2.217 (582) Conan the Cimmerian 2008 #25 ...

When Dark Horse first launched its own line of Conan comics, I will admit I tried but was not a fan simply because of artist Cary Nord who by the way I loved in his run of Daredevil. Still what was good about the DH run is that once a certain part of Conan's canon (no pun intended) came to its end in terms of decent tales by its stable of creators, rather than pushing and squeezing for every little drop, DH merely chose another era and out comes another run

Issue 25 is the final issue of the Conan the Cimmerian run and what a glorious end this has been. The arc may have been 4 issues but its origins stemmed from earlier arcs even. To sum it all up, bascally Conan somehow found himself to be in the company of mercenaries and even ended up as the leader and fell into service of kings

However, not being a politically savvy chap, our Barbarian found himself played out and left for dead. So while surviving by dragging himself up inch by nasty inch and in some pages of this series, that is literal, Conan chance by surviving and running into Olivia who was once a princess then became slave before embarking on her freedom flee. The two of them crossed paths here while running away from an Empire hellbent on killing both and where should they encounter but a cursed isle whose true origins have been lost to history that was unrecorded

And on this our final tale, we see everything coming to the fore - with Conan realizing that something was wrong with the inhuman seeming statues and breaking free only to encounter the gigantic creature that had been following and tracking him and Olivia for the past issues ... while the pirates who had given him a run for his money woke up to death as the statues revealed their true identity

It is a long tale of fight fight fight as Conan shows that he is every bit as savage as any creature of the jungle but yet ultimately he can be honorable as within him beats the heart of a man's man and the brains of a human (or some such nonsense)

Hahaha

All we can say is that this is a fantastic run and worth your time to delve within

Ratings: 6/10

2.32 (397) Predator Cold War #1 ... Dark Horse ...

There was a time when it was all the rage to bash at something called house style for artwork and for me, it was indeed true. If you look at most Marvel/ DC/ Image of the 80s, there is indeed a workmanlike artwork to everything. Those that break out have to do so in a big, big, big way such as Bill S, Arthur A and the likes and they usually make a splash. Even people like Jim Lee and Whilce originally started with an almost "house" style as well

What's the relationship with this particular comic? Well, this issue is a prime example of Dark Horse's house style although nowadays there is such a welcome diversity. Now, house style doesn't mean it is bad but just plain acceptable and oft times boring

In the case of Predator, the artwork for cover is average and interiors is equally bla

However, this issue is saved by the storyline although there are some "strange" logic. Anyway for some reason or other, our alien friends decided to make another visit to beautiful earth except that this time they went a-hunting in the frozen wastelands. Naturally when they encountered humans and humans encountered them, the bloodbath begins. It is a brief confrontation as the folks they met were not really equipped and quickly slaughtered. Love the parts of spine ripping (hehehe) although in reality of course it would be much painful (ugh) ... now if only the artwork was sufficiently gory eh?

The really good thing about this issue is that it spends time on a few human characters like we got the view of the army officer and then the criminal versus official enforcement department crackdown and what-not ... a lot of different characters and viewpoints all sandwiched between the pages of a regular size comic makes you really entertained

Ratings: 5/10 (would be higher if not for the artwork)