My big bad Conan page

Conan is so cool, and Dark Horse has revived the series with some great stories of our handsome Cimmerian.

C-TFGD

C-TFGD

Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant’s Daughter (2005) – A great new series of Conan tales re-launched by Dark Horse in 2003 (2004, really, but the preview “Issue 0″, which sets the scene was published in 2003), based on original Robert E Howard stories and collected from 2004 in a series of volumes. The first tale in Volume 1, called “Conan The Legend”, starts off many years after the death of King Conan and the fall of his kingdom with a young Arab prince travelling the lands and discovering his temple with a powerful and envious wazir (nice mind games going on here). The tale gives some history of the times Conan lived in, which was some point “between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas”, describing the various lands of Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora (with its “towers of spider-haunted mystery”), Zingara, Koth, Shym, Stygia, Hyrkania, and Aquilonia, from whence the Cimmerian himself hails. The issue is full of stunning art by Cary Nord, who draws the stories without an inker (the appendix, which tells tales of Robert E Howard and contains some of Nord’s sketches, includes also a three-page “audition” that Nord submitted as one of twenty pencillers called on to try out for the new series – it’s easy to see why he was chosen, and why Dark Horse decided to go ahead and use his art with out an inker, the pages are gorgeous). Nord draws all of the eight stories in this volume, and seems to be the preferred artist throughout the first 44 issues of this Conan series. The covers are by other artists (and aren’t as good either).

The proper tale starts off with a sixteen-year-old Conan wandering into a barbarian raid on an Aesir village called Asgard, we get our magnificent first look at him as he beheads a savage trying to rape a young woman. Conan kills five of the red-headed raiders, and when the blonde Aesir riders return they at first regard him as an enemy spy or scout (no Cimmerians are to be trusted, according to Aesir tradition, not even one who saved the women and children of the village from Vanir raiders). Great dialogue here:

I have spoken as a man at council since before my fifteenth year-day. I stood at Venarium – at Venarium! – and sent a score of Aquilonians to Hell. Can you say the same? Or is talking all you do well?

You, on the horse, I am Conan. Are you chief of this village? Is this how you treat those who save the lives of your women, your children? I had hoped better of the men of Asgard.

Of course, from there on in, he befriends chief Niord, makes an enemy of the black-hearted Sjarl, and attracts the affections of Sjarl’s woman Henga (you can see where this is going). Conan recounts to Niord his quest to find the land of Hyperborea, a magical region of the northlands protected from the icy winds by powerful magic, inhabited by deathless scholars who live a life of splendour, peace and luxury. Conan rides with the Aesir to permanently deal with the Vanir raiders, and the snows of the region redden with the blood of fallen red-hairs. A raiding party is wiped out man-for-man, with Conan is the last man standing, now moving on from the bloody battle ground to wander the winter wastelands in “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”, a tale adapted from an original Robert E Howard story. Here he meets a beautiful and haughty nude vixen who angers our sullen warrier, who then hunts her through the snows – of course this is what she wants, to lead him into a trap with her two frost giant brothers. But they are no match for Conan, who levels his sword and lunges for our pixie, who now knows the taste of fear (I love using language like this to describe barbarian tales!!). Reunited with Niord and his men, the Aesir catch up with the Vanir, who surrender and beg for mercy, upon which both groups are fallen upon by savage, giant Hyperborean warriors – they have been sold out by Sjarl! Captured by the monstrous magical society, as corrupt in its splendour as Rome, Conan becomes a gladiator for the Hyperboreans’ amusement; the rest of the tale is about his escape and the sweet love he makes to a little Turanian slave called Iasmini. There’s a bit of Hyperborean history, Conan’s first encounter with lions, and then the inevitable slave revolt, Conan’s escape from Hyperborea and his revenge against Sjarl. Far out, funky and groovy. Can’t wait to read the next volumes.

