Conan The Barbarian #1 (2023) cover e

This is the first comic in forever that looks like a comic book to me.
And it is a pretty damned good read too. Roberto de la Torre should be listed as the illustrator not the artist. His line work, storytelling, etc summons forth the comics of my youth. Frank Frazetta, John Buscema, Ernie Chan, Joe Kubert, Steve Epting and their ilk should be proud. See for me, somewhere in the late late 80s-early 90s, 95% of comics became either hyper realistic or super stylized. The artists artist disappeared mostly. The overly polished Jim Lee/ Mark Bagley look became the standard house style for everyone. Sure, there is the occasionally chiseled from stone Mike Mignola batch of guys, the sketchy draftsmen Walter Simonson batch, or the pop art Mike Allreds out there, but for the most part, the Neal Adams to Jim Lee to Bryan Hitch to Ivan Reis… photo realistic style is the norm. Even Conan comics the last 20 years have followed that trend to varying degrees. Well brother, Roberto says thee nay! He stabs the coloring book, let the colorist do a lot of lifting work in the face. There is nothing picturesque about his characters. They are all drawn with a brush like stroke I have not seen or felt in years. Gnarled faces, straining muscles, and bodies twisting and turning capturing the essence of life without exactly replicating it. In a word, gorgeous. I want more. I want more right now. As for the story… well a Conan is not the hardest thing to write, but it does require a delicate touch to not go too far into the campiness of the 90s Hercules TV series. Jim Zub perfectly captures the Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas story, dialogue, and narration that rings true. It never distracts from the artwork or story, just enhances the larger-than-life desperation that comes with the sword and sorcery genre. Highly recommended for fans of illustration and tales of high adventure!