Thanks, shaxper!


The new version had more than an extra splash page; it also covered parts of a character's lovely anatomy. In the original story, Atali, the Frost Giant's Daughter, taunts dying men on snowy battlefields and entices them to pursue her over the frozen wastes so they can be murdered by her huge and brawny brothers. She's clad with nothing but a flimsy veil, despite the intense cold. In the story, Conan manages to grab her at one point, and she escapes by leaving the veil behind (which allows Conan to realize, later, that he hasn't dreamed the whole thing); in CtB16, Atali modestly retains part of the veil. Phew! The code is safe.




When the same story was translated for the first Robert E. Howard issue of L'Écho des Savanes special USA, a French magazine, the unedited Savage Tales story was used. Note in passing the very pretty Neal Adams cover that graced that issue; it would not have been amiss on a Savage Tales issue.



The Frost Giant's Daughter was one of the Conan stories that Weird Tales unexplicably turned down; Howard re-wrote it as "Gods of the north", but I'm glad it could finally be read in its original form... and so beautifully adapted here. Kurt Busiek used it in the first story arc of Dark Horse's Conan reboot, but although Kurt is an excellent Conan writer and that Cary Nord is an excellent Conan artist, their "Frost Giant's Daughter" does not come near this one in terms of sheer impact. It is, in the true sense of the word, a modern classic.

Had the issue stopped after 11 pages, it would have been a good deal... But there was more!

The Frost Giant's Daughter and Conan's first black and white adventure would have been a milestone already, but this issue also features the first appearance of... Man-Thing!!! In magnificent black and white, as drawn by the unique Gray Morrow.



A sequel to this origin story would later be spliced into a Ka-Zar comic-book. Man-Thing is definitely meant for mature readers; not because of an overabundance of exposed skin, but because of the dark and depressing nature of the tale. Ted Sallis, who would end up muck-encrusted and with a carrot for a nose, is betrayed by his greedy wife and and doomed to a tragic fate. Another modern classic!!!<br><br>But being betrayed by one's wife is not Ted Sallis' exclusive problem. The following story, titled "Black Brother", is something extremely rare in a Marvel mag (and sadly so, too): an actual "real world" story, without magic, without super-powers... but with a greedy spouse. Here, in the imaginary African country of Orbia, a regional governor tries to prevent the abuse of his people by foreign workers whose employers rule the land by proxy through corrupt officials. Our hero, Joshua, is so efficient in his crusade that the central government tries to frame him with some sex scandal, and later tries to murder him. Realizing that his own wife set him up, Joshua leaves town for the jungle (where we expect he's going to have some "origin" that'll turn him into a superhero of some kind, this being Marvel comics, although to my knowledge that never happened). We are left with a good story of corruption and courage. It was written by Dennis O'Neil (under his Charlton pseudonym of Sergius O'Shaughnessy) and drawn by the ever-capable Gene Colan). I'm surprised it hasn't been reprinted more often (as in "never", AFAIK).

After the extraordinary Savage Tales #1, we might have expected a string of issues with the same characters and (hopefully) the same brilliant creative teams. It might have been, in an ideal world... but in the real world, it would be two and a half years before Savage Tales #2 would see print. I am sure that I've read somewhere in Alter Ego that Martin Goodman just didn't quite know what to do with this magazine that wasn't the same format as the other Marvel comics, and that wasn't sold on the same spinner racks... but I can't find the article. However, Writer/editor Roy Thomas helpfully provided a two-page editorial in issue #2, explaining the reasons Savage Tales had almost died aborning.

Luckily for us, Stan Lee eventually decided to re-enter the magazine field; not with only one mag (be it Savage Tales or Spider-Man) but with several titles like Dracula Lives!, Monsters unleashed and Tales of the zombie. And Savage Tales itself would join them on the rack.

It might have been too late... after two and a half years, Barry Smith had parted ways with Conan the barbarian. But free from the constraints of the monthly comic and not yet estranged from Marvel, he drew for this and the next issue what is arguably his best Conan work (although I would say that's actually CtB #24), in a Roy Thomas-written adaptation of Robert E. Howard's extremely violent story Red nails.

