Savage Sword Of Conan #12 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 12, February 2020

As final instalments go for a once-proud “cult-classic” publication, Frank Tieri’s script to Issue Twelve of “Savage Sword Of Conan” probably proved an entertaining read for the comic’s slowly dwindling 18,745 strong readership. Indeed, the Brooklyn-born writer’s tale of the Cimmerian crossing “near the Kothian Hills” in pursuit of a “mysterious demonic sect” is proficiently packed with plenty of pulse-pounding action, and even the early promise of the Barbarian potentially crossing swords with either the worshippers of Set, or even the sinister Serpent Men who so plagued Kull the Conqueror in pre-cataclysmic Atlantis.

Disappointingly however, such a mouth-watering confrontation is soon dispelled when it is revealed that the sword and sorcery hero is just battling a band of fanatical priests, and that “the little girl” Conan had earlier sworn to protect was actually the demon Amoth, who is intent on smiting its followers' enemies in Argos. This “surprise twist” is regrettably  ‘telegraphed’ just as soon as the child first appears within the coastal nation’s marketplace wearing her somewhat ornate-looking neck-chain, so despite all of the optimistic pre-publication publicity by “Marvel Worldwide” to the contrary, there is little within this twenty-page periodical’s covers which will actually daze and dumbfound the reader.

Mercifully though, just because it soon becomes clear that the titular “cretin” has been duped into cutting off the hands of the sole magician who could have permanently bound their unholy foe in its mortal form, doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty of rumbustious violence to enjoy within the American author’s storyline. For whilst the Cimmerian’s showdown with Tama’s horrifically powerful alter-ego inevitably occurs close to the demon’s birthplace within the magma flame of Mount Rokk, the sheer ferocity of that fight, following on so quickly from the Barbarian’s vicious slaughter of Saleria’s religious order from Shem, arguably more than makes up for any lack of astonishment as to the adolescent’s true calling.

Adding to this plot’s vibrant dynamism and persistent air of impending doom are Andrea Di Vito’s layouts, which are simply spectacular, especially when it comes to Conan’s battle with the incredibly strong, almost serpentine-shaped Amoth. The adventurer’s desperate effort to reattach the fearsome fiend’s transformation-thwarting collar is nail-bitingly pencilled, and doubtless many a bibliophile winced at the impact of the Barbarian head-butting the red-eyed brute into submission; “Fortunately, my hard Cimmerian head can likely aid in the process…”

Writer: Frank Tieri, Penciler: Andrea Di Vito, and Inker: Scott Hanna

Savage Sword Of Conan #11 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 11, January 2020

It was probably abundantly clear even to this series’ loyal 19,785 readers in November 2019, just why “Savage Sword Of Conan” was on the cusp of being cancelled, if Roy Thomas’ final instalment to his “Dark Cavern, Dark Crystal” storyline was truly the best tale “Marvel Worldwide” could provide for the “cult classic” publication. True, the former editor-in-chief certainly packs his twenty-page narrative with plenty of pulse-pounding action, courtesy of the Cimmerian discovering that the legendary treasure which his employer seeks is guarded by a horde of giant, flesh-eating bats. But so arguably ludicrous are the circumstances leading up to the Barbarian’s untenable situation deep within the bowels of the Himelian Mountains, that it is hard to take anything away from this comic’s plot, except perhaps some relief when its finally over.

Foremost of this book’s faults, besides some startlingly lack-lustre pencilling at times by Alan Davis, is debatably the duplicity all this yarn’s cast show once they have reached their prize and gazed in terror at the Keepers of the Dark Crystal. The character of Zubair, with his smooth-talking tongue and egotistical belief in his fighting skills was clearly always earmarked to commit some treacherous act. Yet the hired swordsman’s sudden transformation from a helpless rope-bound prisoner into a formidably-powered sorcerer seems a little far-fetched, especially when the wizard verbalises the terrific lengths he has gone to in order to fool his companions and reach his goal, despite him always having the ability to simply ward off the crystal’s custodians with a magic shield.

