Regarding SSoC#170, my enjoyment of this story was inversely proportionate to my ease in maintaining my suspension of disbelief. As you have stated elsewhere on this board, RR, this version of Valeria is so much different from that of the one in Red Nails and in Roy's own stories that she may well have been another character who happened to be named Valeria. I mean, still like this Valeria, but it is not the same Valeria in Red Nails. Maybe it would have been revealed that Valeria had a twin name Valerie who was a little looser, scheming and foppish - that would have made more sense to me. I also thought that Conan was 39 in Red Nails, which means he really got around a lot in the span of a year or two - and so did Valeria.

Conan being submerged in freezing water and still being able to put up an underwater fight seemed hard to swallow (of course it was probably easier than cutting one's way out of a shark's stomach, while holding a monkey who is being held by an animated skull).

That none of them died of hypothermia, starvation, or had to have a toe amputated was a rubber band snapping stretch.

Still, it was an enjoyable read. I like these stories that take place in the northern lands.

I tried to interpret things that way for a while.... and then just decided that for better of worse, many of Chuck Dixon's stories (including his version of Valeria), for all that they were internally consistant, clashed too severely with the other Conan tales to have happened in the same reality. Like the Dark Horse series, I see them as mostly happening in their own separate timeline.

Hunter’s moon
Script by Doug Murray
Art by Dave Hoover and Tony Dezuniga

Doug Murray, best known for his writing on The 'Nam (one of the best Marvel comics of the late ‘80s), joins the Conan writing team with this issue. His take on the Cimmerian stars a very civilized hero, in the sense that this Conan is honourable, polite, willing to sacrifice his own interest to that of justice… in short, a proper hero. I do not mind, because that makes him an admirable person, but I suppose some purists would say that he really needs a rougher edge. I just can't imagine this fellow plundering cities or sinking merchant ships just for profit.

The art is by Dave Hoover, also a first in a full-length story. His work here (inked by the ever-dependable Tony Dezuniga) looks a little like that of Don Perlin.

The plot for Hunter’s moon has Conan side with a village of farmers oppressed by a cruel landlord, and winning their freedom. Good man!

It starts with a clash between mercenaries hired by competing warlords in an unnamed Hyborian country. Conan’s side is ambushed and annihilated, and only the Cimmerian manages to ride away… albeit with two poisoned arrows sticking out of his shoulder and thigh.

One of his pursuers, seen here at the bottom of the page, bears an uncanny resemblance to the old guy from the opening scene of Shadows in Zamboula, in SSoC#14. Coincidence, homage or swipe? You decide!





A feverish Conan escapes the riders sent after him, and making his way into a deep and thick forest he eventually reaches a well-tended valley.



He collapses due to his injuries and the poison coursing through his veins, but has the luck of being picked up by a good-hearted family of peasants.

His hurts tended to by Kerin, the beauteous elder daughter of the family, Conan slowly regains his strength. He is treated like a honoured guest, and behaves like one; he even sits through grace without pigging in.



The farmer’s youngest daughter Jenne is about to get married, but her nuptials are interrupted by the arrival of the local lord, the despicable Theobold, and some of his bodyguards. The scoundrel insists on his right of Prima Noctis, and he rides off with the hapless Jenne. Conan is too weak to intervene while the other farmers present (including the groom!) are apparently too timid. The evil men even kill a dog as they leave!



Conan is angry and blames the farmers for their pusillanimity, but Kerin explains how they all came to such a despondent situation. Their community had reached Theobold’s lands many years before, fleeing incessant persecutions by warring parties. Back then, the place was a thick forest, which suited its owner well for Theobold was a passionate hunter. He had agreed to let the peasants settle near his castle, and to clear out some land for farming. In exchange, he wanted the farmers to provide him with sport: once a year, they would send him a volunteer who would agree to be hunted like an animal. The deal was that if the volunteer escaped Theobold’s hunting party and made his way out of the forest alive, the peasants would own their land forevermore. If he was killed, the game would begin anew the following year.

This theme of hunting men is of course the same as in the Richard Connell short story “The most dangerous game”, something that is acknowledged in a caption.



