When it comes to pure masculinity, few characters match Conan The Barbarian. He’s a huge, preternaturally strong warrior who rises from rogue to king, driven by hunger for gold, women, and power but still maintaining a noble spirit. He’s one of those iconic genre figures that sets the template for a certain type of hero, but in the new Conan The Barbarian: Exodus one-shot, Esad Ribić reveals a period before Conan had assumed his fearsome barbarian persona. Written and painted by Ribić with letters by Travis Lanham, Exodus details 15-year-old Conan’s first journey away from his home in the frozen mountains of Cimmeria, discovering the dangers of nature and the even greater threat of human civilization.
I’ve enjoyed Conan comics in the past, but I don’t have any deep affinity for the property. I appreciate the role Conan plays in comic-book history, keeping the pulp fantasy tradition alive as other genres rise and fall from popularity. In terms of genre coverage, Marvel Comics is back to where it was in the late ’70s and early ’80s, when it had its central superhero line along with Star Wars for sci-fi adventure and Conan The Barbarian for sword and sorcery fantasy. But while Star Wars has remained at the forefront of pop culture for decades, Conan hasn’t had the same staying power.
Marvel’s trying to revitalize interest in the character by putting the big-name creative team of Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, and Matthew Wilson on the main Conan The Barbarian title, relaunching Savage Sword Of Conan as an anthology, releasing multiple Conan one-shots and miniseries, and integrating Conan into the Marvel Universe with Avengers: No Road Home and Savage Avengers. Time will tell if all this investment in Conan pays off—sales are solid for the ongoings and collections are selling well—but it’s easy to see interest in these books fizzling out if Marvel doesn’t put enough creative muscle behind them.
Conan was introduced in prose stories, so writers of Conan comics typically include a lot of narration in their scripts, taking advantage of the opportunity to use more heightened fantasy language. This creates consistency across different Conan creators, but also sameness. Conan: Exodus stands apart from the rest by doing away with almost all text. There’s no narration, and the few lines of dialogue are written in an untranslated runic language. Conan doesn’t speak, moving through the world like an animal that is solely interested in survival. That means taking out predators, so when Conan sees soldiers abusing villagers, he steps into a hero role to protect the weak.
As the cover artist on Conan The Barbarian, Esad Ribić channels classic Conan artist Frank Frazetta with his striking paintings each month. Exodus is also fully painted, and after years of seeing Ribić’s linework colored by others, it’s a pleasure to have him show off his mastery of shadow and light by painting his sequential art. Whenever I see an artist’s signature on a page, I’m always compelled to spend more time on it because there’s something that compelled them to put that extra stamp. Most of the pages in Exodus are signed, and because there’s almost no text, each page comes across as an individual piece of fine art.
Take the time to look at the full page and absorb that slice of the story on its own. Without text, Ribić’s plot relies on Conan’s dynamic with the world around him to create an emotional throughline. The book opens with a mix of isolation and desolation as it shows Conan emerging from the snow-covered mountains on his own, surviving through the night by insulating himself inside a hole in the ground. The first page emphasizes the importance of the setting with a first panel that extends down the length of the entire page, expanding the scope of the mountain range by layering panels on top of that one landscape shot. It’s the only instance of a full-page bleed in the entire issue, presenting Conan as a small seed in a vast landscape that will grow to take control of his surroundings.
The first time we see Conan’s face, it’s a moment of surprise that reinforces the character’s youth with wide eyes and a slack jaw as he encounters his first threat in the wild. His face and spirit take damage that results in a drastically different close-up by the end of the issue, when he glares at the reader with brows furrowed, jaw clenched, and streams of blood pouring from his broken nose. The standalone stories of these initial pages impart important lessons on Conan as he learns how to navigate a lethal environment. On the page where he first encounters a wolf, he’s able to kill his first opponent, but then he’s chased down by two more, teaching him that there’s always a bigger threat around the corner.
Conan goes on an intense character journey in this one-shot, but Ribić presents it all nonverbally. It doesn’t take long for Conan to realize that he needs to project an intimidating, aggressive energy at all times or he’s going to be considered prey. When Conan encounters a bear at a watering hole, any trace of fear is gone. He’s actually excited, flashing a giant grin as he chucks his spear into the animal’s flesh. That sense of joy gives way to something more sinister when Conan jumps on the bear and starts stabbing it to death. Ribić tightens up on Conan’s face as he gazes intensely through a spray of blood, showing a major mental shift without using any words to get inside his head.
This new bloodthirsty mindset is the one Conan needs to survive in the world of man. After his encounter with the bear, Conan stumbles across a battlefield littered with dead bodies, which he pilfers for weapons and armor. This is where Exodus takes a tragic turn, and as Conan ventures deeper into society, he discovers that it’s even more dangerous than the wild. There’s sadism behind this predatory behavior, and after standing up to an oppressive force, Conan is strung up and left to die. The mistake is that he’s not executed right away, and when Conan breaks free, he reaches the final stage of his bloody exodus.
Strung up on two poles, Conan looks out toward the room where his tormenter sleeps. The man will not make it through the night. This isn’t the kind of kill that happens in the wild when Conan is looking for food while trying not to become an animal’s meal. This is murder, an act of vengeance against someone who made Conan suffer. The composition of the shot revealing the dead body intensifies the brutality with the dark red blood seeping into ivory bed sheets, marking a stain on Conan’s soul as he takes a human life. Gone is the boy ambushed by a surprise enemy, replaced by a barbarian always on alert, ready to destroy anything that stands in his way.
25 Comments
This is great. More fully painted comics.John Burns is too old to hold the tent up for everyone else now.
Esad Ribic is a god tier artist, man. The work he and Jason Aaron did on The God Butcher stuff from Thor was just elevated awesomeness.
I just wish he didn’t have those occasional goofy faces. Otherwise he’d be perfection.
Future Thor fighting Galactus was amazing. I pull that book off the shelf just to flip through it sometimes.
His run on Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates was amazing too (Terrible name, Great comic.)
Anybody listen to any good Comics podcasts? I recently tried ‘Wait, What?’ which was awful. Bad production quality, too long of episodes, and truly stupid opinions (apparently Neil Gaiman is, and has been, a very bad writer).
It’s a video channel, but I really enjoy Comic Tropes by Chris Piers. He delves into various series, creators, companies, storylines etc from the industry’s entire history with affectionate enthusiasm. Even when he’s critical he clearly loves the medium and has a thoughtful perspective on it. It’s turned me on to a few great titles both old and current.
That guy’s great.
Cartoonist Kayfabe on YouTube, run by Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg.
I have no idea why Marvel is releasing like 5-6 different Conan books.Is there really such demand for the charactermythology?
Cavemen are in, robots are out!!
Conan is a caveman?
I mean, what’s a cave man? But his appeal is prehistoric, primal, uncivilized. Clan of the Cave Bear is only a step away from this.
Apparently those creepy, closeted MAGA types need something else to circle jerk to other than weight lifting magazines.
Rights are always a “use it or lose it” sort of thing. That’s why Marvel churns out a new six-issues-if-lucky Defenders book every five years. As for Conan’s comic adventures, he’s moved around a few companies over the decades. It’s Marvel’s turn at the wheel again.
I think the character is an evergreen alpha male archetype. I don’t believe Conan’s specific mythology is as important to the staying power of the franchise as is the idea of individual strength of will and sinew taking on the forces of nature and order.
I generally liked Dark Horse’s take on Conan, up until the last couple of years, at least in terms of art.
I love this because it is effectively the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie’s version of Conan: Very little dialogue from the big guy, vast moody landscapes interspersed with wicked civilizations, and bloody but not necessarily gratuitous violence. It may not be faithful to the original, cheesy books, but I love the aesthetic Much more
This seems like a great way to make his story distinctive, and honor the stern simplicity which is present in the character and the tales.Of course, eventually you would have to have some dialogue, just so Conan could sit around and roll his eyes at sympathetic characters who aren’t adopting his way of looking at the world and suffer for it.As the related “Conan Cinematic Universe” article points out, there’s an entire world around Conan to adapt, with related Lovecraftian and Kull and other REH story connections. There’s other characters than Conan to focus on. I haven’t read much of the comics, only the stories, and I’m sure it’s already been done to bits. But why not do it again in this artful and serene way?I did read all of Claw the Unconquered though, thanks to my friend’s unabashed love for it, which unfortunately ended just when it was getting good.
What I wouldn’t give to see this animated in styles of Genndy Tartakovsky.
I… don’t really think that’s him running around being, basically, a caveman was EVER the appeal of Conan.He’s a fantasy best summed up by the famous quote: “Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west.”It’s the same appeal as John Carter, Tarzan, Flash Gordon etc and why they’re so hard to reboot nowadays. Each is a fantasy, based around crumbling kingdoms, unmatched wealth, lush sexuality and horrific villains. They appeal in a way that’s almost embarrassing now – like victorian views on darkest Africa. Lands where true men (and women) can walk, where they can cut down those who oppose them, where anything they desire is available as long as they have the strength of body and will to grasp it. It’s similar to the old cowboy novels (which die a death once you start going ‘eh… the west was a lot more racist and generally awful than depicted’). Its a fantasy, not a boy learning harsh lessons. Heck… in this story alone it’s Conan. He was born from blood and steel. From the get go woman wanted him and men feared or admired him. He doesn’t need a ‘Conan: year one’ 😉
Brian Wood’s run with Becky Cloonan and James Harren a couple years back is absolutely worth checking out too. While I only dabble in Conan, those books made me a fan.
Ankita Tiwari +917595811660 If you want to spend your time with a enjoyable, elegant, hot and Sexy companion, then I am the perfect choice for youhttps://www.ankitatiwari.in
I’m going to have to disagree about artists signing specific pages or panels. It takes me out of the story they’re telling, and I already know they drew the book. Worst case of this is Tim Sale on his and Jeph Loeb’s books. Most of the time, he doesn’t even sign what I think are his best pages, and he signs a lot of them. I know you drew all this, let me enjoy the work you’ve done as a story-teller and not as a pin-up artist.
“Strung up on two poles” — a shout-out to the most famous scene in the Conan saga, Conan’s crucifixion in “A Witch Shall be Born?” (Which, BTW, was even more badass in the original novella than it was in the movie.)