The first Conan trade opened my eyes to why fans have long held such a devotion to the character, and the second volume doesn't let me down either. It's clear even this early on that Thomas and Smith were straining against telling tales of a prehistoric barbarian within the Comics Code, but the book is surprisingly dark and adult for something deemed appropriate for younger readers. I'm once again surprised to find that Conan is not the muscle-bound brawler I thought he was, but that he instead reads sort of like the Shaft of the barbarian set, always going against the status quo and somehow landing a beautiful babe in every adventure. In addition, Thomas, sometimes working from Robert E. Howard's stories and sometimes from other sources or his own imagination, comes up with some very intriguing characters and settings from the Hyborean Age.
Something that really sets these collections apart from just being reprint volumes are the notes in the back from Roy Thomas. His recollections of working on Conan are fascinating, telling of conflicts behind the scenes that shaped the tales as well as sharing the origins of most of the tales. Though the stories are interesting enough on their own, reaching the end of the book and then seeing some notes that put them in context or share a few more details is the icing on the cake. Thomas expounds in these notes not just on the stories but on his view of the morality of Conan and the world he lives in, and the result is a deeper understanding of this character and the author's viewpoint for the reader.
Of course, even if the book just collected the stories, this would be a treat. This second volume is missing two issues, which I am informed had an unauthorized appearance by Michael Moorcock character Elric, and while it's a shame that the collections can't be completely definitive thanks to something like this, I certainly didn't really miss them given the quality of the stories within. My favorite tale is probably the one that opens the collection, a Robert E. Howard adaptation that features not only wooly mammoths but a grey-skinned winged man and man-eating grass. The story shows off Conan's bravery in facing the unknown, which was a big part of what made him dangerous to the wizards of the world, as he wasn't cowed by magic or monsters as the citzenry at large was.
Thomas may have been working from other source material, but his role was hardly just that of someone making a transition to comics format. He tied the stories together by making the Jenna a running character, and I was surprised to see her character arc end as it did in this issue - certainly her traitorous, sexually-charged nature was something not commonly seen in Code-approved books - just as I was surprised to see how quickly Conan picked up another beautiful and helpless damsel in his next adventure. While beautiful women are part of the constants of Conan's life, however, the other constants are corrupt wizards and politicos and frightening monsters, and there are plenty to be found in these stories. A corrupt priest who has been replaced by a mad ape is the type of weirdness that works surprisingly well in this mixture of prehistoric and medieval setting, and just as Lord of the Rings could pull off the giant spider as legitimate threat rather than genre cliche, so does Conan.
With so many motifs recurring, one would think that Thomas's Conan stories might become repetitive, but so far they certainly haven't. The variety of allies and enemies Conan runs into helps in this respect, and I love that Thomas has no problem with allies becoming enemies and vice versa, keeping both Conan and the readers on their toes. It's also nice to see Conan alternating between using brains, brawn and cunning in solving his problems. Though he has a certain simple nature that is driven by equal parts rage and loyalty, the character is not stupid or incapable of strategy.
The artwork in this volume shows Smith getting away from his Kirby influence a little more and starting to develop his own style. The sinewy grace of Conan comes through very clearly in his work, as do the sexy, lithe figures of Jenna and Conan's other damsels, and I'm always astounded by the level of detail that Smith puts into the cityscapes, dungeons and wilderness settings. His characters are also wildly expressive, especially when it comes to the rage of Conan or the terrified expressions of his foes when they realize he has gotten the upper hand. The coloring on this volume is a little more uneven than on the first volume, with the work on "Rogues in the House" and parts of "Web of the Spider-God" blurring the artwork, but in most of the stories, it's spectacular. Particular standouts include the colors on "Garden of Fear" and "The Frost Giant's Daughter," the latter of which has probably the strongest overall art of the entire volume, no coincidence given that it also features Windsor-Smith inking his own work.