Lady Serra’s betrayal is however, even more disconcerting, after it’s unexpectedly revealed that the noblewoman contrivingly has “a tiny shard” of the luminescent sphere residing “in that ring you wear.” Setting aside any thoughts of originality concerning purple-coloured dark crystals, a long-lost shard, and the need for the giant gem to “be whole before it can fully function”, Thomas’ disclosure that the woman poisoned her own brother’s ale in order to procure Lord Fallo’s map, whilst at the same time having her stab the “ignorant barbarian” in the ribs for costing her the magical power she craves, seems a little ill-advised to put it mildly, especially when the two are alone atop a snow-covered mountain facing a monstrous guardian who just happens to be within reach to drag the peeress back down into its bottomless grotto; “I can’t save you from the bat-thing that was determined to reclaim the missing piece of their dark crystal!”

Writer: Roy Thomas, Penciler: Alan Davis, and Inker: Cam Smith

Savage Sword Of Conan #10 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 10, December 2019

Announced at the Portsmouth Comic Con in 2019 as being “a prequel to the classic Conan tale People Of The Black Circle by Robert E. Howard”, Roy Thomas’ storyline for Issue Ten of “Savage Sword Of Conan” certainly must have seemed to this book’s slowly dwindling 20,367-strong audience like something that the Barbarian’s creator might have penned. For whilst it has been nearly fifty years since Stan Lee’s successor “first brought the Cimmerian to the pages of Marvel Comics”, it’s clear from this publication’s marvellous mix of brutal knife-fighting, treacherous double-dealing and Hill Code violations, that the Will Eisner Award Hall of Famer can still replicate the qualities which made the sword and sorcery hero such a success within the black-and-white pages of “one of the most popular comic series of the Seventies.”

To begin with, the former editor-in-chief immediately throws the reader straight into the action, by having “the Western dog” apparently fight for his life in a local tavern confrontation with Guptar the Argossean. Staged simply to allow the “bronzed barbarian” to earn some additional coin, courtesy of him holding back until certain bets are waged, the match predictably results in a win for the titular character, but also pleasantly progresses the plot by securing for him a job as one of two bodyguards for Lady Serra.

This is a neat way of providing any perusing bibliophile with a modicum of pulse-pounding pugilism straight from the start, whilst simultaneously setting up the main narrative of the comic, and is slightly reminiscent of Howard’s opening to "The Tower of the Elephant" in some ways. Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the technique's success, Thomas also apparently takes a page out of “The Pool of the Black One” later on, by having Conan unwisely challenge the cowardly Pakim to become chief Hetman of the Afghulis, and subsequently get knocked unconscious by some of the less-honourable tribesmen for his trouble; “The Hill Code is well-known far and wide. It says a Hetman must fight any man who challenges him before the assembled tribe.”

Unexpectedly therefore, perhaps this book’s sole drawback are some of Alan Davis’ sketches, which whilst predominantly up to Englishman’s usual high standard don’t debatably suit the look and feel of the Hyborian Age. True, the Corby-born illustrator’s depictions of Serra and "her hired swordsman, Zubair" are prodigiously pencilled, but for some reason the rather round, cartoonish style of the “Captain Britain” artist doesn’t appear to quite suit the square-jawed, grim-faced Cimmerian in several of the comic's panels.

Writer: Roy Thomas, Penciler: Alan Davis, and Inker: Cam Smith

Savage Sword Of Conan #9 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 9, November 2019

As exciting conclusions go to three-part adventures, there can be no doubt that Jim Zub’s narrative for Issue Nine of “Savage Sword Of Conan” certainly packed the twenty-page periodical with a mind-blowing amount of death and destruction. In fact, it was probably difficult for many within this comic’s 21,106 strong audience to keep up with the Canadian writer’s kill count, as literally everybody within the Dragon’s Den is either beheaded, mutilated, eviscerated, or brutally burnt to death before the Cimmerian finally departs the repugnant gambling den.

But whilst this book rather enjoyably fails to give its readers the opportunity to take a moment’s breath throughout its brutal bouts of pulse-pounding pugilism, some of the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Award-winner’s plot decisions are debatably a little contrived. For starters why, having already robbed the decadent hall of half its armed guards, courtesy of a monumentally ferocious display of swordsmanship, is the barbarian still allowed to take a blade of “good Brythunian steel” into the Debtors Lounge, when all its other victims have been thrown into the death-trap unarmed.?

