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The Savage Sword of Conan
The Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 8
The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 8 features some of the most anxiously awaited Conan stories from the Savage Sword era, including the two—part "Daughter of the God King" story. The skilled Conan mainstay Michael Fleisher writes all of the Savage Sword of Conan feature stories in this volume, while exciting newcomers to the world of Conan-Alan Zelenetz, Jim Owsley, and Jim Neal—pen the backup stories! The art chores are handled by some of the finest artists to ever draw Crom's favored Cimmerian!
* This volume, which collects The Savage Sword of Conan #85-#93, also includes Conan covers, frontispieces, and pinups from each issue!
* This volume, which collects The Savage Sword of Conan #85-#93, also includes Conan covers, frontispieces, and pinups from each issue!
528 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2010
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About the author
Michael Fleisher
432 books12 followersMichael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 22, 2016
"Daughter of the God King" is one of the longest, bad drawn and not much original stories of the Cimmerian ever (and the princess changes haircut color from blonde to dark raven between chapters without author, artists and editor noticing it).
Luckly Earl Norem's covers and following stories drawn by Buscema, Alcala and amazing Ernie Chan's "Escape from the temple" portfolio are so amazingly drawn that you can forgive it.
Luckly Earl Norem's covers and following stories drawn by Buscema, Alcala and amazing Ernie Chan's "Escape from the temple" portfolio are so amazingly drawn that you can forgive it.
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April 22, 2011Barbarian with a heart-of-gold:
[note: 5 periods mark an ellipsis; 3 periods are copied from the text]
Conan is the leader, by force, of an Afghuli horde. His lieutenant, Brunneg, shows him a village the men want to raid.
Conan: Holy Ishtar! Wait! Is THAT the village you meant to sack? That ragtag cluster of shepherds' tents which are completely deserted at this hour except for women, children, and doddering old men?
Brunneg: Yes, O Chieftain! That is the place!
Conan: And since when have the Afghuli stooped to butchering old hags and babes in arms? You! BRUNNEG! Get down there at once! And tell the others to rejoin us here! There will be no attack!
Brunneg: We could tear through that village like a whirlwind ... Steal their food, ravish their women!
Conan: And I say no!
.....
Brunneg: [muttering to himself as he rides to his companions] Bah! The Cimmerian may have the look of a warrior, but beneath his skin he is nothing but a sentimental fool! The world is a hard place! A man must seize what there is to seize! And besides, I have heard that those shepherds' wives are full-bosomed and hot-blooded!
.....
Conan: [overlooking the village from a high bluff] But wait! What in the name of Ishtar's HAPPENING here? They're not riding to rejoin our column at all! Mother of Mitra! The dogs are IGNORING my orders! THEY'RE ATTACKING THE VILLAGE!
Narrator: Aye, that they are! A yowling horde of blood-hungry Afghulis thundering down toward the cluster of shepherds' tents from out of the East, screaming like banshees and howling for blood!
1st Warrior: [on horseback, attacking the village] No quarter!
2nd Warrior: Let only their comeliest women survive!
Narrator: While at that self-same instant, on the heights far above ...
Warrior: [attending Conan] But Conan! If they've chosen to ignore your message, how will we stop them?
Conan: By delivering them a SECOND message, my friend, this one forged from Hyrkanian steel!
Narrator: Aye, Cimmerian! Mayhap you WILL halt the Afghuli onslaught ... but not before the simple, rustic village of tents has been transformed into a charnel house of mayhem and destruction!
Warrior: [attacking from horse-back] Hack them to ribbons!
1st Elderly Shepherd: W-what can we DO? We are too OLD to use weapons!
2nd Elderly Shepherd: Sell your lives dearly! At least buy the women and the young ones time to ESCAPE!
Narrator: But from the very outset, the villagers' doom seems all but sealed ... Poorly armed and hopelessly outnumbered, the aged defenders are cut down mercilessly where they stand ... while those who have no other recourse but to flee in mind-numbing terror ... are more often than not, simply trampled into the ground 'neath the onrushing tide of flashing, flailing hooves ...
Victim: AAAAHHHHH!
Narrator: Even the youngest and most helpless of the shepherds' kin are cruelly put to the sword!
Shepherd Child: NO! S-spare me, please! AAAARRRGGHH!
