Still being in a macho magazine mood (say that five times fast), I went looking into my b/w collection for the most macho mag I could find. I think I did a pretty good job with this--Savage Tales #4, with a cover by Neal Adams of Conan the Barbarian about to behead a bad guy, simultaneously saving a comely wench! As the cover tag says--"More Savage Than Ever!"The first story is "Night of the Dark God" by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, the oddly-named "Diverse Hands", and Pablo Marcos! Conan sails to a a faraway land to save the beautiful Mala, daughter of Hafgar of the Hillmen, who has been kidnapped by the villainous Thorfel, who wants her as his bride.
Before Conan can arrive, Mala, who would rather be dead than be fouled by Thorfel, takes her own life. This happens just as Conan arrives, which of course sends him into a Cimmerian rage, hacking and slashing at every member of Thorfel's band. I'd be hard pressed to come up with a better storytelling team thank Kane and Adams to convey the savagery with which Conan goes after these guys. Even though the violence is gruesome, under the touch of Kane and Adams it approaches a thing of beauty.
After a two-piece article about the magazine by Roy Thomas is a photo article about Jason and the Argonauts. Why? I have no idea, but I'm not complaining since JATA is one of my favorite movies!
Next is an uncredited reprint tale "The Crusader" about King Richard. I don't recognize the art style, but it's a soldily-drawn little tale. At five pages, its over before you know it.
There's another text article about Conan by Thomas, and then a second Conan tale, "Dweller in the Dark" by Thomas and Barry Smith, where he takes on a giant monster (of course, this being Conan). This is the story that features the semi-famous sequence of the-nude-woman-in-a-bath-who-comes-on-to-Conan, and a few panels had to be touched up to meet with Comics Code approval. This story is reprinted from the color Conan the Barbarian comic (#12, to be exact), so I'm a little surprised Marvel didn't go back in and re-retouch the art to be reprinted here, since Marvel could get away with more in the b/w magazines--which was of course the whole point of these things!
In addition to all this, there's a both inside-covers Conan pin-up by P.Craig Russell! Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Barry Smith, and P.Craig Russell--by Crom, what a deal for 75 cents!
2 comments:
What a great comic!
Man, I miss these mags.
By the way – I love this blog. It even inspired me to create a comics-centric blog of my own at http://gunsinthegutters.blogspot.com
"Dweller In The Dark" was originally slated for Savage Tales #2, which was originally slated for publication in 1971, which was right after Savage Tales #1. But Savage Tales got cancelled until 1973 (with "Red Nails"), and they had this story already done...so they cleaned it up and put it in Conan The Barbarian #12. I think Roy Thomas explains all this in his editorial.
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