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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 26, 2014 10:04:34 GMT -5
In Conan the barbarian #72, N'Yaga is hurt and requires certain powders found in his old rooms in Asgalun. Despite the peril, Bêlit and Conan enter the city and recover what they need; but while they're there, the pirate queen can't refrain from trying to settle her score with her uncle Nim-Karrak. Thanks to the help of his pet wizard, the usurper escapes Bêlit's fury, but not before revealing that her father Atrahasis is still alive! The king of Stygia took him prisoner and is keeping him as a trump card to keep Nim-Karralk under his thumb.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,757
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Post by shaxper on Oct 26, 2014 10:10:28 GMT -5
VERY curious to see where you'e going with all of this!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 26, 2014 10:14:56 GMT -5
A long story arc describes how Conan and Bêlit travel to Stygia to try and rescue Atrahasis from his jail. After much adventuring, they come face to face with the weak Stygian king Ctesphon III, who reveals that when he gained the crown he just emptied the jails by killing all the prisoners his predecessor had left there. Bêlit's quest is therefore pointless; her father has died years before. In CtB #88, the queen of the Black Coast kills Ctesphon, who will be succeeded by his sister Nephta (an erstwhile ally of Conan and Bêlit), under the name of Ctesphon IV. The new Queen is helped by a new advisor who just fails to meet Conan face to face for the first time: a certain wizard called Thoth-Amon! Her father is dead, but there is still a blood debt to be paid... and in a later arc, Bêlit and her paramour make their way back to Asgalun to settle accounts once and for all with the treacherous Nim-Karrak. In the climax of that particular adventure (CtB #93), Nim-Karrak is finally killed (by Zula, a new ally who, like a later Thomas creation named Arak, combines the attributes of a warrior and a sorcerer and sports a mohawk haircut). Bêlit could take the crown, but dislikes the politics of the city and prefers the "throne" she has aboard the Tigress, and her vast kingdom of the western sea. She designates an inoffensive cousin as the new king, but already troops led by a certain Akhirom get ready to challenge the new ruler's authority.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 26, 2014 10:42:41 GMT -5
As we'll later learn, Akhirom succeeds in his bid for the throne. Bêlit dies soon therefater (in CtB #100) and Conan slowly travels back toward the northern lands, eventually finding himself in Shem. There he meets Red Sonja again, and the two discuss employment opportunities. King Sumuabi of Akharia (a shemite city) is raising an army, and a man named Othbaal is busy recruiting soldiers. Sonja mentions that this Othbaal is a cousin of the new king in Asgalun (whom we know is Akhirom). In SSoC #36, we will learn that Conan eventually did find employment in King Sumuabi's army. That king sent troops to support a popular rebellion in another city, Anakia, without knowing that his man Othbaal was playing both sides and that he would betray Sumuabi's men to Anakia's swinish king! Both the rebels and Conan's companions would be massacred, and Othbaal would then flee to Asgalun, where his cousin Akhirom gave him a place of honor. As SSoC#36 opens, Conan has gone to Asgalun once more, a little less than two years after Bêlit's death. His goal is to take revenge on Othbaal. Asgalun has changed in recent times: king Akhirom has grown increasingly capricious and strange; he now forbids strong drink and insists that women cannot walk the streets alone at night. The Cimmerian has a chance meeting in a benighted street with a man who is promptly the victim of an assassination attempt at the hands of Kushite soldiers, and he helps save the man's life. Over a drink in a secret speakeasy, Conan tells his new aquaintance of his revenge plans; the other man (who presents himself as Farouk) is impressed by the loftiness of the Cimmerian's plans. Othbaal is high in favor at court, and the general of Akhirom's Anakian troops. Farouk claims that furthermore, king Akhirom is now quite mad; a Stygian witch named Zeriti had him under her thumb by using magic potions, but the man grew so irrational that now no one can control him. Akhirom's rule is enforced by his many mercenary troops: the Anakim led by Othbaal, Hyrkanian mounted troops led by general Mazdak, and Kushite spearmen led by general Imbalayo. Each of the generals hate each other. Farouk himself claims to belong to the Hyrkanian cavalry. His boss Mazdak would, like Conan, have a further reason to dislike Othbaal: the latter won a red-haired woman named Rufia from the Hyrkanian and so Farouk is ready to help Conan murder the Anaki general. The two men make their way to Othbaal's house, which the Hyrkanian knows how to access via a secret passage. Farouk explains: "The tunnel down these stairs leads under both the canal and the wall as well, up into the house of Othbaal which stands just beyond. You see, once, Othbaal's house was the pleasure-house of King Uriaz. You couldn't know much about him, since he ruled so briefly..." Answers Conan: "Undoubtedly not". To the old-time reader, this deadpan reply is quite amusing since Uriaz is the cousin that Bêlit set on the throne in CtB#93! Conan and Farouk find Othbaal and his mistress Rufia and slay him. Farouk steals a ring from the dead man and the two slayers make good their escape, but Rufia flees on her own.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 26, 2014 11:02:51 GMT -5
