Zubby Newsletter #85: Roll For Initiative

Sitting in the DM chair in Alex Kammer’s incredible gaming room at the Free House Tavern.

Stacy and I are in Madison, Wisconsin for Gamehole Con, gaming up a storm and celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons. We flew into Chicago, got our rental car, and made the drive over with a stop in Oconomowoc to sign at Kowabunga Comics, a really nice shop with amazing staff and customers.

The welcome party for Gamehole was amazing as well, with so many great people and a crackle of excited energy from both longtime industry folks and new gamers alike. As part of the discussion we had last night, I chatted with friends about the qualities that make gaming shows so enjoyable – Yes, some people get things autographed and buy rare collectibles, but those are a much lower priority compared to just spending time together playing games. The entire core of the hobby is about sharing time with old friends or new ones and having engaging experiences at the table, group by group and game by game.

Tabletop gaming is collaborative, interactive, egalitarian, and builds unique memories, and it’s these qualities that have helped the hobby successfully bring in a whole new generation of gamers, especially families and kids.

Anyways, back to the con – During the day I’ll be running The Crucible, my trap-laden 1st edition AD&D tournament adventure, and in the evenings I’m looking to jump into some spontaneous pick-up games with friends. If day zero is any indication, it’s going to be an incredible weekend.


Dreams VS Goals

I have a new tutorial post up on my website all about setting achievable goals for yourself.

The examples I use in the article are focused on comics and animation, but the advice applies to just about anything. Check it out and, if you find it helpful, please share far and wide.


Ideas Don’t Bleed

Matt Rosenberg, Ethan Parker, and I had a wonderful discussion on the Ideas Don’t Bleed podcast and, I know this will shock some of you, but we don’t talk about Conan the Barbarian. No, seriously. Right from the start we fall into a discussion around working in comics and starting out, rejection letters, why we create comics, the first books I collected as a kid, intense Marvel knowledge, working in animation, making a webcomic, meeting Scott McCloud, and more!


Your Hyborian Age Awaits


The Conan: The Hyborian Age tabletop roleplaying game crowdfunding campaign is underway and runs until November 6th. The campaign hit their funding goal in just over an hour, so keep an eye out for all kinds of spiffy stretch goals as it continues to surge.

Back in June I ran a scenario as part of the playtest and our crew had a blast. The rules are straightforward and capture the bombast of pulp sword & sorcery storytelling well.


Current + Upcoming Releases

  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – released October 2nd.
  • Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 23rd.
  • Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.
  • Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.
  • Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

  • Upcoming Appearances

    Oct 17-20, 2024 Gamehole Con Madison, WI, USA
    Oct 25-27, 2024 MCM Expo: London London, England, UK
    Oct 29, 2024 Forbidden Planet International Nottingham, England, UK
    Nov 1, 2024 Forbidden Planet Superstore Newcastle, UK
    Nov 4-8, 2024 D&D In a Castle Newcastle, UK
    Nov 13, 2024 Forbidden Planet: International Edinburgh, Scotland


    Links and Other Things

    • My buddy and Samurai Jack collaborator Andy Suriano has a new crowdfunding campaign for Lost Company, an epic story about dwarves, elves and aliens told across multiple mediums: a hardcover graphic novel, an army of tabletop miniatures, and playable encounters. Andy has worked on a ton of amazing productions over the years (Rise of the TMNT, Samurai Jack, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Star War: Clone Wars and Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse) and I am pumped to see this creator-owned concept come together for him!

    • The BaM Animation gents have a new drawing tutorial video that covers the basics incredibly well, including thought processes and warm up exercises that I haven’t seen in many places. If you want to get better at drawing, especially in an animated style, this channel is top notch.

    • On the official Conan the Barbarian Youtube channel, Shawn Curley discusses the “Howardverse”, interconnected threads between various characters created by Robert E. Howard, the same ingredients I’m using as part of the current Conan: Battle of the Black Stone mini-series. Lots of neat information here, well presented.

    Jim

    Uncontrollable Dreams VS Achievable Goals

    With all of the new creator resources I have here on my website, I get quite a few people asking questions and looking for one-on-one advice, unfortunately more than I can usually respond to personally. That said, if a discussion does start up and I ask you what your goals are, if you don’t know at all or want me to tell you what they ‘should’ be, you need to reevaluate.

    I can’t tell you what to strive for. Your goals shouldn’t be my goals.

    What I can suggest is that you build goals around things you know you can do that can’t be stopped by the decisions of other people. Here’s what I mean:

    🔸Finding collaborators
    🔸Making a comic, start to finish
    🔸Working with a publisher
    Those are actionable/attainable goals.

    🔸Making a living working for Marvel/DC
    🔸Topping sales charts
    🔸Winning an Eisner Award
    Those goals include a minefield of factors outside your control, with a high chance of failure.

    Looking toward successful people in the industry is natural and understandable, but there is also a ridiculous amount of Survivor Bias built in to anything we suggest. Even if I tell you what worked for me and my career, dozens of similar people who worked just as hard didn’t get to the same spot for reasons out of their control.

    Conan doesn’t appreciate Survivor Bias, but he does know that he has to set his own goals instead of relying on the whims of gods or other mortals to make things happen.

    Setting goals is good. Making things and finishing them is key to improving yourself and growing. Putting out creative work will always lead to new experience and possibilities, just try not to hyper-focus on specific outcomes that are outside your control.


    When I went to college for Classical Animation, my goal was to be a Disney animator living in Florida or California, working on a feature animated film. Midway through school, Disney stopped making hand drawn animation. Factors outside my control had completely upended my goal and that was that.

    But look at the number of “fail-states” I’d inadvertently built into my goal:
    🔸Working in the U.S.
    🔸For Disney
    🔸on a 2D animated feature

    If I was good enough, and Disney was hiring, and I qualified for a green card, and I convinced every person on that path to make the right choice my dream might have been achieved. Any part of that chain breaks and the whole thing falls apart. Disney stopped making the kinds of films I trained to work on, so I didn’t even get the chance to apply in the first place. It was a frustrating but valuable lesson.

    Learning early on that the dream I had in mind wasn’t possible taught me to dig deeper to understand the heart of those goals and achievements I was striving for.

    Why did I want to work at Disney on feature 2D animation?
    What were the core aspects of that dream I aspired to?