Such a decision seems completely at odds with what has been previously established, yet rather than have a stray weapon or two inadvertently fall into the underground pit during the aforementioned fighting fracas, Zub actually pens the immoral establishment’s owner specifically tossing the barbarian his weapon, due to his over-confidence that “It won’t save you from the brute, but it’ll amuse us to watch you try.” This inconsistently badly jars with the sensibilities, in the same way that the incomprehensibly huge, fearsomely-fanged beast Conan subsequently faces, goes completely against its bestial nature by hesitating from tearing up the adventurer’s seemingly unconscious body “into pieces” just long enough for the Cimmerian to recover and kill the monstrosity with a stab between its eyes; “Perhaps the creature senses its fate. The meat will not lie still. This warrior will not yield and death will be delivered upon a sliver of steel.”

Mercifully, Patch Zircher’s pencilling for this publication is not as inconsistent as some of its script’s logic, with the barbarian’s furious conflict against the towering bear-like creature undeniably the comic’s highlight. Colour artist Java Tartaglia’s input is also especially worthy of praise, with the Argentinian’s use of green to highlight the sheer intensity of the Godsend Gemstone’s glow brilliantly transforming Conan’s battle through the gambling hall into an almost hallucinogenic orgy of bloodletting, which then wonderfully contrasts with the resultant blackness of the place when the combat is at an end and a lantern needs to be lit so as to illuminate the warrior's utterly merciless killing-spree.

Writer: Jim Zub, Artist: Patch Zircher, and Color Artist: Java Tartaglia

Savage Sword Of Conan #8 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 8, October 2019

It’s a shame that Jim Zub’s script for Issue Eight of “Savage Sword Of Conan” saw the title’s circulation fall by approximately fifteen hundred copies in August 2019, as despite “Fortune Favours The Bold” being predominantly set around a gambling table, the comic still manages to contain plenty of tension, not to mention a ridiculously violent culmination. Indeed, with its marvellous mix of bluff, chance, mysterious deities, and cold-blooded treachery, it would arguably not be too difficult for many of this book’s 21,572 readers to imagine Conan creator Robert E. Howard penning a short tale along similar lines.

For starters, the Canadian author doesn’t fall into the trap of suddenly imbuing the titular character with all the card-shark skills of his opponent, a man who has “been stacking thirteens longer than you’ve been alive.” Instead, the barbarian seems to start winning at Serpent’s Bluff simply though the good graces of the Godsend, “a fist-sized emerald enshrined in the Demon’s Den.” Admittedly, some bibliophiles might see such a plot device as being rather contrived, but fortunately the “deranged run of luck” which leads to the Cimmerian ridding Kero the Callous of “every jewel and coin you’re carrying” soon deserts him, leaving a destitute barbarian suddenly facing “ a considerable debt with the Demon’s Den.”

Trapped and angry with himself for being played the fool, the ferociousness of the Sword and Sorcery hero’s response is as savagely bloody as it is unsurprising, with Conan determined to bring down as many of his opponents as his sharp sword will let him, before he himself is felled. This unrestrained fortitude taps into the adventurer’s panther-like personality wonderfully, especially when it depicts the eventually beaten warrior making a beeline for Kero’s head; “A debt would indeed be settled this night. But its payments would be made in blood… Any blood would do… just so long as it dripped from Conan’s blade.”

Greatly adding to the intensity of so pulse-pounding an action sequence, is Patch Zircher’s artwork, which genuinely provides the fighting Cimmerian’s facial features with a wolfish snarl. Weaving, cutting, stabbing, slashing, punching and kicking, the American penciller somehow creates such an audible cacophony of screams, shouts, yells and cries with his illustrations, that some within this comic’s audience may well have found themselves winching throughout the entirety of the barbarian’s nail-bitingly gory rampage.

Writer: Jim Zub, Artist: Patch Zircher, and Color Artist: Java Tartaglia

Savage Sword Of Conan #7 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 7, September 2019

Apparently attempting to transform this comic’s titular character into “Conan the Gambler”, at least according to editor Mark Basso, Jim Zub’s narrative for Issue Seven of “The Savage Sword Of Conan” must have bemused many of its 23,020 readers with its somewhat surreal explanation as to the intricacies of the “deceptively simple card game”, Serpent’s Bluff. Indeed, considering that this comic contains an advertisement for any interested parties to actually buy a physical copy of the game “developed by the folks at Monster Fight Club”, it probably entered some uncharitable bibliophiles’ heads that this entire twenty-page periodical was little more than a sales pitch.

