While The Phantoms of the Black Coast is a pretty standard Conan tale, as far as Conan tales go, it was done masterfully by Victor Gischler and Attila Futaki.  They take this story and turn it into a fantastic little story of loss and sorrow, packed full of action and intrigue, keeping the reader captivated the entire way.

The book takes place while Conan is the king of Aquilonia, currently single and somewhat at peace.  But lately he has been having dreams of Bêlit, the woman he loved many years ago and they are making him restless.  Enter the sorceress Nadina who tells him Bêlit’s spirit is wandering and will forever do so until they can pacify her soul and let her move on.  Conan, always reluctant of magics, agrees and so off they go on a quest to do exactly that, to either help Bêlit be at peace, or expose Nadina for the fraud she is.

Gischler has been writing up a storm the past couple of years and it was nice to see him tackle everyone’s favourite barbarian hero.  His script is strong, keeping us hooked upon every word as we travel with Conan where he must.  He also has a good grasp of our protagonist as he clinches Conan’s voice perfectly.  You can hear the weariness in it at times, the steel-hard resolve when dealing with Nadina and his straight-forwardness when talking to his underlings.  Not every writer understands Conan, or writes him very well, but is is good to see that Gischler does.

Another stroke of genius, by Dark Horse on this point, was releasing this miniseries so that it coincides with Brian Wood’s run on the main Conan book.  As that book also features Bêlit when Conan was but a young man, it provides a nice contrast to this story when Conan is much older, not to mention a king.  The one thing that makes it tragic though is seeing how much Conan loved Bêlit, even after so many years and that fact that he never really got over his love for her.  It is an affirmation to Gischler’s talent that we can empathize so fully with Conan.  Some truly great writing on Gischler’s part.

Attila Futaki provides the book with some very beautiful pencils.  Under his pen, Conan is drawn to perfection.  Working in tandem with Gischler’s script, he makes Conan every inch the tragic king.  He is still strong, still larger than life, still a force to be reckoned with but we finally get to see the ‘gigantic melancholies’ aspect of our hero.  A mention has to go out to Jok Coglitore and J. Blanco on colours; giving the book the right atmosphere at the right time and making Futaki’s pencils shine even brighter.

Coming right down to it, perhaps our tale was not so standard after all.  Gischler and Futaki gave us another vision of Conan that we might never have had if they had not lent their incredible skills to the book.  If Wood were to ever leave his position on the main title, this is the team that should take over in his place.  They know how to tell a Conan tale and tell it well.

4.5 out of 5