Last week, I wrote about comic book author Kurt Busiek’s, “Astro City.”
I believe it’s an intelligent and entertaining comic.
And in my opinion, you’re really missing out if you haven’t read it.
Also, a few weeks ago, in a review of Dynamite Entertainment’s, “Red Sonja,” I brought up Busiek’s work once again. Specifically, I discussed his work on Dark Horse Comics’ “Conan” title, but I soon realized I haven’t yet reviewed any of the Conan books.
Well, I will rectify that mistake right now.
Concerning Busiek’s work on Conan, Busiek revels in Conan creator, Robert E. Howard’s world. Busiek shows his ability to write stories in the sword-and-sorcery genre that are as compelling as anything he had written before.
I decided to take a look at the book “Conan: Book of Thoth,” in which Busiek attempts to invent an origin story for one of Conan’s oldest enemies, Thoth-Amon.
Conan has encountered the evil wizard Thoth-Amon very early in his literary life. In fact, Thoth-Amon was introduced in Howard’s short story, “The Phoenix on the Sword.” Published in 1932, it was one of the very first Conan stories.
With “Conan: Book of Thoth,” Busiek — with help from writer Len Wein and artist Kelley Jones — tells the origin of Thoth-Amon, 75 years after the initial appearance of the character. It’s an interesting idea, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in this book.
The story starts off simply enough. Thoth is a poor boy who begs and steals to make money for himself and his family. He has an abusive father and a young sister who he promises to save from their harsh lives. This is a good starting point. It sets up Thoth as a boy who may commit petty crimes to get by, but desires more for himself and his sister.
However, soon after, the sister is all but forgotten. Thieves rob Thoth, and just as the robbery ends and he feels defeated by the world, Thoth’s only friend, Amon, arrives bragging that he had been invited to be an acolyte at the “Temple of Ibis.”
Seeing an opportunity to gain power, Thoth does the most evil thing he has done so far in his young life — he murders Amon and assumes his identity. For years, Thoth (pretending to be Amon) studies the peaceful magic of the god Ibis until he finds a forbidden scroll from which he learns of the evil god Set.
To make a long story short, Thoth seeks out the power of the evil god. I assumed that once he found this power, the story would end or readers would be treated to a tale of Thoth-Amon wielding his newly found powers against the mighty Conan. But no, Conan never even appears in this book. Instead Thoth, who doesn’t change his name to Thoth-Amon until late in the story, returns to the temple and creates a shrine to Set in the — get this — basement of the Temple of Ibis.
For years, none of the peaceful acolytes noticed Thoth’s sacrificial altar in the basement of a peace-loving god’s temple? I guess not, because Thoth keeps the altar and uses the power of Set to kill a few of the acolytes whom Thoth feels treated him badly.
After he gets these schoolyard rivalries out of his system, Thoth starts to turn the villagers’ worship of Ibis to Set. This takes place while the leaders of the Temple of Ibis promote Thoth to the head of their church.
If this sounds convoluted and slightly contrived, it is. A lot of things happen “just because” in order to get Thoth-Amon to place that he was in Howard’s original stories.
As the book nears its conclusion, Thoth-Amon unleashes an ancient evil that even he is unable to control, and then he and a priest of Ibis must destroy what is summoned.
The whole story feels forced, and when the story is over, there are too many loose ends. At the end of the tale, mention is made of the fate of the wizard’s family and sister. He is told that they died after he burned a wheat field to starve those who didn’t believe in Set. But this is done as an after-thought. It is as if Busiek forgot the characters and threw in the explanation at the last minute. Also, much of the origin of Thoth-Amon is similar to the origin of “Infidel,” one of Busiek’s own characters from “Astro City.”
In the end, I can’t recommend this book to anyone other than die-hard fans of the Conan books. You learn a great deal about the evil wizard Thoth-Amon. But while his rise to power is interesting, once he gains control of the Temple of Ibis halfway through the book, the story stagnates.
I say, pick up any of the collected trades: “Conan: The Frost Giant’s Daughter and other stories,” “Conan: The God In The Bowl And Other Stories,” or my favorite of the three, “Conan: The Tower Of The Elephant And Other Stories.” Unless you are trying to collect them all, leave “Conan: Book of Thoth” on the shelf. There are better comic books worth your time and money.
Hayden Mitman can be contacted with all your video game or comic book comments at hmitman@phillynews.com.
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