However, there is much more to the Canadian writer’s tale of political intrigue set within the deadly streets of Shadizar the Wicked, than a simple marketing ploy, as the gory demise of some black-hearted knaves-turned-assassins attests to within this book’s opening scene; “Twist yer gaze an’ move on, or you’ll get one in the gut right next!” Blood-soaked, as it is shockingly violent, the young Cimmerian’s liberation of Maraudus Mahtir could arguably have been ‘lifted’ straight from the pages of a Robert E. Howard novel, especially when its clear the barbarian is at least partially motivated by the gold he is promised for saving the bearded merchant’s life, rather than just a basic desire to rescue any hapless fool he might drunkenly stumble upon.

Zub’s detailed description of the hearty yet potentially lethal Demon’s Den, resplendent with its ‘spicy incense wafting through the air’ and ‘glittering dancers writhing to strange music’, is also arguably well worth this publication’s cover price. It is very easy to imagine the still somewhat unsophisticated adventurer’s awe at seeing so decadent a gambling hall as that which his “brother” brings him to, when Conan momentarily witnesses both its pleasurable and terrifying entertainments within the space of just a few well-drawn panels.

Providing this comic with plenty of visual stimulus are Patch Zircher’s storyboards, which help imbue the somewhat sedentary nature of Mahtir’s card game against Kero the Callous with all the tension so serious a confrontation could warrant. The American artist’s pencilling proves particularly prodigious when it comes to illustrating Jim’s description of the various “special cards that add complications” to the high-stakes game of chance, and the subtle touch of the story’s mysterious killer who leaves the sword and sorcery hero “trapped and confused” upon Maraudus’ shockingly sudden death.

Writer: Jim Zub, Artist: Patch Zircher, and Color Artist: Java Tartaglia

Savage Sword Of Conan #6 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 6, August 2019

As “all-new self-contained” stories go, Meredith Finch’s narrative for Issue Six of “Savage Sword Of Conan” probably entertained most of its 24,046 strong audience in June 2019. For whilst the twenty page periodical lives up to its front cover’s “parental advisory” in depicting the titular character as an unstoppable killing machine who is capable of mutilating a never-ending carousel of supposed close combat champions, it’s rather straightforward script still provides an enthralling adventure, which even includes a moment of mirth towards its end; “I look forward to seeing the product of our union. Our children will be magnificent! Wait! What are you..? No! You can’t just leave.”

To begin with, the Cimmerian is initially found drinking in a public house somewhere along the Kezankian Pass, and despite it being somewhat implausible that the experienced traveller would so willingly accept a flagon of ale from a total stranger, this unwise move soon results in the wretched wanderer becoming an unconscious prisoner aboard a sea vessel sailing along the Ilbars River. This turn of events is arguably not the most innovative of plot points to befall the sword and sorcery hero, but it does rather succinctly then set up the partially comatose warrior’s involvement as fighting fodder for a great championship.

Indeed, having been repeatedly sedated during his journey to the cells of the General of Akif, the “past writer of Wonder Woman for DC Comics” pleasantly shows Conan using his brain over brawn, by faking his stupor so as to “prevent another dose of the strength-sapping drug.” This strategy sees the Cimmerian desperately trying to free his head of cobwebs and his limbs of lethargy at the same time as fighting in a most lethal-looking arena, and in many ways it is a shame that “the fires of adrenalin burn the last vestiges of the drug from the warrior’s veins” as quickly as he does, for nothing then even comes close to injuring Robert E. Howard’s creation for the rest of the comic.

Providing this book with some eye-watering death scenes are Luke Ross’ layouts, which capture all the savage ferocity and barbarity once might expect for a publication predominantly set within the confines of a gladiatorial tournament. In fact, it’s somewhat debatable that Conan has ever been shown as being quite so vicious, as he mercilessly stabs his fellow contestants through the eye, literally cuts them in half and decapitates them in his strenuous efforts to once again meet the treacherous Thorgeir.