    🔸I wanted to create things
    🔸I wanted to tell stories
    🔸I wanted to be part of a group building things together
    🔸I wanted to be in an environment that felt exciting, collaborative, and creative

    All those could be achieved and were under my control.

    The other important part of these broader goals is that they were (and still are) things that could continue to grow and continue to be a priority for me instead of being checkbox one-time ‘achievements’.

    (Looking at the original goal, even if I ran the Gauntlet and made it to Disney Feature Animation and worked on a film, what then?)

    Working in comics and teaching wasn’t part of my original plan, and I stumbled into both careers, and yet they both check all my boxes:

    ✓ Storytelling
    ✓ Collaboration
    ✓ Constantly creating
    ✓ Exciting and inspiring

    These broader goals are also not limited to doing something once – a hyper-specific credit, company, or project. I can keep doing them, keep learning, and keep growing. Some years will be less productive or less successful, but they’re always “active” goals worth pursuing, regardless of the industry or my success at any one point in time.

    I can also look at future project possibilities and measure them against my ideal list to help me decide if I want to go in one direction or another.

    In a video I put together a few years ago I talk about the rambling path of my comic career and you can see how varied and unexpected it is:

    Thankfully, in each case, my revised list of creative goals still applies, helping keep me inspired and moving forward, project by project, and year by year.


    If you found this post helpful, feel free to let me know here (or on BlueSky), share the post with your friends and consider buying some of my comics or donating to my Patreon to show your support for me writing this tutorial post instead of doing paying work. 😛

    Zubby Newsletter #84: More Pages, More Everything

    More Pages

    On Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 we had a ton of story to cover in 22 pages and I really wanted to make sure the confrontation between Conan and Solomon Kane hit hard, so I asked Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics for 2 extra pages this issue and they agreed.

    Jonas Scharf and Jão Canola rocked every panel.

    No one has brought the extra page count up in their reviews or feedback online and I consider that a compliment. The story flowed and readers seem happy with this week’s issue. If someone is counting story pages to see if they got their money’s worth, that’s a bad sign.

    Adding 2 pages may seem like no big deal, but it actually is:
    • Creative budget (script, line art, colors, and lettering) increased
    • Deadlines shifted
    • Our pagination template adjusted

    All because I felt it worked better for the story. Grateful we were able to make it happen.


    More Chatter

    Sometimes you do a bunch of interviews and, even though you did them days or weeks apart, they all get released the same week!

    I spoke to Sasha at Casually Comics about, no surprise, Conan the Barbarian, but also swords & sorcery as a genre, other comic characters I’d love to write, finding the humanity in big stories, the key to working with icons, interacting with a deeply-rooted fanbase, building momentum, and more!


    Over on the Comic Culture YouTube channel, I spoke to Nick (Comic Culture), Stu (Dr. Doom’s Fan Club), and Eric (9 Panel Grid) all about Conan the Barbarian – the new series, nostalgia, sword & sorcery storytelling, the path of my career, the big pitch, my favorite Wolverine story, pulp storytelling, poetry and narration, plot-style or full script writing in comics, and much more!

    (I get it if you’re not up for a 2 hour Conanza, but if you only listen to one section, please check out this spot near the end where I tell all of you how amazing my collaborators are and how damn grateful I am.)


    Chris Piers from Comic Tropes has always been a really kind guy and a booster on my books, so it was great to jump in on his latest Pros & Cons livestream to chat about what I’ve been up to. We cover some of my favorite new board games, working on Conan and the Hyborian Age, getting into character, and upcoming convention travel. Check it out!


    Dan at the Conan Chronology website asked me a few questions about the Conan timeline and where stories sit within our current comic continuity. Check it out!


    More Votes

    It’s almost the voting deadline for the 2024 Tripwire Awards. Conan creators are nominated for 4 awards: Best Writer, Best Cover Artist, Best New Series, and Best New Talent and we’d appreciate your support.

    Vote here on your favorites until October 14th.


    More Upcoming Books

  • D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – released September 24th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #15 – released September 25th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – released October 2nd.
  • Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 23rd.
  • Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.
  • Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.
  • Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

  • More Signing Dates

    Another UK signing date has been added to the list, this one with artist Doug Braithwaite in Edinburgh on November 13th! So excited to meet our readers in Scotland and sign some books!

    Oct 15, 2024 Kowabunga Comics Oconomowoc, WI, USA
    Oct 17-20, 2024 Gamehole Con Madison, WI, USA
    Oct 25-27, 2024 MCM Expo: London London, England, UK
    Oct 29, 2024 Forbidden Planet International Nottingham, England, UK
    Nov 1, 2024 Forbidden Planet Superstore Newcastle, UK
    Nov 4-8, 2024 D&D In a Castle Newcastle, UK
    Nov 13, 2024 Forbidden Planet: International Edinburgh, Scotland


    More Links and Other Things

    • Over on Proko, Michael Hampton covers drawing more mature characters without relying on wrinkles. Some great head construction technique and thought process for high quality drawing.

    Tennessee Fats bought a page of original art by Roberto De La Torre from Conan the Barbarian, and his excitement for the reveal as he opens the package and discussion of where he thinks our story is going is quite entertaining.

    • If you’re looking for general artwork or photography to go with a blogpost or video, instead of AI-generated imagery or stock photos, consider browsing the Library of Congress Free To Use Image Archive. It’s vast and filled to the brim with interesting options.

    • My friend Cavan Scott has a new comic series coming from Vault called Godfather Of Hell. I read the first issue and it kicks off strong. I’m looking forward to reading more. If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, there’s still time to get it on your pull list.

    • A couple weeks ago I mentioned a crowdfunding campaign for Paragons, a new superhero tabletop roleplaying game. They just announced stretch goal contributors and, if the campaign hits $25k, I’ll add a new hero, villain, or evil organization to their world.

    Jim

    Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 Reviews

    The second part of our epic pulp adventure, Battle of the Black Stone, arrived in stores this week.
    What did critics think? Let’s see…

    Comical Opinions: 10/10 “In a year over stuffed with soulless crossover events that make a lot of noise but do very little to get readers excited, Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 gets everything right for a pulp action adventure of the highest order…no comic available right now does it better.”

