became common.)

With volumes like this it's easy to see why Conan was always the leader of the pack with Sword and Sorcery comics.

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series continues to be one of extremely high quality. The art hasn’t stopped getting better and Thomas adapt the material so well, this is the best Conan in comic form, this run right here!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories carries on the saga of Conan brillaintly as it charts more of his young 'career' as he is exposed to more of the word of Hyboria and encounters both sides of wars and betrayal and victory! :D

This issue also features a big guest list of characters with Elric from the Elric books by Michael Moorcock making a guest appearance as well as returning appearances by characters such as Fafnir and Zukal with a host of new characters such as the Zukal's daughter Zephra and the betraying queen of Turanian Queen Mellisandra and her scheming Adviser who is clearly not on the Kings side! :D This all adds u to epic tales of skulduggery, city sieges and invasions (with Conan changing sides mid war to only to find both are as bad as each other! :D) Bucket loads of humour grim chins and plots that are breakneck in their pace and never slow up for a second and end (literally! :D Lol) being a wild horse ride! :D

As ever the art is crisp and sharp and really catches the characters expressions and what they are going through and this helps to sell the story along with the great script! :D The recoloured versions really help to enhance this and the difference between the original colours and new is immense and the does the script proud! :D Also as ever featured in the is a breakdown of the creative process which adds some great info to how these stories came about! :D

The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories is brilliant fast-paced, incredible book, full of drama and humour that takes you all over the place taking the character of Conan and his companions (though some of them would more hold there hands up and go with Conan's associates as a tag! :D Lol ) through all sorts of merry doings imagine a horse and rider strapped to roller coaster and you get the picture! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid Conan stories from Thomas, Smith, Moorcock, Kane, & Buscema.

[Simeon Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of probably the most uncertain period in the book's early history, with Thomas making some fairly odd choices for adaptation and cross over, the book changing artists twice and almost being canceled before getting put back on bi-monthly schedule for a short time, it can be a little hard to navigate. However, the actual content of the stories is still some solid sword and sorcery adventure with only a few odd looking panels in the early issues (Both Kane and Smith render some oddly elongated looking faces a couple times), and when you get into the Hyrkanian War arc the book really finds it's footing again and ends off in an issue that's so close to the original Howard stories you'd swear it was an actual Howard script. Plus, there's a proper essay by Thomas in the back of the trade that explains a lot of the oddities and reasons for them in a really clear fashion so my only major complaint here is that the covers aren't collected. Like, they're not just not separating the issues, but there's not even a cover gallery in the back which is a major pet peeve of mine, so if they are for you as well you may want to get a different collection, but if you're just looking for some solid Conan stories, you could do worse.

[Shannon Schmelzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of classic Conan stories from Roy Thomas.

As always, I love the recoloring in these Dark Horse editions. I feel like they really bring the artwork in the 21st century and make it much more pleasing to my eye. Especially Barry Smith's work. His work on the last couple issues in this collection are, I think, some of the best art I have ever seen out of him and the new coloring makes them pop in a way that is perfection.

As far as the stories, they are fun. We get a two parter teaming Conan up with the Anti-Conan, a hero known as Elric. Those were fun, then we bring Conan to the Sea of Vilayet where he gets involved in a holy war between the prince of Turan and the city-state of Makkalet.

And lastly, one thing I really love about these Dark Horse collections is the Roy Thomas written epilogue/memoir at the end. These are a fun behind the scenes extra to read after you finish the stories collected.

Great collection, just sad these are out of print. If you weren't lucky enough to jump on board when they were originally printed, all I can say is they are very much worth hunting down.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What was your name again, Cimmerian?”

“Conan. Remember it.”

“Oh, I shall, outlander. I truly shall.”

Now you can start to see exactly how and why this comic ends up outlasting most other Marvel books.

And better still, it’s the title starting to stretch its own legs too. We’ve got the Elric crossover, more two-part stories, the handoffs between Gil Kane and Barry Windsor-Smith, and more and more “vibes forward” adaptions of a bunch of other random stuff from the REH beyond Conan.

Very cool too is how frank and charming Roy Thomas is in the afterword of each volume. Not only is he talking a lot of process and his relationship to the original prose material (and sword n’ sorcery in general), but he’s also spilling a lot of tea on sales numbers, reactions from Stan and Goodman about the title overall, clashes with the Comics Code Authority, AND all the shakeups with the creative teams throughout production. It’s a really cool supplement to some already all-timer comics.

[Quinton Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series seems to be getting better to me. The flow of each story is enjoyable, and the artwork is very well done. There are some interesting characters in this book that are not exactly predictable - I found that several times different results happened then I was expecting.

I really enjoy Roy Thomas' essay at the end of the book, explaining the back scenes of the industry, and what was going on when these books were written.

[Matthew J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conan meets Elric...?! OK. There are a couple stories with some typical Conan-y stuff. Lost cities, weird monsters, that sort of thing. The comic remains OK. Sadly, after leaning away from overly wordy panels with tons of captions & dialog balloons in the last volume, it's back to being Stan Lee-like in how overwritten it is.
This era's Conan comics are OK mindless fun, I guess. They're just not especially good, and they're definitely not very good as adaptations of Robert E. Howard.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a break from the book I'm reading and these Conan stories were nearly perfect. I didn't know going into it I'd be treated with an appearance of Elric. All the stories are good and the action is great. I have some small quibbles, we never did find out enough the Tarim and the story seemed unfinished.

[Jim Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have become totally addicted to these. Love it. I know, I know, some of the "updated" art is a little awkward and tacky with the colors, isn't true to the originals. But I love it anyway. Can't get enough. Volume 3 is the best so far.