Writer: Meredith Finch, Artist: Luke Ross, and Color Artist: Nolan Woodward

Savage Sword Of Conan #5 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 5, July 2019

Considering that Gerry Duggan’s screenplay for Issue Five of “Savage Sword Of Conan” contains little in the way of excitement or even the titular character’s famous swashbuckling swordplay, it is easy to understand just why this twenty-page periodical was selling some six thousand copies less than its sibling ongoing series “Conan The Barbarian” in May 2019. In fact, seeing as the New Yorker’s conclusion to his pedestrian-paced “Cult Of Koga Thun” long-running storyline is simply to have this comic’s Cimmerian protagonist set a long forgotten ship aflame before riding out alone from the City of Kheshatta on horseback, it’s arguably quite a feat that the “Marvel Worldwide” publication actually sold 25,935 copies. Let alone attained a following strong enough to see it comfortably sit within the month’s Top 100 best-selling publications in eightieth position.

To begin with, the emotionally-charged close combat between the Hyborian Age hero and the scaly, zombified corpse of his companion Suty, is over before the clash has even really started, and despite it apparently providing Koga Thun with an opportunity to pass his vile venom into the heavily-muscled adventurer’s veins, this ‘poisoning’ doesn’t debatably do any lasting damage to the savage’s awe-inspiring strength. Instead, “Conan’s horrifying fate” simply seems to have been used to help pad out a good dozen panels of Duggan’s humdrum plot which depressingly could easily have been covered in a much more pulse-pounding manner, considering the pirate slave had previously saved the bronze-skinned fortune hunter’s life.

Such lack-lustre, unimaginative penmanship really does haunt the WGA Award-nominee’s narrative as Conan seemingly just goes through the motions of discovering that the long-sought treasure is “nothing but worthless parchment”, his last surviving party member is not all she seems, and that the “filthy wizard” stalking him throughout this ponderous tale has apparently known what was going to happen all the time through a remarkably contrived feat of omnipotence; “I paid a dear price to cast the spell that would deliver the map to me. I watched it all unfold through the captain’s eyes. I saw you steal my box, Conan.”

Even illustrator Ron Garney questionably appears to have tired of this particular five-part pencilling assignment, crudely sketching the book’s laudable lead as someone who can bemusingly be bested by a short-handled, snake-shaped stick one moment and then depicting the black-haired conqueror riding a terrified steed in an utterly over-blown splash page the next. Indeed, considering that Gerry’s script peters out with Thun’s beheading two-thirds of the way through the comic, the main purpose of this “artist on every Marvel character that ever walked” would appear to have been to take as long as he could to draw Conan escaping Kheshatta.

Writer: Gerry Duggan, Artist: Ron Garney, and Colorist: Richard Isanove

Savage Sword Of Conan #4 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 4, June 2019

Shifting 27,252 copies in April 2019, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”, Gerry Duggan’s narrative for Issue Four of “Savage Sword Of Conan” certainly must have pleased those Robert E. Howard fans who had been waiting to see the comic’s bronze-skinned barbarian unleash his full fearsome ferocity upon the Undead since reading this ongoing series’ previous instalment. Indeed, a good third of this twenty-page periodical is seemingly dedicated to simply depicting the Cimmerian cleaving his way past all manner of semi-armoured cadavers with nothing more than a pair of fighting axes; “No man had journeyed this far through the labyrinth, for no one but Conan had seen the map.”

Disappointingly however, this briskly-paced journey amidst the secret catacombs beneath the city of Kheshatta is eventually cut short by the party’s discovery that one of their number has been poisoned by Koga Thun, and from this point on the New York City-born writer’s script swiftly descends into a much slower affair as Suty begs his heavily-muscled friend “to send me from whence you came” with a fatal sword thrust to the chest. Of course, such an anguished, painful end to the life of one of Conan’s companions arguably conjures up some emotion in this comic’s audience. But the sheer speed of the scaly infection’s transformation upon the one-time slave’s body, coupled with an annoying series of cut-scenes depicting the sick man’s mental battle to resist the sorcerer’s sweet sounding promise of immortality if he will “let me slide into your skin”, frustratingly furnishes the final death scene with a debatably dissatisfying taste of rush and haste.

This atmosphere of ‘hurriedness’ to get to the publication’s concluding cliff-hanger is perhaps also prevalent in the scratchily-drawn storyboards of Ron Garney. At the start of this comic, the former artist on “The Amazing Spider-Man” pays his figures some tremendous attention to detail, apparently picking out every rib, tooth and vertebra possible on each of the numerous helmet-wearing ghouls he depicts the titular character contesting against. Yet by the time Suty has revealed to his horrified comrades that he now bears the red, snake-eyed pupils of Set the vast majority of the illustrator’s drawings contain little to no actual background, and many of his pencilled panels lamentably comprise of nothing more than a close-up of the competing adversaries’ determined faces.

Writer: Gerry Duggan, Artist: Ron Garney, and Colorist: Richard Isanove

Savage Sword Of Conan #3 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 3, May 2019

In some ways it is interesting that before “Marvel Worldwide” resurrected this “classic title showcasing the exploits of Robert E. Howard's burly nomadic warrior”, the “Syfy Wire” website referred to it as just being a “five-issue mini-series”. For despite containing plenty of pulse-pounding pugilism, as Kheshatta’s literal fork-tongued city guards are brained and a snake-loving necromancer is battered, Gerry Duggan’s screenplay for Issue Three of “Savage Sword Of Conan” moves at so frightening a pace that it arguably appears to be desperately trying to make up for the sedentary nature of its previous two instalments; “Conan lifted his enemy’s blade. It was forged with cruel edges. Fashioned to prolong suffering. That is not how Conan wielded a weapon.” 

Of course, such sense-shattering shenanigans provide this twenty-page periodical with the perfect opening, courtesy of the titular character bludgeoning the facially-disfigured acolytes of Koga Thun with a massive stone column, his formidable fists, a vicious-looking blade and finally, an entire ruined tower. Yet sadly, the instant this excellently story-boarded sequence has drawn to an end, the New Yorker’s narrative rather contrivingly makes several disconcerting leaps so as to ensure that by the publication’s end his three heroes have both found where “the ancient Valusians hid their treasure”, and established it will be a tense race-against-time against “The Cult Of Koga Thun”.

Such disjointed story-telling really does do “The Siege Of Kheshatta” something of a disservice, especially when it is done in such a bizarre manner as having the Cimmerian and his friends simply encircled by an impenetrable fog, within which the tale’s main antagonist is able to not only securely bind the barbarian, but then read his mind “like an open book” in order to find “what Conan tried to hide away in the deepest recesses of his mind -- The Map!” Perturbingly, just how the lizard-skinned Thun knew of his prey’s precise whereabouts is never explained, nor why the bloody-handed villain waited until after the adventurers’ battle with his minions before striking, and this manufactured omnipotence debatably dwells like a minor irritation at the back of the reader’s consciousness for the rest of the comic.

Significantly more successful than this 27,329 copy selling magazine’s pacing is the stunningly animated life with which “veteran penciller Ron Garney” imbues its action. The Bachelor of Science (in illustration and graphic design) adds an extra element of ferociousness to the Hyborian Age hero, which has perhaps seldom been seen before, whilst his depiction of Koga’s glowing-eyed triad as an enormous serpent and the undead-laden catacombs beneath the streets of Kheshatta are superbly rendered.

Writer: Gerry Duggan, Artist: Ron Garney, and Colorist: Richard Isanove

Savage Sword Of Conan #2 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 2, April 2019

Despite having supposedly gone “back and read some of the classics from Robert E. Howard”, Gerry Duggan’s narrative for Issue Two of “Savage Sword Of Conan” debatably must have depressed many of the comic’s audience with his ponderously plodding plot depicting the Cimmerian’s arrival at the city of Kheshatta. Admittedly, the barbarian’s journey to this former “jewel of Stygia” provides a modicum of action when he brains a pair of Koga Thun’s demonic-looking cultists with a severed flaming limb for daring to suggest that they’d eaten the god Crom after he’d “sobbed like a child”. Yet these few fleeting panels, buried deep within the twenty-page periodical, hardly reflect the sort of sense-shattering shenanigans which the Hyborian Age adventurer’s creator imbued his novellas with, and certainly doesn’t inject “an opportunity for a laugh” into the storyline as its New York City-born writer apparently believed.