    Cool Thunder: 9/10 “We get to see all the characters pulled together to discern the mystery of the haunting and deadly Black Stone…issue 2 will leave you on the edge of your seat blending action, suspense, and mystery leaving you desirous for more!”

    DC Patrol: “This book is absolutely fantastic – great images. Jonas Scharf really, really doing a fantastic job and the colors by Canola are great!”

    Dragon’s Cache: 9.6/10 “Jonas Scharf packs the pages of Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 with panels to show our heroes interact with these supernatural forces…Jão Canola contrasts the yellow and green energy with orange and red, while brown and gray also ground scenes in the stately club.”

    Goodreads: 5/5 “This hews very closely to Howardian concepts and characters, the ideas behind the world and story, the Hyborian Age, and builds upon it by imagining pre and post yarns branching from well-known stories…Lots of payoff here. Do not miss it!”

    League of Comic Geeks: 5/5 “Wow… just wow. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers but my jaw dropped not once but twice.”

    Mighty Thorngren: “This issue was a breath of fresh air and so fun, just non-stop awesome action and I’m just having a blast with it…These have just been on fire delivering lately.”

    Pop Culture Philosophers: “They pull it all together in issue #2 and it works, and it’s great…Really cool stuff!”

    Stygian Dogs: “With stakes brought into sharp focus and the sense of weird turned up to 11, Jim Zub, Jonas Scharf, and Jão Canola have succeeded in giving us a morbidly exciting second part to this ambitious 4-issue mini-series.”

    Sword & Sorcery Book Club: “This was a phenomenal addition to the story. I really, really loved it…I thought it was really fun. I really enjoyed the artwork and coloring.”

    Thinking Critical: “I love this mini-series, I love what Jim Zub is doing with Conan as a whole, and I love that Titan is giving this character the room and attention it deserves from people who love the character. The results are showing for themselves. A fantastic mini-series.”

    Void City Reviews: “I’m into it. There’s a long build up to get here, but I’m enjoying the execution.”

    Zubby Newsletter #83: It’s Already October

    Conan the Barbarian #15 arrived in stores last week, Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 this week. The one-two punch of those comics thundering their way onto shelves and the excited response from readers has been incredibly gratifying.

    As always, thank you for reading and sharing your enthusiasm with others. It really does make a difference.

    Now that October is underway, I’m sprinting to hit my writing deadlines before Canadian Thanksgiving and then four weeks of convention travel. Lots to do but it’s a good sprint, especially when I know I’ll be seeing so many great people in the days ahead.


    Difficult News


    Speaking of great people, my friend Howard Andrew Jones, sword & sorcery author/editor extraordinaire, has been diagnosed with brain cancer (multifocal glioblastoma) and, since he’s in the U.S., that means his family’s health expenses are set to skyrocket.

    Help directly if you can, and please share widely.

    In June – Howard, John C. Hocking, and I were in Texas for the Robert E. Howard Days Festival, laughing and celebrating. Howard had signed a multi-book deal for Hanuvar and I was in the final stages of signing on for at least 3 more years of work on Conan the Barbarian. We talked at length about how good it felt to know what we’d both be doing for the next 3 years.

    I caught Covid and missed Gen Con, but Howard sent texts all weekend, telling me how much I was missed and that we’d need to celebrate twice as much next year to make up for it.

    Getting the news about Howard’s diagnosis absolutely knocked the wind out of me-
    Man plans. God laughs.

    I cannot even fathom what he and his family are going through. Adding a crushing financial burden to that? It’s unbelievable.


    Chatting With The Shrine of Comics

    When I was at Robert E. Howard Days in June I spoke to Alfredo and Ludwig from The Shrine of Comics, but they had problems with the audio quality of the recording, so we decided to schedule another interview, this one online.

    We talk about a lot of different subjects: the cast of Battle of the Black Stone, Civilization VS Savagery, long term story planning, working with the team, traveling to conventions, the legacy of Robert E. Howard, writing Conan at Marvel, writing Conan at Titan, the Conan fandom, and more!

    Check it out!


    A Big Bolt On Your Bookshelf

    My first Marvel monthly series, THUNDERBOLTS from 2016-2017, is getting collected in a spiffy 12-issue omnibus called THUNDERBOLTS: WINTER SOLDIERS just in time for Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie coming out next year.

    Is there anything from my comics in the new film?

    I have no idea. Guess I’ll find out if I get invited to the premiere and/or get a Special Thanks callout in the credits.


    Back to the Cimmerian Source, Part 5


    I’m rereading all the original Robert E. Howard Conan prose stories and jotting down a few thoughts about each one. I don’t want to overwhelm this newsletter with text, so if you want to read what I think of more of the original Cimmerian stories, click on through to the posts linked below:

    16) The Hour of the Dragon
    17) Red Nails

    Unfortunately, I fell behind on my reading because writing deadlines had to take priority, obviously. There are still a few Conan stories I want to cover that were published after Robert E. Howard’s death, but those will have to wait, so I guess it’ll be in Cimmerian Sept-ober. 😉


    Current + Upcoming Releases

  • D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – released September 24th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #15 – released September 25th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – released October 2nd.
  • Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 23rd.
  • Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.
  • Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.
  • Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

  • Upcoming Appearances

    Another UK signing date has been added to the list, this one with artist Doug Braithwaite in Newcastle on November 1st! So excited to meet our readers in England and sign some books!

    Oct 15, 2024 Kowabunga Comics Oconomowoc, WI, USA
    Oct 17-20, 2024 Gamehole Con Madison, WI, USA
    Oct 25-27, 2024 MCM Expo: London London, England, UK
    Oct 29, 2024 Forbidden Planet International Nottingham, England, UK
    Nov 1, 2024 Forbidden Planet Superstore Newcastle, UK
    Nov 4-8, 2024 D&D In a Castle Newcastle, UK


    Links and Other Things

    • My pals at UDON Entertainment have a new comic series for Final Fight based on the classic video game and they’re giving away the first issue online for free, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t check it out.

    Derek Muller at Veritasium has a great video that explains how QR codes work and who invented them. Fascinating stuff.

    Scientific American explains why certain cheeses melt incredibly well and others don’t. Useful food science for cooks, and just interesting all around.

    Jim

    Cimmerian September: Red Nails

    Continuing my Conan reread for Cimmerian September, the seventeenth published Conan story is Red Nails, which serialized across three issues of Weird Tales magazine, from July to October 1936. This story was the last one written by Robert E. Howard before his untimely death, and it was published posthumously.