C-TGITBAOS

C-TGITBAOS

Conan Volume 2: The God In the Bowl and other stories (2005) – This picks up where Volume 1 left off: Conan has just avenged himself on the Aesir traitors who caused trouble for him in the land of the Hyperboreans, but not before we get a look at Janissa, the Widowmaker, who has been sent to assassinate a merchant who has angered her matron, the bone woman (she’s a witch). Conan beats up two town thugs in a tavern, where he befriends some dancing girls and a sleazy politician who hires him to penetrate a rich man’s palace where he is to meet the god in the bowl, a tale based on an actual Robert E Howard story. Conan has recently taken revenge on a loutish city official who had pissed him off in the public square by breaking and entering his palace and humiliating him and stealing his golden staff. Nice. he frames the louts, then goes off as a hired thief. Finally, he stumbles across a murder scene – the high official he was supposed to rob has been murdered. Conan’s not the killer, but he’s found as a thief and he’s the obvious suspect. There’s an Agatha Christie-like “closed room mystery” given a weird Conan treatment, with some sinister conniving Roman senator-types, some centurions, a few toadies and sycophants and a freakish beast. Here we get our first glimpse at Thoth-Amon, and Conan hears the name for the first time. After a while, a fey Kalanthes stumbles into the scene, Conan gets to go no a berserker rampage in a showdown with Janissa, who wears a rediculously-short leather bra thingy (please!). Conan joins Kalanthes (why not – he’s got nothing else to do), where he finds himself on a mission to destroy a deadly jewel that Kalanthes possesses that Thoth-Amon covets, there are tales of early lizard civilisations, ancient evil (of course), possessed underlings, snowy passes, and freaky giants covered in bugs. Janissa tells her tale, of being raped endlessly by demons as she underwent the bone woman’s training that turned her into a scarred, ruthless killer. Thoth-Amon speaks to Kalanthes via a swarm of winged beetles, the riders return to an infested city and have to slaughter the possessed in habitants, there are hordes of undead that need to be hacked to bits. An afterword shows sketches that laid out what Janissa would look like, as an original non-Robert E Howard character in the new Conan tales, while also going into a cool Robert E Howard background essay.

The artwork is incredible, and the story-telling pretty good too.

C-TTOTEAOS

C-TTOTEAOS

Conan Volume 3: The Tower of the Elephant and other stories (2006) – Some minor and some major Conan tales: our hero reunites with the wenches and the tavern owner from earlier tales, but they drug him, rob him and leave him to rot. He chases them, finding a haunted pasture (he defeats the demons that haunt it), before showing up in the most putrid of cities of the time, Zamora, the city of thieves. He finds himself a fence for stolen goods, single-handedly hews down a squad of goons, meets a lovely concubine called Tinanna, he steals the tiara of Tiamat, which wakens a Lovecraftian ectoplasmic nether god, the hideous dog creatures. The first two stories are less interesting, but then we get to the title story, the tower of the elephant, which begins with another confrontation with seedy types in a tavern, braggarts and thieves that Conan puts in his place, before setting out to steal an unattainable prize of evil magician Yara from an enchanted destination. Here he meets master thief Taurus of Nemedia, and they join forces – temporarily, for Taurus, while he may be a master thief, is neither as wily (or as lucky) as Conan; he’s also more impetuous, if that’s possible. Here Conan meets your regular cast of lions, Lovecraftian space beings and shrinking evil wizards, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark-like exploding temples.

C-THOTDAOS

C-THOTDAOS

Conan Volume 4: The Hall of the Dead and other stories (2007) – This issue starts the tale of Conan’s adventures as a thief, mostly in the company of Nestor the Gunderman and the blonde tart Jiara. Conan is wild, uncontrolled, undisciplined, young, rash, impetuous and as much a foe as a friend to his allies. Three of the issues collected in this volume were scripted by Mike Mignola, who sketched out concepts for the artists to follow, as Conan enters the city of the Frog God, which swallows him, only to have him fight his way out. At the start, Conan and Jiara are in Zamora, they argue, he robs the magistrate, he meets Nestor while gold robbing, and the mad chase begins – Conan betrays Nestor, Nestor enlists with the magistrate to hunt Conan, there are chases and battles, and they both find themselves in the city of the dead fighting frog monsters and long-dead evil wizards. Great blood red section where Conan hallucinates of the unholy kings of the dead while in the belly of the frog-beast (I love writing sentences like that one – only in Conan). Iniri, the short-haired waif who Conan rescues from barroom brutes, enters the story here – she senses a great danger in his life and seeks to find him again to warn him (which all comes about in the corny “The Hand of Nergal” story – she’s not a great character, and it’s hard to stay interested in her). Jerim, the blind spy, also drifts into the story at some point, and we see in flashbacks that he’s met Conan before. Some funny lines between Conan and Jiara as they approach the den of the Spider King and his band of thieves:

Conan: Let’s just say I don’t like tight places.
Jiala: Funny, you whispered something quite different last night.