Indeed, arguably all “Go Ask Crom” provides its readers with is a sedentary, lack-lustre tale involving Conan uncharacteristically scouring a Scroll and Tome vault for “a book of historical maps of Ancient Kheshatta”, being ambushed by a crossbow-wielding Keeper of the Library, and then laboriously discussing with his companion Suty the fact that “the city’s landmarks are being pulled down, making a map much harder to decipher.” Such dialogue-heavy, mediocre meanderings are hardly the sort of content which “the first great fantasy editor” Farnsworth Wright would have agreed to have printed in “Weird Tales” during the Thirties, and probably lessened the blow to the book’s fans when “Comic Book Resources” announced in February 2019 that Duggan (along with artist Ron Garney) would be leaving the title in just a few months' time.

Just as disconcerting as this publication’s poor pace though is debatably the increasingly annoying relationship between the Sword and Sorcery hero and his fellow escapee, Suty, which bears a disconcerting resemblance to the on-screen buffoonery between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tracey Walter’s Malak in the 1984 film “Conan The Destroyer”. The Cimmerian has always been known for his chivalry, albeit towards “damsels in distress”, and clearly owes his life to “his newfound companion” following “a pirate attack that destroyed both ships.” But the cowardly ex-slave’s ill-fortune persistently marks him out as a significant hindrance to the success of the barbarian’s mission rather than an asset, and probably made many a bibliophile wonder just why the black-maned experienced explorer would be happy to undertake so dangerous a mission with such a debatably dangerous disadvantage in tow; “Suty, You clod! I told you to wait outside.”

Writer: Gerry Duggan, Artist: Ron Garney, and Colorist: Richard Isanove

Savage Sword Of Conan #1 - Marvel Comics

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN No. 1, April 2019

“Heralding the return of another classic Conan title” in February 2019, it was probably easy for many of this comic’s audience to see just why “Marvel Worldwide” would tell them to “ready your battle axe” in preparation for Gerry Duggan’s sprawling five-part narrative “The Cult Of Koga Thun”. For whilst the New York-based publisher’s pre-print publicity would have them believe that the Cimmerian “isn’t a prisoner for long” aboard the slave ship Ouroboros, the brawling Barbarian doesn’t actually manage to successfully flee from his captors until near this bloated thirty-page periodical’s end, and then its readers need to steadfastly endure an incredibly long-winded multiple splash-page sequence which depicts the exhausted escapee opening a heavy box which “did not contain coin or jewels…”

Of course, that isn’t to say that Issue One of “Savage Sword Of Conan” contains a sedentary-paced storyline which is devoid of action. Far from it in fact, as the titular character does make a brutal break for freedom just as soon as he gains consciousness from having been cast adrift on the ocean five days after a “calamitous sea battle”, and brains any pirate foolish enough to get in his way. Yet this explosive injection of pulse-pounding fisticuffs, which begins with “the Marvel warrior” hurling a metal plate of gruel at the head of the hold’s guard, frustratingly doesn’t occur until a third of the way into the book, by which point many a perusing bibliophile pondering its plot inside their favourite store may well have already returned the magazine to its place on the spinner rack.

Fortuitously however, having roused from his fevered dream about skeleton pirates and scantily-clad company, Duggan’s incarnation of Conan is debatably every bit the swashbuckler Robert E. Howard penned him to be, and despite the occasional disconcerting demonstration of super-human strength, such as when the adventurer simply smashes open the hold’s heavy metal covering with his bare fists, there’s plenty of swordplay for Hyborian Age fans to enjoy. Indeed, the American author even manages to provide this tale with some sorcerous shenanigans when the great wooden ship’s captain is revealed to be a demonic snake man; "What other dark horrors does this ship hold?!”

Equally as impressive as the pacing behind Conan’s fiery breakout are Ron Garney’s interiors, which certainly show the excitement which the artist felt “because he was a character I had always wanted to take a crack at, and here was that opportunity…” As aforementioned the former “Daredevil” drawer’s work slightly suffers at the conclusion of this comic where he is ‘forced’ to pencil perhaps a few too many splash-pages to help pad out the storyline. But there can be no doubting the “klang” of steel or the Cimmerian’s dynamic vitality when the bare-chested hero is sketched battling for his life against a boat full of cut-throats.

Writer: Gerry Duggan, Artist: Ron Garney, and Colorist: Richard Isanove