    Red Nails is one of the longer Conan tales at over 31,000 words, but it does quite a bit with the space its given, using ingredients from other Conan tales but bringing enough inventiveness to make it stand on its own, particularly when it comes to the intensity of its action scenes.

    The story opens with Valeria, a swashbuckler who has struck out on her own after trouble broke out in the freebooter camp she was staying at. Valeria has elements of Agnes de Chastillon and Red Sonya of Rogatino mixed together in the Hyborian Age. Her strength, skill and beauty make her a worthy partner for our Cimmerian, especially at this experienced point in his career.

    She was tall, full-bosomed and large-limbed, with compact shoulders. Her whole figure reflected an unusual strength, without detracting from the femininity of her appearance. She was all woman, in spite of her bearing and her garments. The latter were incongruous, in view of her present environs. Instead of a skirt she wore short, wide-legged silk breeches, which ceased a hand’s breadth short of her knees, and were upheld by a wide silken sash worn as a girdle. Flaring-topped boots of soft leather came almost to her knees, and a low-necked, wide-collared, wide-sleeved silk shirt completed her costume. On one shapely hip she wore a straight double-edged sword, and on the other a long dirk. Her unruly golden hair, cut square at her shoulders, was confined by a band of crimson satin.

    Conan catches up to Valeria and the two of them are nearly slain by a hungry dinosaur-like creature they call a “dragon”:

    Through the thicket was thrust a head of nightmare and lunacy. Grinning jaws bared rows of dripping yellow tusks; above the yawning mouth wrinkled a saurian-like snout. Huge eyes, like those of a python a thousand times magnified, stared unwinkingly at the petrified humans clinging to the rock above it. Blood smeared the scaly, flabby lips and dripped from the huge mouth.

    The head, bigger than that of a crocodile, was further extended on a long scaled neck on which stood up rows of serrated spikes, and after it, crushing down the briars and saplings, waddled the body of a titan, a gigantic, barrel-bellied torso on absurdly short legs. The whitish belly almost raked the ground, while the serrated back-bone rose higher than Conan could have reached on tiptoe. A long spiked tail, like that of a gargantuan scorpion, trailed out behind.

    The artwork from Weird Tales looks great, but unfortunately doesn’t match the action from the prose, where they’re perched on a huge rock just out of reach, trying to figure out how to kill it:

    The first chapter doesn’t contribute much to the core plot, but does a great job of building up entertaining interplay between the two warriors and shows Conan’s inventiveness against an impossibly-strong foe.

    Conan and Valeria flee toward a city they find in the remote forest – strange, opulent, and seemingly abandoned. The exploration of this city and its secrets feel like Howard finally delivering on the potential of a similar plot point from Xuthal of the Dusk. The environment is much more evocative and the slowly rising tension in the emptiness works really well:

    She wondered how many centuries had passed since the light of outer day had filtered into that great hall through the open door. Sunlight was finding its way somehow into the hall, and they quickly saw the source. High up in the vaulted ceiling skylights were set in slot-like openings—translucent sheets of some crystalline substance. In the splotches of shadow between them, the green jewels winked like the eyes of angry cats. Beneath their feet the dully lurid floor smoldered with changing hues and colors of flame. It was like treading the floors of hell with evil stars blinking overhead.

    Valeria takes a rest while Conan continues exploring (never split the adventuring party!). Our swashbuckler gets ambushed and responds with skillful violence:

    With one tigerish movement she was over the balustrade and dropping to the floor behind the awful shape. It wheeled at the thud of her soft boots on the floor, but even as it turned, her keen blade lashed down, and a fierce exultation swept her as she felt the edge cleave solid flesh and mortal bone.

    The apparition cried out gurglingly and went down, severed through shoulder, breast-bone and spine, and as it fell the burning skull rolled clear, revealing a lank mop of black hair and a dark face twisted in the convulsions of death.

    Beyond overall energy in the text, the combat in Red Nails is some of Howard’s best, most visceral and incredibly bloody, with a feeling of weight and consequence for every blow struck or wound received.

    What Conan and Valeria discover is that this city, called Xuchotl, is a massive enclosed structure split into two sections. Each half is ruled by leaders, named Tecuhltli and Xotalanc, determined to finish the blood feud between their clans that has lasted for decades.

    The story’s title comes from a post in one of throne rooms where a red nail is embedded every time one of their lifelong enemies are slain:

    “While I talked with the woman, four Xotalancas came upon us! One I slew—there is the stab in my thigh to prove how desperate was the fight. Two the woman killed. But we were hard pressed when this man came into the fray and split the skull of the fourth! Aye! Five crimson nails there are to be driven into the pillar of vengeance!”

    He pointed at a black column of ebony which stood behind the dais. Hundreds of red dots scarred its polished surface—the bright scarlet heads of heavy copper nails driven into the black wood.

    This kind of stalemate conflict where the tide finally shifts upon the arrival of strangers is a genre classic, and it works well here, though there are a dizzying number of names that start with T’s and X’s thrown into the mix that can lead to confusion. I know which side each character is on, but a Dramatis Personae listing might be required to keep close track of specific characters.

    That said, things become a lot clearer once the big battle arrives and the cast gets thinned out something fierce. This is REH’s barbaric bombast at its most brutal:

    In sheer strength no three Tlazitlans were a match for Conan, and in spite of his weight he was quicker on his feet than any of them. He moved through the whirling, eddying mass with the surety and destructiveness of a gray wolf amidst a pack of alley curs, and he strode over a wake of crumpled figures.

    Valeria fought beside him, her lips smiling and her eyes blazing. She was stronger than the average man, and far quicker and more ferocious. Her sword was like a living thing in her hand. Where Conan beat down opposition by the sheer weight and power of his blows, breaking spears, splitting skulls and cleaving bosoms to the breast-bone, Valeria brought into action a finesse of sword-play that dazzled and bewildered her antagonists before it slew them. Again and again a warrior, heaving high his heavy blade, found her point in his jugular before he could strike. Conan, towering above the field, strode through the welter smiting right and left, but Valeria moved like an illusive phantom, constantly shifting, and thrusting and slashing as she shifted. Swords missed her again and again as the wielders flailed the empty air and died with her point in their hearts or throats, and her mocking laughter in their ears.