C-RITH

C-RITH

Conan Volume 5: Rogues In the House and other stories (2008) – Conan is still a thief in Zamora, still with Nestor and Jiara… but not for much longer as Nestor is captured, tortured and executed, while Jiara betrays the two. Great. Enter Prince Murilo, who finds himself in a deadly feud with court mage. Conan takes his revenge on the priest of Anu who ordered Nestor’s death by killing him twice, a very grisly episode indeed. Conan is captured, then enlisted by the prince to kill his enemy, Nabonidus, a fiendish priest with a palace of traps that houses a mad gorilla man-beast thing that mutinies, taking on his master’s habits, as well as his red cape. Not a bad little story.

C-THON

C-THON

Conan Volume 6: The Hand of Nergal (2008) - This collection is similar to Conan and the Midnight Guard, except this time Conan is just a homeless wanderer and not King Conan, as in the later story; but there’s still the same “mad king calls on evil hordes, slaughters his own people, evil magic is suffocating the world” sort of stuff; evil, of course, dies in the end, but along with it millions of innocents.

The story goes that an evil terror stalks the street of Nergal, where the king has just died. His foolish son has taken over, and is in the sway of a necromancer who convinces him that the gods will promise him riches and glory if he commits certain… sacrifices. The prince does this, even as he prepares for his wedding to a beautiful princess from an allied nation. She’s on his way to meet him, she bumps into a short-haired young enchantress who’s looking for Conan, who bumps into the troops protecting the princess, who all bump into an army of the undead; meanwhile, Conan bumps into the same army, which enlists him – his help comes in handy when they fight the walking dead. Endless slaughter, the necromancer becomes a wicked beast, resurrecting chtonian horrors from cyclopean halls; of course, if this isn’t enough, enter one reanimated Gunderman who is on a mission to kill Conan. Pigmen and vultures eat the rotting corpses of fallen armies, and our princess wakes up in a river of blood, as does Conan, the only survivor of a battle that cost all of his comrades their lives. Our heroes meet in the palace, there is a human sacrifice, Conan’s iron will is too much for the hypnotist orc leader, and it all ends in fire. Of course it all takes place during a solar eclipse.

The art is magnificent, of course, but the story is awful.

CC

CC

Conan Volume 7: Cimmeria (2009)
One of the great, epic Conan tales. The book starts off with a new collage of images depicting scenes from the Conan stories until now – the God in the Bowl, the Tower of the Elephant, the Hand of Nergal, and others. It’s great great artwork.

The prologue shows Conan approaching Cimmeria, encountering a band of Vanir raiders. Naturally he wipes them all out, except for the youngest, clearly a musician and no warrior. The tale is book-ended by a pictoral of Robert E Howard himself climbing into the North Texas hills to write the poem “Cimmeria” on one cold, dark, rainy winter afternoon. Beautiful, sentimental tribute to the master.

The tale proper starts with Conan riding in to Cimmeria, surprised by another band of Vanir raiders; they fell his horse, trapping him under its corpse. He is surrounded by Vanir, and although he kills one, he’s trapped. Until a lone stranger’s approach frightens them off. The stranger rescues Conan, and takes him back to his lodging for warmth and nourishment. The stranger knew Conan’s grandfather, Connacht, and tells his tale, how he wandered out of Cimmeria after killing a chief’s son in a squabble over a nag, rescued boys who were about to be made human sacrifices, but the boys are werewolves that take joy at the kill… at least the bullying elder one is. In a battle, the younger one survives.

Connacht’s wandering tales are illustrated by Richard Corben, who has a cartoony, inky style, while the tales of Conan’s wandering back to Cimmeria are magnificently illustrated in high realistic/macho grandeur by Tomas Giorell, the tales shuffle back and forth throughout the thick volume. Both artists are very good, but also very different. It makes for a great contrast.

