Conan, Vol. 18: The Damned Horde

Conan: Dark Horse Collection

by Fred Van Lente, Brian Ching (Illustrations)

Writer Fred Van Lente takes on the world's most famous barbarian!

Conan and his allies are thrown into battle against an army of brigands, thieves, and ravagers hailing from all corners of the globe and led by a disgraced prince with pillaging on his mind! Conan enters into an uncertain alliance with this damned horde to steal a legendary treasure of immeasurable wealth that leads him on a perilous journey! And in the shadows a great evil lurks, awaiting its chance to destroy Conan!

This enthralling volume collects issues #7--12 of the Dark Horse Comics series Conan the Avenger .

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

152 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was terrible. The story meandered all over the place. Brian Ching should never be allowed near a Conan comic. His highly stylized art looks terrible in Conan. His characters all have the shape of E.T. with long necks and blocky heads that strut out. The art completely killed any enthusiasm I had for the book.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure if this series has gone bad or if I just don't love this type of story as much as I once did. I think some of my issue stems from the strange and drastic changes each creator after Timothy Truman left the series. Roy Thomas gave us some fantastical nonsense of a plot with a non-existent Conan character. Brian Wood gave us 25 issues of some strange 21st century hipster that shared Conan's name if nothing else. And now Fred Van Lente is giving us another iteration of the character that I just can't seem to connect with. Conan just seems like a typical meat-head, cocksure youth.

Busiek and Truman seemed to nail the character for me. Cary Nord and Tomas Giorello nailed the illustrations for me. I just can't seem to warm up to this new series.

I also don't seem to have the patience that I once had. Nothing in this book excited me. It just felt like cheesy nonsense that burnt away a few minutes of my life. I can't for the life of me remember what happened in the previous volume - and I've chosen to ignore Wood's divergence and Roy Thomas's shlock. Hopefully there will be another King Conan comic coming out soon to restore my faith in Dark Horse's Conan.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new Conan comic series does good justice to the Robert E. Howard stories. While the art does come and go in quality at time, overall it is a good. The adaptations of the original stories is well done. The fill in stories are also well done and follow the flow of the Character's life as written by Howard. Recommended to comic fans and Very recommended to Howard and Conan fans.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume better than the previous. This was more traditional Conan, with armies searching for treasure and even an appearance by the evil Thoth Amon.

I will say yet again Dark Horse did some great Conan comics when they had the license.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buckets of gore and betrayal are back and I couldnt be happier.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. It has all the essential elements, blood, wenches, and wicked sorcery. I liked this story line.

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too much to say about this TPB of Conan comics. Story and art are good to slightly above good and having one writer and one artist through six entire issues is nice to have (especially after the rocky road of so many artists in the past 6-7 Conan TPBs). This should be the minimum of quality every Conan story should aspire to but unfortunately does not meet consistently.

[Mike Perschon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took writer Fred Van Lente one uneven volume to clean up the mess Brian Wood had made during his tenure on the Dark Horse Conan series. This book is a return to form for Conan, in Van Lente’s capable hands. Art and text are in sync here. While not returning the series to its former glory under Timothy Truman, it’s still a welcome improvement over Wood.

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous TPB, but still much better than the earlier ones by Brian Wood. The story is pretty simple with few surprises and the characters - Conan included - are pretty thin. The whole book seems like a kind of an interlude between bigger stories.

Only for fans.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fred Van Lente and Brian Ching produces a fun, rollicking Conan story that will never be confused for one of the great tales of the Cimmerian, but it holds together well enough to make one forgive its rough edges.

[Ripley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one doesn't live up after following the Queen of the Black Coast story arc. It just pales in comparison. It lacks a lot of the horror elements that make this series so enjoyable.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

While there is a somewhat cartoonish feeling to Brian Ching's artwork, it is never the less evocative and very easy on the eye. It flows well on from the previous volume and the continuity in character appearance is very much appreciated. Coupled with a fun story from Fred Van Lente which continues the story well from Shadows Over Kush and begins to tie things in with Thoth-Amon.

An enjoyable volume and a good forerunner for future pairings of Van Lente and Ching.

As a side note, I enjoyed the reference to Nyarlathotep, an invention of Howard's contemporary and correspondent, H.P. Lovecraft. While I do not know that Howard himself ever referenced this entity from the Cthulu mythos, it is apparently mentioned in some of older Conan comics and seemed a fitting sort of Easter Egg.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

After two issues, it finally dawned on my why this book felt off, Van Lente simply does not have a voice that suits Conan and his world. It is a real shame too because Ching's artwork is probably the closest we'll get to Cary Nord performing art duties on this book again. Dialogue problems aside, the plot of this volume swings wildly from nothing special to incredibly dumb, being far too long for its own good. The story picks up for a fraction of a second with the out of nowhere appearance of Thoth Amon, one of the few characters that Van Lent seems to get right, until he is quickly made to look like a buffoon and becomes really pointless.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conan--working under the name Amra--leads the remaining royal guards of Shumballa, now known as Amra's Bastards in seeking their fortune. He and his men end up embroiled in the attempt of Prince Alric [sp?] who is supposedly "liberating" the areas he pushes through with an amalgam horde made up of various mercenary companies. In the process Conan learns of a great hoard of lost treasure that he intends to pursue. The two adventures/purposes combine resulting in the explanation of the "Damned Horde" of the title and a second encounter with Thoth-Amon.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conan is pretty much the most reliable brand in comics. You pick up Conan for two-fisted, swashbuckling gore, and this volume definitely delivers, like when Conan head butts a giant snake and breaks its fang which he then uses as a dagger to stab the snake through the brain. Awesome.

I'm not in love with the art--the faces especially are pretty scrunched and expression-free, but there are some pretty cool splash pages, and this volume delivers the expected Conan pleasures.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Public library copy.

As an original, new tale this was okay, but it pales compared to the REH Busiek adapated stories or the twisted Lansdale/Truman work. I personally am not a fan of any stories featuring Conan's sorcerer nemesis.

[Carlos Serrano Nouaille · Rating 1 out of 5]

No consigo acostumbrarme a estas ilustraciones. Y la historia sólo empezó a ponerse interesante con la aparición de Thoth-Amón, aunque luego desaparecerá demasiado rápido.