TIME BUBBLES: Conan the Barbarian #91 (1978)

Conan the Barbarian #91 

Marvel Comics, 35¢ ($1.27 in 2014 dollars), 32 pages

Cover Date: Oct. 1978 — Released: July 18, 1978

Story Grade: B+

Issue Score: 79.00

RAT-TASTICALLY RECOMMENDED

"Savage Doings in Shem!" 

(17 pages / 98 panels / 3,172 words / 17:45 read time)

Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas 

Penciller: John Buscema

Inker: Ernie Chan

Colorist: George Roussos

Letterer: Tom Orzachowski

Consulting Editor: Jim Shooter 

Ah,  1978, the most perfect year in comics. Yes, and I hope you will trust in my sincerity when I say this, I maintain the most perfect comics books ever made where published in 1977 and 1978! Of course, it possible that much of my love for the comics of this era is due to the fact that I was 10 years old when they came out (I'd turn 11 at the end of November), making them cherished parts of my childhood. 

Comic books changed a lot due to the infamous DC Implosion that happened this year. Within a few months, DC would invent the limited series in an attempt to use up material left unpublished by the Implosion, while the direct-sales market, still in something of a zygote stage in 1978, would soon become the primary distribution channel for our four-color wonders. Both developments would result in comic book companies — becoming more corporate and, I think, somewhat less creative around this time — playing to an increasingly narrow base of dedicated fans. 

And so, the 1977-78 period, which I think we can safely call the last great gasp of newsstand distribution, coincided with a time when I was beginning to make my own purchasing decisions, using my own money, albeit earned as an allowance. Prior to 1977, comics were purchased for me, with titles chosen sometimes with my input, sometimes despite it, and often in direct countermandance of it. 

However, Conan was not a book I chose to buy at the time. Although today I bemoan the market's focus on aging fanboys, and its near-total disregard for the casual reader, there's no questioning that I was part of the problem. Back in 1978, if it didn't wear a cape, or have super-powers, I wasn't interested. Still, regardless of genre, nothing sets my heart aflutter today quite like a comic book with the black "Marvel Comics Group" banner across the top and a "Still only 35¢" starburst in the upper-left corner . . .  even if it s Conan. 

Of course, part of that may be because we had a house fire in late August 1979, which cost us everything we had, including nearly 1,000 comics I'd collected to that point. Today I have more than 15,000 comics, but I still run across issue I've not seen since that fateful afternoon, and I love them most of all.

Anyway, as noted in my previous Time Bubble review, I recently scored a stack of nearly 100 Conans, ranging from #26 to #275. But, as you may by now guess, it was the issues from the era that this review covers that I dove for first. All had been passed over when new, but being from by Golden Age, I could hardly contain my excitement in reading them now.

This issue, is MUCH better than #26 — the first one reviewed here, if far from the first in the stack to be read. Part of that is likely due to the influence of Jim Shooter as "consulting editor." Here, Roy Thomas' script is less off-the-chart overboard with supercilious captions and more like his work as I loved it, in Invaders, All-Star Squadron, and other places. Of course, Thomas tends to the verbose, and he may not be to the tastes of all comics readers, especially newer ones. At the New 52 relaunch I actually overheard a fan at my local comics shop complain of George Perez' Superman that, "It has too many words." 

Still, this issue's story takes almost 18 minutes to read, while the whole book, with the letters page and Marvel Bullpen feature, will consume a good 25 minutes of your time. That's a fantastic entertainment value considering most new comics read in the 10-12 minute rage, for same money. Yes, a Near Mint copy of this particular issue, although 36 years old, will only cost you about $6. If you are willing to settle for something in the Very Fine-minus range, you can expect to pay less than a new Marvel comic, most of which retail for $3.99. 

Frankly, as the price of new comics continues to escalate, I expect the long-depressed market for mid-grade, non-key back issues to take off. When you can find comics from this era, often better drawn and better written than new comics, and in decent condition on your first eBay search, why buy new at all? One reason is that it can be a disjointed experience to read old comics one at a time, the serial story having become a staple of the industry by the early- to mid-1970s. Buying a reprint collection is often a more satisfying option. However, to my knowledge, Conan issues of this era have only ever been reprinted in Marvel's Conan Saga series form the 1990s. Given lower circulation, those reprints can actually be harder to find than the originals.