Conan returns to Cimmeria, meets Caollan, his first love, on the trail, fleeing a death sentence. She is pregnant by a chieftain’s son from another village, the same who also killed a neighbouring Aesir kingdom’s prince. To keep peace, the Cimmerian’s traded Caollan to be the neighbouring king’s bride. Cimmerian politics. Aesir hunt Caollan in the snows, with them the witch Ulva who raises Skrae maggot zombies to capture Coallan and kill Conan to avenge the death of fallen comrades. Burning the Skrae, he again battle the Aesir and is again rescued by the wolves. What action!

Connacht’s tales of Arabic lands, where a lovely slave girl he likes is slaughtered, he avenges her by murdering the temple priests, he saves a businessman who betrays him, he becomes a galley slave, but fights for his freedom, joins raiders from Koth who slaughter kingdoms in the employ of mad kings; leaving the men of “civilisations” in disgust, he nearly freezes to death returning to Cimmeria, where he meets Conan’s grandmother. They live happily ever after.

Conan returns to the village briefly, tells more tales of his grandfather to Caollan, with whom he is reconciled. She meets her husband, who murders her, closing the cycle. That’s it, off he goes, wandering again – never to return.

The tales are wonderfully intertwined, making the whole book fulfilling in a way that it might not have been as a single tale, which would perhaps have been a bit too simple. The sights of Cimmeria are interesting – we’ve always known Conan as a Cimmerians, but we’ve not seen his homeland, nor have we seen any other Cimmerians during his travels either.

The story is great, and the art – from both artists – is stunning. Bravo.

CBC

CBC

Conan Volume 8: Black Colossus – I normally don’t like the “there’s a wizard on the loose and he’s gathering an army of monsters and destroying entire civilisations” type stories, but this one is much better.

An ancient sorcerer tyrant worshipper of Set slumbers, awakened by a temple thief, he goes on a rampage amassing an army, intent on possessing princess Yasmela of Khoraja (why?), who has become queen upon the kidnapping of her brother, the king. Conan, meanwhile, enters the mercenary horde of Lord Amalric, who aids the armies of Khoraja. Yasmela observes Conan in battle, deciding to make him the commander of her armies. And so Conan becomes a leader for the first time. He’s on his way to becoming a king.

But there are battles to be won, and Conan must stave off a black burning camel, a vulture with enchanted eyes, a sabre-tooth djinn creature that feasts on the hearts of warriors, and the evil armies of the scorpion king, who sets his opponents’ forces in flames.

CATMG

CATMG

Conan and the Midnight God – A truly icky tale of Stygia, where evil grows, and King Conan’s war on its necromantic armies. Lots of “Die, peasant” badness, and “D-darkness… I see… darkness rising.” There are underwater demons, sexy half-naked snake-woman assassins, tortured souls, child warriors, and evil sorcerers commanding hydra things. The story is bizarre and ill-resolved, not worth a read.

CTBOT

CTBOT

Book of Thoth – A vile tale of a classic villain, that needs to be read nonetheless, as it explains who is Thoth, who is Amon, and who is Thoth-Amon. It also explains who Kalenthes is, what the order of Ibis is, and what the order of Set is (and how Thoth-Amon and Kalenthes may actually unite… although that is the less-interesting part of this story). The awesome, moody art is by Kelley Jones. The tale-of-no-hope proceeds down a menacing spiral as the young urchin Thoth raises himself through his ambitions and into opportunity through the sect of Ibis via a betrayal of his friend Amon. Naturally he embraces the dark side of the force and becomes truly, unrepentantly evil, befriending nobility, duping the hapless Kalenthes and his father, the over-trusting mage Kharantus, into believing that he’s good. Many young padwans are killed before Thoth realises his destiny as the once-dead when he is inducted into the cult of Acheron, and beings to secretly practice evil magic, craftily creating a world where the innocent are punished and the guilty are exonerated. “Be true to your oath boy… unto death… and beyond.” Creepy stuff. A map made from the skins of five murdered men shows Thoth the way to the ancient temple of Set, where the evil intensifies into weird Dr Strange lands of ancient time. Conan-like riders attack the outer lands, bringing political instability that plays into Thoth’s plans to turn the entire kingdom over to Acheron, who will givce him absolute power – bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!! Of course, when Kalenthes finally wises up it’s too late. Thoth starts to grow a beard, and becomes the mean old bird we know and love. Consolidating his power, we see the statues of the ibis pulled down, and up go the statues to the snake. With the sacrifice of a voluptuous virgin, the powerful Acheron’s lieutenants rise and brings a few Lovecraftian ectoplasmic over-lords, but… they must be stopped. Yikes, a dilemma for our young lord of evil – does he rule the world under a powerful vassal today, or does he do it under his own steam tomorrow… or next week.

