Conan: Book of Thoth 1 (of 4)

Writers: Len Wein, Kurt Busiek
Artist: Kelley Jones

The first thing you should notice about this Conan story is the complete absence of the eponymous Cimmerian. Not that that presents a problem as this tale focuses on one of Conan’s more interesting and deadly adversaries, the sorcerer Thoth-Amon.

The book starts very traditionally, with a faux ‘annals of the ancients’ style narrator and seedy street scenes in the legendary city of Memphia. However, the book quickly recovers from this slightly stumbling start and over the next 40+ pages the character of Thoth is explored and revealed in a compelling story. If the book has a flaw it is in the rather shallow characterisation of the lead figure. Thoth starts off poor, weak and bitter, so his is a short journey into evil and despite the potential influence of his friend, Amon, and a better life in the temples of the god Ibis, the lure of raw power is too easy a temptation.

The storytelling is certainly in keeping with the traditions of a heroic adventure, but the absence of a sympathetic point of view is a weakness that will have to be overcome in the subsequent volumes. The only seed of ‘good’ human feeling expressed by Thoth is for his sister and it is to be hoped that this will provide a further element of dramatic tension.

Kelley Jones art is well suited to this series which combines atmospheric backgrounds with fluid, moody characters. Compared with the over the top weirdness of some of his previous work Jones art in this volume is relatively restrained and is all the better for it. This leaves room for Michelle Madsen’s colours to complete the picture and supplement the tone of the art perfectly.

Overall this is an enjoyable slice of (anti-)heroic adventure, charting the origin of Conan’s great adversary and the quality of the contributors shines through on almost every page. If you have been enjoying the recent revival of Robert E Howard’s world through Dark Horse’s Conan and Dynamite’s Red Sonja tales then this will almost certainly suit you, but I suspect it will not draw in new converts.

  • John Davidson John Davidson Despite working in IT for the last 20 years and collecting comics for even longer, he is married, has two young daughters and lives in Scotland. Ideally he spends his spare time reading and watching movies, but this is curtailed by the calls of child-rearing and part-time study, not to mention the 'call of the internet'.