The woman, now without a powerful patron, wanders the streets of Asgalun until she meets a stranger wearing a wide hooded cape. The newcomer offers to lead her to a place of safety, mentioning that the king forbids women to walk alone at night. Without much of a choice, Rufia follows him... and it is only when they reach the palace that she learns the man is king Akhirom himself!!! The clever woman, who knows she could very well be killed by the deranged king whose commands have been defied, pretends to be dazzled by his divine radiance and pronounce him a god. Akhirom has an epiphany and convinces himself that this is indeed the truth, and since Rufia was the first to realize he was indeed of divine origin, he spares her life and makes her his new mistress. The new god doesn't waste time f#@&*ng things up: he orders the old gods to be abandoned and the high priest of Pteor burned alive, triggering a popular revolt. Anakim and Kushite mercenaries disperse the crowd, massacring and pillaging without restraint. Conan, meanwhile, sees an opportunity in this unrest. He informs his friend Farouk that he saw through his transparent disguise, and claims he is actually general Mazdak. He suggests that now that Othbaal is gone, all Mazdak has to do is to find a good reason to get rid of general Imbalayo to become the principal power in Asgalun. (The ring he took from Othbaal will be used to accuse Imalayo of the murder). As Mazdak busies himself with the preparation of his coup, king Akhirom has decided that he was now above matters of the flesh, and he rids himself of his new mistress Rufia by giving her to general Imbalayo (much to Rufia's dismay!) Imabalyo won't have much time to convince Rufia of his qualities, as the witch Zeriti (the one who helped drive the king mad, and who was cast aside as Akhirom's mistress when Rufia first showed up) shows up and claims Rufia herself, wanting to get her pound of flesh from the red haired hussy who interfered with her plans. Scared of the witch's powers, Imbalayo gives in and is humiliated for his trouble. Rufia is whipped by Zeriti, because a little S&M is always good in a story conanized by deCamp. (But no judgement! ) Not content with this, Zeriti then summons a demon to take the girl's soul away. However she didn't realize how deeply her humiliation of Imbalayo would sting; the general shows up to get even and he drives his spwrd through her midsection. Then it is Conan who shows up, because he had taken a liking to Rufia in the thirty seconds he had seen her earlier! Conan and Imbalayo fight until the general backs into the demon previously summoned, who is in the form of a black cloud with eyes. His bones are melted away, and his empty skin falls to the ground. Then the whole town erupts as all the factions fall upon each other. As Conan and Rufia ride away and general Mazdak makes his move to take the throne, king Akhirom flips for one last time and tries to fly to the skies (with the expected result).
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 26, 2014 11:14:54 GMT -5
As you can see, this intrigue-filled plot required setting a lot of pieces, a process that Roy had begun years before. We can imagine that as Conan the barbarian had Conan join king Sumuabi's army after CtB#115, we would have learned in more details all that was happening in Asgalun both before and after the events depicted in SSoC #36. However,when the color book reached that point after Roy's departure, new writer J. M. deMatteis did this (in CtB #121): He used a one-panel flashback to skip over months of plotting. The following panel did the same with the following year or so in the life of Conan, passing by the entire episode seen in Black Colossus. When Roy Thomas came back to CtB, he resumed the storyline... but chose not to readapt Hawks over Shem and go straight for Black Colossus, perhaps so that we would finally get to see Conan's career as a Kozak (a period of his life we had almost reached twice in the past, only to skip it). He did tell us of what had happened in Asgalun after Mazdak's rise to power, however, in a flashback issue (CtB #262). In a nutshell, Mazdak became a religious nut too and didn't rule for very long! And that is the story of Asgalun in Marvel Conan comics. A very careful preparatory work that didn't quite pay off in the end. Notes: - Conan is around 27 or 28 during this story. - Conan is called "Amra" by the witch Zeriti - Asgalun is another form of the name " Ashkelon", an actual city in Israel. Shem is the Hyborian age equivalent of the semitic lands, even if it is geographically located much farther to the west. A gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, part Vcompiled by Lee Falconer Going from Lake Ho to Mu. There's a nice Conan sketch by someone who appears to be Ernie Colon in this article.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,757
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Post by shaxper on Oct 26, 2014 11:34:36 GMT -5
WOW. That's pretty much all I can say to this.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 28, 2014 10:34:51 GMT -5
WOW. That's pretty much all I can say to this. I've been wanting to pay homage to Roy's hard work on this extended storyline for decades!
