Conan The Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3 (Conan the Barbarian, 3) Hardcover – 28 Jan. 2020

Excellent compilation of the truly classic conan marvel stories, comes with a detailed intro by the writer ,sketches, background to each story . An amazing collection.

Not sure what to say. I loved it....

Here's the thing. This is a really great collection of Conan stories from the 70's. Volume 1 was more or less perfect (see my review). Volume 2 was extremely good too. This third volume is just that little bit weaker than the previous two. That said it is a cracking read and fully deserves the five star rating I have given it. Writing and art work are still for the most part excellent (with one slight dip which I will come to later) and the book itself is very well made and I am sure that it will survive multiple re-readings. My main disappointment though is that Marvel were unable to cut a deal to include the two Red Sonja stories that are part of the Conan, Red Sonja, King Kull tale. ( Conan #66-#68). Marvel Feature #6 (Red Sonja.) is, I guess, not essential to the story. but Marvel Feature #7 is; and its absence is a great shame. To Marvel's credit they do provide a one page synopsis of Marvel Feature 7; and Conan #68 does briefly recap those events, but it's not the same as having the actual comic included. The above apart though these are a great collection of stories by Roy Thomas (who again provides an extensive and interesting introduction) and John Buscema. There is some particularly fine inking by Tom Palmer (my personal favourite) Steve Gan and Ernie Chan. Also Buscema inks some of his own pencil work to great effect. And the book introduces Belit Queen of the Black Coast, destined to be Conan's permanent companion and lover for the next thirty issues or so. Of particular high standard are the Living Shadow stories, Conan's first encounter with Belit and Fiends of the Feathered Serpent, and it's lead in to the Conan, Sonja, Kull tale. There is also very nice one off prequel to the Belit stories drawn by Mike Ploog. Issues#79-#83 though were drawn by a young Howard Chaykin and comprise two "side" adventures for Conan. The plots, in my opinion, are not up to the standard of the rest of the stories in this book and Chaykin's art is smothered by Chan's inks to try to make it look as similar to Buscema's work as possible. A bit of a lacklustre end to the collection. Annuals 2 and 3 are also included Annual 2 has rather ugly artwork. Annual 3 "presents At The Mountain of the Moon God" from Savage Sword of Conan #3 but in full colour. Quite a nice story. Finally, the regular cover to this volume by Frank Cho is (unlike volume 1) superb. And on that note I will end this review, eagerly awaiting volume 4, which will present the conclusion to Belit's storyline and the final stories written by Roy Thomas. I can't wait!

I pre-ordered this volume back last September. It eventually arrived last week with bashed corners so was returned. I now have a bright new, perfect copy, which Amazon amazingly supplied within 48 hours. So thank-you Amazon for prompt and efficient service.I followed Conan's adventures in the 70's as and when I could. American Marvel comics were not always the easiest things to get a hold of back in the day and forget about building a complete run of any title. I did my best. As a 12/13 year old I haunted every newsagents and second hand bookshop in a 15 mile radius of my home. A copy of 'Conan the Barbarian' here, a black and white 'Savage Sword' there, British black and white reprints, Lancer paperbacks of the original Robert E Howard stories (and the later noodlings of L'Sprague de Camp). If I'd put as much time and work into studying 'Beowulf' or Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'King Arthur' I'd quite possibly have ended up with a first class honors degree from Oxford or Cambridge. Instead I ended up with quite a spectacular collection of Marvel Comics, including at one stage 'Fantastic Four' #1. Alas, now long gone.... Hence my new love of whatever the plural of Omnibuseseseses is?If you are buying Conan The Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3, I'm guessing that you already own volumes 1 and 2. I certainly do. The first Volume collecting Barry Windsor Smith's run is a thing of beauty. Volume two featuring John Buscema is fit for a barbarian king. (Gil Kane's artwork is also great in any of his issues). I always reasoned that B.W.S's run chronicled Conan as being in his late teens and Buscema's portrayal as that of a more worldly-wise and battle hardened man in his early to mid twenties. Volume 3 continues Conan's adventures written by Roy Thomas and again penciled (mostly) by John Buscema, ably assisted by some of Marvel's finest inkers. Again as with the first two volumes a ton of interesting extras included. Bring on Volume 4.

A really excellent collection of Conan tales, though not as good as volume 1 (superb) and volume 2 (pretty amazing). The stories are still very good, the line work and colour is perfect throughout with a quality selection of extras such as the FOOM magazine. This is now the third in the run of omnibuses and includes a first rate selection of Belit tales along with a Red Sonja / King Kull etc as well as a few Black and white tales.

Great Conan Comics.A Masterpiece with some GREAT artwork by the Legendary John Buscema.I would give it 5 stars.....But.... it is not compatible with Fire Tablet..... or so I was told by the Kindle customer support.I bought a Fire10 tablet and got a bunch of comics....but sadly I keep on getting the message;Invalid ItemsThis item is protected by DRM and cannot be read on your Fire.Please remove the item from your device and download it again or purchase a copy from the Kindle store.I did purchase that copy from the Kindle store.For some comics not a big deal.... I just click cancel on thew message that is it.But some other comics some of the pages become black..... and I have to remove the comic and download it again. I was told by a nice lady from Kindle support that the comic is not compatible with the Fire tablet.So it is a GREAT comic..... but be warned that there is some issues with the Fire tablet when reading it.

Roy Thomas and John Buscema are a very talented team! A fantastic collection of Conan tales! Worth the price!

Oh what would be Conan without that Great John Buscema. The guy is a Genius.Thanks for making Conan a Visual Spectacle he is.More and More Conan Golden Age Madness is what every Conan Fan wants and this omnibus just like the previous two is taking the reader on a thrill ride wishing that it never stops.Can't wait to get my hands on the next in this series.

Good comics.

Was what I was expecting.Nice addition to my collection.