|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 5, 2015 17:31:40 GMT -5
Unscathed, the trio makes its way to shore, where Anya (invoking Mitra) starts to sound less harpish toward the burly barbarian who keeps saving her life. Ah, but there will be no rest for the harassed travellers, as they are immediately captured by zebra-riding Amazons! Conan explains: "I've long been familiar with the existence of these ebon-skinned warrioresses, Lesuthi! But I'll confess I'm perplexed by their presence here, so far to the north of their own native kingdom of Amazon and its high-walled capital, Gamburu!" AAAARGH!!! THIS is when the editor is supposed to call the writer and tell him "look, you can't have Conan say that! He will not meet the Amazons of Gamburu for at least another decade, as we've shown in SS0C# 41-42, and it was clear in that story that it was the first time Conan had ever heard of, much less met, these warrior women"! Conan is trussed up and brought to the Amazon queen Nzinga to act as her stud, JUST AS HAPPENED IN SSoC #41, and this gross inconsistency is brushed away by a caption claiming that "the queen of the black amazons is always named Nzinga." Conan will have a powerful feeling of déjà vu when he meets the "real" Nzinga, thirteen years later. Oh, by the way the queen is stark naked on the three pages we see her. That's surprising in a mag that had mostly veered away from nudity a few years prior. As fetching as the queen might be, Conan prefers to select his own mates, thank you very much, so he breaks his S&M bonds and kills the queen's pet panthers, before dragging her by the hair outside her hut. (Hey, it does say on the cover that he's a barbarian; sexist and brutal behaviour comes with the territory... I guess). Conan then threatens to kill the humiliated queen if his friends aren't freed.  Riding zebras, the three companions put that embarrassing episode behind them and ride towards Lesuthi's village. They avoid crossing a certain forest full of man-eating trees (also recycled from SSoC#41-42), but these will play a role later on. Lesuthi tells of his land's peculiar story: it is in the clutches of the leopard-men, cultists who venerate the leopard god. Their leader Ndutu Fah is the offspring of "a wanton harlot" and the god himself, and he has the ability to turn into a were-leopard. Not only is he a cruel tyrant, but Ndutu Fah also eats little babies. Lesuthi's mission in life is to rid his country of such evil! An old sorcerer welcomes Lesuthi back and gives him an enchanted spear that could kill Ndutu Dah. (Why nobody took on the mission before is not quite clear; for all his fortitude and good cheer, Lesuthi does not strike us as a warrior. He's definitely more of a quiet scholar. And in fact, when the three meet Ndutu Fah, the leopard creature strikes Lesuthi down with his first blow and breaks the spear.  (Note that the Stygian Anya swears by Mitra once again. Sigh). Conan intervenes, but the monster seems impervious to steel. The Cimmerian is about to get his lungs pulled out when he uses a fiendish trick: thanks to a coin he pulls out of his belt, he manages to reflect the light of the moon into the leopard-man's eyes. AAAARGH! THE PAIN! THIS BLINDING LIGHT IS EXCRUCIATING!!!  I am not making this up. As Ndutu Fah reels from such a powerful cascade of blinding light, Conan picks up the spear's head and drives it into the monster's heart. This gives courage to the natives who had been enslaved by the cultists and they rise up against the leopard men, killing them all. The grateful crowd starts chanting the new name they have given Conan: Amra, which means "lion", because it had been prophesied that a lion would kill the leopard. (Yes, yes, I know; we already saw how Conan gained the name of Amra in Conan the barbarian #63 and it was nothing like this. Stop criticizing me! I'm gonna start blubbering!) Conan then tells Anya that he set a trap for her lover: having witnessed her leaving pieces of garments behind as a trail, he set a second, false trail leading to the forest of man-eating trees. Anya, having grown fonder of the barbarian, doesn't mind at all; and the Cimmerian relishes the prospects of cheating on Bêlit with this insufferable teenager. And so concludes what is arguably one of the very worst SSoC of all. Notes: - If you do not insist that this story never happened, Conan would have been something like 24 years old in it. - The last few pages are not as polished as the others, as if Pablo had had to finish them very quickly to meet his deadline.  - Leopard Men (or "aniota") have had a long presence in comics; I first learned of them in Tintin au Congo, where a witch doctor had an absolutely cool leopard man outfit:  They were also seen in Corto Maltese, and naturally in Kull the conqueror #8 and in Master of Kung Fu.   |
|
|
|
Post by benday-dot on May 5, 2015 20:28:09 GMT -5
I wonder who would win in a fight... the leopard men or the lizard men (not to be confused with the crocodile men) These guys have a pedigree from golden age Sheena to bronze age Ka-zar.  |
|
|
|
Post by berkley on May 5, 2015 21:37:09 GMT -5
No matter how silly the story, I'll probably be looking for SSoC #97 for the Pablo Marcos art. The Kwapisz sample looked good as well.
