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Post by paulie on Jan 28, 2015 11:43:10 GMT -5
Khassek also reveals the major weakness with Offut's writing... Khassek was a plot point and not a character.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 28, 2015 12:02:57 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #57, October 1980Cover by Nestor Redondo, showing Isparana and the Yoggites that will be faced in this issue. Table of contentsThe eye of Erlik, part II of the adaptation of the Conan pastiche novel "The sword of Skelos". Surgeons and scars, an article of the medical arts during the Hyborian Age.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 28, 2015 12:37:34 GMT -5
The eye of ErlikScript by Roy Thomas Art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga Part II (of three) of the adaptation of the Conan novel the sword of Skelos written by Andrew J. Offutt. This issue is heavy on the politics in Zamboula, and a lot of palace intrigue usually makes for a good Conan story. It doesn't go smoothly all the way, but still makes for an engaging yarn. Conan and Isparana are now travelling together to bring that coveted amulet, the eye of Erlik, back to Zamboula, so Isparana can fulfill her mission and Conan can get money. Since his erstwhile comrade Khassek is now dead, there's no point in travelling all the way to Iranistan and try to sell the bauble to king Kobad Shah, and keeping Isparana happy may mean more booty time for the Cimmerian. Speaking of Zamboula: we witness that young and ambitious wizard, Zafra, having a chat with his mistress, the equally ambitious Chia (nicknamed "the tigress"). Chia is the favorite of Akter Khan, Zamboula's satrap; but she seems to find Zafra more exciting... and she delights in trying to distract him with her charms. Zafra requests of the lady that she use one of her slaves, who doubles as a spy for the rebel leader Balad, to reveal the truth about the recent death of the youngest of Akter Khan's wives, a girl from the Shanki people that the khan murdered because she offended him by refusing his touch. (Why Zafra makes that request is never actually explained satisfactorily... naturally, it is bound to help destabilize the rule of his boss, Akter Khan, whom he wishes to one day replace... But why would he first try to help Balad by providing him with such important information? And why upset the Shanki people, who are bound to blame not only Akter Khan, but the entire city of Zamboula for the great offence made to them?) All right, what time is it? Coincidence time, of course! Conan and Isparana are attacked in the desert by a band of Yoggites, devil-worshippers of some kind (but then, isn't one's god usually someone else's demon?) The two give a good account of themselves, and when everything seems nevertheless lost they are saved by the impromptu arrival of warriors belonging to the Shanki. The Shanki bring the two travellers back to their camp, as guests. (Nice head shot, there, on the left). Among the Shanki, Conan shows himself to be a tactful and well-behaved guest, catching on social cues like a born diplomat, and generally ingratiating himself to the proud desert people. (Offut shows Conan as far more sociable than Howard did, but I guess it's okay for the Cimmerian not to be a one-note character). After a night of heavy drinking he wakes up reeking of beer and garlic, with a nicely-garbed Isparana watching over him. She claims to have searched him for the eye of Erlik, not finding it on his person; the closest thing being an ugly sword-shaped amulet he wears. Now this is a downright mistake. Isparana knows that the eye of Erlik is shaped like a sword and not like an eye; she stole it in issue #53. In the novel, Conan had hidden the amulet by encasing it in clay, making it look like some crude barbaric pendant. Here we just play with the idea that something called "eye" should be eye-shaped and not sword-shaped. Oopsie! Leaving the Shanki, the two thieves are met by Zamboulan soldiers sent to facilitate their journey; the wizard Zafra has sensed the approach of the magical amulet. Amid much pomp and circumstance, Isparana can finally fulfill her mission and give the eye of Erlik back to Akter Khan. The satrap is needless to say very happy, and promises to shower the two thieves with gold and assorted rewards. A party ensues, and I admit to being amused by a scene showing Conan, the next morning, nursing a massive migraine that seems to have made him quite useless the night before... He moans "I vow to give up wine... for life!" while a naked Isparana, next to him, grumbles "That will do me a lot of good... next time, perhaps". But then things start going downhill for the two young people. The wizard Zafra does not intend to see Akter Khan's