The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 1

Reading The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 1: What You're Actually Getting

The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 1 collects the early issues of the Marvel UK Conan series that ran from 1970 through the mid-1970s. If you are picking this up expecting to find a seamless narrative arc, you will be disappointed. The material is a series of standalone sword-and-sorcery stories that vary wildly in quality. The real draw here is Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork on issues like "Tower of the Elephant" and "Rogues in the House." Those two stories alone make the volume worth tracking down. I picked up my first copy at a comic shop in 2008 and spent about twenty minutes flipping through before realizing the pagination is completely inconsistent across different printings. The 1970s Marvel reprints used black-and-white paper stock, and some reissues in the late 1980s switched to glossy color. The art looks significantly different between those two formats. I had no idea which version I owned until I compared the spine barcode with my friend's copy and realized the paper quality was the giveaway. If you are buying used, check the ISBN and publication date on the copyright page. Without that, you might pay a premium for a later reprint that is worth considerably less. The stories themselves are adapted from Robert E. Howard's original pulp fiction, but they have been heavily modified for the comic format. Howard wrote prose stories in the 1930s with a very specific tone that was dark and mythic. The Marvel adaptation softens some of the content and adds dialogue that Howard never wrote. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are coming directly from the source material, the differences will show up quickly. I noticed this most clearly when reading "The Phoenix on the Sword," which in comic form runs about forty pages but gets roughly half of Howard's actual plot condensed into two or three panels.

A practical tip that nobody mentions: the collected edition includes an introduction that oversells the historical importance of these comics. The material is fun, but it is also derivative. Conan was already a fully formed character before Marvel got their hands on him, and the art style in these early issues borrows heavily from the EC Comics horror titles of the 1950s. The creative team knew this and leaned into it. Don't expect originality where there is none.

Where to Find It

You can download or purchase The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 1 from most major retailers. Amazon carries the paperback edition. The Marvel Comics website also lists it in their backlist catalog. For digital copies, ComiXology has the Kindle edition available, though the digital format renders the black-and-white art less effectively than the physical print. If you want the best visual experience, the paperback is the way to go. Here is the counter-intuitive part that most casual readers miss: the Marvel Conan actually diverges from Howard's characterization more than any other licensed adaptation before it. The comics make Conan more heroic, more talkative, and significantly less cynical. Howard's Conan was a brute who happened to be cunning. The comic version is a brooding action hero who delivers moral monologues between sword fights. This shift happened because Marvel was targeting a younger audience in the early 1970s, and the editorial mandate was clear. The result is a version of Conan that is more palatable but less interesting. Another detail that gets glossed over: the color palette in the reprinted editions uses a limited four-color process that makes most scenes look muddy. The original black-and-white line art is strong, but the coloring choices in the color reprints often flatten the compositions. I spent weeks trying to figure out why the tower scenes looked flat until I compared a high-resolution scan of the original Golden Age printing with the collected edition. The original had much more dramatic contrast. The collected version compresses the blacks and washes out the mid-tones. If you care about the visual presentation, seek out original issue copies rather than the reprinted volume.

The volume runs about 200 pages and costs roughly $19.99 in paperback. Given the pacing issues and the inconsistent adaptation choices, it feels overstuffed. Some stories could have been trimmed by half without losing anything. The collected format forces every story to get equal page time regardless of whether it actually warrants it. I've seen better pacing in the individual comic issues when they were originally serialized.

Who Should Read This

This volume works as an introductory overview of the Marvel Conan era if you have zero context for how the character was adapted for comics. It does not work as a definitive Conan experience. You are getting a filtered, edited, and slightly neutered version of Howard's work with artwork that ranges from exceptional to mediocre depending on which issue you are looking at. The Windsor-Smith stories are the highlight. Everything else is serviceable pulp fare. If you want the actual Howard stories, go read the Robert E. Howard library editions. If you want the best Conan comic adaptation period, look into the 1980s Marvel series drawn by John Buscema. Those issues capture more of the raw energy that Howard put on the page. The Chronicles Of Conan Volume 1 is a historical document, not a recommendation.