Narrator: [To accompany multiple panels of violence] The Barbarian hears the boy-child's plaintive death-cry ... and is instantly engulfed by a tidal wave of indescribable rage ... For, 'twas in a raid much like this one, many years ago, that a blood-mad Vanir horde, their red hair flowing wildly in the autumn wind, swept down on his own tiny village in far-off Cimmeria ... and murdered his mother and father ... leaving him alone and orphaned amid mounds of battle-mangled corpses and pools of blood! Aye, and so it is these galling memories that return to haunt him now as he watches the Afghuli renegades who have dared to disobey him cut a bloody swath through the defenseless village, leaving naught but mutilated bodies and hellish devastation in their wake ... Aye, it is those bitter childhood recollections that flash and flicker before his mind's eye as he whirls like a blood-crazed Dervish among the Afghuli marauders ... his great sword cleaving the air in savage arcs, hewing and hacking ... until finally the senseless assault on the peaceful village has been halted, the mindless carnage brought to a close ... !!
Conan: Derlek! Malpoq! Attend to these WOUNDED! The rest of you help these villagers bury their dead!
Wounded Man: UHHHHHNN!
Conan: And as for YOU spineless muck-crawlers, you'll soon join your worm-eaten forebears in the infernal domains of ARALLU [Hell] unless you tell me why my orders to SPARE this village were not OBEYED! Well, OUT with it damn you! You received my message! Why, in Crom's name did you DISOBEY it?
1st Warrior: But, Chieftain! We did NOT disobey you!
2nd Warrior: Brunegg brought us word that you wanted us to ATTACK the village and take no prisoners!
3rd Warrior: Aye, Chieftain! We only did exactly what you BADE us to!
Narrator: The Cimmerian says nothing. He doesn't need to ... For what, indeed, could he possibly express with mere words ... that could not be conveyed far more eloquently in some other way?
Brunegg: [impaled on Conan's sword] UHHHRRK ...
[note: Yes, the spelling of Brunneg's/Brunegg's name changes mid-story.]
[note: 5 periods mark an ellipsis; 3 periods are copied from the text]
Conan is the leader, by force, of an Afghuli horde. His lieutenant, Brunneg, shows him a village the men want to raid.
Conan: Holy Ishtar! Wait! Is THAT the village you meant to sack? That ragtag cluster of shepherds' tents which are completely deserted at this hour except for women, children, and doddering old men?
Brunneg: Yes, O Chieftain! That is the place!
Conan: And since when have the Afghuli stooped to butchering old hags and babes in arms? You! BRUNNEG! Get down there at once! And tell the others to rejoin us here! There will be no attack!
Brunneg: We could tear through that village like a whirlwind ... Steal their food, ravish their women!
Conan: And I say no!
.....
Brunneg: [muttering to himself as he rides to his companions] Bah! The Cimmerian may have the look of a warrior, but beneath his skin he is nothing but a sentimental fool! The world is a hard place! A man must seize what there is to seize! And besides, I have heard that those shepherds' wives are full-bosomed and hot-blooded!
.....
Conan: [overlooking the village from a high bluff] But wait! What in the name of Ishtar's HAPPENING here? They're not riding to rejoin our column at all! Mother of Mitra! The dogs are IGNORING my orders! THEY'RE ATTACKING THE VILLAGE!
Narrator: Aye, that they are! A yowling horde of blood-hungry Afghulis thundering down toward the cluster of shepherds' tents from out of the East, screaming like banshees and howling for blood!
1st Warrior: [on horseback, attacking the village] No quarter!
2nd Warrior: Let only their comeliest women survive!
Narrator: While at that self-same instant, on the heights far above ...
Warrior: [attending Conan] But Conan! If they've chosen to ignore your message, how will we stop them?
Conan: By delivering them a SECOND message, my friend, this one forged from Hyrkanian steel!
Narrator: Aye, Cimmerian! Mayhap you WILL halt the Afghuli onslaught ... but not before the simple, rustic village of tents has been transformed into a charnel house of mayhem and destruction!
Warrior: [attacking from horse-back] Hack them to ribbons!
1st Elderly Shepherd: W-what can we DO? We are too OLD to use weapons!
2nd Elderly Shepherd: Sell your lives dearly! At least buy the women and the young ones time to ESCAPE!
Narrator: But from the very outset, the villagers' doom seems all but sealed ... Poorly armed and hopelessly outnumbered, the aged defenders are cut down mercilessly where they stand ... while those who have no other recourse but to flee in mind-numbing terror ... are more often than not, simply trampled into the ground 'neath the onrushing tide of flashing, flailing hooves ...
Victim: AAAAHHHHH!
Narrator: Even the youngest and most helpless of the shepherds' kin are cruelly put to the sword!