gratitude bring in more players onto the chessboard, and he convinces the satrap that Conan and Isparana are both untrustworthy thieves, likely to betray him to the rebel Balad as soon as to serve him. The satrap agrees and orders the arrest of the two. Conan and Isparana meet one of their Shanki friends in a tavern, the son of the tribe's chief, who tells them about the rumour concerning Akter Khan's deceased Shanki wife (she was in fact the chief's daughter). He is understandably seething with anger, and Conan offers his help in elucidating the matter. He won't have much time to do so, however, for he is then asked to go meet someone... alone. Leaving Isparana at the tavern, Conan meets that someone, who turns out to be the rebel Balad, intent on recruiting the Cimmerian to his cause. Akter Khan is a bit of a despot and his son Jungir is too young to replace him, so naturally Balad sees himself as the perfect choice to replace him. Conan keeps his options open, but as he returns to the room he shares with Isparana his decision is pretty much made for him: his companion has been arrested by the city guards, and he barely escapes them himself, adopting the disguise of a hunchbacked beggar. To be continued! Notes: - The young priest Totrasmek is mentioned by Chia; this is naturally the evil priest from Shadows in Zamboula. He doesn't play a role in this story, but appropriate name-dropping helps connect the different tales.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 28, 2015 12:45:13 GMT -5
Surgeons and scars An article of Life, Death, and Medicine in the Hyborian Age, by Jim Neal.
Once again, Neal regales us with a fact-filled article on the arts of healing during Conan's age. He includes uncommon health problems, such as sorcerous afflictions, and how the vitality of many characters was key to their survival. Hyborian hygiene is also covered.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 29, 2015 11:19:28 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #58, November 1980Earl Norem provides another monochrome cover, with a dramatized scene from this issue's main story. Table of contents:A frontispiece by John Buscema (pencils and inks), evoking the Stygian giant king seen in CtB #90 For the throne of Zamboula, third and concluding part of the sword of Skelos REH: bard from the shadows, an article on Robert Howard's poetry Mirror of the manticore, a Hyborian age story explaining away a past plot hole!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 29, 2015 12:03:25 GMT -5
For the throne of ZamboulaScript by Roy Thomas Art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga Concluding the adaptation of the Conan novel the sword of Skelos, by Andrew J. Offutt. Last issue, Isparana was captured by the Zamboulan city guard on the order of its satrap, Akter Khan, who promised to deliver her to his pet wizard, Zafra, to do with as he pleases. This is rather poor payment for the good services rendered by the lady, but the satrap is an ungrateful sort and a fearful ruler who'd rather not have to trust someone if he can have them executed instead. He has the same plans for Conan, too. The Cimmerian, having escaped capture, intends to free his lady friend from her gaol. Things don't go as smoothly as expected however, and he is captured too and submitted to torture to soften him up. After an indeterminate period Conan wakes up on the floor of the wizard Zafra's work room, with the young sorcerer gloating over him. "Hear me, barbarian... within then year I shall rule in Zamboula... A few years more and all Turan will bow to me. Not bad, eh, for a peasant boy whose wizard-master once beat because he did not learn his lessons fast enough!" Zafra then uses the magical sword of Skelos on Conan: at the voiced command of "slay him!", the blade takes flight and won't rest until it has killed someone. Conan uses a heavy chandelier to deflect the first blow, but the sword keeps coming again and again like an angry hornet. Finally, Conan ducks at the last second as the sword zooms in to impale him, and its blade gets stuck in the room's door. Promptly, the Cimmerian opens the door and ducks out of the room, leaving Zafra alone in it with a sword that's quickly getting unstuck! A scream announces that the magical sword has done its work, and when Conan reopens the door he finds the wizard on the ground, stabbed in the chest. He recovers the now still sword and leaves to find Isparana. The lady is in the dungeons, hanging naked from a high ceiling. (Isparana is naked a lot in this issue). Plausible but sickening details about what she just went through make it clear that this is not a code-approved mag, and pretty much justify anything that the two may decide to do to the Zamboulan torturers. In the slaughter that follows, it is made clear that the sword of Skelos won't work for Conan. No matter, swords handled the old fashioned way make short work of all those who oppose the Cimmerian and Isparana. The two disguise themselves as guards and proceed to the throne room, where they hope to settle accounts with the treacherous satrap. There, a bad surprise awaits them: there is almost a dozen guards between them and their target! They are saved by the capricious nature of Akter Khan. The satrap claims to want to speak with the two of them personally, unarmed, and he send his guards away (none of them liking the idea too much). Akter Khan has however no intention to talk; he just wants the pleasure of murdering the pair himself, using a second sword of Skelos that Zafra has earlier prepared for him! The blade, set on a wall high above his throne, is supposed to fly at Conan and Isparana at the command of "slay him!" but... fails to do so. "Slay her"" and "slay them'" have no more effect, and Akter Khan realizes that he has been duped: the sword of Skelos never obeyed his command! Zafra, always standing behind him, must have given the weapons its orders each time it was used. Before Conan has time to strangle the khan of anything, a loud tumult at the door announces that Balad the rebel has chosen this moment to start his palace revolt. Akter khan, realizing that his hour has come, regally opens the door to the throne room to let the insurgents in. The rebels first throw in the corpse of Chia, the scheming mistress of both Akter Khan and Zafra; she has been involved in her last plot. Then Akter is killed as well. Balad stands ready to claim the throne of Zamboula, but Conan is very upset about his sneaky ways and does not judge the man fit to replace the deceased khan: "Akter ruled like a beast, aye... but he accepted defeat like a king and was slain like a criminal by a man who used the distance weapon of the lowliest hunter... or a coward!" Balad decides that killing the Cimmerian would be a pretty good idea at this point, but before he can give the order they are interrupted by the arrival of a crawling Zafra, who has surprisingly survived being stabbed by the sword of Skelos. His last words are to command the magic sword lying on the floor to slay Balad, a deed that is done forthwith; before he can order it to do anything else, Conan decapitates the wizard.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 29, 2015 12:16:03 GMT -5
With Akter Khan and Balad both dead, it looks as if there's nothing keeping young Jungir from becoming satrap of Zamboula, a role we'll find him still occupying in the story Shadows in Zamboula (adapted in SSoC #14). Days later, Conan prepares to leave town. Isparana seems to have gained some influence over the young Jungir Khan, and is now the first woman in Zamboula... a position she will not hold for long. She and Conan part on good terms. When next they meet, a decade or so later in CtB #264, Isparana explains how Jungir Khan's tastes turned to exotic dancers (like Nafertari, who was his mistress in SSoC #14) and how she had to resume her life as a thief and mercenary. Notes: - This novel is guilty of a common sin in pastiches: that of trying to dot every i and cross every t, and make superfluous links between every character ever. There was no need to have Conan involved in the accession of Jungir Khan to the throne, no more than there was a need for him to do the same thing for queen Taramis of Khauran in the third Offut novel, Conan the mercenary. Eventually, these coincidences strain credibility too much. - Convoluted plots require some expediency, but Akter Khan turning against Conan and Isparana like that (or even Zafra getting such an intense dislike of the pair) seemed a bit forced. If the two were judged untrustworthy, wasn't it easier just to pay them and suggest that they get the hell out of Dodge?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 29, 2015 12:43:11 GMT -5
REH: Bard from the shadowsan article by Fred Blosser, illustrated by Gene Day Here we cover a few books on Howard's poetry. Howard wrote a massive amount of verse, and the collected poetry of Robert E. Howard is over 800 pages long. This short essay analyses Howard's different poetic techniques and the themes that most fascinated him. Mirror of the manticoreScript by Roy Thomas Art by Kerry Gammill Once upon a time, in SSoC#5 ( A witch shall be born), Conan wrested control of the desert-raiding Zuagirs from their former leader, Olgerd Vladislav. In the process, the Cimmerian crushed the man's right forearm beyond any hope of repair. Naturally, the wronged bandit sought revenge, and we saw how that turned out in SSoC#6 ( The sleeper beneath the sands): not only did Olgerd fail to kill his nemesis, but he was dragged beneath the ground by a many-tentacled primordial monster. That should have been the end of it, and is doubtless how it was planned at the time. But the decision to get rid of Olgerd had been taken before Marvel had the right to adapt the L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter pastiches and re-writes featuring Conan; among these tales was one featuring an understandably upset Olgerd Vladislav, not only alive and well but also using his right arm without problem. That tale having been adapted in SSoC #31-32, the discrepancy had to be explained. And so we learn here what befell Olgerd after his first attempt at revenge failed so miserably. The monster, it turns out, did not eat him or anything and probably didn't even realized he had something tangled in its tentacles; it had let Olgerd go as it dug its way back to the centre of the Earth, and the grievously wounded man had managed to crawl his way back to the surface. Crawling on his belly beneath the cruel desert son, Olgerd is near death anyway when he witnesses the attack of a caravan among the dunes. The raiders leave after abducting a young woman, leaving debris and corpses in their wake; Olgerd crawls his way to an old dying man. The fellow introduces himself as Selim the scholar and he has an offer for the newcomer: he can make him whole again if he swears to go rescue the young woman, Selim's own daughter. A mirror that the scholar found in an old Stygian tomb, a mirror once owned by the famed Tuzun Thune, has the power to turn desires into reality; all Olgerd has to do is look into it and wish himself healthy and strong again. (Good thing that the mirror has been left as a worthless artifact by the raiders). Such a convenient device to resolve plot contradictions! However, it apparently never crosses Selim's mind to look into the mirror and wish for his daughter back. Selim dies and Olgerd summons his last ounce of strength to reach the magical device. Gazing into it, he sees himself as he was back in his prime, and is instantly turned back into the powerful warrior he once was. Olgerd would probably not care one whit about the girl's fate, but now that he's hale again he wants to have a band of raiders at his beck and call once more, and so follows her abductors. Challenging the raiders' leader to a duel, he slays him (the fellow shouldn't have taunted Olgerd about losing his own band to a northern barbarian). Unfortunately for his future prospects, the magic mirror got smashed during the fight. (Oh, and the girl was already dead). And that's how you fix continuity, ladies and gents! The artwork by Gammill is pretty good.
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Post by foxley on Jan 29, 2015 15:37:49 GMT -5
Thanks! I'll start with #1-48 and #60. Considering what a slow reader I am, that should tide me over for quite a while. I think, ultimately, I'd like to get at least one sample from each writer you mentioned. Even the Fleischer stories sound somewhat appealing at times. The Fleischer plots are perfectly fine. It is his characterization of Conan that is the primary issue. That and his disregard of some obvious facets of Conan's biography that are overlooked willy-nilly. Bruce Jones is even worse. Catching up on the reviews, so forgive me commenting on matters that have already been discussed. Fleischer had a similar problem when he took over writing The Warlord. His plots were fine for the most part, but he had some real problems adhering to the characterisations that had been established by Mike Grell. In particular, his handling of Mariah made you wonder if he had read anything involving the character at all.
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Post by paulie on Jan 29, 2015 16:55:08 GMT -5
The Fleischer plots are perfectly fine. It is his characterization of Conan that is the primary issue. That and his disregard of some obvious facets of Conan's biography that are overlooked willy-nilly. Bruce Jones is even worse. Catching up on the reviews, so forgive me commenting on matters that have already been discussed. Fleischer had a similar problem when he took over writing The Warlord. His plots were fine for the most part, but he had some real problems adhering to the characterisations that had been established by Mike Grell. In particular, his handling of Mariah made you wonder if he had read anything involving the character at all. Good call on Warlord. I believe in issue #61 Conan talks to down to a bar maid. Conan would never do that. Bruce Jones had Conan just go off and punch someone in the face in #64. Longtime SSOC readers must have been like 'uh-oh'. I'm interested to see how RR's next 60-70 reviews go. I'll probably have lots to say because I have all of these just about and have read them in the past 2-3 years.
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Post by paulie on Jan 29, 2015 17:05:50 GMT -5
With Akter Khan and Balad both dead, it looks as if there's nothing keeping young Jungir from becoming satrap of Zamboula, a role we'll find him still occupying in the story Shadows in Zamboula (adapted in SSoC #14). Days later, Conan prepares to leave town. Isparana seems to have gained some influence over the young Jungir Khan, and is now the first woman in Zamboula... a position she will not hold for long. She and Conan part on good terms. When next they meet, a decade or so later in CtB #264, Isparana explains how Jungir Khan's tastes turned to exotic dancers (like Nafertari, who was his mistress in SSoC #14) and how she had to resume her life as a thief and mercenary. Notes: - This novel is guilty of a common sin in pastiches: that of trying to dot every i and cross every t, and make superfluous links between every character ever. There was no need to have Conan involved in the accession of Jungir Khan to the throne, no more than there was a need for him to do the same thing for queen Taramis of Khauran in the third Offut novel, Conan the mercenary. Eventually, these coincidences strain credibility too much. - Convoluted plots require some expediency, but Akter Khan turning against Conan and Isparana like that (or even Zafra getting such an intesne dislike of the pair) seemed a bit forced. If the two were judged untrustworthy, wasn't it easier just to pay them and suggest that they get the hell out of Dodge? The beauty of the pastiches is that we don't have to accept them as being true. If Howard stated that Conan stories were mere campfire tales then as readers we are able pick and choose what tales are true or not. Or, at least, choose the one's that are most plausible as actually having happened. By that logic... You can go right ahead and dismiss this Offut story as junk and not part of the Conan canon proper! Me? I'll go with what Jim Owsley wrote.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 31, 2015 13:56:55 GMT -5
The savage sword of Conan #59, Dec 1980Cover by Clyde Caldwell, after a long series of covers by Earl Norem or Nestor Redondo, and heralding an increased variety on the covers of this mag. House ads in this magazine remind us of how exciting comics were in the late 70s- early 80s... "The woman in daredevil's past... ELEKTRA!" That was when certain characters had not yet been exploited beyond all relevance. The art of John Byrne? That was such a great book. The X-Men portfolio by Byrne, Fastner and Larson? I still have mine! The Moondance Productions offerings were also all kind of neat; Frazetta posters, cool back issues... good times, good times! This issue's contents: The city of skulls, a Conan adventure The kozaks ride, an article by Fred Blosser Wolves beyond the border, the first part of a Hyborian Age non-Conan story based on an unfinished tale by Robert E. Howard.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 31, 2015 14:25:14 GMT -5
The city of skullsScript by Roy Thomas Art by Mike Vosburg and Alfredo Alcala Adapting a short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter An editorial page explains how this tale can be considered a "what if..?" episode, and an out-of-continuity Conan adventure. It covers events similar to the ones depicted in the Neal Adams-drawn CtB#37 that had introduced the Kushite warrior Juma when he and the Cimmerian were both serving as mercenaries for Turan. At the time of CtB#37, Marvel did not have the rights to adapt Conan stories not written by Howard, and so an alternate version of "the City of Skulls" had been written for the comic, with a special permission by de Camp and Carter for the use of Juma. Here Roy Thomas explains that years later, wanting to see artist Mike Vosburg draw an issue of the mag, he had opted for "the city of skulls". (The alternate version of "At the mountain of the moon god" from SSoC#3, "Shadows in the dark" would have been another possibility... it is not mentioned here why it was not considered, and "Shadows in the dark" remains the only de Camp-Carter Conan story not to be adapted by Marvel). The basic plot of this issue follows that of CtB #37: Conan, Juma and other soldiers are escorting a Turanian princess (daughter of Yezdigerd in CtB#37, but his sister here). They are attacked by mountain men who take the princess and the two huge warriors back with them to their abode, where the princess is expected to know a terrible fate until the two friends free themselves, wreak havoc and manage to escape with her. In this version of the tale, the hillmen are from the country of Meru and its capital Shamballah, and they seem to be based on a (pretty offensive) version of the Tibetan people. Their hideous and degenerate priest-king (or rimpoche) is into raping princesses before sacrificing them to his gods. Conan and Juma will have to escape a galley in the nick of time to interrupt the unholy ceremony, accidentally causing a giant animated statue to step on the rimpoche and thus causing enough chaos to be able to make good their escape. Vosburg's pencilling is all but invisible under Alfredo's inks, but the mag does have good art: The rimpoche is suitably ugly, too! I must admit, however, that despite a generous viewing of the princess's naked body in this issue, I preferred the Adams art in CtB #37. The story, too, was superior. Juma would be back in SSoC#232.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 31, 2015 14:40:56 GMT -5
