Conan vs Creepy: How Dark Horse Robbed the Barbarian
Dark Horse Comics (website, Twitter) is the publisher of two of my favorite series of reprints at the moment, the hardcover Creepy Archives series* and the softcover Savage Sword of Conan series*. Unfortunately, as I look at both series of books I have to say that the Creepy collections — though considerably more expensive — are far superior to the Conan collections. Why? Keep reading and I’ll tell you why . . . and I’ll tell you what I would love to see Dark Horse bring Conan fans.
Creepy Archives
Gorgeous, dustjacketed-hardcovers collecting five issues at a time, the Creepy Archives series* is everything I could want from a reprint collection of classic comic magazines. Each volume includes an introductory essay or interview with a creator, the old comics on high-quality paper, and the original covers reprinted in full color. This is so much better than trying to track down the old comics, because even at $50/each these are great deals if you’ve got any interest at all in the old horror comics of the sixties/seventies.
So far I own five Creepy volumes (and two volumes from the Eerie Archives series*) and each one is truly a work of art and is holding together beautifully. This is how comic collections should be presented.
Savage Sword of Conan Collections
Damn there are a lot of these out there. So far Dark Horse has published nine volumes in the Savage Sword of Conan series*; the first 100 or so issues of the comic magazine are now available at $20/volume. And while it is a great price, I have some serious complaints with the collections.
- Cheap paper. Unlike the Creepy books, Dark Horse has opted for a cheap newsprint-like paper for these books. It has been so many years that I worked on newspapers (or, for that matter, read a newspaper) that I don’t want to proclaim that this is newspaper-quality paper, but if it isn’t then it’s pretty close. Not paper-thin, but still very cheap paper.
- Reduced. I own some of the old Savage Sword of Conan comic magazines and I have to say that these Savage Sword of Conan* collections are smaller than the magazines. Which sucks, because it means Dark Horse reduced the artwork to fit these smaller pages.
- B&W Covers. Where the Creepy books feature the original covers in color, this series is all B&W inside so we get B&W reproductions of what are beautiful color covers. A true shame, because these covers lost a lot when they were converted to B&W.
- No intros. None at all. Like the Conan Newspaper Collection (reading post here) these books dive right into the old comics without any introduction. Is it really so tough to find someone to write an introduction to a book?
All in all, the Savage Sword of Conan* collections are, to me, a disappointment. What would I have rather seen? Well . . .
My “Perfect” Savage Sword of Conan Archive Series
So these existing Savage Sword of Conan* collections are out there, and Dark Horse seems intent on finishing out the series in this format. That’s great and all, but in a perfect world Dark Horse would also create a prestige series that takes what they did for the Creepy Archives series* and improves on it.
- $100 price point. Yes, this is expensive, but at $100 they can pack more than five issues into a book. Realistically Dark Horse cannot shove 15 issues into a $50 attractive hardcover, and I can live with that, but when it comes to this series I want to see at least ten issues in a book. And that costs money.
- Introductory essays and interviews. Not just one intro for each book, but an intro to every single issue in each collection. Get Roy Thomas to write some material. Find authors and artists who remember and love the old Marvel Conan comics of the seventies (Todd McFarlane wrote a great intro to Conan: The Ultimate Guide* and I’m sure there are other comic creators who would like a chance to write about the series). Dig under every rock and search every cave and I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds of creators out there who would enjoy writing intros to issues.
- Every cover in color. A must. Seriously. It’s so very, very wrong that the old covers were printed in B&W in the current series of books.
Unlikely to Ever Happen
Unfortunately, I have to admit that what I’ve outlined here is unlikely to ever actually happen. With the Savage Sword of Conan series* already on the market at such a low price most people who wanted these stories have them. And there cannot be many people like me who would rather own higher-quality books . . . not that people don’t like good books, but in general readers are more interested in a good deal than they are a remarkably printed and bound book.
So I’m left dreaming of a series that may never be. It’s sad, because Conan clearly deserves at least the same treatment that Dark Horse has given Creepy. But what is done is done, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t going to buy any more of their Conan series . . . because the stories are just too much fun to skip.
Phil, would there be any publishing issue that would make they need to make this in a smaller size than the originals? Loss of original materials? My brain can’t remember what comic series it was that ran into this issue, but they had to take the original comics, scan them, recolor, etc – and it was more expensive.
@DoctorKent – After the “Conan Newspaper Strips” book I can’t see how loss of originals would have affected the book; Dark Horse constructed that mostly (only?) from newspaper scans.
I suspect it came down to a sales decision and question of taste. The Creepy Archives and Conan books were put together by different teams and the sales staff probably looked at the performance of the EC collections (also $50 hardcovers) and decided that Creepy would work in that format.
But I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone at Dark Horse will weigh in with an official answer.