The cover for issue #2 is the second of those rare John Buscema painted efforts, and it is clearly superior to his previous one. Not quite Frazetta (or even Boris), but a good looking piece with the unique Buscema energy. Conan, oddly enough, is still wearing his early Barry Smith-era fur short and the three-piece medallion he traded away in issue #23 (while that same month, CtB #31 was on sale). Maybe that painting had been done years before? It would be interesting for Roy to tell us about it in a future issue of Alter Ego.

The story goes as this: We are introduced to one Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, a young, tall woman who started a career as a pirate and wants nothing more than to be treated as one of the lads. But being a sculptural blonde makes it hard for her scurvy comrades to keep their hands to themselves, and she had to look for work land-side in the country of Stygia (kinda like Egypt, culturally speaking). While there, an officer in a mercenary company she had hired her sword to made untoward advances that she met with a blade, and she had to flee the wrath of his men (including his own brother) down in the jungles of Kush and beyond. Luckily for her, one of the mercenaries of that band had been Conan, and although his intentions are no more honourable than theirs, he at least never forces himself on a woman when she says no (Savage Tales #1 notwithstanding). So as the story opens, Valeria climbs on a steep, rocky mount to see if she's still being followed, and that's where Conan rejoins her to tell her that he's killed all her pursuers.

Needless to say, she refuses the Cimmerian's amorous advances and is even ready to skewer him when the pair's horses start neighing in panic. The two of them scramble down the steep cliff to find themselves facing the cause for the (now dead) horse's terror: a stegosaurus-shaped carnivorous dragon! They scramble back up the mount, which is thankfully to hard a climb for the beast. However, it decides to lie in wait. Conan and Valeria seem destined to die of thirst up on their small stony outcrop, and even the fruit that grows there is lethal: Conan recognizes the luscious drupes as Derketa's apples, named after a Kushite goddess of death. And no help is likely to come from a walled city they can see in the distance, which seems to be quite abandoned.

But! (Yes, there's a but). The ever-ingenuous Cimmerian reasons that if they poison a dagger with the apple's juice, they can tie it to a long branch and try to stab the dragon. Which they do in the page above. The beast is severely hurt and goes to a river to quench the fire that burns him, and Conan explains that he's likely to be blind by then. So Valeria and he try to tiptoe their way down from the mount and away from the monster, who unfirtunetly catches their scent and chases them! After a few hectic moments involving running like mad and trying to pierce a dragon with a sword, the creature brains itself on a massive tree and falls dead. Phew!

Conan and Valeria, now horseless, make their way to the city they espied earlier, which turns out to be one huge building; an entire city (made of jade, no less!) covered with a roof.The main door is not locked and they go in. Inside, everything looks deserted and dusty, and the images on the wall depict the life of an old, sybaritic civilization. While Conan explores a bit to look for stray jewels or coins, Valeria sits down and dozes off. She wakes up a while later when furtive footsteps suggest someone's coming and doesn't want to be seen; from a balcony she can see it's a small and wiry brown man, one floor down from her. As he moves to another room she follows on her own floor, but when she gains sight of him again he's lying dead on the ground! A second man shows up and goes to his friend, but he's then joined by the likely killer: apparently, an animated skeleton with a flaming, horned death's head! Valeria, being made of stern stuff, jumps down from the balcony and kills the creature with a single stroke... and he was only a man after all, wearing phosphorescent body paint and a skull for a mask. The small man she's saved is overjoyed by this kill, as thecreature was apparently quite a fearsome boogyman thereabouts; and Valeria sees that the skull itself seems to be alive, and to try to put her under some sort of hypnotic spell! A spell she interrupts by smashing it to pieces with her sword. (This issue is way less sexist than Savage Tales #1)!

The little guy, named Techotl, convinces Valeria that they now have to run away, because the people from "Xotalanc" are sure to pop up soon. Techotl would rather the two of them ran to his own people, called the Techutli, but Valeria insists on finding Conan first. And that's how the chapter ends. A great intro, full of action and hinting at sinister things to come! And that gorgeous art... Oh, Lord.

I'm not sure if I have any Savage Tales issues, I'd have to dig up my boxes. Pretty sure it's a no though. They're high on my want list.

Just checked, I have #3. For a second I thought I had #1, but that was before I noticed it was a Savage Tales annual featuring Ka-Zar