Shepherd Child: NO! S-spare me, please! AAAARRRGGHH!
Narrator: [To accompany multiple panels of violence] The Barbarian hears the boy-child's plaintive death-cry ... and is instantly engulfed by a tidal wave of indescribable rage ... For, 'twas in a raid much like this one, many years ago, that a blood-mad Vanir horde, their red hair flowing wildly in the autumn wind, swept down on his own tiny village in far-off Cimmeria ... and murdered his mother and father ... leaving him alone and orphaned amid mounds of battle-mangled corpses and pools of blood! Aye, and so it is these galling memories that return to haunt him now as he watches the Afghuli renegades who have dared to disobey him cut a bloody swath through the defenseless village, leaving naught but mutilated bodies and hellish devastation in their wake ... Aye, it is those bitter childhood recollections that flash and flicker before his mind's eye as he whirls like a blood-crazed Dervish among the Afghuli marauders ... his great sword cleaving the air in savage arcs, hewing and hacking ... until finally the senseless assault on the peaceful village has been halted, the mindless carnage brought to a close ... !!
Conan: Derlek! Malpoq! Attend to these WOUNDED! The rest of you help these villagers bury their dead!
Wounded Man: UHHHHHNN!
Conan: And as for YOU spineless muck-crawlers, you'll soon join your worm-eaten forebears in the infernal domains of ARALLU [Hell] unless you tell me why my orders to SPARE this village were not OBEYED! Well, OUT with it damn you! You received my message! Why, in Crom's name did you DISOBEY it?
1st Warrior: But, Chieftain! We did NOT disobey you!
2nd Warrior: Brunegg brought us word that you wanted us to ATTACK the village and take no prisoners!
3rd Warrior: Aye, Chieftain! We only did exactly what you BADE us to!
Narrator: The Cimmerian says nothing. He doesn't need to ... For what, indeed, could he possibly express with mere words ... that could not be conveyed far more eloquently in some other way?
Brunegg: [impaled on Conan's sword] UHHHRRK ...
[note: Yes, the spelling of Brunneg's/Brunegg's name changes mid-story.]
April 9, 2016
These are not the brightest three stars to shine on the firmament of Cimmeria. The series goes through some growing pains, or else it gets tired of recycling the same ideas and the same jokes. Experiments with new scriptwriters and new graphic artists also contribute to the general slapdash, improvised, 'we're-only-in-it-for-the-money' feel of the latest offering. My biggest gripe are not the stories themselves, since I know by now what sort of crude, pulpy entertainment to expect. The enduring fascination I have for the mighty-thewed barbarian and his neverending fight against monsters, savages and sorcerers is in a way a homage paid to Robert E Howard who, despite a rather slim body of work, still manages to inspire a host of fan-fic writers. My disappointment comes from the lowering of the standards in regard to the draughtsmanship. I miss John Buscema, even though he still contributes to some of the individual stories. Still, there were some issues in a better shape than the others, can't exactly remember which ones, and I expect I will go back to album number nine after a long enough 'cooling my temper' period.
A single picture I believe is enough to give a new reader an idea of what to expect from the series:
March 17, 2018
This continues the reprints of the Marvel black-and-white magazine that run through the late 70s, the 80s and into the mid 90s.
The writing quality is reasonably consistent, although not at the level that Roy Thomas maintained. Michael Fleischer (who wrote all the issues in this volume) has a tendency to have a certain sameness about his plots. The art on these issues is from a variety of people, including Gil Kane, John Buscema and Ernie Chan.
The writing quality is reasonably consistent, although not at the level that Roy Thomas maintained. Michael Fleischer (who wrote all the issues in this volume) has a tendency to have a certain sameness about his plots. The art on these issues is from a variety of people, including Gil Kane, John Buscema and Ernie Chan.
September 7, 2019
Classic cover, classic Conan. What else could you ask for.
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May 6, 2020Incredible. Fantastic language, mind blowing dialogues, lovely artwork too. ! Incredible storylines
April 2, 2023
Savage Sword of Conan is probably the best Sword and Sorcery comic of all time. The consistency probably did drop off in later years, but at this point it's still great.
August 1, 2013
Michael Fleischer has written a lot of good comics over the years, but, frankly, his Conan work isn't up to hi standard elsewhere. By this point in the run of Savage Sword Of Conan the stories was pretty much all repeats of three or four plots, and it was only rare that there would be a variation that was interesting -- the alternate world story that closes this volume is actually fairly entertaining, and fortunately brief. The rest? Like being bashed in the head with an ax handle.....
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews