Favourite Comics: Savage Sword of Conan issues 16 - Worms of the Earth by Barry Smith & Tim Conrad

It was on a very hot summers day in 1977 when on a family weekend holiday to Blackpool with my mum and dad, that I spied a copy of “Savage Sword of Conan” #16 (Dec 1976) . At this time Conan was my favourite comic book character, so it was a no brainer, I was going to buy this issue without my customary check to see who the creators were. As it turns out this was a true comic book classic issue with artistic efforts by John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Walt Simonson, Barry Smith, and Tim Conrad, all wrapped up in a wonderful Earl Norem cover. Not only was this my first Conan black and white magazine it was my introduction to the then new art style of Barry Smith (with Tim Conrad) on the wonderful “Worms of the Earth” featuring Bran Mak Morn the legendary King of the Picts.

Of course the main strip in this issue featuring Conan was just as impressive with some of big John's and Alfredo Alcala's best art.

It wouldn’t be until around 1979/80 when I picked up issue 17 of "Savage Sword of Conan" which continued the tale of Bran Mak Morn this time with Tim Conrad completing the art chores, this still looked very nice but lacked the excitement and wonder that Barry Smiths brought to the previous tale. The Buscema / Alcala team as expected provided their usual wonderful work on the main Conan strip.

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Favourite covers: The savage pencil of Neal Adams

There are so many exceptional artists who have produced amazing work on barbarian characters over the years including John Buscema, Barry Windsor Smith, and Earl Norem. But perhaps my favourite of these was the legendary Neal Adams. He didn't draw a lot of books in this genre but he did produce some of the best covers featuring savage barbarians. Below are some of my favourites.

Above the UK "Savage Sword of Conan" #15 featuring the cover of the US SSOC #2

Above: One of my all time favourite black and white magazines from the Atlas/Seaboard group - "Thrilling Adventure Stories" # 2 - more on this issue in my next blog.

Above: Conan the Barbarian # 37 - Another of my favourite comics which I have prattled on about previously.

My Famous Firsts: Conan the Barbarian issue 26

As I have mentioned many times before 1973 was my favourite year for comic books. Every month the spinner racks seemed to bulge with amazing new comics book and one of my very favourites was the above issue of Marvels “Conan the Barbarian” (above cover by John Romita, John Buscema and Ernie Chua). I was 13 years old and was on what was to become a legendary comic book finding weekend holiday break with my family to Blackpool when I came across this comic book (along with “Kull the Conqueror” issue 9) in a market stall. My knowledge of Conan up until this point was restricted to those enticing half page adverts that appeared in Marvel comics, to say they whetted my appetite to find a Conan comic was an understatement, and what an action packed issue to become my first introduction to Conan the Barbarian. Below are some pages from this excellent issue:

Although I didn’t know it at the time this issue marked the end of the ongoing saga of the “War of the Tarim” which had spanned several issues and featured the art of nine artists and one writer, Roy Thomas. In this issue “The Hour of the Griffin!”, Roy was joined by artists John Buscema, who had just taken over the job of penciller from the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith with issue 25 , and inker Ernie Chau (later called Ernie Chan).Buscema would of course go on to make Conan his (and Roys) own.

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Below are a couple of those "enticing" house ads that appeared in Marvel comics in the 1970's for Conan.

Favourite comics: Conan the Barbarian issue 37

I can still recall with crystal clarity the first time I saw a Conan the Barbarian comic on a late evening stroll with my family on a weekend holiday in Blackpool. That particular comic was Conan issue 26 (May 1973) and I was instantly hooked on Conan and sword and sorcery at that point. Sadly it would be more over a year before I picked up my next Conan comic, but what an issue that was to end my Conan drought. Conan issue 37 (April 1974) "The Curse of the Golden Skull" by Roy Thomas and the late and truly great Neal Adams is a classic. This story was originally planned to be published in the black and white magazine Savage Sword of Conan but for some reason it was decided to publish this tale in the colour monthly, luckily the art has survived the transition to the smaller page size. Below is a selection of some of my favourite pages from the pen of the wonderful Neal Adams.

The splash page , depicting Conan riding his horse through a windswept northern scene is some of Neal Adams best work, the detail in this page, and the previous 3 pages are just stunning.

Any story with a giant slug is pretty much always a winner in my book.

Darn Mr Adams was good wasn't he?