    This new artwork produced for the upcoming Conan board game expansion built around Red Nails visualizes this chaotic scene really well:

    There isn’t as much strange magic in this story as some of the other Conan tales, but a few key moments hit the mark:

    She glanced to the sinister skull, smoldering and glowing on the floor near the dead man. It was like a skull seen in a dream, undeniably human, yet with disturbing distortions and malformations of contour and outline. In life the wearer of that skull must have presented an alien and monstrous aspect. Life? It seemed to possess some sort of life of its own. Its jaws yawned at her and snapped together. Its radiance grew brighter, more vivid, yet the impression of nightmare grew too; it was a dream; all life was a dream-

    The cry died in the guard’s throat as the thin, weird piping penetrated the metal door and smote on his ears. Xatmec leaned frozen against the door, as if paralyzed in that position. His face was that of a wooden image, his expression one of horrified listening. The other guard, farther removed from the source of the sound, yet sensed the horror of what was taking place, the grisly threat that lay in that demoniac fifing. He felt the weird strains plucking like unseen fingers at the tissues of his brain, filling him with alien emotions and impulses of madness.

    Red Nails encompasses a lot of Robert E. Howard’s iconic Conan elements and themes – exploration of a lost city, ancient horrors lurking in the shadows, civilization VS savagery, and our protagonist thrust into the midst of it all, changing history on the keen edge of his blade. Its legacy as the final Conan story written by his creator gives it extra power, but its pretty damn powerful all on its own.

    Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith‘s comic adaptation of Red Nails is a high watermark for Barry’s work on the Cimmerian and Marvel’s Conan comics as a whole. It was first published in Savage Tales #2 + 3, has been reprinted multiple times since, and is well worth seeking out.

    If you haven’t read the original Conan prose stories, I recommend the Del Rey 3-book set, which has each story unedited and essays that add context around their publication.

    Conan the Barbarian #15 Reviews

    9 Panel Grid: “Overall this was a completely masterful issue, I loved seeing something familiar from Conan, albeit something completely new because of what Jim Zub and Doug Braithwaite are doing.”

    Comical Opinions: 9.5/10 “Conan the Barbarian #15 presents mature, spiritual concepts wrapped in a ferocious Conan tale. Jim Zub is digging deep to dispel Conan’s reputation as a sword-slashing meathead by sending him on a personal journey that reflects struggles everyone can relate to.”

    DC Patrol: “This book is just perfection…just a beautiful book. I don’t even think you need to like Conan to enjoy this.”

    Doc Lail Talks Comics: “If you have not been reading this book, find it. I don’t care if you read it digitally, I don’t care if you pick it up in person. Conan is on a path of fire with Jim Zub that he has not been on since the 70’s or possibly the early 80’s…This is one of the best books on the shelves right now.”

    GoodReads: 10/10 “The art and writing have captured the mystical, salacious and errant spirit of the original works, while driving the fervor, fury and passion to its heights. Just as Howard would have done himself, if he were in the comic medium.”

    Grammaticus Books: “[Zub] adds something to it without taking anything away from the original Robert E. Howard story…Great artwork by Doug Braithwaite combined with great coloring by Diego Rodriguez that makes for some excellent pages.”

    League of Comic Geeks: 5/5 “I never thought I would be reading a poetic version of Conan the Barbarian. Yet here I am and there’s a very good chance that this will be one of the best books I read all week, maybe month, possibly all year.”

    Lord Samper’s Library: “Now I love Howard’s opening, for ‘The Frost Giant’s Daughter’, but I’ve also got a lot of time for the way that Zub wraps a little background around this. I like background, especially when it’s done as well as this.”

    Mighty Thorngren: “When I want a comic book, I want to be thoroughly pleased with the amount of action and story, and these Conan comic books deliver that like nothing else. Page after page of cool looking stuff. Doug Braithwaite has just beautiful artwork.”

    Pop Culture Philosophers: “This book is awesome…The Conan books, this is the best they’ve been since back in the 70’s and 80’s, in my opinion. This is some really great stuff!”

    Scifi Pulse: 9.7/10 “Overall, another fantastic issue with a great mix of strong artwork and fantastic dialogue.”

    Sleepy Reader: “Jim Zub just knocks it out of the park. All the stuff he’s been setting up from the point of view from the goddess now really pays off…and I have grown very affectionate for Doug Braithwaite’s very brutal art style.”

    Stygian Dogs: “Zub has seamlessly woven these layers of his grander story into this adaptation, the end result of his twist convincing readers that an exploration of these themes was always articulated in Howard’s original material. It’s a remarkable achievement and Doug Braithwaite’s work is exceptional…I can’t recommend this issue enough.”

    Sword & Sorcery Book Club: “I think that this is quite a phenomenal adaptation of the Frost-Giant’s Daughter…and I like the expansion that was done to turn this into an arc and connect the Battle of Venarium and leaving Cimmeria to this story.”

    Thinking Critical: “It’s still absolutely awesome…This continues to be the series of the year.”

    Wakizashi’s Teahouse: “It’s glorious! The art is great by Braithwaite. An exciting tale. Really good writing by Jim Zub, quite poetic at times. Big recommend.”

    Cimmerian September: The Hour of the Dragon (aka. Conan the Conqueror)

    Continuing my Conan reread for Cimmerian September, the sixteenth published Conan story is The Hour of the Dragon, which serialized across five issues of Weird Tales magazine, from December 1935 to April 1936 and was later published as a complete book under the renamed title Conan the Conqueror.

    At over 70,000 words told over 22 chapters, The Hour of the Dragon is the only “full-length” Conan tale written by Robert E. Howard, produced for a British publisher that unfortunately folded before it could be printed in that format. In turn, Howard sold it to Weird Tales, where all the previous Conan stories had been published.

    I read Conan the Conqueror many years ago and, honestly, my memories of it were pretty murky. I knew it used plot points very similar to The Scarlet Citadel, because Howard was told that British readers would not have read the other Conan short stories, and so in my head I had it slotted as a ‘longer but derivative’ work.

    I could not have been more mistaken. Rereading The Hour of the Dragon, I was able to really appreciate the ambition of its narrative, the scale of its sprawling worldbuilding, and the rich quality of its prose. Even when it stumbles a bit on occasion, the overall momentum keeps driving everything forward in a thoroughly entertaining way.

    But, with such a long tale and deadlines aplenty on my plate, I won’t be able to go through the story blow-by-blow. Here’s a broad overview with some thoughts on specific elements:

    A cabal of four men use a gem called the Heart of Ahriman to bring a sorcerer named Xaltotun back to life to assist them in taking the thrones of Nemedia and Aquilonia. The opening chapter showcases this dark ceremony and the eerie return of Xaltotun:

    It was as if a globe of living fire flickered and burned on the dead, withered bosom. And breath sucked in, hissing, through the clenched teeth of the watchers. For as they watched, an awful transmutation became apparent. The withered shape in the sarcophagus was expanding, was growing, lengthening. The bandages burst and fell into brown dust. The shriveled limbs swelled, straightened. Their dusky hue began to fade.

    Howard is ripping in this story. The way he builds atmosphere is punchy and textured, with unexpected but appropriate descriptions that really activate the reader’s imagination. Check out how he describes the army preparing for battle, with a mixture of sight and sound:

    He cast a swift glance over the camp, which was beginning to swarm with activity, mail clinking and men moving about dimly in the uncertain light, among the long lines of tents. Stars still glimmered palely in the western sky, but long pink streamers stretched along the eastern horizon, and against them the dragon banner of Nemedia flung out its billowing silken folds.

    Conan is struck down by Xaltotun’s magic and thought slain during the battle, but the ancient necromancer instead takes him prisoner because he wants to use the Cimmerian to further his own machinations. Yes, it’s similar to The Scarlet Citadel on a surface level, but the motivations are richer as Howard builds a web of mistrust and disloyalty amongst Xaltotun and the four who brought him back to life.

    Our hero’s escape manifests thanks to a slave named Zenobia. She’s intensely scared because she knows she’s defying her master, but also incredibly brave as she risks her life to give Conan a chance in the dungeon he’s imprisoned in. She doesn’t get much word count, but the narrative effect of her actions is huge:

    ‘I am only a girl of the king’s seraglio,’ she said, with a certain proud humility. ‘He has never glanced at me, and probably never will. I am less than one of the dogs that gnaw the bones in his banquet hall.

    ‘But I am no painted toy; I am of flesh and blood. I breathe, hate, fear, rejoice and love. And I have loved you, King Conan, ever since I saw you riding at the head of your knights along the streets of Belverus when you visited King Nimed, years ago. My heart tugged at its strings to leap from my bosom and fall in the dust of the street under your horse’s hoofs.’

    Color flooded her countenance as she spoke, but her dark eyes did not waver. Conan did not at once reply; wild and passionate and untamed he was, yet any but the most brutish of men must be touched with a certain awe or wonder at the baring of a woman’s naked soul.

    Conan fights an ape-creature in the depths of the dungeon and finds his way out of the castle, but has to leave Zenobia behind.

    Even when Conan is riding overland there’s a deft balance between keeping up momentum from the escape and lavishing the reader with textured prose to help ‘sell’ the landscape in a way that really grabbed me:

    The dawn wind stirred the tall stiff grass, and there was nothing but the long rolling swells of brown earth, covered with dry grass, and in the distance the gaunt walls of a stronghold on a low hill. Too many Aquilonian raiders had crossed the mountains in not too distant days for the countryside to be thickly settled as it was farther to the east.

    Dawn ran like a prairie fire across the grasslands, and high overhead sounded a weird crying as a straggling wedge of wild geese winged swiftly southward. In a grassy swale Conan halted and unsaddled his mount. Its sides were heaving, its coat plastered with sweat. He had pushed it unmercifully through the hours before dawn.

    A confident balance of intense action and poetic atmosphere is Howard at his best, whether he’s describing the mundane or the magical:

    “Not lightly is the veil rent; yet I will rend it a little, and show you your capital city.”

    Conan did not see what she cast upon the fire, but the wolf whimpered in his dreams, and a green smoke gathered and billowed up into the hut. And as he watched, the walls and ceiling of the hut seemed to widen, to grow remote and vanish, merging with infinite immensities; the smoke rolled about him, blotting out everything. And in it forms moved and faded, and stood out in startling clarity.


    The middle of this grand adventure feels quite episodic, with Conan traveling to multiple locations, using his physical strength, keen mind, and deep social connections to track down the missing gem that will allow him to defeat the necromancer and retake his throne. At each stop we’re given a sense of who Conan was in his prime and the impact he had on others before he took the crown of Aquilonia. There’s a wistful sense nostalgia to it:

    The awakening of old memories, the resurge of the wild, mad, glorious days of old before his feet were set on the imperial path when he was a wandering mercenary, roistering, brawling, guzzling, adventuring, with no thought for the morrow, and no desire save sparkling ale, red lips, and a keen sword to swing on all the battlefields of the world.

    Unconsciously he reverted to the old ways; a new swagger became evident in his bearing, in the way he sat his horse; half-forgotten oaths rose naturally to his lips, and as he rode he hummed old songs that he had roared in chorus with his reckless companions in many a tavern and on many a dusty road or bloody field.

    All of it could have come across as overly plot-convenient, but because Howard stacks the deck against Conan over and over, and our hero loses almost as many fights as he wins, each victory along the way feels visceral and palatably earned.

    The characters Conan interacts with along his journey don’t feel like NPCs waiting to spit out relevant information or provide the next bread crumb on the trail, most have a distinct sense of agency and personal stakes that drive their actions, helping or hindering the king in exile.

    One point that’s brought up several times is the concept that Conan has no heir and, therefore, there was no one to rally behind once he fell in battle. Conan has to contend with assumptions he has around his personal freedom versus the responsibility he carries as leader of a country. It’s a maturation of the character as he struggles to retain his barbaric spirit even as he learns to compromise some of his earlier idealistic driving principles.

    Why pursue a crown that was lost for ever? Why should he not seek forgetfulness, lose himself in the red tides of war and rapine that had engulfed him so often before? Could he not, indeed, carve out another kingdom for himself? The world was entering an age of iron, an age of war and imperialistic ambition; some strong man might well rise above the ruins of nations as a supreme conqueror. Why should it not be himself?

