Thanks for the reply benday-dot. I would like to continue this conversation if you're interested but perhaps this isn't the right thread for it? Maybe I'll transfer it to the Community Board, if there's a philosophy thread or something like that over there.

Savage sword of Conan #147, April 1988



Cover by Joe Jusko, with Conan as gladiator. The coins are particularly realistic, but that thorny wristband looks extremely dangerous… to its wearer!



Table of contents

Vulture’s shadow, in which Conan’s rise in the Nemedian ruling class continues
Rites of passage, a gorgeously-drawn Kull story



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Vulture’s shadow
Script by Charles Dixon
Art by Gary Kwapisz and Ernie Chan

No, this story does not feature the return of Mikhal Oglu, who was last seen in “The shadow of the Vulture" (CtB #23). The vulture here is just the bird, well-fed after the many military operations that we will witness.

As seen last issue, Conan is a popular gladiator in the arenas of Belverus, Nemedia’s capital. He is also secretly the lover of the new empress, Auraldia, who gained her position when her husband fell victims to his own machinations.

Conan and his surviving friends, the warrior woman Vestalia and a big silent Kushite, prove equal to their reputation… to the delight of empress Auraldia, but not to that of ambitious general Phades who sees a potential rival in the Cimmerian. And Phades is not wrong, for after a particularly spectacular show in the arena, Conan is offered a generalship by Auraldia. (I like the way Kwapisz and Chan give Auraldia a distinctive face).

The Cimmerian, initially reluctant to give up his rather pleasant life as a star of the arena, eventually accepts the offer. He demands that his Kushite friend be granted his freedom as well, to act as his bodyguard.



The relation between Conan and Auraldia is a little stormy, as the Cimmerian doesn’t enjoy being bossed around. Still, the empress has her way for a while and the barbarian has to endure state banquets and assorted official functions (where he proves that you can take the man out of Cimmeria, but not Cimmeria out of the man).



Hoping to humiliate what he sees as an uncouth barbarian, Phades publicly asks Conan how he would deal with the situation on the Brythunian border, where Nemedian troops have met several setbacks. Conan rises to the challenge, and proposes to attack all the Brythunian cities close to the border, cities that keep resupplying the Brythunian armies. The military men present like the plan, but Phades sees in their approval another opportunity to harm Conan’s status: he suggests that he be made the leader of the troops fighting on the border. Everyone agrees, and the empress has to relent in her desire to keep Conan as a palace-bound general.

Conan is rather pleased with this development, for he hated the idea of being a general without an army. His satisfaction is short-lived, however, when he finds out that the legion he is given is manned by a discouraged, ill-trained and unruly rabble.



As in the story “fear of crom” (SSoC #108), Conan’s rough hand quickly whips his troops into shape. He breaks their lack of discipline, forces them to train and little by little instills a certain sense of pride into them. 



That last point is helped by his leading them to early victories against the Brythunians.



After taking an important enemy fort, Conan goes to meet his fellow Nemedian generals. He confronts them about their indecisiveness, and basically tells them (and Phades in particular) that they’re all pampered pussies unfit to lead an army. This is naturally very poorly received by Phades, who engineers a murder attempt on the life of his rival. The courage of Conan’s squire saves the Cimmerian’s hide, but at the cost of the lad’s own life.



Conan next tells his legion that honour demands he avenge his man. It is his however his own personal fight and no one has to follow him into what could be seen as a treasonous act. Such is Conan’s popularity that all agree to go with him, even if it means clashing with Phades’ ninth legion.

Conan forces Phades into a duel, and although the general proves to be a better swordsman that expected he ends up as dead as all of Conan’s opponents.



The ninth legion is then offered a choice: try to kill Conan to avenge their own leader, or join him in his further attacks on Brythunia. Considering that they’d rather fight for a real soldier than a pompous jackass, the legionnaires swear fealty to the Cimmerian.


