The story so far:

The queen of Vendhya, the Devi Yasmina, wants revenge against the Black Seers of Mount Yimsha, powerful sorcerers who seldom interfere with human affairs but have this time decided to kill her brother, the erstwhile king. This was done at the request of King Yezdigerd of Turan, who means to expand his empire in Vendhya. Yasmina is then abducted by Conan, at the time a hill chieftain in northern Vendhya; he means to trade her for the freedom of seven of his sub-chiefs who have been taken by the authorities. But the abduction presents an opportunity for two other factions: first a Turanian spy, Kerim Shah (who was there to observe the murder of the king), follows Conan at the head of a few hired swords to steal back the queen and take her to Yesdigerd. Second, Khemsa, the acolyte of the Black Seers who oversaw the king's magical murder, is driven by his lover's ambition to betray his masters, go get Yasmina for himself, and sell her to Yezdigerd. (Khemsa's lover was Yasmina's own handmaiden).

High up in the hill country, in sight of Mount Yimsha, Khemsa manages to catch up with Conan and Yasmina. He easily defeats the Cimmerian, but is then confronted by his masters, who reach the spot by way of a magical cloud. They throw Khemsa and his paramour off a cliff and make off for their haunt, taking the queen with them. 

And so our tale begins.

Recovering from the sorcerous battle, Conan rides in pursuit of the cloud toward Mount Yimsha. He meets his Afghuli tribesmen who have been following him, but these are in a decidedly foul mood: the seven chiefs who were in jail have been murdered (we readers know it was by Khemsa, who wanted to destroy any chance of Conan's bargaining to succeed) and they blame Conan for it. The Cimmerian has to escape his own men. As he rides hard upon the mountain trails, he happens upon the broken form of Khemsa, still barely alive; the hapless sorcerer sees in Conan his last chance to get even with his former masters. He bequeaths upon the barbarian a magical girdle that's supposed to help him later on when he comes to something called "the golden vein"; he also gives him some cryptic instructions: "break the crystal globe with the four pomegranates… beware the master's transmutations". And then he dies.

Conan is the met by Kerim Shah; the Turanian and the Cimmerian agree to join forces temporarily and decide who will keep the queen once they have recovered her. 

Meanwhile, Yasmina wakes up in the castle on top of Mount Yimsha, the abode of the Black Circle. She meets its master, an enigmatic and scary foddermucker.



(Notice that the charcoal style doesn't her this page at all; it's very moody and efficient. The same goes with the next shown below).

The master plays a little with Yasmina to show off his power: although she finds a dagger that seems to have been forgotten by an unbelievably happy coincidence right within her reach, she trips over absolutely nothing as she tries to stab the Master with it; and anyway, when she looks at her weapon again, it is after all naught but a lotus bloosom. The msater states that "all substance is one to him who holds the key of the cosmos. To an adept, nothing is immutable". For all his highfalutin' claims about being beyond human frailties and blahblahblah, the Master admits that he's still got an eye for a pretty girl (well, not in such crude terms of course) and that he's considering keeping Yasmina as his slave. She claims that she'll never yield to him, and to humble her he magically sends her consciousness down history's corridors, having her relive all the indignities suffered by women at the hands of men since the dawn of time. Badly shaken up, she awakes from her trance just as the Master makes his move, revealing that his personal hygiene leaves something to be desired.



(This scene is the one that Margaret Brundage used for the cover of Weird Tales (september 1934 issue) where the prose story was first serialized).



Conan, Kerim Shah and the latter's hired men reach Mount Yimsha, but the path up the mountain is watched by a tower where men say the Black Seers' acolytes reside. The band approaches the tower on foot, attacked in turn by a mad dog and by a big hawk. A cloud then comes rolling down the slope and whoever touches it with steel is electrocuted. Finally, an acolyte blowing in a massive horn, atop the tower, triggers an earthquake that would have put an end to the invaders had Kerim Shah not shot the man with a well-placed arrow.

Conan reaches the tower door (locked!) and is almost cooked by boiling oil the acolytes send cascading down the walls. Kerim Shah's bow once again solves that problem, and after tearing down the door the men enter the tower that has now been abandoned: the acolytes fled through a back door, heading toward the castle atop Mount Yimsha. Between the tower and the mountain is a chasm filled with fog; the acolytes are already at the bottom, and the fog proves to be reflecting arrows as if it were solid. Conan notices that a golden line can be seen going down the wall and across the floor of the chasm, and that the acolytes seem to be following it; this must be the "golden vein" mentioned by Khemsa, and it following it might be the way to reach Yimsha across the foggy valley. The fog is poisonous (as revealed when one of the men dies from it) but if one remains atop the golden vein, first climbing down the wall and then walking across the valley below, then crossing is possible.

Climbing the wall at the other end, the men are attacked by the acolytes who were wanting in ambush; but when sowrds and not magic is used, the latter don't stand a chance and are quickly dispatched.

To be concluded next issue!

I have a ton of those Zebra books, all picked up second hand. Off the top of my head from the ad I know I had Sword of the Gael, The Vultures of Whapeton, The Lost Valley of Iskander, The Book of Robert E. Howard, and the Sowers of Thunder. I might have Worms of the Earth too, not sure on that one. There nice little collections, but yeah I have picked up the stories collected in other collections over the years as well.

-M

Crimson blades of dark Vendhya
by Fred Blosser

reviewing the book "The swords of Sharazar" by Robert E. Howard, published by FAX Collecotr's Editions. This book includes the three Kirby O'Donnell adventures, and they're gorgeously illustrated by Mike Kaluta. (Many of these Kaluta images could be found in that lovely art book, The Studio). 



Kirby O'Donnell is an action hero in the tradition of El Borak, his theatre of operations being Afghanistan. His adventures would later be adapted as Conan tales in SSoC.

The "charcoal style" of Alcala works to fantastic effect on that last panel of the skull faced Master menacing Yasmina. The texture is perfect.

And that so-called sketch of Conan wrestling the lion that JB dashed off is a real beauty. It's rough details with wash finish (that lion's mane is fantastic)makes me long for a whole story illustrated in like manner.

I think his Tarzan work for Marvel was very good (especially the first 3 issues or so), but that drawing suggests it might have been even better.

Speaking of might have beens...

Not sure, this did happen with Dark Horse's Conan comic though, issue #24. 

The original cover was this linky to NSFW cover

and this then was the altered version with the top painted on...


-M

That Conan vs Tarzan picture is gorgeous, b-d! Where does it come from?

Mrp, I remember the controversy over that cover. One could wonder why boobies are less acceptable on a cover than gory violence is, but that's how things have been for many decades now.

And berk, I fully agree that Adkins is far, far more than just an inker: I still can't get over his dramatic vistas in Doctor Strange (when he pencilled as well as inked). What a great comic-book artist he was!


quick note that has nothing to do with SSoC: I just read in the newspaper that there is a strongman competition where on top of lifting big stones and carrying massive weights around, the competitors have to push something called "Conan's wheel". This example of how the dreadful Millius movie is still the most common way the general public is made aware of Conan, rather than either Howard's masterful stories or Roy Thomas equally brilliant adaptations, makes me sink into a gigantic melancholy.

I had The Sowers of Thunder and The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan. It was interesting to find collections of Howard's more obscure stuff. And The Sowers of Thunder contains "Sahdow of the Vulture" with the proto-version of Red Sonja.

However, all of the stories in The Sowers of Thunder are now available in Del Rey's vastly superior Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures, which I heartily recommend.

Have all the Sailor Steve Costigan/Dennis Dorgan stories ever been collected in a single volume?