Conan the Barbarian #70: "The City in the Storm!"

Download Conan the Barbarian v1 #70






With nearly eighty years in the business, Conan is the most successful barbarian going. He first set up shop in the December 1932 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Conan was the invention of Robert E. Howard, a young Texan who'd begun turning out large quantities of pulp stories while still in his teens. When he wasn't writing for the pulpwoods, he was reading them. The swords-and-sorcery facet of his work was much influenced by such authors as Harold Lamb and Talbot Mundy. Howard borrowed from both of them, though he was never able to imitate their restraint.

"As nearly as such things can be calculated, Conan flourished about 12,000 years ago," explained L. Sprague deCamp, who revised and refurbished the Conan pulp material for book publication. "In this time," according to Howard, "the western parts of the main continent were occupied by Hyborean kingdoms... Conan, a gigantic adventurer from Cimmeria, arrived as a youth in the kingdom of Zamora. For two or three years he made his living as a thief in Zamora, Corinthia and Nemedia. Growing tired of this starveling existence, he enlisted as a mercenary in the armies of Turan. For the next two years he traveled widely and refined his knowledge of archery and horsemanship." Conan had several odd jobs thereafter. He was a super-muscular, skull-splitting fellow who was fond of spending his days with lovely princesses and slave girls, or in struggling against malignant magic and sorcery. The rest of the time, he got into fights.

"The City in the Storm!" freely adapted from the story "The Marchers of Valhalla" by Robert E. Howard.

Credits:

Cover: Gil Kane and Pablo Marcos
Script: Roy Thomas
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Ernie Chan

Reprinted:

• in Conan le Barbare (Artima, 1979 series) #11 (February 1982).
• in Conan Saga (Marvel, 1987 series) #87.

On a quick note unrelated to our favorite barbarian, I have decided to change the name of this blog in order to end confusion, which was caused by the seemingly obscure tongue-in-cheek nature of the word "veeblefetzer." Besides, this moniker was my first choice anyway, but I'll retain the old URL so that saved bookmarks won't need to be changed or updated. My apologies for any inconvenience the change might cause.

Click here to read the conclusion in Conan the Barbarian v1 #71.