Windsor-Smith has this amazing close-up of Conan during a fight with an ape (the ape has gone amok, the pet of Conan’s target). There’s still the significant nose problem, but the panel just looks so great it’s hard to believe Windsor-Smith didn’t think maybe drawing a reasonable nose was in order.

Thomas continues the previous issue, somewhat awkwardly but welcomely. He backtracks a little—and shows Conan and his lady friend post-coital—but it all works out. There’s a nice continuity between the issues now, with Thomas weaving in and out of Howard source material.

This story’s double-sized (nearly) and gives Thomas a lot of room. He gets to layer the story (no idea if it’s from the Howard source) and show Conan not just as the problem-solver, but as the thief and avenger.

The series is really finding its legs.

Just not noses.

Oh, the noses. Why, oh why, can’t Windsor-Smith get noses right? He didn’t start out having problems with them. It must have been some kind of weird creative decision to draw bad noses. I don’t see how any of the characters gets enough air to breath.

Otherwise, he does a good job with the issue. There’s a very grandiose battle scene with a growing bull god and an escape from some guards. He handles those aspects fine. It’s just noses.

Thomas does his own thing here, giving the previous couple issues some closure. Conan has a sidekick return and we get resolution to his situation with the girl.

Until the last couple panels, the entire story takes place in town, which seems a little off for Conan but Thomas paces the story well and it feels right. It’s almost too bad he didn’t take another issue to finish it.

So, The Garden of Fear–Howard’s original story this issue is based on–did come out after Burroughs’s Out of Time’s Abyss. They feature a very similar evil winged race of men… though with different motives for kidnapping women.

That possible “homage” of source material aside–and Windsor-Smith’s continually weak noses and prominent brows–this issue is excellent.

It continues the last issue, with Conan and the girl, and gives them an immediate action scene. Once that scene is resolved, there’s a little calm and Thomas moves into the next part of the story. Basing the issues on Howard’s short stories gives them a nice epical quality. You get three acts an issue and the feeling things happen.

Conan mounts a rescue to save his girl–who still isn’t his girl, which makes their relationship interesting–and has to get through the obstacles.

It’s probably the best issue yet.

Thomas is really bad about following a story with something very similar but not exactly alike. This issue Conan has to rescue a girl from a tower, a tower where there’s something mysterious going on. Thomas doesn’t come up with anything awesome like a flying elephant from outer space, just a giant bat. Sure, it’s supposed to be a god….

In the little background Thomas gives though, he’s able to make the giant bat god work. It seems like some prehistoric beast, now revered by a cult. It works.

Buscema’s back on the inks and it shows. Windsor-Smith has some fantastic panels here. Still can’t figure out his oddly rectangular eyes though. And the splash page has some weak horns on Conan’s helmet. I thought he was wearing goggles.

The pacing is good–there’s a first act, then a second, finally a one page third. It’s a fine read.

Well, Thomas avoids falling into the trap of predictable plot developments this issue. He’s adapting Howard’s The Tower of the Elephant, which gives the issue a somewhat different Conan than usual. As opposed to being a really active force in the story, Conan’s more an explorer here. Yes, at the end he’s responsible for bringing about the change, but he does it unknowingly.

In some ways, it might be the least compelling of the issues so far. It’s full of information, but not serialized information. Conan’s sidekick this issue lasts a few pages and makes little impression. The big reveal at the end has nothing to do with Conan, just its own thing. Conan’s a little sprog in an overwhelming preexisting situation.

Windsor-Smith’s art is solid, though he doesn’t get to do much–the story’s very dense, his panels are often tiny.

It’s all right, but it doesn’t connect.

Thomas runs into a not insignificant problem this issue. Though the details are different, he has a lot of the same dramatics he used in the previous issue, especially when it comes to Conan’s friend and Conan’s friend’s wife. Having the same plot point in both issues… Thomas isn’t just making the series predictable, he’s making it melodramatic and pat.

He also needs to start using thought balloons. Having the characters give asides to the reader isn’t working.

Those problems aside, it’s a fantastic battle issue. Windsor-Smith gets in a grandiose scale even though he’s often dealing with small panels. There’s a real tension to it (and the battle, at least, is unpredictable).

The Conan mythos lets Thomas do so much—the story opens with a war god talking to Conan—it doesn’t seem like he should need repetitious plot points.

Taken on its own though, a fine issue.

It’s another issue where Thomas has a short present action (here a couple days) and makes it a full read. Well, actually, a couple days is only a short present action in the seventies and eighties.

Anyway… this issue Conan gets taken into bondage by some giants. Windsor-Smith draws them sort of as abominable snowmen. Their origin is in here too, but not the location of the story, an underground city. That element—feeling like one is in a world with an unknown history—is rather important. Because Thomas spends so much of the story on the action and unpleasantness (Conan eventually leads the human slaves to uprise), that implied history is what gets the reader’s imagination going.

Again, Windsor-Smith has some issues. It’s the ties. His eyes here are strange—the lines are all sharp, not round. But, also again, he has mostly wonderful panels.

Good stuff.