Savage sword of Conan #146, March 1988
Cover by Damien Horne. The distinctive Roman look of it fits the main story, in which Nemedia is presented like a Hyborian age version of Rome. (Good work, but look at those arrows... what are they? Tiny crossbow bolts? Blowgun darts?) I really like the expression on the guy in the bottom right corner. That's one fellow who doesn't want a second round against the Cimmerian!
Table of contentsBlood circus, where Conan becomes a gladiator.
Portfolio with art by Tony Salmons, Armando Gil, Tom Grindberg and Vincent Waller (on the back cover).
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Blood circusScript by Charles Dixon
Art by Gary Kwapisz and Ernie Chan
Blood circus begins a long story arc (four issues long) that sees Conan rise up from the status of lowly gladiator to that of superstar gladiator, to that of lover of an empress, to that of general, to that of most powerful man in the mighty country of Nemedia… before he loses it all. It is a good story, and one which would be an excellent basis for a movie screenplay. It has the epic feel of Ridley Scott’s
Gladiator movie, with which it shares a central theme.
Unfortunately, this entire arc is pretty difficult to fit into Conan’s career. Like many others among Dixon’s tales, it seems to belong to its own continuity (placed as it is in an interlude during Conan’s stint as a scout on the Aquilonian frontier). In the several issues we’ll see in the coming months, Conan becomes the central figure in Nemedian politics. He’ll even have coins minted in his likeness. One would expect that such a status would have been mentioned at least
once by someone during the events of
The hour of the dragon, Robert Howard’s story in which King Conan of Aquilonia faced the armies of Nemedia. But Conan was an almost unknown entity to the protagonists of that story; an uncouth barbarian who had brazenly risen to the throne of Aquilonia.
To add to this continuity problem, the Nemedia Dixon describes inaccurately has access to the ocean (it even has a sea-worthy navy). Roy Thomas, when trying to fit this story arc in his own outline of Conan’s comics career (published in the pages of
Conan Saga), suggested that the country might not have been Nemedia after all… Personally, I’d just rather classify the story as a “tale of Conan”, which might or might not have happened, either where and when it is said to have happened. As per Alan Moore’s wise words: "this is an imaginary story. Aren’t they all?"
So! Let’s get to it.
Traveling south after the events from last issue, Conan finds himself in Nemedia. As he’s having dinner in an ill-frequented inn, a thief trying to escape the city guards who are hot on his trail surreptitiously slips stolen goods in the Cimmerian’s pouch. The inn is searched by the guards, who find the loot and accuse Conan of being the thief. A scuffle ensues and the barbarian has to run away.
A comely woman met on the street offers to hide him in her rooms, an offer that should definitely have been considered too good to be true… for the lady is actually acting as bait for slavers who waste no time in capturing the Cimmerian.
Conan wakes up in a cage on a horse-drawn carriage along with a silent Kushite. Both men are to be sold as slaves to a gladiatorial school.
Apparently, the “imperial” Nemedian court (since when is Nemedia an empire?) greatly enjoys gladiators. Conan, like many other brawny fellows captured here and there, is to be trained in the fine art of fighting for the public enjoyment. The school is a harsh environment, but not an altogether unpleasant one for a natural born fighter.
Conan makes a few friends, even, including the silent Kushite he met earlier, the simple-minded Retikus and the warrior-woman Vestalia.
Needless to say, Conan does very well in the arena (even when the staged fights demand that he pretend being dead). His prowess and physique catch the eye of Nemedia’s empress, Auraldia, whose feckless nature is no less than her cruel and decadent husband, emperor Talliar, deserves.
Conan becomes Auraldia’s lover, and all in all is quite satisfied with his current status as a star of the arena. He’s well-fed, well-paid, popular and gets to fight all he wants. Eventually, however, the empress’s dalliance with the Cimmerian is noticed by the emperor who decides to have done with the barbarian. Orestes Galvus, the head of the gladiator school (and Conan’s impresario) is paid handsomely so that Conan does not survive the next bout.
When next he appears in the arena, Conan finds that the staged fight is less staged than he expected. Only the timely intervention of the silent Kushite allows him to survive what is essentially a murder attempt. The two men then make a great slaughter of their former comrades. The faithless Galvus is slain by Vestalia, who joins her friends in the unequal fight, followed by Retikus.
The emperor, from his lodge, orders that beasts be released in the arena. Many more gladiators fall under the teeth and claws of lions until Conan jumps up the arena’s wall, reaching the imperial lodge. He throws the emperor down in the fighting area, where the man is killed by a tiger.
Quickly assuming command, empress Auraldia orders the imperial guard to stand down; she argues that as the crowd is loudly shouting its approval of the Cimmerian’s actions (they are all chanting “Co-NAN! Co-NAN!”) the best course of action is to side with the hoi polloi. Conan is therefore spared and more popular than ever. As for Auraldia, she now has both her brawny lover and the crown of Nemedia. Not bad for a single day's work.
Notes:
- The plot of Conan as a popular gladiator becoming the lover of a noblewoman and then being slated to death in a not-quite-as-staged fight as expected would be reused by Dixon in an issue of Conan the savage. Only this time, the arena would be in Aquilonia.
- We have seen little of Nemedia's ruling caste up to that point. A King Numa has been mentioned in Conan annual #2, when Conan is already king of Aquilonia; then a King Nimed dies from the plague to be succeeded by his son Tarascus in Giant-sized Conan #1. Prince Tarascus having been seen in the graphic novel "
The witch queen of Acheron", when Conan was much younger, makes the existence of emperor Talliar and empress Auradlia seem even more out of continuity.
PortfolioMore pin-ups. The back cover by Waller (unsigned) is interesting in its Lovecraftian feel. I also very much Tony Salmons' art.
