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Rating: 
Summary: No Elric, but still some great stuff!
Review: For some reason issues #14 and 15 of Conan The Barbarian are omitted from this volume - my guess is for stylistic reasons - but this is yet another wonderful collection of these graphic Hyborean classics.Like the first volume, the digital recoloring is absolutely gorgeous and renders the breathtaking artwork with stunning clarity. The original comics were printed on newsprint, which as most comic coinnoseurs know, does not render the images with the utmost fidelity. These volumes give these stories the treatment they deserve, with good white paper and care taken in the art restoration. In the afterword, Roy Thomas (the writer who adapted Conan into comics) promises that issues #14 and #15 will be in volume three, so fear not at the omission of the stories featuring Michael Moorcock's Elric. Simply read and savor the golden age of the comic-book Conan.
Rating: 
Summary: The coloring ruined it for me.
Review: I must agree with many other reviewers: it was a mistake on the part of the digital colorists to attempt to add volume to the images. Smith himself, when he colors his work, goes for a more subdued approach... His colors try to subtly enhance his gorgeous line work, not drown it in computerized gradient effects. And drowning is exactly what we see here, especially in the "Rogues in the house" segment. That piece actually looked much better in black and white than it does here in colour form. The choice of colors itself was sometimes dubious; the ethereal veil of Atali, daughter of the Frost Giant Ymir, is here coloured a heavy green; that makes it appear like rough wool rather than like "a fabric so fine no human hand could have woven it". Despite this unfortunate problem, this collection is certainly a worthy addition to any fan of the classic series. It just could have been better had the colors been as in the original comic, or handled by the same studio that recolored volume one.
Rating:
Summary: Digital recoloring is a mixed bag.
Review: I wish that I could give this book 4 stars but it has two medium flaws that make it only earn three. 1.The original covers have not been included. Why not? 2. The computer applied color interferes with seeing the original artwork clearly. By this I mean that the color is many times so dark that it overwhelms Smith's work. Also, the effort to make the figures more volumetric by modeling from light to dark quite often makes the pen strokes vanish. Hopefully, someone at Dark Horse will fix this in the next two volumes because it's in these issues where Smith hits his early stride and I'd hate for Smith's pen work to be obscured by some dcomputer colorist attempting to demonstrate his/her anime flavored virtuosity.Even after my rant, I recommend this book and volume one too. They ain't perfect, but still damned good. Just take it with a grain of salt.
Rating:
Summary: Digital recoloring is a mixed bag.
Review: I wish that I could give this book 4 stars but it has two medium flaws that make it only earn three. 1.The original covers have not been included. Why not? 2. The computer applied color interferes with seeing the original artwork clearly. By this I mean that the color is many times so dark that it overwhelms Smith's work. Also, the effort to make the figures more volumetric by modeling from light to dark quite often makes the pen strokes vanish. Hopefully, someone at Dark Horse will fix this in the next two volumes because it's in these issues where Smith hits his early stride and I'd hate for Smith's pen work to be obscured by some dcomputer colorist attempting to demonstrate his/her anime flavored virtuosity.Even after my rant, I recommend this book and volume one too. They ain't perfect, but still damned good. Just take it with a grain of salt.
Rating: 
Summary: Thomas and Windsor-Smith's Conan the thieving barbarian
Review: It is a shame that in reprinting the seminal run of artist Barry Windsor-Smith on Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" Dark Horse Comics has neglected to include the cover art as well. But that is the only major complaint a fan can have against "Rouges in the House & Other Stories," the second of four books in the Chronicles of Conan series. The minor complaint would be that in covering these six particular issues--which includes the two "big" comics when Marvel had its two month experiment of increasing the price from 15 cents to 25 cents while also increasing the size so that the monthly comics were suddenly the same size as an annual--Book 2 ends in the middle of the 2-part saga where Roy Thomas has Michael Moorcock's Elric show up to cross swords with Robert E. Howard's Conan. However, these trifles are outweighed by the fact that these comics are being reprinted so that I can enjoy them without taking my originals out of their sacred plastic bags and by the gorgeous job of re-coloring each comic that makes them look much better than ever before. The coloring alone makes these worth having, it is that stunning. Included in this collection are the following issues of "Conan the Barbarian": #9 "The Garden of Fear," based on Howard's story of that name, where Conan encounters a winged demon in a tower; #10 "Beware the Wrath of Anu" where Conan joins forces with another thief in a Corithian city. When his partner is betrayed (and executed by hanging on a memorable page drawn by Windsor-Smith), Conan goes after the Red Priest himself for revenge and ends up taking on a giant bull; #11 "Rouges in the House" is also based on a Howard short story, is a 34-page epic in which Conan is betrayed by Jenna and released from prison to help with a little intrigue and ends up taking on a giant ape (notice a theme developing here?); #12 "The Dweller in Dark" is only 16-pages long and has Conan taking on a giant octopus (really); #13 "Web of the Spider-God" was plotted by John Jakes, the creator of "Brak the Barbarian," and has Conan taking on a giant spider; #14 "A Sword Called Stormbringer" was plotted by Elric of Melibone creator Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn, and has Conan hooking up with Zukala's daughter (from issue #5) before clashing with Elric. The two band together to fight a common foe, setting up their encounter in the next issue with the Green Empress. Most of these issues are inked by Sal Buscema, although he is not listed for #12, which may or may not indicate that Windsor-Smith did the inking as well on that one. "Rogues in the House" is indeed the best of the bunch and the overall focus is on Conan as primarily a thief at this point in his career, who keeps finding new monsters to fight each issue. But you can see why "Conan the Barbarian" was such a critical success and you can also see how Windsor-Smith's art improves with ever issue as he becomes more and more stylized. While Thomas is inviting other noted sword & sorcery writers to provide plots, he is also continuing to mine the Howard oeuvre for stories and embellishing what he finds with much more of a sense of character than in the original pulp fiction yards from the 1930s. The other two tradepaperback collection will be "Chronicles of Conan Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories," which reprints #14-#15 and #17-#21, and "Chronicles of Conan Volume 4: Red Nails and Other Stories," which issues #23-#26, and material from the second and third issues of Savage Tales, including the Thomas and Windsor-Smith masterpiece "Red Nails." This answers my invocation to Crom from my review of volume one and I have already downloaded the splash page as wallpaper from the Dark Horse site.
Rating:
Summary: Thomas and Windsor-Smith's Conan the thieving barbarian
Review: It is a shame that in reprinting the seminal run of artist Barry Windsor-Smith on Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" Dark Horse Comics has neglected to include the cover art as well. But that is the only major complaint a fan can have against "Rouges in the House & Other Stories," the second of four books in the Chronicles of Conan series. The minor complaint would be that in covering these six particular issues--which includes the two "big" comics when Marvel had its two month experiment of increasing the price from 15 cents to 25 cents while also increasing the size so that the monthly comics were suddenly the same size as an annual--Book 2 ends in the middle of the 2-part saga where Roy Thomas has Michael Moorcock's Elric show up to cross swords with Robert E. Howard's Conan. However, these trifles are outweighed by the fact that these comics are being reprinted so that I can enjoy them without taking my originals out of their sacred plastic bags and by the gorgeous job of re-coloring each comic that makes them look much better than ever before. The coloring alone makes these worth having, it is that stunning. Included in this collection are the following issues of "Conan the Barbarian": #9 "The Garden of Fear," based on Howard's story of that name, where Conan encounters a winged demon in a tower; #10 "Beware the Wrath of Anu" where Conan joins forces with another thief in a Corithian city. When his partner is betrayed (and executed by hanging on a memorable page drawn by Windsor-Smith), Conan goes after the Red Priest himself for revenge and ends up taking on a giant bull; #11 "Rouges in the House" is also based on a Howard short story, is a 34-page epic in which Conan