[Sezer Turgay · Rating 4 out of 5]

BWS+CONAN+ELRIC=Overdose of testosterone 🤘🏻💪🏼

[PJ Ebbrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for BWS artwork alone.

[Al Capwned · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Moorcock is also writing some stories here and his character, Elric, makes an appearance alongside Conan. We still get the awful recolouring though.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no wonder all the Marvel readers I know have great vocabularies.

[Helmut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Versuch eines Crossover zwischen Hyboria und Melniboné

Ein für mein Erachten seltsames Aufeinandertreffen findet in diesem Band der "Chronicles of Conan" statt - Moorcocks Elric trifft auf Howards Conan. Neben dem völlig unterschiedlichen Stil, in dem die Bücher dieser Autoren geschrieben sind, wirkt auch die hier vorhandene Comicgeschichte sehr bemüht, und zum Glück hat Roy Thomas erkannt, dass die damals wie heute im amerikanischen Mainstreamcomic übliche Crossoveritis, also die ständige Vermischung zweier Bücher nach dem Motto "Spider-Man verhaut den Hulk", mit Conan nicht funktioniert.

Für mich persönlich ist entgegen der Redaktionsrezension oben das Highlight dieses Bands der Zweiteiler "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth", gezeichnet von Gil "Green Lantern" Kane. Seinem äußerst klaren Stil kommt die Neukolorierung fantastisch zugute; darüber hinaus kann man erkennen, dass er im Gegensatz zu Windsor-Smith wirklich Ahnung von Anatomie hat. Seine Gesichter sind perfekt und charakterisiert, die Perspektiven immer korrekt und die Bewegungen dynamisch. Schade, dass es bei diesem Kurzeinsatz blieb - davon hätte ich sehr gern viel mehr gesehen.

Doch auch Windsor-Smith macht sich langsam aber sicher auf, seinen endgültigen Stil zu finden. Ihm tut die Neukolorierung nicht mehr, anders als in den früheren Bänden, unbedingt wirklich einen Gefallen, denn seine Zeichnungen werden immer detaillierter und feiner. Gerne würde ich die wie bei der "Savage Sword of Conan"-Reihe mal in schwarzweiß sehen.

Trotzdem eine der besten Fantasycomicreihen aller Zeiten, und dazu eins, das dem Originalmaterial recht treu bleibt.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third volume of Dark Horse's reprints of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian series from the 70's. Actually this was the one I was after all along because it has the crossover double issue with Elric of Melnibone. Honestly, I was a little disappointed in this story. It didn't feel like an Elric story (not surprisingly, Moorcock most likely didn't plot it; his buddy, Jim Cawthorn, did.) Moorcock has done a bunch of Elric comics since that were tons better then this. So, disappointed and moving on. Many of my comments about the first volume carry over here. The stories are good, even if some of them are Conan-ized versions of other REH non Conan stories. This was common practice at the time as L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter turned out several of these pastiches to fill out the Lancer Conan paperbacks. It did not impress me. Again, the art just didn't appeal to me, though for 2 issues another artist Gil Kane took over pencil duties. Also the color in it felt somewhat heavy handed and very dark for some reason. But it still didn't grab me. Another excellent essay from writer Roy Thomas rounds out the volume telling stories about how this book was created. I would recommend this to the diehards and Elric fans wanting to check out all versions of Moorcock's classic character. But this one does it for me.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Dark Horse volume collecting Marvel's Conan series from 1970s and it includes issues #14–15 and 17–22. For the main bulk of the volume, as in the previous volumes, the creative team here is Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, with a brief two-issue interruption by none other than Gil Kane, when Windsor-Smith temporarily quit.

The stories collected are "The Sword Called Stormbringer" and "The Green Empress of Melniboné" (featuring a crossover of sorts with Moorcock's Elric), the Kane-pencilled "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" and "The Thing in the Temple" (which are an adaptation of Howard's non-Conan story "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth"), "Hawks from the Sea", "The Black Hound of Vengeance" and "The Monster of the Monoliths".

Also worth noting is the excellent afterword by Thomas, putting the content of the volume in a historical context and providing behind-the-scenes insights (as he has done in the previous volumes as well, I hasten to add).

Warmly recommended!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book mainly for the Elric crossover, and that's great. The rest of the volume varies from OK to good.

The Green Empress of Melniboné (13-14). A shockingly good story that does a good job of highlighting the characters and backstories of both Conan and Elric. It also feels like it has repercussions for both of them. You couldn't ask for a much better crossover [7+/10].

The Gods of Bal-Sagoth (16-17). Always fun to see Thomas' adaptations of Howard material, but this is a pretty simple S&S tale [5/10].

Hawks from the Sea (18-19). This is a very nice story of swords & sorcery and warfare with an ending that's superb. A great addition to the Conan canon [7+/10].

Monster of the Monolith (20). A nice bit of continuity tying the Conan comic chronology to yet another old Howard story ... and an OK story [6/10].

The new coloring of this volume is also exquisite, though it gets murky at times.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

First published by Marvel in 1972-73, this volume collects several of the celebrated Thomas/Smith Conan collaborations, including the Elric two-parter. This version does not benefit from computer recolouring (indeed, why anyone thinks the dreadfully sterile and often muddy results so frequently achieved by such recolouring is an improvement is beyond me), but Smith's art still does look pretty good, usually. The stories, however, and especially the dialogue, have not aged well.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rescatar por tres puntos: El curioso crossover entre Conan y Elric de Melniboné en "Stormbringer", la excelente colaboración de Gil Kane en la saga del barbirrojo Fafnir y "El Monstruo de los Monolitos", uno de los mejores trabajos de Smith.

[José Baena Castel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,15

[Christopher Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Roy.