Crom! Another fun Conan cover by Joe Jusko full of comely wenches. (Actually, considering all the wenching Conan did in the comics, its a little surprising he didn't contract some horrid Hyborian-era version of Syphillis)This issue's story is "The Waiting Doom" by Chuck Dixon, Hary Kwapisz, and Ernie Chan. It has a cool, well-paced three page opening as a couple of brigands try to get the drop on Conan(which of course goes off exactly according to plan). Its entirely silent, except for one well-placed "Crom!"
We then cut to an inn while a snowstorm rages outside. Some sleazy barbarians are attempting to have their with a waitress when a stranger arrives--Red Sonja!
She has been tracking one of them, who left Sonja holding the bag when he double-crossed her involving some war chief's children they were supposed to guard. Of course, these guys think they're going to teach Sonja a lesson, and of course its the She Devil with a Sword that dispenses the lesson, with the aid of Conan to steps in only to make sure its a fair fight.
Afterwards, Soja discovers Conan has been wounded, and helps him recuperate in some hot springs. Conan makes yet another futile move on Sonja, but nothin' doin', so he quickly moves onto Business. Conan has been given a medallion that will supposedly help him find a pricless statue for a mage who is offering "a sizable prize" for its capture. Sonja still wants to find the lost children, but since they're headed the same way they take off together.
Meanwhile, a group of trackers, including a steel-masked, totally silent behemoth, are also out there, searching for Conan(the first group having failed to do in the first few pages, remember?).
Conan and Sonja travel on, and are warned of a legend of the hills of a horrible creature that roams the area. Conan of course scoffs at this, but when they get to the mouth of the temple that supposedly houses the statue, they are accosted by a really gruesome two-headed, drooling, six-armed thing that artist Gary Kwapisz must have had a blast designing. It looks like something out of Re-Animator or John Carpenter's remake of The Thing. *shudder*
Conan and Sonja fight it long enough to hide inside a crevice, though not before Sonja lops off one of its hands. The creature is distracted when the trackers looking for Conan show up, and our heroes make their way into the temple.
Just as they're about to grab the statue, the trackers catch up to them, with the creature right behind. A melee ensues, and Sonja and Conan manage to pit the creature and the giant masked bad guy against each other, who fight each other even as they fall off a cliff into a pit of lava. Done and done!
Just then, one of the trackers makes off with the statue, leaving Conan's whole trip for nothing. The lead box he was given to put the statue in is now useless, so he causally tosses it into the lava. Sonja prepares to head off to look for the still-missing children, but Conan surprisingly offers to help her. "What prompts this generosity?" asks Sonja.
Conan, with an amazing grasp of irony, says "Our partings usually come when I am knocked on the head and you ride off with the loot from our adventure. Perhaps I hope that recent events bode a change in our friendship." A nice, mellow wrap-up...
That is, until we cut to a single page of the tracker who stole the magic statue. The statue has been slowly killing the man, and we're given the wonderfully descriptive "He's been bleeding from every pore for a day now." Ewwww!
The story ends with the theif falling over dead in the snow, the statue still nestled in his hand.
Like most of the Chuck Dixon Conan stories he did for SSOC, this is a lot of fun and moves at a great clip. Sure, the stories of Conan-has-to-find-some-treasure are a bit formulaic, but that's part of the fun, knowing what the basic set-up will probably be and seeing what new spin is put on it. Plus its got Red Sonja, always a bonus in my book.
This issue also features some nice Conan pin-ups by Armando Gil, Fraja Bator(?), and Tom Grindberg.
One last thing about the cover--the dancing girl originally was sans rear veil, but artist Joe Jusko was asked to add one; I guess it was just a little too saucy, even for Savage Sword of Conan.
How do I know this? Becuase Joe Jusko told me himself, in the super-cool interview he did with me for the blog which will run tomorrow. Be here, by Crom!
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