So, do yourself a favor, skip one new comic this week and buy an old 1978 Conan instead. Heck, this issue is worth it for the classic ads (X-Ray specs!) and Bullpen announcements of the immanent and recent Marvel debuts of Star-Lord and John Romita Jr. 

This issue is typical of the era. In addition to Roy Thomas' script (pretty super even when it goes sappy during Belit's love dance scene) there's John Buscema's art, which is leagues above just about everything on the stands today, even if it's not quite on par with his work in the last issue reviewed, #26. Marvel went from twice-up to the now-standard 11x17 dimension for original art in the late-1960. Still, looking at Buscema's work in #26 compared to this issue, I half wonder if he was still working twice-up in 1973. By this 1978 issue, his work looks slightly less dynamic, with more medium-length shots and close-ups that fill the panel while leaving the page feeling somewhat less expansive. Of course, it's worth noting that neither the coloring nor the production values of this issue are as good as they were five years earlier. 

Still, one issue with the art could be that Buscema was simply overworked at this point. The letters page  notes that he is back on board after missing a handful of issues to create a Conan newspaper comic strip for solicitation to syndicates as well as to crafting with Stan Lee the seminal How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. It's noted that the strip found a home and would launch in newspapers on September 4, so Buscema was undoubtedly pulling double-duty at this point. 

As an aside, the comic strip, which reportedly appeared in about 100 newspapers nationwide, only lasted until April 12, 1981. It was reprinted in various issues of Conan Saga, while Dark Horse Comics issued a collection in 2010 which, although titled "Volume One" apparently contains the entire run.

The story in this issue — you were probably wondering when I'd get to that — has Conan, Belit and Zula hooking up with the Black Corsairs. Then, after Conan beds Belit — because he's Conan dammit and that's what Conan does — they plot to invade Belit's kingdom Asgalun when M'Gora returns to the Corsairs with news of his recent spying mission. Recounting of that mission is a bit to wade through, as are efforts to re-enter the city by stealth, the invading force for some reason limited to Conan, Belit, Zula and M'Gora, the latter of whom quickly and quite mysteriously turns on his compatriots. 

That traitorous turn comes thanks to "master mage" Thoth-Amon. Although Thomas takes pains to mention Zula's powers of hypnotism, it's Thoth-Amon who takes over M'Gora's mind, forcing him to attack the others against his will. Zula's ability, for what its worth, is limited to making a Corsair flap his arms and squawk like a seagull. 

Finally, in the issue's cliffhanger, Thoth-Amon decides to make all four of our heroes fight each other.

On the letter's page, Thomas apologizes if this issues seems disjointed with all the new character names and whatnot. That's not a new thing. One of the letters complains about the constant comings and goings of people and places in the mag, each with nom-de-geurres hard to pronounce, much less remember.  The letter writer pleads with Thomas to have Zula, at least, stick around for a while. In a sidebar on the letter's page, Thomas says Marvel has been hobbled by rights issues over which of Robert E. Howard's characters they can and can't use, particularly as related to Belit. However, all that has since been resolved, Thomas says, terming this particular comic something of a transition issue as he tries to work out discrepancies between the Conan books and Marvel Comics chronology of the Cimmerian's adventures. 

Interestingly, and apparently partly due to the trouble of working out these conflicts, Thomas announces next issue (#92) will be a fill-in flashback to Conan's younger days, leaving the cliffhanger to wait until #93 for a resolution.

As a final, passing thought, I will say this issue's cover made me laugh out loud. After all, it's hard to see an image like this and not be immediately reminded of The Princess Bride, especially given that Conan's expression practically screams, "By Crom! Now that is a rodent of unusual size." Fortunately, Conan makes far shorter work of the offending beasts that the Dread Pirate Wesley, possibly due to feeling energized from having just given Belit something slightly more than the perfect kiss.