The Kozaks rideAn article by Fred Blosser, illustrated by Tony DeZuniga and by Gene Day "Kozak" means "wastrel" in the language of the empire of Turan, and it designates a loose amalgam of local people from the region around the south and west shores of the sea of Vilayet, joined by jobless mercenaries who wandered in from the Hyborian lands. They are very much based on the historical cossacks and were without a doubt born out of Howard's love for the works of Harold Lamb. The Hyborian Age Kozaks were a thorn in the side of the empire of Turan, and Conan is depicted as one of their numbers in Iron Shadows in the moon (SSoC#4) and as one of their leaders in the devil in iron (SSoC#15). Blosser gives a good account of what the Kozaks represent in the Conan universe. What is not mentioned here is how bloody difficult it was to finally see Conan become a Kozak in the comics! According to the chronology, shortly after the events of Black Colossus (SSoC#2), Conan left his elevated position in the kingdom of Khoraja (we saw how in SSoC#3) and joined a mercenary army that, finding itself unemployed, wandered east and pillaged what it could along the way, eventually becoming a problem for the empire of Turan when it joined the local Kozaks. We were very close to that moment when Roy Thomas left Marvel in 1980, and "Conan the Kozak" was something readers could reasonably expect to see within a year or two. The timetable should have been accelerated when new writer J. M. deMatteis simply sidestepped the storylines of Hawks over Shem and Black Colossus, but... from that point, during the deMatteis, Jones and Fleisher years, there was no continuity to speak of. Jim Owsley tried to restart the clock and had Conan fulfill the conditions leading to his Kozak career, first serving under a "rebel prince of Koth", and then traveling east, but Owsley was kicked off the mag and his replacements once again focused on tales that, good as they might have been, were essentially a series of fill-ins. Then the mag was softly rebooted as a "Conan year one" kind of thing, and it took the return of Roy Thomas to finally get Conan to resume his march toward kozakhood! But... the mag would be cancelled just as we reached our goal! Suitably enough, the final issue of Conan the barbarian was titled "Cry, Kozak!"
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 31, 2015 14:53:01 GMT -5
Wolves beyond the borderScript by Roy Thomas Art by Ernie Chan Adapted from a fragmentary story by Robert E. Howard This is the only non-Conan Hyborian Age story written by Robert E. Howard, and it shows his interest in frontier tales. His Conajohara, Shohira and other places from the Aquilonian westermarck all remind us of the American tales of James Fennimore Cooper, if you substitute Picts for American Natives. The story stars a young man, Gault son of Hagar, during the days of the civil war that toppled King Numedides and replaced him with Conan the Cimmerian. Gault, naturally, is symnpathetic to Conan's cause; "I was but a stripling in Conajohara when he fought to save that province from the Picts. We have not fogotten Conajohara!" This statement is from the original tale, but in a Marvel comic it creates a certain confusion concerning continuity... Conan defending Conajohara from the Picts in SSoC#26-27 and #46 can't have happened much more than a year before Wolves beyond the border, and Gault looks like a young adult. Even if he grows fast and eats his veggies, for him to go from "a stripling" to his current bulk would definitely require a few years, if not a half a decade! But anyway. The story deals with restless Pictish tribes and a rotten Aquilonian who provides them with metal weapons and alcohol, just as in an old western movie. We must mix in an exotic-looking wild witch and a few forest monsters, but the story will never be concluded: a second chapter would be seen in SSoC#76, and that would be that. Swords and scrollsThe letters page includes two daily strips, where we see that there were samurai in the Hyborian Age! These have not yet been reprinted by Dark Horse.
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