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Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus
Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus, Vol. 6
Collects Conan The Barbarian (1970) #150-171, Conan Annual #8-9 and What If? (1977) #43. In an omnibus extravaganza that covers the entire run of writer Michael Fleisher's two years on CONAN THE BARBARIAN, artist John Buscema turns in page after page of iconic artwork - often inked by the great Ernie Chan and by Big John himself! Buscema also takes a turn as plotter, helping bring to life a series of exciting stories featuring Conan opposite some of his most mysterious foes and an old the scheming Jergal Zadh, the magic-wielding Alhambra, the conniving Baron Vjerzak and Conan's old comrade Fafnir! Two mighty annuals - one pitting Conan against an ancient mystical menace and the other against a god - and a classic issue of WHAT IF? that asks the What if Conan were stranded in the twentieth century?
672 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1983
About the author
Michael Fleisher
564 books12 followersMichael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2025
It lacks any kind of direction to the story-telling. A bunch of one-off fantasy tales. But its all very well drawn stuff. John Buscema is still doing the bulk of the art chores, its wild how many Conan comics he drew. A few he even inks himself, which is always a treat. His sparse inking works better than Ernie Chan's for the color comics. At some point his art does start to feel like self-plagiarism, very similar panels and events, but what can you expect when he's drawing his hundreth Conan pub brawl?
It's a shame so many of the stories are cookie-cutter generic fantasy affair. I like when Fafnir comes back (from a story-arc back when BWS was still drawing Conan!). It gives some sense of time actually moving along.
It's a shame so many of the stories are cookie-cutter generic fantasy affair. I like when Fafnir comes back (from a story-arc back when BWS was still drawing Conan!). It gives some sense of time actually moving along.
September 19, 2022
(Zero spoiler review) 3.75/5
Ouch, it hurts having to finally go down into 4 star territory, although it was bound to happen sooner or later. A run that close to perfection couldn't last forever. The lower score is in part due to the exceptional quality of what came before it, as well as the noticeable flaws that cropped up the further this book went along.
First of all, the stories just aren't as strong as they used to be. I lamented in the review that volume five, which saw the beginnings of the downturn in quality, that I wasn't sure whether the 100+ issue run of excellence was down to Roy Thomas himself, or Ol Roy having Robert E Howard's material to adapt. It's pretty darn clear that Michael Fleisher was running on his own steam here, and it just wasn't as good. The size, scale and connectivity of the world is gone completely. Conan was once on a massive epic, with the reader always kept abreast of where he was, where he was going, as well as the lore of the regions. Here, we get bare bones details regarding lore and locations, if ew get anything at all. Kind of like how the world in Game of Thrones started shrinking when people started teleporting all over the map. It's similar here, and no less jarring.
The characters are less memorable and the villains are your bog standard, cookie cutter fare. There is barely any flow or follow on from story to story. Most of the stories end rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily, even though there is far less actual story being told on the pages. Pacing and plotting really needed a lot more work to live up to what came before. And whilst Fleisher did a reasonable job capturing the voice and feel of Conan himself, it often came across as Conan lite in places, and it made me more than a little sad.
Perhaps more surprisingly, the art too, was a noticeable downgrade. I would never have thought that a Conan book with Big John doing most of the art would let me down, but here we are. Sad but true. I almost want to give myself an uppercut just for saying it. Whether the man was overworked, or age was just starting to take its toll, I cannot say. Sure, when the stories are less enticing, it can have a follow on effect on the art, but its objectively worse here. Again, a lot of this could be down to the litany of inkers thrust upon him, some of which were dreadful. We only got a few issues with the great Ernie Chan on inks. A man who made Buscema's artwork shine even greater than John himself could manage.
I'm being quite critical here because I have come to adore this series, and seeing it nose diving in quality has been a bitter pill to swallow. Some might think 3.75 for a book earning this much criticism doesn't seem an accurate reflection of my disappointment, and to a certain extent you would be right. But despite it's flaws, and the fact I probably won't ever pull this one off the shelf and read again, It still deserves a reasonable amount of respect. And hey, I'd still take it in a heartbeat over whatever Marvel would vomit forth as a Conan story these days. Get the first four omnibus' anyway you can, dammit. They are amazing. 3.75/5
OmniBen.
Ouch, it hurts having to finally go down into 4 star territory, although it was bound to happen sooner or later. A run that close to perfection couldn't last forever. The lower score is in part due to the exceptional quality of what came before it, as well as the noticeable flaws that cropped up the further this book went along.
First of all, the stories just aren't as strong as they used to be. I lamented in the review that volume five, which saw the beginnings of the downturn in quality, that I wasn't sure whether the 100+ issue run of excellence was down to Roy Thomas himself, or Ol Roy having Robert E Howard's material to adapt. It's pretty darn clear that Michael Fleisher was running on his own steam here, and it just wasn't as good. The size, scale and connectivity of the world is gone completely. Conan was once on a massive epic, with the reader always kept abreast of where he was, where he was going, as well as the lore of the regions. Here, we get bare bones details regarding lore and locations, if ew get anything at all. Kind of like how the world in Game of Thrones started shrinking when people started teleporting all over the map. It's similar here, and no less jarring.
The characters are less memorable and the villains are your bog standard, cookie cutter fare. There is barely any flow or follow on from story to story. Most of the stories end rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily, even though there is far less actual story being told on the pages. Pacing and plotting really needed a lot more work to live up to what came before. And whilst Fleisher did a reasonable job capturing the voice and feel of Conan himself, it often came across as Conan lite in places, and it made me more than a little sad.
Perhaps more surprisingly, the art too, was a noticeable downgrade. I would never have thought that a Conan book with Big John doing most of the art would let me down, but here we are. Sad but true. I almost want to give myself an uppercut just for saying it. Whether the man was overworked, or age was just starting to take its toll, I cannot say. Sure, when the stories are less enticing, it can have a follow on effect on the art, but its objectively worse here. Again, a lot of this could be down to the litany of inkers thrust upon him, some of which were dreadful. We only got a few issues with the great Ernie Chan on inks. A man who made Buscema's artwork shine even greater than John himself could manage.
I'm being quite critical here because I have come to adore this series, and seeing it nose diving in quality has been a bitter pill to swallow. Some might think 3.75 for a book earning this much criticism doesn't seem an accurate reflection of my disappointment, and to a certain extent you would be right. But despite it's flaws, and the fact I probably won't ever pull this one off the shelf and read again, It still deserves a reasonable amount of respect. And hey, I'd still take it in a heartbeat over whatever Marvel would vomit forth as a Conan story these days. Get the first four omnibus' anyway you can, dammit. They are amazing. 3.75/5
OmniBen.
April 2, 2023
Why bring back a character only to completely neuter them? Why do half the stories rely on flashback storytelling? And what is with the stupid blue vest Conan wears?
April 14, 2023
Shorter than the other volumes but the same price. The drop in quality after Roy Thomas’s exist from the series is also painfully obvious, with there being no real clear direction for the character who just jumps around from place to place (not even well identified in the context of Howard’s actual Hyborian Age), issue to issue. The plots, with few exceptions, feel lazy and haphazard, and the writing is often redundant and simplistic. The only real saving grace that’s consistent throughout this part of the run is the art, which benefits from a majority sporting appearances by Buscema and Chan.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews