In a year of great comics, and even greater comic reprint projects, I’m surprised to find myself leaning toward Dark Horse’s Savage Sword of Conan as my favourite publication of the year, so far.

I’m especially drawn to the depictions of the environment. It’s taking me twice as long as it normally would to get through each book. I find myself stopping at random panels and just drinking in Buscema’s compositions and Alcala’s brushwork. This is as close to the adventure strips of Raymond and Foster as Marvel or DC ever got.

In every interview with the artist that I’ve ever read, Buscema has stated his preference for working on Conan, and it shows. There’s a lot of love put on display here.

All images from the first volume of the collected Savage Sword of Conan. The three volumes released so far this year add up to over 1600 pages of comics, the majority of them by Buscema.