Liberatore has an interesting style, very indiosyncratic, which I like, but I'm not sure it's suited to Conan, based on this single example. I kind of wish he had done a few more Conan covers so I could judge, though.
|
|
|
|
Post by foxley on May 6, 2015 2:34:29 GMT -5
Maybe I need to read it for myself to gauge the full horror, but judging from your summary Roquefort, it sounds like this tale might have enough goofy charm to make it a fun read.
As for leopard men in comics, I wonder how many were inspired by the classic Val Lewton horror movie The Leopard Man (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036104/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? (Tintin gets a pass as it predates the film.) Tarzan also fought a murderous cult of leopard men in Tarzan and the Leopard Men.
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 6, 2015 5:36:00 GMT -5
Maybe I need to read it for myself to gauge the full horror, but judging from your summary Roquefort, it sounds like this tale might have enough goofy charm to make it a fun read. As for leopard men in comics, I wonder how many were inspired by the classic Val Lewton horror movie The Leopard Man (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036104/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? (Tintin gets a pass as it predates the film.) Tarzan also fought a murderous cult of leopard men in Tarzan and the Leopard Men.Yes, foxley, I'd agree that if it's taken as a self-parody SSoC #97 can be a fun read; a bit in the vein of "The gamesmen of Asgalun", in which Conan kept being taken prisoner and complained that it was getting ridiculous. The art is certainly vintage Marcos, and berk will no doubt find that his money is well invested in this one, since it's unlikely to be very expensive. The leopard men, being an actual secret society, have an aura of mystery that makes them prime material for adventure stories. (Yesterday I finally found an animated cartoon with neat leopard men in it that marked my imagination as a kid). (Kimba and the golden bow; go to the 13:30 point for the cool scene). I know I read the Tarzan novel, but I confess I pretty much forgot what it was about. All I recall is that my copy had a Neal Adams cover. |
|
|
|
Post by foxley on May 6, 2015 5:42:13 GMT -5
Wow! Kimba, The White Lion (at least that's what it was called here in Australia). That takes me back to my childhood. (Although it was weird to hear it with a different theme song.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 6, 2015 16:33:03 GMT -5
Wow! Kimba, The White Lion (at least that's what it was called here in Australia). That takes me back to my childhood. (Although it was weird to hear it with a different theme song.) I know the feeling, as it's not the theme song that was used when I was a kid either! (We have that kind of problem with dubbed cartoons... Canada and France do it independently, most of the time). Kimba was Leo to me. Great artwork, I still think, even if the scripts were sometimes pretty sexist! |
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 9, 2015 13:41:24 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #98, March 1984 Cover by Michael Golden, his first for this magazine.  I’m convinced that Golden’s covers will be polarizing. He definitely doesn’t go for the classic Frazetta look, that’s for sure; this image has “early Golden cartoony exaggeration” written all over it. And I love it!!! Bright colorus! Sharp contrasts! That quirky way Golden used to draw hands and faces! I won’t surprise anyone by admitting I’m a huge fan of the 12 first issues of Micronauts, and of everything Golden drew in the 70s and 80s (except that one story in Bizarre Adventures #28 that looked like a try-out piece and was actually a fill-in story drawn for the cancelled Logan’s Run comic, recycled into a stand-alone SF yarn). The monster may look like Jabba the hutt here, but inside we get a better look at it; it’s actually got a sort of amphibian or reptilian body under that large head. The frontispiece is by Bob Camp, and a pretty good one it is.  Table of contentsThe blood ruby of death!, another title ending with an exclamation point. Ah, well, it is written "Stan Lee presents" up there. Exclamation points are par for course. The lady in the tower!, a short story drawn by Gary Kwapisz.