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Post by jbruel0 on Oct 30, 2014 8:06:34 GMT -5
RR, again, how great is your knowledge and how important to those like me who study for years Cronan chronology by passion of this hero for 30years... Thanks a lot again for all you are doing there
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 30, 2014 14:51:20 GMT -5
RR, again, how great is your knowledge and how important to those like me who study for years Cronan chronology by passion of this hero for 30years... Thanks a lot again for all you are doing there Thank you, J! It's always great to discuss Conan with other genuine fans like the ones we have here at CCF.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 1, 2014 14:14:38 GMT -5
Savage sword of Conan #37, February 1979
Cover by Earl Norem, featuring a scene from the main story. Table of contents:Sons of the white wolf, a Conan story Moon of skulls, part 2, a Solomon Kane adventure.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 1, 2014 14:17:13 GMT -5
Sons of the white wolfScript by Roy Thomas Art by Sal Buscema and Rudy Nebres Adapting an El Borak story "Son of the White Wolf" by Robert E. Howard. Sal Buscema didn't draw much Conan. Here his style is pretty much buried beneath Rudy's very recognizable inking, but the storytelling is typical Sal. A good combo, although I can't recall any other time the two artists were paired. The transposition of this desert tale to the Hyborian age is a smooth one, with the Turkish empire being replaced by the Turanian one... which is fitting, since this is exactly how Howard envisioned Turan. (Turan is historically a region of central Asia where the Iranians located the lands of the early Turks). The tale is placed around the time of Conan's second stint as a Kozak, and so a few months before the story "The devil in iron". We open in a Turanian outpost in Hyrkania (east of the Vilayet sea), as the place's commander awakes to the sound of mutiny. His Hyrkanian troops have decided that they're sick of fighting Turan's wars, and have decided to form their own kingdom; one that will have the ancient sacred white wolf of Zarfhaana as its symbol. (Zarfhaana, as readers of Howard's The Hyborian Age know, is the country from King Kull's era from which the ancestors of the Hyborian age Hyrkanians originally came). The commander is slain by his second-in-command Oshmaan and the rebels move east to the town of Djemal, which is to be their first conquest. A while later, we see a Corinthian woman named Alondra and her guide arrive in Djemal. She is the wife of the murdered Turanian commander, on her way to join him, and unaware of what just transpired. The geography here is a bit fuzzy, as we are told that Djemal is on the road between Fort Ghori and the Zaporoska river, which would place it near the southeastern shore of the Vilayet sea. However, Oshmaan just said that his troops were moving east to Djemal, and there really isn't any point west of the stretch between Fort Ghori and the Zaporoska that isn't under water! Anyway, we get the idea: we're somewhere in Hyrkania, south of the Zaporoska. Alondra is asleep in her room at a local inn when Oshmaan's men arrive and start plundering the town. Oshmaan himself discovers her and is quite amused to learn she is the widow of the man he's just slain. Alondra attacks him but is overpowered. (Doing harm to women is an excellent way to make oneself the villain in a Conan story; the reader hopes this Oshmaan will know a ghastly end). We cut to Conan of Cimmeria, riding south on his camel, as he comes across the form of a former Kozak comrade lying in the rocky desert. The dying man tells of the fall of Djemal, from which he escaped with mortal wounds. Before expiring, he demands vengeance from his erstwhile chieftain, and Conan swears that the men who destroyed Djemal will die. Conan reaches the destroyed town where vultures are still feasting. The attackers left a plain road for him to follow, and he guesses that they are bound for the Well of Adhmet. Later, during the night, Conan reaches the camp of the sons of the White Wolf; from afar he can see that they took many women from Djemal to start their new kingdom (a bit like the Romans with the Sabines?) The camp was raised around a single building, an old hut with stone walls; therein, Oshmaan is busy bragging to Alondra. He's about to beat her when Conan bursts in, intent on slaying the man; but Oshmaan manages to extinguish the only candle and to scream for help. Conan escapes with Alondra.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 1, 2014 14:20:27 GMT -5
