Curse of the undead man, script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema and Pablo Marcos.



It is adapted from a REH fragment (completed by Gerald Page) featuring his female warrior, Dark Agnes of Chastillon. Red Sonja is of course a perfect fit for Agnes in the story, and Conan plays the role of adventurer John Stuart. This is only the third appearance of Sonja in a Conan story (after CtB 23 and 24), and the first time we get to see the famous "iron bikini" in an actual story. "By the way", says a slightly inebriated Cimmerian, "did I tell you I like your armor… what little there is of it?"

This tale is set at the same time as the events happening in the regular Conan the barbarian comic (between issues 42 and 43). In fact, the letters page from SSoC #3 reveals that the story was meant to be published in the color comic, and had to be slightly reformatted to fit the B&W mag.

Conan is roughly 22-23 years old at the time, and still pretty much carefree and in the grip of wanderlust. Over the past few months, he has joined the army of Turan in the east (think of a proto-Ottoman empire) and switched sides during the epic siege of the city of Makkalet, incurring the life-long enmity of Turan's future ruler, Prince Yezdigerd (CtB#20). Leaving the doomed and burning city (CtB#26), he moves westwards again, forcibly re-enlisting in Turan's army (far from Yezdigerd's whereabouts, thankfully), where he knows some success and becomes an officer. After an ill-advised affair with his superior officer's wife (an event hinted at in the introductory paragraph of one of the paperback stories published in the 60s, and happily grafted by Roy Thomas on an actual REH story, "the house of Arabu" for CtB#38), Conan has to desert the Turanian army once more and continues his journey west, heading towards the Zamorian city of thieves, which he knows well. It's probably like coming home, in fact! And that's where we find him as the story begins, penniless but confident and even cheerful.

Conan happens upon an attempted mugging: a few robed figures (whom he mistakes as priests but who later turn out to be wizard apprentices) are under attack by a bunch of thieves, who unwisely decide to "silence" this unwelcome witness. Needless to say, most of them are dispatched by the Cimmerian, until his foot slips on something and he falls to the ground. He's saved in extremis by a newly-arrived figure, who turns out to be none other than his old comrade from the Makkalet days, Red Sonja. Luckily, Conan holds no grudge over their previous parting in CtB#24, the classic "The Song of Red Sonja" (she caused him to fall off the side of a tower and made off with a cursed tiara they had stolen together, a tale that will be more extensively covered in this mag's second story).

Inspecting the crime scene, the duo discovers that what made Conan slip was a severed finger bearing a ring, and that the finger's erstwhile proprietor, a dead wizard, lies nearby in what looks like a magical circle drawn on the ground. What's funny is that this wizard, one Costranno, had been publicly beheaded that very morning, as witnessed by Sonja herself; as for his severed finger, it had reputedly been cut off by a courtesan, Berthilda of Bryhtunia, who knew that the ring it bore was the source of the man's power, and probably a good way to replenish her diminishing fortune. Apparently, the wizard's students were piecing the body back together when set upon by thieves. Disgusted by all this magic business, Conan drops the finger (but we, omniscient readers that we are, get to see the appendage start moving toward the corpse's hand!)

Sonja and Conan go get a few drinks and exchange recent news, as a cowled character enters groggily and asks the bartender for directions to Berthilda's house, mentioning that things aren't clear in his head… yet. Meanwhile, Sonja punches a prostitute who tries to insult her; in retaliation, the other woman goes and gets the city watch, accusing our heroes of being the ones who attacked those hapless students earlier. Just before the house erupts, Conan notices that the mysterious robed figure who asked for directions wears Costranno's ring!

Not born yesterday, Conan understands that this must be the wizard himself, back to life, and that he's likely to be after his treacherous paramour. After escaping from the city watch (with the help of a heavy table!) our heroes make for Berthilda's house, because the Cimmerian wants to clean his own mess (he's the one who dropped the finger where it might reattach to the wizard's body, after all). Entering without trouble, they interrupt an undead Costranno who's about to sacrifice Berthilda to his dark gods.

As Conan jumps on the bad guy and his minions, there's a bit of a comic-book mystery for us: in this version, we are treated to a double splash page, full bleed, with inks that don't look like Marcos' work to me. My bet would be pure Buscema.



When this story was reprinted in CtB 78, this double page was replaced by a different, single splash page.



Interestingly, in both cases, the story would work just fine without the image, be it single- or double-page. I'd love to hear the story behind this.

Anyway… the wizard proves to be unkillable until his hand is cut off, as without his magic ring he collapses again. A creature rising out of a pit dug in the floor grabs Sonja's leg and tries to drag her down with it, but Conan hits the monster with the wizard's corpse and the pit is sealed shut with a heavy ad hoc slab. As Conan and Sonja walk out of the corpse-riddled house with Berthilda, the ungrateful lady insists on going back in (probably to recover the ring again). However, Sonja saw the severed hand fall with Costranno's body down the pit, and so it's likely that the undead wizard will rise again… a supposition that's confirmed by a loud yell coming from the house. Our heroes walk off into the night, musing that there's little pay in saving the same treacherous woman again and again, and with Sonja telling Conan to keep his hands to himself.

Notes:
- Sonja is left-handed throughout this story. Since she used two swords or only her right hand in CtB23 and 24, we can assume she's ambidextrous. It would have been neat for her being a southpaw to be made canon.
- The gods Costranno invokes are Gol-Goroth and Yog-Sothoth; the first is a REH creation and was worshipped on the island of Bal-Saggoth, seen in CtB 17-18; the second is a creation of HP Lovecraft.

Conan's women warriors
an article by Fred Blosser, whom I didn't know was only 23 at the time. Blosser would go on to treat us to several excellent articles on Conan's world in SSoC.

Here we talk about some of the most memorable female characters in the Conan cycle: Bêlit, Valeria and Yasmina, but also the villainous Salomé and (oddly enough, I thought) the Stygian Thalis, from the minor Conan story "the slithering shadow". We also mention briefly the literary origin of Red Sonja in the character Red Sonya of Rogatine, who starred in the historical tale "The shadow of the vulture". Interesting material, especially since it comes with the famous Maroto picture introducing the iron bikini, a Roy Krenkel rendition of Red Sonya, and two vintage images from Weird Tales (both by Hugh Rankin) depicting Yasmina and Bêlit.


Blackmark
story and art by Gil Kane.

Blackmark was intended as a series of graphic novels to be published as pocketbook paperbacks; apparently, although they did well, they didn't do quite well enough to warrant a sustained series. So Gil Kane was left with three graphic novels, only one of which had been published. Others' loss would be SSoC's readers gain! (at least for a while). The format is interesting, turning away from the classic comic-book grid. Captions are more literary, closer to an actual prose novel. In this first installment, we witness the origin of the lead character. Blackmark's world is a post-nuclear war Earth, which has fallen back to a medieval level and where mutant monstrosities roam. Life is hard. A king called Amarix, who hoped that science could help restore mankind to its former glory, was cast down by his people who blame science for the Earth's state, and associate it with sorcery. Fleeing upon the desert wastes, a mortally-wounded Amarix chances upon a young, barren woman whose husband is away, hunting. He tells her that he can make it so that she becomes fertile again, and that he'll bequeath on her unborn offspring all his knowledge, giving it a chance to change the world for the better. She reluctantly accepts (in exchange for a pouch of gold, too) and Amarix and his aide strap on Kane-esque gizmos to her. Amarix then goes away, still hunted by an angry crowd. The lady's husband, meanwhile, is quite angry at what happened, and when a child is born a year later he refuses to recognizes it. But the baby boy finally grows on him.

This is a very good start; the hints at the mysterious aspects of this new world are quite intriguing. (Blue lights flickering at the horizon; strange mutated men with mental powers living at the north pole… it all makes me want to read some more).

The frost giant's daughter
Script by Roy Thomas
Art by Barry Smith

The story that closes this issue is reprinted from two different places: the first splash page is the one added by Smith for the reprinted, coloured version from CtB #16; the rest is the unedited version from Savage Tales #1. "Unedited", because as per the original script there is a bit of nudity in here, and it had to be covered in CtB 16.

This is, simply put, one of the most beautiful comic-book stories ever. The art is gorgeous, even if Barry Smith was still a young artist at the time; it has "CLASSIC!!!" written all over it.



It also deals with a delicate subject: Conan's attempted rape of a god's daughter. I have no idea why Farnswroth Wright didn't want it for Weird Tales!

The story goes as this: on a frozen northern battlefield, Conan ends up the lone survivor of two clashing groups of Aesir and Vanir. He knows the rest of his Aesir band will eventually try to find him, but his wounds are so bad that he loses consciousness. He's woken by a silvery laugh, that of a very pale-skinned maiden barely dressed in a whisper of gossamer, who flaunts her charms at him and taunts him to follow her. Conan takes a little prodding, but when his blood is up he chases after her! (His line "I'll follow you to hell!" made it into the recent and disappointing movie). It turns out the girl has a habit of getting wounded men to follow her so she can bring them to her two giant brothers, who then slay them and take their heart to their father Ymir's table. "Whoever you may be, dogs… you'll not keep me from that man-taunting harlot!" exclaims Conan who proceeds to kill the two giants and to pursue the girl further. He catches her but she escapes, leaving her only garment in his hand… and then screams for help from her father, the ice god Ymir. And to use the Vimes meme currently making the rounds:

It was at this moment that Conan knew… He Fucked Up.

The girl is zapped away to heaven, the Earth shakes, there are fires in the sky, and Conan looses consciousness again.

When he awakes, his friends have found him and deride his adventure as a fever-induced illusion, until an old warrior, Gorm, reveals that he lived through the same thing in his youth, howling like a dying dog because he was too badly wounded to follow the girl. He names her Atali, the Frost Giant's Daughter.

The other warriors don't quite know what to make of it, until Conan opens his clenched hand and shows them the flimsy veil that he tore off Atali: a veil so fine no human hand could have woven it.

Notes:
- The placement of this story has always been problematic. I personally would have made it the very first Conan story, since thanks to a letter written by REH we know Conan first left Cimmeria towards the North, serving as a mercenary for the Aesir against the Vanir. L. Sprague de Camp made it a later tale, placing it after Conan's first return to Cimmeria, after he had been a Zamoran thief. That seems unlikely, because Conan really sounds a bit green here… and besides, the de Camp/ Carter story "Legions of the dead", which features some of the characters seen here, is set during Conan's first foray out of Cimmeria. But for Conan to have twice found work among the same small band of Aesir warriors sounds unlikely. In fact, it sounds very unlikely that Conan would ever go back north to find work, after he had tasted from the south's rich wines and exotic sights. When he adapted this story for Dark Horse's Conan relaunch, Kurt Busiek made it the Cimmerian's first adventure.



All in all, an excellent start for a comic magazine!

Hi RR;

I am so glad to see you reconstituting this information and preserving it. It is also a good idea not to post the replies and such. I can see a can of worms there.

There is a pleasant problem re-reading your posts here and now. It has been a long, long time since I did an indepth read of this material. Looks like I am doomed to find a way to seclude myself in the comic room for a weekend or two of Conan catchup and review duties.

Not that I consider that all that dreadful and doomy.

-jb the hyborian ib -

By the way, there is a lot of SSoC material available on Google books at this address.

Black Colossus is set when Conan is about 27 or 28. He's been a thief, he's been a soldier in the Turanian army, he's been a mercenary in Ophir and Nemedia, he's been a pirate, and now he's a mercenary once more in the small Hyborian kingdom of Khoraja, a splinter state from Koth.

Our story begins with a foreboding preamble, as a famous thief enters a long-dead city. And right off the bat we are floored by the gorgeous art.



The city, Kutchemes, has laid in ruins for 3000 years, ever since wild Hyborian invaders sacked it. Its leader, the Stygian wizard Thugra Khotan, had sealed himself in a giant and unpregnable dome, along with a fortune in gold and jewels. And for 3000 years, no one had been able to break the doors or get to the gold; not, that is, until our thief arrives. Thanks to things he learned and to quick reflexes, he manages to get into the dome and swim in money (Scrooge McDuck-like) for a while before something surprises him and kills him.

Our actual tale begins a few weeks later. Khoraja is in a pickle: its king is a hostage in Ophir, leaving the young (and lovely, natch!) princess Yasmela in charge. Wild bands of desert raiders, under the guidance of a shadowy leader named Natohk, grow ever bolder and threaten to invade the realm. To top it all, Yasmela is haunted night after night by horrible visions of a mysterious figure who reveals that he has the hots for her and is going to come and get her; that creature, it turns out, is the infamous Natohk himself. (But hey, who could blame him for falling for the princess? She's cute as can be).



Not knowing what to do to resolve her country's many crises, Yasmela turns to the oracle of Mitra. (Mitra is not the god of Khoraja, but their own goddess Ishtar has not been able to ward off Natohk's nightly hauntings and so she's ready to try anything). Mitra's words might be those of a god or those of a hidden priest, but Yasmela doesn't care: she will obey the very oracle-like instructions of Mitra and walk off alone into the benighted streets of her city, to give command of Khoraja's army to the first man she will meet.

That man, of course, is Conan, fresh out of a drinking place, and angry at teetotaller generals who insist on closing all grog houses so early in the evening. Without revealing who she is, Yasmela leads Conan to the palace (and he imagines she is a palace serving girl looking for a bit of fun). When he realizes his mistake, we are treated to a bit of comedy; first as he reacts to the news that he's behaving like an ass to a princess (causing him to drop his bottle of wine, which smashes on the floor) and then as Yasmela tries to convince her councillors that Conan is the proper man for the job of commander in chief. Which he immediately fails to demonstrate.

Chronicles of the sword is a study of the history of sword ands sorcery, written by none other than Lin Carter. I told you SSoC wasn't pulling punches in the scholarly department!

The article is illustrated by a few sketches drawn by several artist. John Buscema was in the habit of drawing lots of sketches on the back of his comics pages; Roy often bought the right to use them for such a purpose, and I'm sure John appreciated the business. One of my favourite Buscema Conan cartoon is one of those sketches; I'll show it when we get to it.

In Blackmark, we continue the story that began last issue. Young Blackmark, as is the fate of many young fantasy heroes, sees his family murdered by a cruel warlord. He swears revenge, but is then carried off by slavers… but not before declaring that he'll show them all by making himself master of the world. Go get 'em, kid!



Excellent artwork as before, and an engaging story too. I quite like this unusual format.

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The last story in this issue, the beast from the abyss, is the mag's first misstep. The artwork of Howard Chaykin inked by the many contributors of the Crusty Bunkers looks rough, unequal, unfinished, and not up to Chaykin's usual level. Plus, the story is pretty much a variation on "Kull sees monster, Kull kills monster". Oh, well.



The letters page (swords and scrolls) covers Savage Tales #4, and its lovely adaptation of The Dark Man, a Turlogh story turned into a Conan one (and one of my very favourites). One of the letter-writers is future Marvel editor Ralph Macchio.