The Cimmerian in The Frost-Giant's Daughter #1

The Cimmerian in The Frost Giant’s Daughter #1

Ablaze Publishing 2020

Written & Illustrated by Robin Recht

Adapted From the Works of Robert E. Howard

Lettered by Dezi Sienty

Robert E. Howard’s Conan first appeared in the pages of pulp magazines in the 1930s. He contributed 17 Conan stories to Weird Tales Magazine from 1932 to 1936. Through these stories we see Robert E. Howard’s savage hero take shape. The Frost-Giant’s Daughter story was rejected by We i r d Ta l e s, Howard retitled the piece as “The gods of the north”, in which it was published in the March 1934 issue of The Fantasy Fan.

The only survivor of a ferocious battle, Conan sits in the midst of a bloodstained snow field. When the fight is over, the Cimmerian suddenly finds himself overcome with deep weariness and disgust. Until the moment he meets a redheaded woman of supernatural beauty, blinding like the glow of the sun on the snow. Moved by a burning desire, Conan decides to follow her but finds himself caught in a trap, attacked by two titans. In his ardor, he was not suspicious...he did not imagine for a second that his bride was none other than Ymir’s own daughter: the frost-giant.

Hands down this has become one of my must have series. The adaptations have been absolutely astounding time and time again and this one is no exception and may actually be starting off to be my favourite thus far. That we are getting to see Conan in the frozen tundra that is the North, the land of the Norse, is something I hadn’t really thought we’d get the opportunity to see. I’m so used to folks utilising what they think they know instead of taking actual stories and bringing them to life like this.

The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well rendered. Just the way this is structured and how the story moves is beautiful to experience. The character development is astonishing and honestly I love how quickly we get to know these characters on this kind of level is astonishing to me. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and the twists & turns along the way you realise just how good this truly is.

The interiors here are so utterly gorgeous it’s astounding and mindbogglingly how well this is done. Robin has one of the most amazing eyes for storytelling that I’ve ever seen and how he is able to work the composition of the panels and still manage to bring us backgrounds throughout. The depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is beautifully rendered. The linework is exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques that we see being utilised to bring out the detail in the work blows my mind. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous to see here. The various hues and tones within the colours that we see being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work we see is so incredibly well rendered. The whites and blues of the snow and how we see this through all those shades it just grabs the reader and keeps you in the moment and possibly shivering.

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There is this amazing display of war that neither side remembers why it’s being fought, it is just tradition that these two tribes who hate each other with such a passion meet at the same time every year to do battle. Bloody, violent and for the Frost Kings Daughter it is a sexual event as well as she revels in the bloodshed, which makes her hot, her loins grow heated and desire rises and we see this. So there really is something absolutely amazing about how this is being told and how the reader perceives what they see. It’s also why Ablaze Publishing is one of the top new publishing houses.