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 9, 2015 13:42:42 GMT -5
SSoC #98
------------- The blood ruby of death!Plot and breakdowns by John Buscema Script by Michael Fleisher Finished artwork by Rudy Nebres (and Pablo Marcos on the last 12 pages. Must be those deadline blues again, which would explain the very rushed look of Pablo’s pages). Big John plotted a few SSoC and CtB issues in the 80s, and a graphic novel in the 90s. Personally, I really don’t think that made much of a difference... he may tend to put more double-page spreads in the stories he plots himself, though. There’s one here and one in next issue as well, and one more in issue #100. Story-wise, this is a standard treasure hunt; neither terribly exciting nor unpleasant to read. Were it the first ever Conan comic someone read, it would probably be enough to bring them back again the following month. There’s adventure, some humour, some magic. It’s all right. Conan is in Shadizar, where a game of dice degenerates into a tavern brawl, both won by the Cimmerian. In that ill-frequented establishment, we make the acquaintance of a certain tavern wench named Sorcha. The girl doubles as a cutpurse, and that very night she slips into Conan’s room to steal his winnings. A chase over rooftops ends with the Cimmerian catching the girl and recognizing her. The attention of the two is then drawn to what’s happening in the benighted street below them: a man has been stabbed in the back and cries for help. Before dying, he gives Conan a treasure map, whispering that his people must have it. The man’s murderers promptly show up: they are local thieves, and they want the map. Conan and Sorcha beat the thieves back and escape, but the Cimmerian then claims to have lost the map during the melée. He and the girl part. The next day, as Conan leaves town to go after the treasure (you didn’t think he had really lost the map, did you?) he is recognized by the thieves who start pursuing him on horseback. A chase begins through an arid hilly country, where Conan is reunited with Sorcha (who didn’t believe he had lost the map either). Agreeing to take her on as business partner, Conan leads the way to where the treasure is supposed to be found: a plateau surrounded by a deep crevice forming a natural moat.  An improvised bridge is thrown over the chasm (it’s a tree trunk) and Conan and Sorcha cross onto the plateau, where lie ancient ruins. The map says that the treasure is to be found in a building marked by a lunar crescent, which is quickly identified. The next step is to wait for night to fall, for the spot where the treasure is buried will be revealed by moonlight shining right over it. (Shouldn’t that require that the treasure hunters be present at a precise hour of a precise date, and a date varying from year to year to boot? Ah, those ancients and their riddles…) Meanwhile, the thieves have caught up with Conan and Sorcha and have crossed unto the plateau. The Cimmerian expected them, but before he can do anything about it he is distracted by a scream from his companion, who has just been seized by a frog-like monster who means to feed her to its young.  Conan runs to her rescue, dispatches the monster and gets rid of its babies. He is then knocked out by a stone adroitly thrown at his head! Waking up all tied up, Conan learns that he’s still alive just in case some heavy digging is required to get to the loot. He is furthermore given an explanation regarding what the treasure is supposed to be. Apparently, a few years ago, there was a city where a wise and noble king made sure that everyone in his country was happy. A certain noble at his court, desiring to replace the king, had hired a sorcerer to murder him any way he could; but that had turned out to be rather difficult, for the king was himself well-versed in magic and was protected by a spell that kept him safe from blades and poison. The sorcerer then started preparing a magical weapon that could get through the king’s protection: the blood ruby, a magical artefact concocted in vats of boiling human blood. Putting the ruby at the end of a crossbow quarrel, the two conspirators had shot the king between the eyes, killing