FORMAT: HARDBACK, DIGITAL (REVIEWED) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (DIGITAL), NOVEMBER (HARDBACK)
Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan The Barbarian is considered to be an archetype of the fantasy genre. The muscle-bound power fantasy has inspired countless creators. From the Elric stories, to He-Man and the Masters of The Universe and even Game of Thrones, the idea of a mostly naked warrior king beating up horrors in an unforgiving landscape has either been directly copied or inverted and re-told many times.
Of course, you can’t have a fantasy hero without amazing fantasy art, and Conan’s popularity lies in the artwork the stories have inspired almost as much as the stories themselves. Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed game is packed with fantasy art inspired by the Hyborian age. It would be inaccurate to describe this book as 120 pages of an overly muscled man punching a snake, but there is more than a fair bit of that going on.
The book is divided into seventeen chapters. Each one is inspired by a book from Modiphus’ game, but conveniently this works as a theme. So cunning Conan appears in the Conan the Thief section, the Horrors of the Hyborian age section is mostly full of monsters and so on. The list of artists involved is impressive and includes by Brom, Sanjulián, Simon Bisley, Alex Horley, Val Mayerik, Daren Bader, Carl Critchlow, Tim Truman, Mark Schultz, Phroilan Gardner, Paolo Parente, Tom Grindberg and many more.
We’ve only seen the digital version of this book and all the art does look lovely on a big computer screen. However, we understand a nicely sized hardcover is planned for later this year, likely in time to treat the barbarian fan in your life.