The two travellers reach a small oasis on the next day; Conan remembers that it's supposed to be haunted. They drink their fill and then Alondra asks Conan to turn his back as she takes a bath. The Cimmerian decides that he, too, could do with a bit of cleaning up and he joins her. Yes, ladies, you finally get to see the brawny Cimmerian in his birthday suit! (And since Alondra is similarly attired, everyone's happy). Despite Alondra's initial misgivings, the two playfully splash around until the lady is attacked by a giant crustacean that lives at the bottom of the pool! Conan manages to free her and to badly hurt the monster before running out of air, and after all that excitement the two swimmers fall in each other's arms and we discreetly move on to the next paragraph. Conan and Alondra reach the well of Harith, which is likely the next spot that Oshmaan's troops will reach. "The well of Harith! The Turanians built that enclosure around it years ago, when Yezdigerd built the walls of Sulimar and made them an army post. Later they abandoned both positions; the walls aren't far ahead. King Yezdigerd named the walls after his councilor, who was of great service to him during the Hyrkanian wars. I think he's had him killed since then, for becoming too ambitious. Disagreeable devil anyway!" This is so cool. From one simple name, "the walls of Sulimar", Roy Thomas makes a connection with all the backstory he so carefully crafted. The Hyrkanian wars mentionned here are the ones we witnessed between CtB 19 and 26 (and heard about for quite a few issues after that). The Sulimar who gave his name to the walls is this fellow, whom we indeed met before in CtB. (We didn't see him die, but Conan can't be present whenever something happens in the Hyborian Age!)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 1, 2014 14:21:59 GMT -5
Conan expected to meet Kozaks at the well, but the many men he finds there are instead members of a tribe who have hated him since his days with the Zuagirs. Since it's too late to flee, the Cimmerian decides to bluff his way into an alliance. He starts by buttering them up with statements about their being fair foes and honorable men, and then warns them about the sons of the White Wolf and their destruction of Djemal (here misspelled as Djebal). After some unpleasantness with a guy who attacks Conan without his chief's approval, the men prepare a trap for the renegade Hyrkanians. The wells are filled with rocks and the tribesmen prepare an ambush. When Oshmaan's troops arrive, they find that they cannot slake their thirst. The plan was to then take them out from afar using bows and arrows, but the trapped Hyrkanians start murdering their prisoners to draw out the tribesmen. The fighting then gets personal, and after much bloodshed the renegades are defeated. Conan has the pleasure of killing Oshmaan himself! Conan promises that Alondra will be well cared for, and plans to resume his plans of joining the Kozaki and the Vilayet pirates into one fighting force. The story is the straight-adventure that goes a bit like (a) find a reason for the hero to hate the bad guy; (b) have the hero kill the bad guy; (c) if the fate of empires hangs in the balance, so much the better. Howard wrote quite a few of these, and they're usually not among his best work. Notes: - Conan is about 32; this story is set between the tales Shadows in Zamboula and The devil in iron. The union between the Kozaki and the pirates had already been mentioned in A Probable Outline of Conan's career by P. Schuyler Miller & John D. Clark, Ph.D. - After some prompting, Conan mentions to Alondra that he has crossed paths once, briefly, with Yezdigerd when he was still only a prince and not Kingof Turan. "If he remembers me at all, it's not with well-wishing". We know that Conan scarred Yezdigerd's face in CtB#20, as he was escaping the prince's galley during the Makkalet war.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 1, 2014 14:31:38 GMT -5
Moon of skulls, part 2Script by Don Glut Art by David Wenzel Adapting the Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard. Wenzel does a very good job on Kane, especially when he inks his own work as is the case here. Too bad that this second part is so short; it is only six pages long, including a splash page and two more pages of "what has gone before". Still, something does happen; Kane finds the girl he has traveled to Africa to find, Marylin Taferal, and she in turn tells him of the events that brpught her from England to the ancient Atlantean outpost of Negari. (She was first sold to a pirate by a member of her own family, who feared she would inherit the fortune of an elderly cousin; the pirate had then sold her to a slave merchant from Istambul; this one had seen his ship taken by Portuguese slavers who had then sold Marylin on the coast of Africa; whence the girl had been brought in the interior and sold to Negari). Kane swears he will deliver the girl, but the two are interrupted by the arrival of the savage queen Nakari herself! The queen triggers a hidden trapdoor and Kane falls down an obscure well. To be continued!
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