him. The ruby stayed imbedded in the monarch’s skull. To the conspirators’ surprise, the king’s passing did not result in the tumult that would have allowed them to seize power; from what the sorcerer deduced, as long as the king’s body was in town his benevolent magic would continue to protect his city. The wizard resolved then to have the body removed to a distant location (the plateau), and of the four men who had helped him carry the royal coffin he managed to kill three to silence them forever. The fourth one, however, made good his escape and drew a map allowing him to return to the plateau one day; after all, the jewel encrusted in the king’s head was worth a fortune. Meanwhile, the kingdom had finally fallen on hard times as expected. Some citizens sent riders to try and find their king’s missing body, and it is one of those riders who, having eventually found the fourth man and his map, had been stabbed at the beginning of the story (having imprudently told his story in a tavern, within earshot of the thieves). The story concluded, the thieves wait for the appropriate hour while Conan works on his bonds. When the moon finally shines through a hole in the ceiling, it strikes a metal plate on the ground; the reflected moonlight then hits a wall, where we deduce the king must be buried. The wall is smashed through and reveals the kingly skeleton, with the ruby in its forehead. That stone seem to be cursed, for upon seeing it the thieves start killing each other for its possession.  Conan frees himself, but when Sorcha grabs the ruby she, too, becomes as obsessed as Gollum about the One Ring and tries to kill the Cimmerian. The barbarian disarms her and carries her out, as the earth has started trembling; Conan surmises that the sorcerer probably booby-trapped the plateau by some magical means so that anyone trying to get the king’s body back would be destroyed. He manages to cross the improvised bridge before the entire plateau collapses, ruins, ruby and all. Sorcha apologizes for having lost her common sense, but still regrets losing the jewel. Notes: - Conan must be about 27 since this story is set after his recent bout with the devourer of souls. - When a plot demands that characters do this or do that, or that they get from here to there, it’s always better when a clear motivation is provided. Why did the sorcerer bring the king’s body away to bury it in a spell-protected building? Why not just take it far away and burn it? Did he think that it could be useful to some day restore the happiness of his city? If so,it would have been nice to know. - The thieves sure seemed to know an awful lot about the backstory of the map bearer they murdered. He must have been very drunk and talked an awful lot in that tavern. - I like the fact that neither the sorcerer nor his boss were punished. For all we know, they still rule the city they brought to ruin by their ambition. - Swear words: it starts well on the splash page! A Zamoran swears by the spider-god! (Other local gods would include the shemite Bel, god of thieves, and probably Ishtar since she's a popular eastern deity).
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 9, 2015 13:43:36 GMT -5
SSoC #98------------ The lady in the towerScript by Steve Skeates Art by Gary Kwapisz Kwapisz isn’t there yet, but he’s definitely making progress. The script by Skeates (a contributor to Marvel’s Bizarre Adventures, among others) is funny and very much in the vein of the Warren magazines, but I find it ill-suited to Conan: it’s way too high on the fantasy chart. A princess in a high tower kept by demons and waiting for a hero to rescue her? That stuff appropriate for the 1001 nights, not for Conan of Cimmeria. Our man Conan’s dislike of the supernatural would never allow him to willingly attack a bunch of demons just to get to some rumoured treasure. Conan is not a demon-hunter; he just fights monsters and things that go bump in the night when he really has no other choice. It’s one of the things infrequent writers don’t always grasp about his character. In this short story, the Cimmerian turns the tables on a devious nobleman who hired him under false pretenses. The ending is pretty funny. 