After several years, it was becoming clear that Theobold would never let the peasants escape the deal or win the contest. He was also beginning to become more and more oppressive to them.

Conan makes up his mind to kick this hornet’s nest and he starts studying Theobold, his castle and his troops. It’s clear that bullying defenceless farmers has made these men lazy and undisciplined. That doesn’t keep them from being brutal and cruel : when Jenne’s groom shows up, drunk, at Theobold’s castle to demand the return of his betrothed, he is mocked and has his dick cut off.



That does it, and Conan decides that Theobold and his men will pay for what they’ve done. He continues his explorations, and finds out that Theobold, far from a great hunter, is a cheat: the animals of the forest have been raised carefully so as not to fear man, and the forest’s paths are manicured to offer easy passage.

When the appropriate time comes, it is Conan who volunteers to act as Theobold’s prey for his annual hunt. The hunter is pleased, as he expects to get some good sport from the barbarian. Unlike the inexperienced youths who preceded him, the Cimmerian is of course a tried and true woodsman and a cunning warrior. He can spot a booby trap five meters in advance.



Easily reaching the border of the forest (and so technically winning the contest), Conan sees that Theobold has made sure he would never have to give up his sovereignty over the farmers: a half-dozen of his men are waiting at the forest’s edge, weapons drawn. As that’s exactly what Conan expected, he’s grimly amused by the situation. Murray shows him, once again, to be more civilized than what we’re used to: “Now that the rules have been broken, the young Cimmerian feels free to do what he wants… do what he has waited for far too long”. When has Conan let little things like rules keep him from doing what he wants?

In any case, he makes short work of the lazy brutes. He then goes after Theobold’s hunting party, but the clever lord had anticipated such a move: he had his men abduct Kerin, who is now bound next the horse of one of the hunters who threatens to kill her if the Cimmerian makes a wrong move.

Conan acts immediately and severs the tether binding Kerin with an excellent bow shot. (Why did he try such a difficult shot instead of just, you know, hitting the bad guy straight in the chest? Perhaps he likes a challenge too).



Next Conan hacks the hunters to pieces, and even Kerin gets to whack one on the head using a lance.

Theobold is taken alive, stripped and given a simple knife : Conan means to send him into the real forest, not his hunting fairyland, to fend for his life. There Theobold manages to kill a rabbit, but soon falls prey to the forest’s more dangerous predators.

Conan and Kerin return to her father’s farm where they celebrate the village’s newfound freedom, but the next morning the Cimmerian rides off.



I liked that story. Murray would be back.


Notes:

Conan is wearing the necklace he’s often seen wearing in the Dixon/Kwapisz stories. That would place this story in Conan’s late thirties, even if I personally think it would be better set many years earlier. Escpecially since he is called “young” at some point.



Shattered innocence
Story by John Arcudi
Art by Steve Carr and Al Williamson



We’ve seen a few stories and portfolios by Carr and Williamson up to this point, and I must say I quite like their team. Here they do a really good job, moody and dynamic at the same time, and Arcudi’s tale is one of the best non-Howard Solomon Kane stories we’re read in this mag.

Of course there is a twist ending, but not quite the one we expected.

Amazing Spider-Man (Assassin Nation Plot), Captain America (Bloodstone Hunt), Wolverine (Gehenna Stone Affair) and Uncanny X-Men (Dissolution and Rebirth) were published twice monthly during the Summer of 1989, but I think the peculiar cover dates of other series in that year were because Marvel decided to reduce the difference between the release dates and the cover dates from three or four months to a new standard of two months.  To achieve this, some issues published in August 1989 were cover dated "Mid November", those in September 1989 showed "December" and those in October "Mid December".

Can't say I care overly much for the art here. Even Dezuniga's inks can't raise it above the level of bland.

The story sounds fun, but I think prefer my Barbarian with a rougher edge. This version sounds too gentlemanly.

Could you guys please expand a little on that story? It sounds really interesting!

"Gentlemanly" is exactly the right term to describe Conan's behaviour in this story!