Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: The Frost Giant’s Daughter
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Penciled by: Cary Nord
Inked by: Cary Nord
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Richard Starkings
Editor: Scott Allie
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
â€Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must ultimately triumph.â€
The above quote comes from none other than Robert E. Howard, the late creator of Conan the Cimmerian. Howard sadly committed suicide on the 11th June 1936, yet the legendary Conan tales ensured his name will live in our memories for far longer, alongside his peers H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. His vision of Conan has since inspired a slew of imitators in many different fields, most notably the Schwarzenegger movies and the Marvel Comics title. Does this new version from Busiek & Nord live up to the expectations of the fans and the hype put upon it by Dark Horse? No, it doesn’t live up to them. It simply blows them away!
Hell, you can tell that something special is on the way before you even open the book. The old saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover‘ is even more prudent when dealing with comics but when the two do mesh it never fails to impress, as with Joseph Michael Linsner’s work here. When compared to the Generic Pose covers that now seem standard across the industry, it is refreshing to see a cover that not only draws the reader’s attention but actually gives you some clue of what is to come. As for Nord, well, he’s got my vote right from the very first blood-stained page, which comes complete with decapitated heads, dead bodies lain stabbed and slashed across snow that runs red with blood. Yup, this is Conan alright, complete with the essential visceral thrills of a feral rage Wolverine can only dream to have. With only one page and three panels the creative team has already set up everything we need to know from the off and they have done so masterfully. Already, I want to follow those great, unperturbed footprints in the snow and confront those mysterious, glaring eyes of the next victim. Spare a thought for Starkings’ lettering too, as it goes a long way toward recapturing the pulp feel of old. The typewriter-style font on browned and torn scraps of paper used for the narrative really help play on the roots of this character.
There you have it – with only the cover and the very first page of the comic I’m already singing their praises to high heaven. The difference between being good and being great now lies in the highly experienced hands of one Kurt Busiek, which is just as well for I wouldn’t want to see such well-crafted artwork in the hands of anybody less talented. For starters, he doesn’t bother wasting time on the fight that led us to the opening of this issue. Conan is seen killing the last of Bragi’s men but that is all as far as needless battle scenes are concerned. The rest of the issue takes a wild tangent adapted from an original Howard story, showing the reader that this Conan series will not be simply a succession of clashes with enemy tribes as he continues his quest. Things will become magical and mystical. There will be times when even Conan himself will be left helpless and at the mercy of the more wonderful elements of this world. It is important to let the audience know what direction you want to take a title in, as soon as possible, and kudos to Busiek for doing so and for not wanting to rest his laurels on the mark-out value of Conan slicing and dicing through his opponents. It would have been an easy trap to fall into, but Howard had far more than mindless action in mind for his vision of the character, and Busiek clearly wants to make this adaptation as faithful as he possibly can for the modern audience.
So, what is the story all about? Well, duh, it’s the Frost Giant’s daughter. The weary barbarian collapses, exhausted from battle, and is confronted by this red-haired beauty called Atali. She stands laughing before him near-naked, save for a flimsy sheet and strategically-placed hair, surrounded by dazzling lights and sweetly talking to him… except she is far more than that. Her hair is a “glorious compound of red and yellow.†She appears in “shifting clouds of colours.†Even more tellingly, “her laughter was sweeter than the rippling of fountains, her voice musical – but both were edged with cruel mockery.†Now, without wishing to make any erroneous assumptions about Robert E. Howard’s personal life or his outlook on the fairer sex, it seems fairly clear that he was not exactly doing the happy dance when he conjured up Little Miss Frost Giant. She is presented here as both beauty and the beast, alluring Conan into a trap with her brothers, the Ice-Giants, as a sacrifice to their immortal father Ymir. Or does she? The actual confrontation may or may not have actually happened. There is a chance it was all nothing more than a dream he had after passing out, although the presence of some rather interesting evidence would appear to suggest otherwise. Although this type of ending usually irritates me greatly, it does work here in a strangely warped way.
For starters, it manages to act as a taster to Conan for some of the more fantastic confrontations we all know will be coming his way sooner rather than later. Don’t forget, Busiek is beginning these chronicles from the start of Conan’s very first quest. All he has seen before is barbaric battle. It is all he knows. Yet now he has entered a very different land and will have to adapt if he is to live up to the early potential he has shown his companions. This issue’s vagueness actually works well as a means of introducing the character, as well as new readers, to the world he shall be exploring. Then, of course, there are the implied moral repercussions of Atali’s presence, imaginary or otherwise. Conan’s reaction to the way she tricks and teases him lends credence to Howard’s assertion that barbarism is the natural order of things. The women cannot be tolerated and the men cannot tolerate. When compared to the snail’s pace of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Busiek has really shown that it is entirely possible to gradually introduce and expand upon characters without sacrificing action and intrigue. Hopefully some sort of story arc will appear before I have to eat my words but, for the moment, this book is well worth your money.
Oh yeah, and the Adventures of Two-Gun Bob cartoon rocks the body that rocks the party!