    So his familiar devil whispered in his ear, and the phantoms of his lawless and bloody past crowded upon him. But he did not turn aside; he rode onward, following a quest that grew dimmer and dimmer as he advanced, until sometimes it seemed that he pursued a dream that never was.

    Since each new location is populated with different threats and evocative locales, I think the middle is my favorite part of the story, which is odd for me since most stories live and die on their introduction or conclusion. Don’t get me wrong, the beginning and end are good too, but the central series of challenges have the most variety and, for me, feel like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign carving its way through a living, breathing world.

    Speaking of D&D, Gary Gygax clearly took direct inspiration from several sections, including a treasure chest with a puzzle sequence of buttons to open it, set with a poison trap:

    Along the rim of the lid seven skulls were carved among intertwining branches of strange trees. An inlaid dragon writhed its way across the top of the lid amid ornate arabesques. Valbroso pressed the skulls in fumbling haste, and as he jammed his thumb down on the carved head of the dragon he swore sharply and snatched his hand away, shaking it in irritation.

    ‘A sharp point on the carvings,’ he snarled. ‘I’ve pricked my thumb.’

    And labyrinthian corridors and chambers that read just like DM box text from an old adventure module:

    The corridor split in two branches, and he had no way of knowing which the masked priests had taken. At a venture he chose the left. The floor slanted slightly downward and was worn smooth as by many feet. Here and there a dim cresset cast a faint nightmarish twilight. Conan wondered uneasily for what purpose these colossal piles had been reared, in what forgotten age. This was an ancient, ancient land. No man knew how many ages the black temples of Stygia had looked against the stars.

    Narrow black arches opened occasionally to right and left, but he kept to the main corridor, although a conviction that he had taken the wrong branch was growing in him.

    Pirates, priests, executioners, mystic assassins, ghouls, and a vampire for good measure-

    She reared up on the couch like a serpent poised to strike, all the golden fires of hell blazing in her wide eyes. Her lips drew back, revealing white pointed teeth.

    ‘Fool!’ she shrieked. ‘Do you think to escape me? You will live and die in darkness!

    The Hour of the Dragon is absolutely jam-packed with sinister foes and memorable set pieces. It’s the longest canon Conan story, but also feels like it’s bursting at the seams with enough material to fill a trilogy of fantasy books written in the more drawn out way many modern readers have grown accustomed to.

    The ending is inevitable and doesn’t quite hit the highs of Howard’s best, but it consistently entertains and delivers on its potential. There are spots where I would have enjoyed delving even deeper, but it’s far better to leave readers wanting more than wearing out one’s welcome.

    This epic tale has been reprinted and adapted several times. The Marvel Comics version was split between classic artists Gil Kane and John Buscema over two different publications, which creates a bit of a visual disconnect, but works overall.

    If you haven’t read the original Conan prose stories, I recommend the Del Rey 3-book set, which has each story unedited and essays that add context around their publication.

    Zubby Newsletter #82: The Worst Fantasy Novel Ever?


    I’ve been posting on social media about rereading the original Conan stories and, with an eye on purple prose, a well-meaning fan pointed me toward an infamous sword & sorcery story called The Eye of Argon.

    The Eye of Argon is a sword & sorcery novella written in 1970 about a barbarian named Grignr, clearly inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, but it’s notorious for how poorly put together it is. In an age well before the internet, this thing went “viral”, was copied and shared amongst professional authors and eventually fandom at large. It has been called the “worst fantasy novel ever” and, at quite a few science fiction conventions of the era, there would be meet-ups where people would attempt to read The Eye of Argon aloud without cracking up. Right now, if you search YouTube for “The Eye of Argon” there are hundreds of videos with dramatizations, analysis, or group readings.

    I’d heard passing mention of it before, but didn’t know any specifics and had never actually read the damn thing. It’s short and readily available online, so I finally checked it out.

    As you’d expect, it’s bad. The story has spelling mistakes, grammatical problems, plot issues, and misuses words in spots that leave some sentences adrift in a sea of confusion. It leans into painfully overworn genre tropes and the pacing is terrible.

    And yet…

    …And yet, Jim Theis was only 16 years-old when he wrote this 11,000+ word story on a typewriter and submitted it to the Ozark Science Fiction Association’s fanzine. I sure as hell didn’t write stories that long at his age, and didn’t have nearly enough confidence to even try submitting work for publication. Maybe it was blind hubris on his part, but at least he made something, finished it, and could learn from it.

    In this case, unfortunately, what he learned was that a group of successful authors and fervent fans were eager to endlessly mock the hell out of him for his literary shortcomings and ensured that he would never improve or write fiction again. Even worse, multiple small press publishers reprinted the story and sold it without ever paying him a dime. Even now, 22 years after his death, people are still making money on Jim Theis’ work, regardless of its quality.

    What’s odd to me is that when I read The Eye of Argon I can see a writer struggling to understand the form and function of pulpy prose. He’s misfiring all over the place but, rather than just copying sentences word for word as a crutch, he keeps trying to grab bits of poetic thunder, make it his own, and put it on the page. He fails but, by God, he’s trying.

    Yes, The Eye of Argon is bad, but I’m genuinely surprised that this particular badness took hold so intensely in the mind of fandom. I’ve read worse writing from some of my college students submitted for grading, and also much worse from obsessive fan fiction writers, hopeful game designers, and cocky first-time comic creators…and all those people had access to spellcheck and a ridiculous amount of online How-To resources that would have blown young Jim Theis’ mind.

    Having all this knowledge at our fingertips hasn’t solved the Dunning-Kruger effect. If anything, non-stop internet access and the ability to ‘publish’ our words and ideas in an instant has created an endless factory of Argons, an ever-flowing torrent of naive stories and hurtful criticism. Even worse, the cringe-worthy creative output you put online when you were 16 now gets to sit dormant like a landmine until it’s ready to blow up in your face thanks to deep internet archives and the virality of social media.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’ve mocked terrible writing and had my mind vaporized by art portfolios so bad it was hard to believe they were sincerely trying to qualify for an art program or get a job as a professional. I snark about shitty movies and TV shows all the time and shake my head about the middling to poor quality of at least half the comics being professionally published each week. I understand the cathartic desire to filter and judge material that feels utterly incompetent, but watching nerds giddily eviscerate a hopeful teenage writer in the public square for decades is more sad than funny.

