Savage Sword Of Conan (1974-1995) #4

Savage Sword of Conan (1974)

by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Archie Goodwin

Conan and friends defeat Shah Amurath and travel to the Vilayet Sea!

51 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 26, 2019

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pardon my repetition - The saga of Conan of Cimmeria has existed for over a century now. This “comic book” was the fourth of an oversized b&w format that had Roy Thomas heading the effort.

I am revisiting many of these “books” before writing reviews.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This book features Conan as a refugee whose Free Companions have been decimated in a battle with the local kingdom. As he flees, Conan comes across a woman who is about to be beaten and raped by one of the “knights” who had been responsible for his companions’ demise. He rescues her and they flee into the Vilayet Sea where they find an island apparently without human habitation. The story is titled, “Iron Shadows in the Moon.” It has more of John Buscema’s excellent illustrations.

For those who are interested, there is a response to a letter to the editor that discusses why Marvel is limiting itself to Conan stories by Robert Howard and their difficulties in coming to any agreement with L. Sprague deCamp over his volumes. The outcome is that editor/writer, Roy Thomas, is adapting other stories by Howard (in this case, “Shadows in the Moonlight”) so that they feature Conan, though the originals did not.
3.5

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover for this book is credited to Boris Vallejo, one of the many Spanish or Phillipino artists active in comics at this time. I recall a review of this book which said that the young lady is wearing less clothing on the cover than in the story. Given how much she is wearing in the story that doesn't leave much for the cover artist to have dispensed with. Having got that off my chest, which is more than she has got on her, off to the review.
This story is an adaptation of one of Robert E. Howard's original stories. It has been awhile since I have read that original but if my memory serves me this is a fairly accurate retelling. In the opening Conan rescues the heroine from a chieftan, while at the same time getting revenge on said chieftan who was responsible for the slaughter of Conan's comrades. The two of them take refuge in a city where while they are sleeping the girl has a weird dream. It is implied she is seeing something that happened in a time long past. She flees the city due to both the dream and the feeling that the statues that are in the hall where they were sleeping are coming to life. In the morning a pirate ship pulls into the beach. Conan goes down to see if he can the girl will be able to get passage. The ship's captain turns out to be an old enemy. Conan is forced to kill him in a fight and thus we end up with a group of pirates who say he should become their new captain as is stated by their laws. A second group wishes to kill him. The capture Conan and take him into the city to decide his fate. The young lady is able to rescue him, mostly because the pirates have gotten themselves drunk and they leave the city. They hear something slaughtering the pirates. In the morning the pirates decide Conan is to be their new chief and everyone sails away to do pirate things. I enjoyed the story. As I said it seems to be an accurate version of the original. If there are any discrepancies I dare say they were minor.
There was another story, this one another installment of Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin's Blackmark. This is more of a science fantasy story. It has some of the trappings of fantasy but also a healthy dose of sci-fi. I liked it. I believe this was the conclusion of the first Blackmark novel. There was also a good introduction to what had gone before at the begining of this installment so I didn't feel lost coming into the story in the middle. for the fantasy fan in general and the Conan fan in particular this is a good package. Happy reading.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Roy Thomas and illustrations by John Buscema, there is not much to not enjoy with this adaptation of Howard’s “Shadows in the Moonlight”.

Special treat, there is a letter from Charles R Saunders in the letters page. Saunders is of Imaro fame, but this was a couple years before his Imaro tales made the jump to novels.

[Gary Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little less

The artwork is worth five stars as is the story. I have always enjoyed reading SSOC all these years and it's nice to see it on my kindle, but I'm dropping it to four stars for the fact that the art layout was not included as per the table of context.

I recommend this issue to others that have read the R.E.Howard stories and enjoy Conan comics.