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 9, 2015 13:51:33 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #99, April 1984  Cover by Joe Jusko. Joe almost fooled me for a moment: the character in the front looks very Golden-esque, both in his general look and in his colour scheme! Also, is it me or does the lady look like Marcie, Foggy's ex-girlfriend in the Netflix Daredevil series? Conan’s right leg suffers a slight perspective problem, though. The way it seems to go, it should go through the floor, judging from the couch and the carpet. No big deal; it’s an eye-catching cover. Note that with this issue, the design of the SSoC covers changes a little; the corner logo is no longer the Boris figure from issue #1, but a headshot of Conan painted by Bill Sienkiewicz. Also gone is the white line that used to go around the words "Marvel magazine group", which are likewise dispensed with. Frontispiece by Armando Gil, and the image looks like it could be used for a heavy metal album. Gil shows his very thin feathering here, a technique that makes his work look very glossy, very oily. I like the final result.  The statement of ownership, management and circulation that we find in this issue reveals that SSoC is selling a lot of issues: 231,000 for the latest issue, an increase in sales of 15,000 copies over the annual average. Impressive numbers! Table of contents
The informer, a Conan story One night at the Maul, another Conan story
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 9, 2015 14:22:19 GMT -5
SSoC #99------------ The informerPlot and breakdowns by John Buscema Script by Michael Fleisher Finished art by Ernie Chan Even if their team isn’t necessarily my absolute favourite, there is always something reassuring about Buscema and Chan on SSoC. Their style just feels right for the mag. Here they deliver their usual performance. The plot is also quite all right, straightforward and entertaining. “Conan as champion of the oppressed” has a nice classic feel to it, and allows a man who is essentially a self-serving brute to act in a morally defensible way. We open as a small boat on which Conan and a handful of his pirates find themselves. Surprised by the Zingarans while doing business ashore, these Barachan corsairs had to run away independently from the rest of their mates and are currently facing a storm off the coast of Shem. Their pinnace sinks, and Conan and a certain Bernard end up on a beach. There, they have the opportunity to bring succor to a trio of men who have been buried up to their neck at low tide, a particularly vicious form of execution meted out by the local authorities. Unfortunately, the condemned men’s liberation is witnessed by a local patrol, and everyone is taken prisoner and brought to the city of... er... let me check again... nope, the name of the place is never mentioned! We'll have to do without it. I doubt it will ever be featured in a story again anyway. The patrol’s leader declined to rebury the condemned men, by the way, arguing that there are many other ways to dispose of them in town. Conan and Bernard are thrown in a heavily-populated cell, where they learn of the town’s recent woes. The royal couple who ruled over it was fair minded and well loved, but a little while ago a visitor was to change everything: an exotic woman named Arakthalia, who arrived one day on a strange-looking ship. Shortly after Arakthalia's landing in the Shemite city-state the good queen took ill and died, and the old king waited barely a fortnight before taking the newcomer to wife. The king, even though he was an excellent rider, fell from his horse shortly thereafter and died. Many suspected that Arakthalia had somehow bewitched the old man to take his throne. After assuming total power over the small kingdom, she turned the place into her playground, abusing the population and living a life of debauchery, pretty much like Salomé did in Khauran in A witch shall be born.  