Conan the Barbarian (The Living Tarim Saga) 19-21; 23-26
September 1972-May 1973



Sorry this is late. Kept forgetting to post it.

This might be the last Conan arc many would choose, primarily because the artwork is beautiful for the most part, but wildly inconsistent. The good news is that Barry Windsor-Smith’s art had been becoming more intricate and detailed by the month since he had started on Conan in October of 1970. The bad news was that as quickly as he had evolved into a student of the Pre-Raphaelites, he was ever more slow at delivering his masterpieces.

He managed to draw four of the six covers, all four of which are superb, but his slow pace meant that the second half of #19 had to be reproduced from Smith’s uninked pencils; #22 had to be shipped out with a reprint of Conan #1 (pages lost in the mail was the story); and the last two issues were penciled by John Buscema. You might think that the sudden difference in everything from Conan’s build and appearance to the architecture and overall look of the Hyborian Age would have spelled (Thulsa) Doom for this six-chapter novel, but I think you’d be wrong, at least judging by my experience reading this long-form adaptation of several of Robert E. Howard’s stories and poems.

This was Roy Thomas at his best, and it was Roy’s scripting and understanding of Howard’s strengths as a writer: establishing a headlong pace; vivid descriptions of place and action; a deft interweaving of violence, characterization and the supernatural, and a certain fatalistic tone. Roy touched all the bases here and held me captivated: the saga was a perfect combination of all of the elements from which it drew at their best: Howard’s source material, Roy’s love and understanding of Howard and his skills at pacing a comic; and the storytelling abilities of Smith and Buscema.

The Howard sources, notably “Shadow of the Vulture,” a Crusaders vs. Turks story, were well supported by Roy’s original overarching plot of a fierce war fought over a religious leader/icon, the Living Tarim. I’ll be honest; I never suspected where Roy would go with the final pages of the saga as Conan discovers the Tarim himself. And I won’t spoil it for others. What I will say is that I never had seen in those days as stark and hard-edged an observation about religion and the wars fought in its name in a comic book.

I’m probably overselling this, but remember, this was in 1972-73; religion was rarely if ever addressed in comics; if it was, it was always handled with deference to piety and tolerance. The story Roy wove from his imagination and Howard’s, was by no means a standard comic book approach. I still am amazed that he was allowed to go as far as he did.

This was great Conan, great Roy Thomas, great Howard and for all the untoward circumstances, great art.

Agreed! Well worth all the delays, problems, etc. I do wish Smith had been able to complete it, though. That would have been something to see. John Buscema ushered in a whole new look to the Hyborian Age, which was fine, but I wish Smith had been able to add the coda to the world he created. It remains the one that I continue to visualize when I think of Howard's original stories.

BTW, "Shadow of the Vulture," which I read in its original form a few years later in the Zebra Books edition, The Sowers of the Thunder, remains a favorite Howard story for me. Akin to Richard Connell's classic "The Most Dangerous Game" in the skillfulness with which the ending is written.