Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: The Gates of Paradise
Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Cary Nord with Thomas Yeates
Color Art by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Cover by: Joseph Michael Linsner
Associate Editor: Matt Dryer
Editor: Scott Allie
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics’ Conan has met with phenomenal success thus far. It is quite easy to see why as it is one of the best written and most beautifully illustrated works currently being produced; that it is based on a character with a strong literary tradition and previous comic success doesn’t hurt either. To this point, the creators have stuck closely to the classic stories of Robert E. Howard. After all, Howard is a highly considered writer, and you just don’t mess with a great writer’s work. You interpret, and even add, but your never take from what has already been done. The care for the original material is apparent, and a major reason why this series is a must read.
At the end of issue #3, Conan and his band were overpowered by enormous, pale-skinned warriors. This month, Conan is drugged and forced to fight as a gladiator in the city of Hyperborea. The Hyperborean’s are building their army by using those they capture throughout the surrounding region. Of all the captives, Conan is the only one that seems able to struggle out of the trance of the Yellow Lotus drug for even a short period. He catches the eye of another slave, the beautiful Iasmini. She frees him from the Lotus spell and together they plan their escape. Conan, of course, will not leave the men from his party; so they lie in wait until all can be freed.
The Hyperborean’s are a ghastly, ghost-like race of beings. They live for untold centuries in a beautiful city with countless slaves. They struggle to find contentment and seem to do little but oppress others. When their lives become so miserable that they cannot go on, a Hyperborean casts themselves into a bottomless pit with all of their servants. The Hyperborean’s are interesting foils, and serve as the perfect villainous counterpoint to the barbarian pride of Conan.
This is my favorite issue so far. Busiek nails the Hyperborean’s mundane existence, and the sequence with the group dropping into nothingness is perfect. Conan’s actions throughout are the diametric opposite of the villains of the piece. Conan is bewildered by their lack of appreciation for life, and cannot understand why someone would choose to give up on the most precious gift. It serves as a nice subplot that the barbarian would be the one that understood the gift of life. Yet, the Hyperborean’s with their finery and other high tastes would bore themselves into a need for death.
While the book is truly fantastic in its storyline, the characters are always grounded in a reality that is believable even while surrounded by the fantastic. Heroic fantasy isn’t the type of series that is easy to keep grounded. The stories tend to get out-of-hand and can lose all basis in reality. Writers sometimes go the route of stranger, crazier, and more ludicrous. The stories get more fantastic, and epic, but lose the true depths of characterization. Thankfully, Kurt Busiek is one of the finest writers in the industry, and his work never lacks depth or characterization. Two musts for any book, in my book!
What can I say about Cary Nord’s artwork that I and so many others have not already said? Kurt Busiek has given us an emotionally charged story or life, death, and the loss of the will to live, coupled with opposing struggle to live at all costs. Cary Nord captures the fantastic world of Hyperborea with breathtaking backgrounds and beautiful vistas, but never forgets the “humanity†of the cast. Each panel is full of emotion, not just the emotion inherent in Busiek’s words, or the characters themselves, but you can see Nord’s own emotional attachment to the work. There’s no way to produce such gorgeous artwork without the emotional effort evident in Nord’s work.
