L’heure du dragon (The Hour of the Dragon)
Adapted from Robert E. Howard’s only Conan novel. Script by Julien Blondel (also known for his adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s
Elric of Melniboné) and artwork by Valentin Sécher, also known for
Méta-Baron).
An excerpt can be found
on the publisher’s website.
I had wondered how Glénat would handle
the Hour of the Dragon, seeing as it’s longer than all the other Conan tales. Marvel comics had needed four comics (
Giant-sized Conan the barbarian #1-4), one chapter in
SSoC #8, and the whole issue of
Savage Sword #10 to do the story justice. Dark Horse had published a whole mini-series to adapt the novel (although admittedly, Dark Horse tended to pad its adaptations toward the end). Would Glénat use two hardcovers? Publish an extra big book?
Well, the book is slightly bigger than others and it dispenses with the art galleries that had been present in previous adaptation, but what it mostly did is drop whole sections of the novel. To someone who has not read the prose tale, it doesn’t make a lot of difference, but to someone who *has* read it, it is a decision that is a little frustrating. I mean, no Albiona at all, except for a mention in passing?
Still… Captain’s privilege. It is Blondel’s adaptation, and he is of course free to make the changes he feels are required.
The art looks pretty good. It is closer to the current “standard” approach to fantasy art than in other books in this series, but it is very competent. I really like this panorama, showing two armies about to clash :
This mountain splitting in two is also a pretty powerful sight :
No complaint about the art, then. Conan has the look we’re used to, albeit with a proper kingly beard. Things like armour, cities and ships look suitably Hyborian (or Stygian when the need arises) and Sécher makes Stygia look like the fantastical ancient Egypt that lives in our dreams. Good job, and some pages are truly beautiful.
Now let’s look at the story.
We start with the same opening scene as in the novel, with the revival of the wizard Xaltotun and a little expository dialog.
Then we skip ahead a few months as the army of Aquilonia prepares to face an invasion from Nemedia. In Howard’s novel, King Conan is assailed in his tent on the night before the battle by some mummy-like spectre that leaves him paralyzed; here, the creature is Xaltotun himself and we are not informed that Conan is paralyzed (probably to maintain tension). We just see him on his back asking for his armour.
Next the armies clash, and through sorcery (and the splitting of a mountain, as seen above) the Aquilonians are crushed and we believe Conan dead. But lo and behold, it’s not him in his armour! (In the novel, we had learned beforehand that the paralyzed Conan had to be replaced by a soldier with a similar frame, if not similar features; the subterfuge was meant to keep up the Aquilonian troops' morale). Today’s storytelling decision means that we readers are as surprised as the Nemedians when they realize that it is not Conan who died in the battle, but since we were not told about Conan paralysis (we just saw him on his back, looking stricken but not incapacitated), it sort of feels as if the king wilfully stayed in his tent and sent someone else risk his neck in his place. There’s more: in the novel (and in Marvel’s adaptation), when the triumphant Nemedians reach the Aquilonian camp, a defiant Conan has a hell of a time shaking off his paralysis to drunkenly stand up (and that just barely), meaning to sell his life dearly. Here we see him coming out of his tent looking somewhat weak, but with no explanation… to someone who isn’t familiar with the story, it could look as if he’s just taken a nap. I would definitely have added a few lines of text to explain why he stayed in his tent at all!
Conan is captured and brought alive to Nemedia’s capital, Belverus, according to Xaltotun’s orders. Why leave the man alive? Well, in the novel the explanation is this. Xaltotun was revived by a cabal of ambitious politicians; Tarascus, brother of Nemedia’s king, who wants Xaltotun to kill his brother by magic so he can inherit the throne (something that happens early in the story); Valerius, an Aquilonian who wants to replace Conan as his country’s king; Amalric, an ambitious Nemedian baron who wants to play puppet master with all of his allies, and Orastes, a defrocked priest of Mitra who’s basically in it for the money. The reason Xaltotun wants to keep Conan alive despite Tarascus’s objection is so he can be used as leverage to ensure Valerius’ good behaviour as the puppet king of Aquilonia. With Conan alive, he would never dare go against his allies since the Cimmerian is a very popular king and his return would doubtless bring about Valerius’ downfall. Here, Xaltotun simply explains that Conan will soon be “his most precious ally”, with no further explanation. All right, it’s good to leave something to the reader’s imagination… but here it’s a decision that, in the face of it, just looks like an excuse to keep our hero alive so the story can go on.