Pretty nice double-page spread by Buscema and Chan, here, We readers learn that the queen must indeed have some magical skills, for in her bedchamber one finds a trapdoor that seems to lead to some nether world. A man-shaped monster comes out of it to seize hapless young men that she brings to her bed. Conan and the other prisoners escape, and the Cimmerian starts heading a rebellion against the queen. He goes from success to success.  A while later, one of Conan’s men, young Maynar, witnesses his girlfriend selling her charms to a pair of soldiers. He confronts her, and she tearfully admits that she wants more from life than the perilous and uncomfortable life of a rebel’s wife.  Heartbroken, Maynar attacks some patrolmen after curfew, and ends up in jail. There he is roughed up pretty badly and eventually agrees to betray Conan in exchange for enough gold to regain his lady love’s affection. The Cimmerian’s secret hideout is attacked thanks to Maynar’s instructions and the rebel leader is captured with all his staff. Brought to queen Arakthalia's bedchamber, he is meant to be taken by the creature from below, when a remorseful Maynar shows up at the window, having climbed down from a tower with a rope. (By the way, he wasn't paid by the queen's men after his betrayal; the bastards just punched him and kept the money for themselves).  The lad throws a sword at Conan. The Cimmerian kills the monster, who is strong but not steel-proof. As Arakthalia prepares to attack the Cimmerian from behind, Maynar throws a dagger in her back. This causes her to transform into her real shape, and we learn that she, too, is an alien monster.  She throws Maynar through the window to his death far below, but Conan manages to slay her. More monsters show up from the trap in the floor: they are all the men that were earlier abducted, turned into abominations. Conan and rebels who showed up push them back, close the trap door and set fire to the palace. After all this excitement, Conan and Bernard agree that it will be good to go back to the life of a simple pirate. One night in the MaulScript by Jim Owsley Art by Stan Woch and Ned Sonntag I like Jim Owsley’s Conan writing, and although I am more familiar with Woch on account of his work on DC’s Swamp Thing, he does a good job here. This story explores a side of conan that we don’t see often enough, in my opinion: his intelligence, which often plays second fiddle to his strength, courage or determination. In its tone, this short story reminds me of Kurt Busiek’s, Tom Yeates’s and Cary Nord’s “Two Nemedians walk into a bar”, in Dark Horse’s Conan #9, one of my favourite Conan stories.  I won’t sell the punch because it is a very short tale, but it makes use of Conan’s interest in ladies, their interest in him, and it has a cool twist at the end.
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 10, 2015 8:37:33 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #100, May 1984  Cover by Joe Jusko. The two Jill Mastersons we see here have nothing to do with this issue’s story. No frontispiece; we get a page of publicity instead. Table of contentsWhen a god lives!The giftTwo Conan adventures. The 100th issue of a comic-book is usually a big deal; it will often be oversized, or feature many creative teams that marked its history. SSoC #100, in my dreams, would have had something by Barry Windsor-Smith, by Tim Conrad, by Frank Brunner, by Neal Adams, by Roy Thomas… perhaps even by Frank Frazetta, since he had provided the cover to Epic magazine #1? Not necessarily big things, of course, since all these people had moved on to other projects than the Cimmerian’s adventures… but at least some contribution to celebrate a remarkably long run? Alas, this anniversary issue is just a normal one. Perhaps I should just be grateful that it didn’t feature the return of captain Bor’Aqh Sharaq! I assume that someone determined that there would be little extra money to be made with a special anniversary issue, and I don’t think the people in charge at the time were big enough Conan fans themselves to feel uncomfortable by not marking this month's comic a landmark. Things would get better for issue #200, since one of the characters therein would be... none other than Robert E. Howard himself!
