In 1987, Marvel experimented with this a second Conan magazine, titled The Conan Saga--an all-reprint b/w title running, in order, the stories from the color Conan the Barbarian comic.Asking readers to fork over two bucks for reprints was risky, but it obviously worked--Saga ran for ninety-seven issues, a great run for a reprint book, and an extraordinary run for a comic magazine. Roy Thomas has said that at one point, Marvel was making more money from Savage Sword of Conan than any other publication they had. I'm sure that earned everybody's favorite barbarian a lot of respect at the House of Ideas.
This first issue features a new Barry Smith cover, and reprints Conan the Barbarian #s 1-3:
"The Coming of Conan" by Roy Thomas, Smith, and Dan Adkins
"Lair of the Beast-Men!" by Thomas, Smith, and Sal Buscema
"The Twilight of the Grim Grey God!" by Thomas, Smith, and Buscema
There's also a text piece about Hyboria by Alan Zelenetz, and a beautiful inside cover pin-up by Smith:
I grew up seeing Smith's work as it looks now, and when I would go back and look at those old Conans I couldn't reconcile the two very different looks.The inside back cover features a pencil sketch by Smith as an ad for the next issue; but as far as my research could find, the sketch doesn't appear in Conan Saga #2...?