[COVER: 7.50 — PLOT: 7.75 — SCRIPT: 8.25 — LAYOUT: 9.75 — ARTWORK: 9.50 — EDITING: 7.0 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 6.25 — DOLLAR VALUE: 8.0 — COLLECTIBILITY: 8.25 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 6.75] 

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Conan, John Buscema, Marvel Comics, Roy Thomas, Time Bubbles,

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TIME BUBBLES: Conan the Barbarian #26 (1973)

Conan the Barbarian #26 

Marvel Comics, 20¢ ($1.07 in 2014 dollars), 32 pages

Cover Date: May 1973 — Released: Feb. 20, 1973

Story Grade: B

Issue Score: 75.0

ARTFULLY RECOMMENDED

"The Hour of the Griffin!" 

(20 pages / 125 panels / 3,172 words / 21:00 read time)

Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas 

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: Ernie Chan (as Ernie Chua)

Colorist: Glynnis Wein

Letterer: John Costanza 

I was never much into Conan as a kid. Yup, it was all about super-heroes for me in my halcyon youth. In fact, you might say I'm the reason there's so little diversity in the comic book market today.

But I happened to score a batch of Conan's recently. I placed an ad in Uncle Henry's soliciting for someone to cut trees on my property to make room for a garden. The deal was you-cut, you-keep, but my ad did say that anyone who brought me comic books might get to harvest a couple of extra poplars, maybe a birch, even. Two people replied to the ad, one of whom offered half a long box of comics, including about 90 Conans. Needles to say, he got the gig. Now, they were mostly reading copies, Very Good to Very Fine, but what the heck, I've always been a reader, not an investor.

The earliest issue in the bunch was #26, notable in that it was only John Buscema's second issue of what would eventually be a 135-issue run, lasting until #190, cover dated January 1987. For that alone, this issue has HIGH collectibilty, in my eyes. In fact, this issue is worth having just for Buscema's beautiful, beautiful art. Hey kids, there's a reason it's Jolly John, and not Kirby, or Ditko, or any of the other founders who's the star of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. The layout here is practically perfect, with Buscema at the top of his form, and the delineation is a delight to behold as well.

This book currently goes for about $22 in Near Mint condition. A slabbed 9.0 actually sold for exactly that price on eBay less than a month ago. But if you are, like me, less fussy and willing to take a lesser-condition copy, you can actually have one for about the price of a new Marvel comic. Per some of the online price guides, a Very Fine condition copy will set you back $18.50, a Fine issue $6.50, and a Very Good copy just $3.30. But a quick search of recent eBay sales shows copies in Very Fine condition going for about $5, and Fine+ for around $4, which just goes to show you how the bottom has dropped out of the back issue market for anything other than high grade key issues. Why Buscema's early efforts on Conan are not considered key is beyond me.

To my knowledge, this particular issue has only been reprinted twice, in Marvel's Conan Saga #63 in 1992 and, in 2004, in Dark Horse Comics' The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 4. In my estimation, you'll probably have less trouble tracking down a copy of the original comic than either reprint.

And why not start the hunt? The art here is so far above anything on the stands today, and the coloring moody and evocative despite the limitations of the era, it's worth having just to look at.

Actually reading it, however, could be a bit of a struggle. On his short-lived blog, Jim Shooter railed against the early-1970s practice of having writer/editors at Marvel. No writer, no matter how good, should be his own editor, Shooter said, and I wholeheartedly agree. After all, any decent editor would have kicked Thomas until his balls were as purple as the prose in this story. 

Don't get me wrong, Roy Thomas is one of my comics heroes. His Invaders and pre-Crisis All-Star Squadrons, just to pick a couple of his titles off the top of my head, will always be among my very favorite comics of all time. But he sure proved Shooter right with this issue. There's a saying that writers should hunt down adjectives in their work, and kill them. But Thomas apparently was not in a particularly murderous mood when he wrote this story. Today, the typical 20-page comic book story will average 1,300 words. Here, Thomas pounds out 3,172. Thomas was always wordy, of course, and some of us love him for it. But this story is just an absolute chore to wade through, with adjectives aplenty choking up the panels like kudzu, describing in syrup-soaked detail every last thing Buscema draws.