Great art, pretty good story (as with so many of Dark Horse’s Conan books).

TBSCAOS

TBSCAOS

The blood-stained Crown and Other Stories – Five illustrated comic tales of Conan and one script for a comic book to celebrate the centenary of Robert E Howard’s birth. The first re-united Kalanthes, Janissa and Conan as they fight off a demon horde in an outpost village. The village idiot wants to be a hero and holds off the demons in his own way. “Seeds of Empire” tells the tale of Conan as a hill chieftain, with the framing story of the young prince and his scheming wazir, as we gets conflicting tales of how Conan dealt with an unruly lieutenant (and a faithless ally). The artwork is very nice, and (for once) the byzantine story is even better (albeit with plenty of grotesque cruelty). “The Tower of Tara-Teth” is another one of those break-into-the-magically-defended-fortress-and-compete-with-another-thief-for-a-magical-prize-while-fighting-off-hideous-creatures kinds of stories. The artwork is stunning, the action fluid and exciting, and the story isn’t too bad either (and we get to see more of Janissa – bonus). “Helm” is a great little story that recounts the helmet that Conan lost in “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”, and how it passed from hand to hand, each of its owners meeting an early grave. Funky Where’s Waldo-like layouts.

TBWSA-CV1

TBWSA-CV1


The Barry Windsor-Smith Archives – Conan, Volume 1 – This collection published in February 2010, gathers 11 issues of the original Conan the Barbarian Marvel comic series, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith, originally published between October 1970 and November 1971. The book tells many of the same tales we see in the current Dark Horse Conan series, except in the original bloodless treatment, whereby artists weren’t allowed to show nudity, bloodletting and murder (which still took place, of course, but was all off camera). The foreword by Roy Thomas tells the tale of how Conan got off the ground at Marvel and how Barry Windsor-Smith (then called Barry Smith) was selected as the artist. The first issue has a very Jack Kirby feel to it (big swings, bright-eyed amplified facial expressions, over-wrought posing, etc). The story covers weird barbarian tribal battles (Conan makes a career of wandering into such battles, where he arbitrarily picks sides), sorcerers in caves, winged demons, sudden death, beautiful enchantresses and other angels. In issue two, Conan is lured by a beautiful slave into the arms of the evil Hyperborians, who throw him in the pit with the other slaves, there are great gladiator battles and slave revolts. Conan meets the Great Grey God and his Valkyries, in the first adaptation of an original Robert E Howard tale (“The Grey God Passes”), whereby Conan joins an internecine battle of vicious back-stabbing hordes playing a game of mutually assured destruction. Issue four is the classic “The Tower of the Elephant”, it is full of great art and story-telling, very similar to the Dark Horse version (of course – true to the original tale). Issue five also follows Robert E Howard, this time “Zukala’s Daughter” is modelled after Howard’s poem “Zukala’s Hour”, about the sorceress Zephra who can turn into a tiger who is in love with Conan and decides to turn on her father instead of battle the brave barbarian. Right. Not one of the better tales. “Devil Wings Over Shadizar”, the title of issue six, is the start of a series of tales that include the faithless strumpet Jenna, she of “Rogues In The House” fame (a tale that is to be recounted in issue 11). Here he meets her between swings in a pub brawl, then rescues her as she’d kidnapped by evil priests to be sacrificed to the night god (actually a giant bat) by its high priestess, the sexy Hajii. Issue seven recounts “The God In The Bowl”, renamed here “The Lurker Within”, when Conan meets the haughty Lady Aztrias, who betrays him in the end. At the end of this supernatural mystery, superbly plotted, everybody is dead except Conan, who engages in a mighty battle with a serpent that has a frozen human head and Medusa snakes for hair. Here Conan also gets his first glimpse of the face of Thoth-Amon. Scary! In “Keeper of the Crypt”, Conan meets the Gunderman, who initially has been sent to track him down, and together they plunder the city of the dead, with its giant salamander guardian, zombie militia, and all sorts of other wackiness (jade snakes, for example, that come alive). Conan encounters the faithless Jenna again, and off they run, penniless, the law at their heels, ha ha ha. Issue nine, “The Garden of Fear” is a cool tale of the barbarian meeting savage tribes even more uncivilised than he, then going off to fight a winged black demon in a garden of mastodon and carniverous grass, where he saves Jenna’s live once again from yet another tower. By issue 10, Barry Smith’s art is looking really great, with wonderful lines. Here, Conan reunites with Burgun the Gunderman, Jenna meets Burgun’s apprentice Igon. In the temple, Burgun is captured and soon thereafter hung, Conan takes his revenge on the priest who sold him out and confronts the bull god. It’s like a scene from a Monster Magnet album cover, of course, and all good fun. Issue 11, “Rogues In The House” tells of Conan’s battle with Thak, a monster who’s also a man. The inks here are washed out and not very good. There’s murder and nudity, and the Conan team seemed to have gotten in trouble for flaunting the comic code here because the next issues (gathered in volume 2) go easy on both. Great battle between Thak and the Red Priest’s black leopard.

