The Chronicles of King Conan, Vol. 6
Written by Alan Zelenetz and Don Kraar
Illustrated by Mark Silvestri, Geoff Isherwood, Mike Docherty, and Art Nichols
Rich Parker and Janice Chiang
Colored by George Roussos
Covers by Michael Kaluta
Dark Horse Comics
Release date: October 9, 2013
Cover Price: $19.99

The Chronicles of King Conan, Vol. 6, collects the Conan the King double-sized issues from 26-30, originally released in 1985, and long after Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Ernie Chan had left the King Conan series, reprinted in The Chronicles of Conan volumes 1 and 2.

And unfortunately, this volume, as with the previous one, is nowhere near the quality of those Thomas/Buscema/Chan collections. It exhibits the signs of Marvel Comics flogging a waning franchise, employing B and C-list creators, and it’s most noticeable in the art dept.

The Chronicles of Conan, Vol. 24
Blood Dawn and Other Stories
Trade Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by James Owsley & Don Kraar
Pencils by John Buscema, Ernie Chan & Mike Docherty
Inks by Ernie Chan & Dave Simons
Coloring by George Roussos, Julianna Ferriter & Ken Feduniewicz
Lettering by Janice Chiang, Rick Parker, Diana Albers & Bill Pearson
Cover art by John Buscema with George Roussos
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 16, 2013
Cover Price: $18.99

The Chronicles of Conan, Vol. 24 continues Dark Horse Comics’ excellent reprint series of the Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian series. If you’re into Conan or the sword and sorcery genre at all, this is a must have for your collection!

Authors James Owsley and Don Kraar turn in some great Conan stories here. First and foremost is the great “Bride of the Occultist” by Owsley, a particularly fun/creepy Conan story. From there the book reprints other great issues of Conan from the mid ’80s like “Blood Dawn,” “The Crimson Brotherhood,” and “Rites of Inquisition,” just to name a few. For those of you that only know Conan through the Dark Horse series, you’re in for a real treat. These stories weren’t as tightly managed by the licensor and therefore, there’s a lot more room that they have to play around. Not having to stick to a particular timeline for Conan’s life offers up a LOT more freedom to do as they please, and it certainly shows.

We’re back again with an exclusive first look at a bunch of covers courtesy of our friends at Dark Horse comics. First we have the regular cover for Amalia’s Blade #1 by Michael Dialynas as well as a variant cover by Guy Davis. Then we’ve got two series that wrap up in April with their fourth issues — The Answer! #4 by Mike Norton and The Black Beetle: No Way Out #4 by Francesco Francavilla.

Then we’ve got covers for four collections hitting stores in June. Check out The Victories, Volume 1 by Michael Avon Oeming, collecting the five issue superhero/sci-fi adventure miniseries. Next we have the first volume of The Original Daredevil Archives collecting the first four issues of the golden age classic. Then there’s Forbidden World Archives, Volume 2, collecting the weird and wonderful anthology of science fiction and supernatural fantasy. Finally, there’s the next in the long line of Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives, Volume 16 featuring work by Alex Toth, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, and Richard Corben.

All this and more can be had, and all you have to do is pre-order them with your friendly neighborhood comic book dispenser.

Now, check these covers out right here after the jump.

G.I. Joe: Roots of Retaliation Trade Paperback
Written by Larry Hama
Pencils by Larry Hama, Mike Vosburg, John D’Agostino, Frank Springer & Marshall Rogers
Inks by Randy Emberlin, Andy Mushynsky & Steve Leialoha
Colors by George Roussos & Bob Sharen
Letters by Rick Parker
Original Edits by Denny O’Neill & Bobby Chase
Collection Edits by Justin Eisinger & Alonzo Simon
Collection Design by Chris Mowry
Cover by Jonboy Meyers
Cover Colors by Anthony Washington
IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 27, 2012
Cover Price: $14.99

Collected in this trade paperback, G.I. Joe: Roots of Retaliation, are 5 different stories all dealing with characters that are (I’m guessing here) featured heavily in the upcoming movie. Yes, we all know that G.I. Joe: Retaliation has been pushed back until Spring of next year, but know that you have all that extra time, it’s a great oppertunity to take a look back at these classic G.I. Joe issues and find out just how these characters made their debut back in the day.

This collection runs the gambit of classic G.I. Joe stories, all from the classic Marvel Comics run written by Larry Hama. It’s a great blast from the past, as we get a look back at the introduction of the Red Ninjas, Roadblock, Duke, Flint, Lady Jaye, and the original Joe, Joe Colton. Over the years, these characters have changed quite a bit, and that doesn’t even include all the different incarnations of the characters like in the cartoons, other comic series, action figure bios.