For example, as enemy soldiers burst into an alter room and bear down on the barbarian, Thomas tells us:

"Instinctively, Conan crouches behind the massive, flame-lit alter . . ." he writes, in a panel showing Conan crouching behind a massive, flame-lit alter. "He braces mighty barbarian thews against finely-carved marble . . . begins to push . . . and slowly, ever so slowly -- or so it seems -- the alter begins to sway --"

This two-panel sequence is kind of funny in a way, as it stresses how long it takes Conan to topple the alter on top of his enemies. But, I suppose when you have a host of scimitar-swinging soldiers trying to hack you apart, easy-does-it is the way to go.

There's also a funny scene in which the invading horde descends into the city, Trojan War style, from the hollow underside of a giant statue depicting a winged horse. Presumably, this is the griffin of the title, although I always understood griffins to be a cross between an eagle and a lion — horses need not apply. Anyway, the invading army, from whatever kingdom Thomas says they're from in his tortuous "tableau" captions that introduce each setting, are told by a deserter about a secret cave entrance into — again, whatever kingdom Thomas says is being invaded — on the city's "nether side." This being 1973 and the Comics Code Authority in full effect, the cave has to be on the city's nether side, and not on its ass-end. You understand.

As the invading army begins to search for the cave, an incredibly convenient earthquake — which apparently does no damage and causes no panic inside the city — reveals its entrance. From there, the army eventually walks to "Troy."

"By Ishtar's girdle," one soldier says, "That cave-tunnel had more offshoots that the fabled labyrinth of Khora-Ja! Lucky for us one tunnel led into that horse's hollow belly."

What's funny, of course, is that in order to come down out of the giant horse's belly, the soldiers must have needed to climb up one of its legs, which I'd think would have created a fair bottleneck in the procession.

Meanwhile, Conan buddies-up with a captain of the guard who, apparently, was his enemy in the previous issue. This being the early '70s, we are getting into an era when it's helpful when attempting to read any comic book to have read the previous issue, at least, in that series. Even so, Thomas does a decent job of making this issue stand on its own. Unlike modern comics which frustrate the hell out of me, this issue leaves me less with the guessing-at-what's-going-on and more flush with the anticipation of wanting to track down and buy earlier issues. 

Anyway, Conan and the captain happen across the city's queen and try to squirrel her away to safety. But first, Conan tries to distract their pursuers, leading them a merry chase until he happens upon a room housing the Living Tarim, or, as Conan notes, "The one this war is all about!" But our barbarian soon learns that Mr. Holy of Holys is not just some robed recluse, he is the product of way, way, WAY too much royal inbreeding. Why the rulers of this city would keep their prized quasi-fugly in a room lined with mirrors is a mystery, but it does end up making for a nice visual when his face is revealed.

Unfortunately, despite waging war over who gets to host the Living Tarim, none of the soldiers, on either side, have ever seen him. So, when they bust in and start slinging arrows at Conan, its the outrageous fortune of the. Living Tarim to get slightly less living, though no less ugly. Also, burnt to the bone, which is what falling in a fire pit gets you.

Conan then lights out and quickly reconnects with Queen and captain, leading their way to freedom through giant saber-toothed possum and rear guard soldiers. Conan then considers making the queen his wench, since he's gone to the trouble of rescuing her, after all, but as it turns out, she's preggers, and the thought of instant fatherdom is enough for Conan to point her on her way stage right while he hightails it stage left.

Finally — no spoilers on a 41-year-old comic — the invading general, Yezdigerd (gesundheit!), finds the dead Living Tarim and, in an epilogue worthy of any EC Comics or Twilight Zone twist, drives its robed skeleton through the conquered city, his none-the-wiser soldiers cheering their victory.  After all, young Mr. Inbred was mute as well as being a hemophiliac, so who was going to talk to or touch him anyway? 

[COVER: 8.50 — PLOT: 7.50 — SCRIPT: 4.75 — LAYOUT: 10.0 — ARTWORK: 9.75 — EDITING: 5.50 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 7.25 — DOLLAR VALUE: 7.50 — COLLECTIBILITY: 9.25 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 5.0] 

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Conan, John Buscema, Marvel Comics, Roy Thomas, Time Bubbles,

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