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 10, 2015 8:53:17 GMT -5
When a god lives!Plot and breakdowns by John Buscema Script by Michael Fleisher Finished art by Ernie Chan Another competent story that’s neither very exciting nor very bad; it simply reuses the usual tropes of the genre. Conan escapes a scrape with guardsmen, is pursued across barren country, discovers a lost city and its strange people, is present when their long-dormant demon god awakes and destroys the city, escapes the ruins and goes back to square one. We've seen variations on this theme many times before. The artwork by Buscema and Chan is nice and comfortable; the two gentlemen have definitely grown into THE official art team for this magazine. Conan is a young thief of 17 in the city of Arenjun, although in this story he acts a lot more mature than the brash youth we met in CtB#1-4. As our tale begins, he is trying to sell a certain small golden idol to a fence. The idol is an ugly little thing with the body of a tentacled worm and the head of a bat, and it is tiny enough to fit under the Cimmerian’s belt. The fence is in cahoots with local cops; they allow him to operate in exchange for his collaboration in catching certain thieves, and by means of a lit candle placed on the windowsill the fence calls a patrol. Conan naturally escapes the trap and the soldiers pursue him as he flees the city on horseback. Here a caption box tells us that “there is no greater horseman than Conan the Cimmerian”, but long-time readers will recall that this can not be true: no matter what proficiency Conan may develop in the future, we know that as a youngster he was an indifferent rider. It is during his stint in the Turanian army (as explicitely stated in CtB #36), a few years after this story, that he will learn how to be a truly outstanding horseman. The chase leads the Cimmerian to the Kezankian mountain range (nice call from Michael Fleisher, here), and he leaves his mount to climb up a nearly vertical slope. The Zamoran guards are hot on his trail and try to pepper him with arrows, but all they manage is to cause Conan to fall in a hidden valley behind the top of the cliff. They decide to pursue him on the morrow, as night is falling. Conan sees his fall softened by vines that grow all over the trees of what looks like a jungle surrounded by sheer cliffs. Unharmed, he leads the guardsmen on a merry chase. The pursuing Zamorans slowly fall prey to traps laid in the jungle; at first we think Conan might be responsible for these, but they’re actually the work of the local people. These we encounter after Conan makes a meal of a peccary (which is pretty amazing since peccaries are found only in the Americas): for no particular reason required by the plot, the valley’s inhabitants are diminutive Kushites far from from their homeland. To my utter chagrin, the Kushites start calling Conan ”Amra the lion” based on his appetite. Oh, for crying out loud, can we stop having people call Conan Amra before he officially inherits the name in CtB #63? The natives capture Conan and take him to the ruined city where they live. There, Conan reflects that the old structures must have been built by the Zhemri, the people from whom the Zamorans are descended. While this is factually correct and shows Michael Fleisher has read REH’s essay “The Hyborian Age”, it surprises me that a semi-illiterate barbarian would be that well-versed in Zamoran history at the young age of 17. The Cimmerian is shown to the city’s queen/priestess, a blond and pale-skinned woman, and to their high priest, a small man of the same stock as the small Kushite warriors. The god of this valley is, oh surprise, the same one that’s represented on the golden statue Conan tried to sell at the start of the issue (although all we can see here is his massive bat head, resting at ground level, in front of its temple). The high priest, clearly a high strung fellow, insists that Conan is the scout for an invasion by the outworlders and that the Zamorans who followed him are his allies. Conan denies it, of course. Then someone finds the statue of the god on Conan, and this is somehow taken as incriminating evidence against him. The high priest is however very glad to recover this priceless object. That night, Conan (bound to a pillar) receives the visit of the queen, Persaphne. It is notable that John Buscema draws her as slightly older than the usual damsels featured in this mag; she’s still very comely, but you can see that she must be in her late thirties at least. That gives her a certain level of emotional vulnerability: the older woman smitten with a dashing young man. That’s interesting.  