King Conan: The Phoenix & The Sword #3
Script by Timothy Truman
Art by Tomas Giorello
Colors by Jose Villarrubia
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Cover by Andrew Robinson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 28, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

After years of reading Conan comics, I suddenly realized that you either love Conan or you don’t love Conan. Right now Dark Horse is publishing Conan the Barbarian by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. That book is for people who don’t love Conan. But, King Conan: The Phoenix & The Sword is for people like me, who love Conan.

King Conan: The Phoenix & The Sword #3, simply put, is a really FUN issue. First off, I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but writer Timothy Truman includes a lot of nods to the early ’90s Conan the Adventurer cartoon series, from names of places to a little nod to a certain cartoon sidekick Phoenix. The beautiful part is that it fits totally into the story, which, on its own merits, is very cool.

King Conan The Phoenix on the Sword #2
Script by Tim Truman
Art by Tomas Giorello
Colors by Jose Villarrubia
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Cover by Andrew Robinson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 29, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

I really REALLY wanted to like King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword #2. Honestly, I did. But, for a variety of reasons, I just couldn’t.

First off, let’s get this outta the way. Tim Truman is a legend in the business. That being said, everyone has an off day. The biggest problem that I had with this issue is that Conan is hardly in it. He doesn’t show up until the last quarter of the book, and then it’s just for a reveal that really doesn’t mean that much. This issue will probably read better in trade than it does in single issue format.