is betrayed by Jenna and released from prison to help with a little intrigue and ends up taking on a giant ape (notice a theme developing here?); #12 "The Dweller in Dark" is only 16-pages long and has Conan taking on a giant octopus (really); #13 "Web of the Spider-God" was plotted by John Jakes, the creator of "Brak the Barbarian," and has Conan taking on a giant spider; #14 "A Sword Called Stormbringer" was plotted by Elric of Melibone creator Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn, and has Conan hooking up with Zukala's daughter (from issue #5) before clashing with Elric. The two band together to fight a common foe, setting up their encounter in the next issue with the Green Empress. Most of these issues are inked by Sal Buscema, although he is not listed for #12, which may or may not indicate that Windsor-Smith did the inking as well on that one. "Rogues in the House" is indeed the best of the bunch and the overall focus is on Conan as primarily a thief at this point in his career, who keeps finding new monsters to fight each issue. But you can see why "Conan the Barbarian" was such a critical success and you can also see how Windsor-Smith's art improves with ever issue as he becomes more and more stylized. While Thomas is inviting other noted sword & sorcery writers to provide plots, he is also continuing to mine the Howard oeuvre for stories and embellishing what he finds with much more of a sense of character than in the original pulp fiction yards from the 1930s. The other two tradepaperback collection will be "Chronicles of Conan Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories," which reprints #14-#15 and #17-#21, and "Chronicles of Conan Volume 4: Red Nails and Other Stories," which issues #23-#26, and material from the second and third issues of Savage Tales, including the Thomas and Windsor-Smith masterpiece "Red Nails." This answers my invocation to Crom from my review of volume one and I have already downloaded the splash page as wallpaper from the Dark Horse site.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Conan Comics
Review: These reprints of the early Marvel Comics Conan series are essential for any fan of comics in general and Conan in particular. As has been noted, the only drawbacks are the absence of the original covers and digital color that virtually crushes Barry Smith's art. That's a shame because these stories could have been greatly enhanced by digital color in the right hands. We can only hope that Dark Horse will correct the problem before they get around to reprinting "Red Nails" which I understand is part of the plan.
Rating:
Summary: Marval's Conan
Review: While not as dark and gory as the new Dark Horse Conan comics, these earlier Marval Conan comics were pretty racy for it's day. I liked the stories, some of which were based on original Robert E. Howard stories (though not all of them actually started life as a Conan story, like "Garden of Fear"). The strories are what you'd expect; Conan battles demons, gods, wizards, monsterously huge apes, thieves and killers, among other foes. "Rouges in the House" and "The Frost Giant's Daughter" is the closest adaptation to the original R.E.H., and are my favorite stories in the book. These are a series, in which this is volume 2. At the end of each book is an interesting afterward by writer Roy Thomas, reflecting on his experience dealing with the Comics Code (a kind of censor board for comic books in the 1970s), working for the legend Stan Lee, and adapting Howard's stories with his friend Barry Windsor-Smith. As I said, I prefere the Dark Horse as they are much more in line with the original pulpish flavor of the "Wierd Tales" magazines. But although Marval did a good job (I liked the stories), I thought these were too cleaned up (or censored) for me; and I thought the drawings were too cartoonish, reminded me of early '80s cartoons like "Masters of the Universe" or "Transformers". But it is still well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fine comic storytelling
Review: With "Rogues in the House and Other Stories," the second volume of Dark Horse Comic's reprint of Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" comic series, the team of writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor Smith finally hit their stride, and begin producing not only the finest Conan adaptation, but also some of the finest traditional comic stories ever to see print. They were both talented professionals, and knew and loved the character that they were working with.
At their best when adapting authentic Robert E. Howard stories, this collection contains "Rogues in the House, " and the perfect "The Frost Giant's Daughter." Another story, "Garden of Fear" is a Howard adaptation from a different character, but suits Conan fine. The original stories, as well as new characters such as the faithless Jenna, add context and flow to the adaptations, seating them in a definite time-line that Howard never attended to.
Barry Windsor Smith's art in this volume is leaps and bounds above his derivative work in Chronicles of Conan vol. 1, "Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories." He is closer to the style that would make him famous, and elevate him above mere comic book artist.
Unfortunately, this trade paperback edition is not without it's flaws, mainly being the lack of original covers and some unnecessary modern coloring effects. The covers are noticeable absent, as Roy Thomas often mentions them in his "Behind the Swords" commentary at the back of the volume.
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