Anyway, as Tarascus and Xaltotun discuss Conan’s fate, a serving girl eavesdrop with a knowing look on her face; we’ll later learn that it is Zenobia, who in a few pages will free Conan and will later become his wife. This change actually makes a lot of sense! In the original novel, Zenobia was a member of the king’s harem, though one he had never touched (because heaven forbid that the future queen of Aquilonia not be a virgin, right?) and there was no particular reason for her to be appraised of a state secret as important as the fact that Conan was still alive and a prisoner in Belverus. Her being present and serving food while these things were being discussed may be a convenient coincidence, but at least it’s an actual explanation.
Zenobia manages to get into the dungeons to help free the king, with whom she’s been in love since she saw him during a state visit years prior. This point is not dwelt upon overlong here, but the idea gets across efficiently, especially thanks to the art. Good job on the part of both creators. Alas, Zenobia doesn’t have the key to open the barred door of Conan’s gaol; however, the cell is open in the back. Expository dialog by an old prisoner (shades of the
Count of Monte Cristo!) informs us that prisoners do not venture in the caverns that open at the back of the cells, because a monster dwells therein. Zenobia still slips the king a heavy dagger and says that if he dares cross the caverns, she’ll be expecting him at their eastern end.
Conan naturally meets the monster, a carnivorous grey ape. In Howard’s Conan stories, we’ve met such creatures a few times; they’re quite strong and dangerous, with a foul temper to boot. However, they are NOT the size of King Kong, as is the case here! I’m sorry, but any fight pitting Conan against a carnivorous ape thirty feet tall should end only one way: with Cimmerian meat on the menu.
Disposing of the critter proves to be barely an inconvenience, and Conan meets Zenobia again, as he promises to come back for her one day. Yay!
The Cimmerian gallops back to his country, and meets the witch Zelata. Here she is depicted as blind, which she was not in the novel… However, in Marvel’s
Conan the King series, the same character
had eventually been blinded twenty years after this particular story. If Blondel was not a reader of
Conan the king, one has to wonder why writers keep blinding the poor Zelata!
Thanks to her powers, the witch learns that Conan must reach the heart of his kingdom if he is to save it. He believes that it means its capital, but it actually means a magical jewel, the
heart of Ahriman, the powerful talisman that helped resurrect Xaltotun and seems to be a major source of his power.
Alteration time : in the novel, Conan next meets a loyal bannerman, Servius Galannus, who tells him what’s what in the capital. Among other things, Servius informs his king that another loyal retainer, countess Albiona, is meant to be executed on account of not accepting to become Valerius’ mistress. Conan will be damned if he leaves a loyal subject suffer such a fate, and in a rather improbable but highly enjoyable sequence he replaces the headsman on the day of the execution, kicks ass and escapes with the lady. The two are saved from pursuing soldiers by priests of the god Asura, who take them to their underground temple. Theirs used to be a persecuted cult in Aquilonia until Conan imposed religious tolerance, and the Asurans are grateful. Luckily, they’re also pretty good at sorcery and have an impressive network of informers.
In today’s adaptation, Servius owns a tavern in Aquilonia’s capital. It is mentioned that Albiona is in jail, but that’s all. Conan means to murder Tarascus who has travelled to Aquilonia too, but the attempt fails and the king is saved by the Asurans as in the original story.