She explains that she doesn’t really have much power in this valley: she was abducted as a child and brought to this place to play the role of a puppet priestess, doing what the high priest tells her. Conan invites her to free him from his bonds and escape with him, but although she is tempted she doesn’t act on her impulse immediately. She asks if Conan will always be there for her if they go away, and Conan demurs, saying that “always is a long time” in an almost exact replaying of a scene from SSoC #29. We have a small plotter/scripter/inker miscommunication in one of the panels, here. When Persaphne approaches, Conan wonders what is that shadow he sees: I guess we’re supposed to think he’s referring to the very obvious shadow behind him, and that said shadow is supposed to belong to the approaching queen. However, that shadow is clearly his own, not the queen's; furthermore, the shadow is that of Conan’s body, but the pillar he's attached to has apparently lost its own! (Perhaps Peter Schlemihl could explain what happened to it).  The next day, Conan and the surviving Zamorans (who have meanwhile been captured by the Kushites) are slated for public sacrifice / execution. The Zamoran captain mutters something at Conan, calling him a Cimmerian -but how could he know Conan's ethnicity? It’s not as if Cimmerians are that easy to spot in a crowd, nor as if they’re that well-known in the eastern countries. But anyway.  As she’s anointing the bound prisoners for the ceremony, Persaphne slips a small knife in Conan’s hand, having made her choice about escaping.  The barbarian starts cutting his bonds even as the high priest invokes his god (named “Uggrahk”). However this time, because of the presence of the golden idol, the god comes to life! The giant bat head was the actual head of the god, and its body was buried beneath it!  As the giant creature thrashes around, it starts dismantling the old city and crushing its citizens beneath falling stones. Persaphne is hit by a massive block of stone and dies, Conan cradling her lifeless form. Then the golden statue is itself smashed, and the god vanishes beneath the ground and returns to wherever it came from. Escaping the valley together, Conan and the Zamoran captain (the sole survivor of his team) seem on friendly terms enough at first, but right after they’re back in the open country the captain tries to arrest the Cimmerian as per his original order. Conan disdainfully knocks him out and walks away. Notes: - a Zamoran invokes merciful Mitra. Someone really ought to re-read “the gods of the Hyborian age”, the excellent series of articles published in the earlier issues of the mag.
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 10, 2015 9:01:02 GMT -5
SSoC #100------------- The giftScript by Larry Yakata Art by June Brigham and Armando Gil If you’ve read a few of these reviews, you know that I am usually very hard on writers who use Robert E. Howard’s carefully laid out imaginary world in a whimsical fashion, not caring where countries are supposed to be on a world map or what god this or that people worships. The one exception I have is writer Larry Yakata. I can’t bring myself to judge his Conan work as harshly as I would any other writer who apparently can’t tell a Bossonian from a Yuetshi. Why? Because of the intrinsic quality of his stories. Oh, sure, the only thing that makes them Conan stories (technically) is that their main character is called Conan the Cimmerian and that they involve swords. But even so, he brings such sensibility, such poetry, such humanity to his tales that I can’t stop but enjoying them. (For the most part. We'll get to the one exception eventually). This is the first Larry Yakata story in SSoC, and one much closer in tone to the Arabian Nights than to REH’s works (much more so than the Steve Skeates short story from last issue). It has a strong oneiric quality to it. It starts poorly for purists: Conan is on his way to the Yamal peninsula, but not too far from the city of Zamboula. Zamboula is in the middle of a desert!!! The nearest body of water is the Vilayet sea, more than 500 km away! How could there be a peninsula in the vicinity? Rescuing an old man from brigands, Conan refuses a reward from him. Next entering a forest, he must fight deformed man-like creatures who apparently want to devour him. He then meets a young woman, Ygraine, who invites him to her hut; amusingly, Conan remarks that everyone wants a Cimmerian for dinner. Ygraine is a witch, and the ruler of this forest; she wants Conan to stay with her. The Cimmerian at first refuses, but is then shown how powerful (and potentially dangerous) his would-be mate actually is. Given the choice between a golden cage and being turned into one of the misshapen monsters, Conan opts for sharing Ygraine’s domain. Getting the girl drunk, he escapes her hut and follows a white crane through forest and mountain, and ends up on a high plateau that looks like Valhalla. There he sleeps, only to awake once more in the forest on the very spot he first met Ygraine. And lo and behold, the lady is approaching down the forest path. She looks at him, smiling, and she continues on her way without saying a word. Conan is free to go, reflecting “so this was your gift, old man. My thanks”. It is left to our imagination whether these events actually happened and the gift was Conan’s freedom, or if all of it was a dream of magical adventure. Pretty neat eh? Not a typical Conan story, but a good fairy tale. The artwork by June Brigham and Armando Gil looks very nice, and it too is a departure from the usual style of the mag. 
|
|