Notes:

- I had wondered earlier whether this hard-to-place period in Conan’s life (which I personally would simply consider to be out of continuity) was set after the preceding Dixon stories. Since Dixon had already shown Conan as a scout on the Aquilonian border with the Pictish wilderness but had not yet shown Conan become a general there (shortly preceding his ascension to the throne of Aquilonia), we were to suppose that there was an interlude during Conan’s career as a scout, an interlude that would have to be crammed into his 39th or 40th year. Here Conan mentioned having fought along Thunder river as a mercenary, and so it looks as if this is indeed what we are meant to think.

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Rites of passage
Script and art by William Johnson

Johnson has done many pin-ups in this mag, and illustrated a few short story. His artwork is very detailed, and here he creates a beautiful piece of art.

Kull is challenged by Cyrton, the young commander of the Black Legion. Inspired by the example of Kull’s own rise, the younger man doesn’t see why he couldn’t try to gain Valusia’s crown by fighting its wearer in single combat, as Kull did years earlier with King Borna.

The brash challenge infuriates Kull’s friends, but a nobleman acting as Cyrton’s counsel argues that Kull’s rise to the throne set a legal precedent.

Kull understands that Cyrton is probably manipulated by the nobleman and (very likely) by other political malcontents. At the same time, he admires the young man’s ambition, and tries to dissuade him from following such a mad plan.

Concluding that refusing the challenge would suggest that Kull feared Cyrton, the king accepts the fight. He is hard pressed by his opponent, for Cyrton is a younger and quicker fighter.



He is however not as experienced as the king, who tricks Cyrton into going for a minor opening that causes Kull to endure a slight wound, but opens up Cyrton for a devastating blow.

The king cuts off his wounded enemy’s head, and we understand that Cyrton’s lawyer will soon understand why Kull’s motto is “by this axe I rule”.

A very good tale, exquisitely drawn, and mixing action with philosophical issues… just the kind of things I like to see in a Kull story. Full marks for Johnson, who also provides two pin-ups for this issue.

For Conan art, I found this... CONAN ART GALERIE
Enjoy
Jb

Savage sword of Conan #148, May 1988



Cover by Doug Beekman, in the Frazetta tradition.

Frontispiece by William Johnson, who also provides a pin-up inside the mag. Good work.


Table of contents:

Besieger of cities, the climax of Conan’s improbable career as Nemedia’s most important military leader

Host of the serpent cult, in which Kull faces the serpent men once again.

Pretty good Frazetta imitation there, reminiscent of some of the early Vallejo SSoC covers.

SSoC #149
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Slaves of the circle

Script by Chuck Dixon (it’s the first time he goes by “Chuck” in this mag).
As Gary Kwapisz and Ernie Chan take a breather, they are replaced this issue by Tom Grindberg and Bob McLeod.

Grindberg was still in his Neal Adams-clone phase, but hey, some of my favourite artists (Bill Sienkiewicz and Dave Sim, among others) also went through such a phase. Besides, Grindberg does a good Adams impression.



The inking by McLeod is quite impressive; it’s very crisp, and is made even better by an excellent use of gray tones.

Last issue, we saw Conan at the apex of his career as Nemedia’s top military leader and witnessed his loss of favour with his boss and lover, empress Auraldia. (A reader would later comment in the lettercol that Nemedia isn’t an empire, something that’s absolutely true; furthermore, I really can’t place empress Auraldia anywhere in the established continuity. But we’ll return to that later).

Fleeing Belverus on a boat with the few surviving members of his legion, including his silent friend the unnamed Kushite he met when he worked as a gladiator prior to his rise as a military man, Conan is pursued by the Nemedian navy (I kid you not) all the way to the uncharted backwaters and swamps of the Kushite coast.

Sailing further and further inland, the fugitives reach a village where the natives are ready to receive them with a flight of arrows… until the silent Kushite intervenes and calls to the archers! It turns out the man (whose name we learn is Nboro) could talk all along; it’s just that his tongue tends to get him in trouble, and so he prefers never to say anything if he can help it!



Conan and Nboro are a big hit with the villagers, and the Cimmerian makes a new friend in the person of Mguto, the local shaman, who has learned the Shemitish language when he travelled north as a younger man.



(Great art on Mguto’s face here, don’t you think?)

The reason the fleeing legionnaires were received so warily initially is that the village has been plagued by attacks from slavers; seeing white-skinned people approaching their home, they assumed Conan and his friends were in that repugnant line of work. Luckily for Mguto's folk, the villagers can sometimes count on the help of were-creatures who live in the forest. They did free a man from a slaver, but apart from that they mostly make noise in the forest.

The next day, Conan and several men go hunting. They are attacked by, and fall prey to, the infamous slavers mentioned earlier and are taken in chains to a newly-built city not too far away. The place was erected recently by a Shemite warlord named Kuagira, who led his band of slayers south to carve a small kingdom in the jungles of Kush. This nascent kingdom (which is still a gang of thugs, really) is called “the circle”.

Conan is forced to work the fields as a human ox, and his defiant attitude prompts his keepers to abuse him and deprive him of water and food.



Eventually, the Cimmerian’s good looks attract the eye of Kuagira’s woman, the lady Nharo. Nboro pokes fun at his comrade, insisting that the queen spies on the Cimmerian as a young girl does at her first love. And Nboro isn’t wrong, for pretty soon Conan is summoned to attend the lady!



Nharo turns out to be a pretty decent person and she and the Cimmerian engage in a torrid affair (with the complicity of a few chosen guardsmen).

The affair is naturally doomed from the start, and when Kuagira finds out that he’s been cuckolded he murders Nharo right in front of Conan.



Conan tries to jump the warlord but is once again stopped by the man’s Shemite soldiers. The Cimmerian is dragged to a chopping block where he is to lose his hands, prior to the amputation of any other bodily part that might have touched the queen.

Lucky for the Cimmerian, just at that moment his friends from Mguto’s village attack the city. Conan chases after Kuagira but fails to catch him.



Mguto’s people, Nboro and Conan return triumphant to the village, where a new ship will have to be built; Kuagira’s forces have in the meantime burned the previous one.

As for the warlord himself, he flees to the jungle where he swears to raise a new army to crush the interfering Kushites. Bad idea: this boast is heard by the were-people of the forest, who put an end to the man’s threat forever.



(Note that the artists signed their story. I think it is quite understandable considering the nice work they put in it).


Notes:

- Trying to fit this story (and the others preceding and following it) in the chronology is probably an exercise in futility, as Dixon seems to follow his own timeline for Conan’s career. We are technically in an interval between Conan’s arrival as an Aquilonian scout on the Pictish border and the stories “Beyond the Black river”, “The treasure of Tranicos” and “Conan the liberator” (in which he becomes king). All of these stories should occur when the man is about 39 or 40 years old. However, during that short year, Conan must have had time to have a new career as a pirate with Valeria, a new stint as a wanderer in Vanaheim, a career as a star gladiator in Belverus and a meteoric rise to the rank of general in the Nemedian army. He must have had time to lead a successful campaign against Brythunia, and then to sail all the way to Kush. In a few issues we’ll learn that he’ll spend more than a year in the wild down south. That’s one busy year!!!

- This month’s story is beautifully drawn, but storywise Conan comes across as a rather ineffectual fellow. He loses fight after fight and accepts his fate as a slave as long as he’s having an affair with Nharo. That strikes me as very un-Conan like; the Cimmerian would never accept slavery so meekly, and even if he loses a fight from time to time it’s rare that he has such a bad hitting average.

- Nboro’s explanation that he never speaks because his tongue always lands him in trouble is very funny, but from that point on there’s no shutting him up. That’s a bit odd.

- The spirit protectors of the village play basically no role in the story, apart from cleaning up after Conan at the end. They will also be no help at all in a future issue in which the village is threatened.