TBWSA-CV2

TBWSA-CV2


The Barry Windsor-Smith Archives – Conan, Volume 2 – Volume 2 is different from Volume 1 in that it doesn’t collect issues in order – we get Conan the Barbarian issues 12 to 16, then issues 19-24, published between December 1971 and March 1973, with various other Conan tidbits published at other times, along with a covers collection. Fine.

In “Dweller In The Dark”, Conan gets kidnapped by Arab-looking soldiers to become a demented queen’s boy toy; when she tires of him, he gets thrown to the spider pit to be eaten by an octopus creature – a thing that was once human – that Conan escapes, only to toss the queen into the pit with it. Nice. In “Web of the Spider God”, Conan helps an oppressed people free themselves from becoming Spider God food. Great dialogue here: “Don’t take me, holy one – not me! Take my wife – my sons – but not me!!” Conan battles the giant beast, wounding it, the city blows up!! Issue 14 and 15 are crossover tales – Conan meets Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone, they battle evil sorcerers resurrecting an eldrich proto-goddesses of green evil. Great. Moorcock also plotted the tale. Zephra and Zulkala re-enter the story here, now both of them on the side of our Cimmerian. Sure. Conan rides to aid Zulkala, he encounters Elric, they battle to a standstill and then become reluctant allies (especially when Conan sees Elric’s swords drinking the souls of the fallen). They fight demon hordes together until they reach the golden palace that is their destination and fight off the evil resurrected goddess. Issue 16 recounts the tale of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”, the art is stunning. Issue 19 starts a four-issue run where Conan sails to war, first fighting one side, before he is betrayed, then joining the other he is betrayed again. He meets up with Red Sonja, has a cool fight with Mikhal Oglu, the Vulture, and then turns his back on the mess.

The last two tales are of the “horny” Conan: first he unites with the fey agent/pirate captain Red Sonya, then he meets the blonde warrior woman Valeria. “The Song Of Red Sonja” is another climb-the-magic-tower-to-get-treasure-first-defeat-a-deadly-beast type of story that we’ve read many times before. Conan is betrayed again. Yawn. The Valeria tales, recounted in Savage Tales issues two and three, are much better. Telling the classic Robert E Howard tale “Red Nails”, the art by Barry Windsor-Smith is fully mature in his blood-spattered dots characteristic style and really great artwork. Conan and Valeria fight a giant red dinosaur, before discovering the seemingly-abandoned jade city, inhabited by ghosts as well as two impotent warring tribes that manage to wipe each other out some time after Conan and Valeria join them. Great tales of royal insanity, decapitated heads, reanimated dead kings with magic blaster insanity, human sacrifice, low necklines showing full cleavage, alligator monsters that lurk in the dark, and suicidal final battles. Great great great! There’s a black and white illustration of Robert E Howard’s poem Cimmeria that shows Conan fighting a wolf in the middle of a solo hunting expedition (?), then there are random covers of various reprints of old Conan collections, and finally there’s the original Conan-like “Starr The Slayer” tale, seven pages long, that Thomas and Windsor-Smith did in April 1970 before they began working on Conan in October 1970 (it has a weird time-traveling Twilight Zone-like ending to it).

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