Book Review: The Siege of the Black Citadel: Conan #1
Chuck Dixon dishes out old school Sword and Sorcery
If you listen to “Ask Chuck Dixon” on YouTube or UATV, you’ll know that Dixon has written thousands of comic books. He created the character Bane, and wrote ‘Batman’ for DC for ten years. He’s also responsible for the Levon Cade series of Vigilante Justice novels.
One of the things he talks about regarding the difference between writing comics and writing prose is that writing comics is actually more difficult, because the pictures are already there. In writing prose, the writer provides the skeletal basics, augmenting over whatever he wishes, in whichever way the author sees fit. The reader creates the scene, creates the imagery, letting his escapism run unchecked. According to Dixon, it’s a much freer way of writing. I had never thought of something like that before, and I do a lot of reading and I have 3,000 comic books here in the apartment, bagged and boarded in acid free boxes as any self respecting comic book fan should.
Oddly enough, I have no issues of any Conan series. That’s about to change.
In “The Siege of the Black Citadel: Chuck Dixon’s Conan #1”, we have a healthy complement of castles, swords, fight, explosions, shysty women, and overlords.
Conan has been tasked with breaking into an impenetrable fortress. He’s to call upon skills that haven’t been used since his boyhood - skills as a petty thief that were necessary to eat and stay alive. Conan and his team partially succeed in the mission, but manage to get the only way into the castle sealed up.
A weaker, softer man would disappear, never to be seen again, but Conan won’t do that. He made a pact that he’d get his Lord into the castle. Conan has to do the honorable thing: he’s got to deliver. What it means is being relegated to working in the mine that’s going to dig under the castle wall, lit on fire, and cause the wall to collapse. Conan not only joins the slaves in digging the mine, he’s better at it than they are (naturally), and gets the job done two days early.
There’s a lot more going on. Conan is one of those guys who feels that physical violence is, 98% of the time, the best way to resolve conflict of any kind. The banter between him and his guys, the overlords, the men at the bar next to him, is crisp and rough. The fights are intense, the women are mysterious, and the sorcery creates a hellspawn worthy of any fantasy novel.
I enjoyed every minute of it, and I couldn’t help wondering: why had I not bought any Conan back when I began collecting comics in the early 1980’s? I knew about all the classic creative runs on Conan (Barry Smith, John Buscema et. al), yet I’d bought none of them. I even had a buddy in JHS 167 who, while we all bought the super hero stuff, bought nothing but Conan. Donald, why didn’t you give me the low down back in 1985 when you had the chance?
It looks like I have a LOT of catching up to do.