In both storylines, we end up in Asura’s temple. The Asurans inform Conan that the heart he must find is actually the heart of Ahriman.
The next part of the story involves the theft of the magical jewel. In the novel, the heart is taken by Xaltotun’s allies, who are starting to fear him; they give it to a man who must travel to the sea port of Zingara to throw it into the sea (something that was suggested for Sauron’s ring in the Lord of the Rings. Both here and there, this solution would be a bad one, as the magical trinket would resurface no matter what).
In this adaptation, it is instead stolen by a Stygian wizard named Thutothmes; this modification of the plot allows us to circumvent several chapters describing Conan’s quest for the stolen jewel.
Meanwhile, Valerius learns that Conan is still alive. He sends four Khitan sorcerers after him. In the novel that’s their whole mission: kill Conan. Here, they’re also supposed to recover the heart of Ahriman.
We then skip ahead to the port city of Messantia where Conan is in search of the jewel thief. He’s a little late: the jewel is on its merry way to Stygia, far to the south. In the novel, Conan is struck from behind and press ganged to join the crew of an Argossean galley; here, he is first attacked by the four Khitan wizards who cause him to fall off a cliff into the water, only then to be fished out of the sea by the Argossean ship. In either case, the king doesn’t take kindly to be told to grab an oar and row, and he immediately organizes a revolt among the rowers. As luck would have it, many of them are his old comrades from the Bêlit days; recognizing him as the fearsome pirate Amra the lion, they quickly take over the ship.
That sequence, I think, was more believably executed in the Marvel adaptation… here, the rowers may wear manacles, but they’re not attached to anything. In essence, the men’s chains are closer to weapons than to fetters! Silly, silly Argosseans slavers.
Conan and his merry pirates reach Khemi, the great city port of Stygia, where the jewel has been brought. The novel describes Conan’s problems with the local populace (he kills a sacred serpent in the streets, something of an ill-timed sacrilege), his discreet entry in a temple disguised as a priest, his fight with the vampire queen Akhivasha and her army of monsters, and his eventual arrival in the room where the jewel-thieving wizard, Thutothmes, is using its power to raise the dead. So that we bring the number of pages lower, here we cut a little short: Conan just walks into the temple and meets Akhivasha who helpfully takes him to Thutothmes, who happens to be her lover.
The four Khitan sorcerers from a few paragraphs ago then show up, and dispose of Akhivasha, Thutothmes, and all their companions. The Marvel adaptation showed that the Stygians weren’t exactly pushovers and killed three of the Khitans before dying themselves, but here we end with one Khitan and Thutothmes facing each other, without it being quite clear how the three others were killed.
This last Khitan kills Thutothmes, grabs the heart of Ahriman, and is in turn slain by Conan who was watching from a distance.
Another few months elapse, as we go back to Aquilonia. Conan has raised a new army and prepares to face the occupying Nemedian forces; the regular Aquilonian army, under the leadership of Valerius, has been destroyed off-page. I can see why this didn’t need to be depicted on the page, but it’s a sub-plot that I’m sorry to see dropped as it had nothing to do with Conan; the destruction of Valerius’ army was effected by a bunch of desperate Aquilonians who, having lost everything following the invasion of their country, were ready to sacrifice everything to get revenge. I like it when not
everything in a story revolves around the main character.
Xaltotun prepares some big magic ceremony (graphically impressive!) to help his allies but Zelata and the high priest of Asura, showing up with the heart of Ahriman, blow him up into nothingness. (They also sacrifice themselves for drama’s sake, although that didn’t happen in the novel). Conan’s troops beat the Nemedians, and Conan becomes king again, making Zenobia his queen.
All in all a very respectable adaptation of
The Hour of the Dragon. I can't say that it surpasses the Marvel Comics one, mostly on the account of the latter taking its time and not skipping any scenes. I do like it better than the Dark Horse one, though, even if that one was also pretty good. Three good adaptations for the same tale... that's a good average!