    I hope the first story you ever wrote stays locked away in a drawer, so you never have to face the burning truth of its inadequacy.


    Back to the Cimmerian Source, Part 4

    Savage Sword of Conan #26-27, adapting Beyond the Black River.

    As I mentioned above, I’m rereading all the original Robert E. Howard Conan prose stories and jot down a few thoughts about each one during September. I don’t want to overwhelm this newsletter with text, so if you want to read what I think of more of the original Cimmerian stories, click on through to the posts linked below:

    14) Beyond the Black River
    15) Shadows In Zamboula

    I’m currently in the midst of reading The Hour of the Dragon, the only full-length Conan novel Howard ever wrote, and it’s 5-6 times as long as the other short stories, so my rundown on that is taking longer, especially while juggling writing deadlines.


    Current + Upcoming Releases

  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 (of 4) – released September 4th.
  • D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – released September 24th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #15 – released September 25th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – releases October 2nd.
  • Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 30th.
  • Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.
  • Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.
  • Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.
  • Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

  • Upcoming Appearances

    Since I’m traveling through the UK in late October/early November, I’m adding some comic shop signings to my schedule. First out of the gate is a signing in Nottingham, at Forbidden Planet International.

    Oct 15, 2024 Kowabunga Comics Oconomowoc, WI, USA
    Oct 17-20, 2024 Gamehole Con Madison, WI, USA
    Oct 25-27, 2024 MCM Expo: London London, England, UK
    Oct 29, 2024 Forbidden Planet International Nottingham, England, UK
    Nov 4-8, 2024 D&D In a Castle Newcastle, UK


    Links and Other Things

    • The BBC has placed their entire Sound Effects Library online. It’s in-depth, searchable, downloadable and free for non-commercial use, including education.

    Jeff Shanks, Robert E. Howard scholar extraordinaire, chatted with the Sword & Sorcery Book Club about all things Conan, pulp storytelling, making his first comic, research, and more.

    • My friend Vee Mus’e is part of a new start-up tabletop roleplaying game company called Broken Door Entertainment and they’ve just launched their first crowdfunding campaign for a superhero game called Paragons.

    Luke Gygax has a new crowdfunding campaign for an old school TTRPG adventure called Wrath of the Sea Lich.

    Jim

    Cimmerian September- The Man-Eaters of Zamboula (aka. Shadows In Zamboula)

    Continuing my Conan reread for Cimmerian September, the fifteenth published Conan story is The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, which arrived in the November 1935 issue of Weird Tales magazine under the renamed title Shadows In Zamboula.

    Zamboula was originally a Stygian trading outpost but Turan took it over a generation ago and it has since been settled by a mixed populace who are not fond of outsiders:

    The babel of a myriad tongues smote on the Cimmerian’s ears as the restless pattern of the Zamboula streets weaved about him—cleft now and then by a squad of clattering horsemen, the tall, supple warriors of Turan, with dark hawk-faces, clinking metal and curved swords. The throng scampered from under their horses’ hoofs, for they were the lords of Zamboula. But tall, somber Stygians, standing back in the shadows, glowered darkly, remembering their ancient glories. The hybrid population cared little whether the king who controlled their destinies dwelt in dark Khemi or gleaming Aghrapur. Jungir Khan ruled Zamboula, and men whispered that Nafertari, the satrap’s mistress, ruled Jungir Khan; but the people went their way, flaunting their myriad colors in the streets, bargaining, disputing, gambling, swilling, loving, as the people of Zamboula have done for all the centuries its towers and minarets have lifted over the sands of the Kharamun.

    Conan has been warned that the inn of Aram Baksh is dangerous, but he pre-paid for a room there, so he settles in for a tense night while keeping his sword close at hand:

    The light began to flicker, and he investigated, swearing when he found the palm oil in the lamp was almost exhausted. He started to shout for Aram, then shrugged his shoulders and blew out the light. In the soft darkness he stretched himself fully clad on the couch, his sinewy hand by instinct searching for and closing on the hilt of his broadsword. Glancing idly at the stars framed in the barred windows, with the murmur of the breeze through the palms in his ears, he sank into slumber with a vague consciousness of the muttering drum

    In the darkness, the supposedly locked door to Conan’s room is opened from the outside, but the Cimmerian is ready and attacks:

    Noiselessly Conan coiled his long legs under him; his naked sword was in his right hand, and when he struck it was as suddenly and murderously as a tiger lunging out of the dark. Not even a demon could have avoided that catapulting charge. His sword met and clove through flesh and bone, and something went heavily to the floor with a strangling cry. Conan crouched in the dark above it, sword dripping in his hand. Devil or beast or man, the thing was dead there on the floor. He sensed death as any wild thing senses it.

    Conan discovers his attacker was a savage cannibal. Zamboula’s strange secret is that many of the city’s slaves belong to a tribe who eat human flesh and the townspeople let them feed on travelers so they don’t kill locals. Our hero hears a woman being attacked on the streets, saves her from more cannibals, and then she insists he help her slay an evil priest named Totrasmek who has cursed her lover.

    Honestly, the “man-eater” elements are incredibly awkward reading in the here and now, and the descriptions of the woman, a dancer named Zabibi, drips with the same fetishistic approach that made Xuthal of the Dusk stumble. Howard leaned into elements he knew Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright would respond to and put on the cover:

    He forgot all about Aram Baksh as he scrutinized her by the light of the stars. She was white, a very definite brunette, obviously one of Zamboula’s many mixed breeds. She was tall, with a slender, supple form, as he was in a good position to observe. Admiration burned in his fierce eyes as he looked down on her splendid bosom and her lithe limbs, which still quivered from fright and exertion.

    Conan and Zabibi sneak into Totrasmek’s temple, she gets kidnapped, and then Conan faces off against a massive man named Baal-pteor, who wields illusionary magic…

    Conan dodged instinctively, but, miraculously, the globe stopped short in midair, a few feet from his face. It did not fall to the floor. It hung suspended, as if by invisible filaments, some five feet above the floor. And as he glared in amazement, it began to rotate with growing speed. And as it revolved it grew, expanded, became nebulous. It filled the chamber. It enveloped him. It blotted out furniture, walls, the smiling countenance of Baal-pteor. He was lost in the midst of a blinding bluish blur of whirling speed. Terrific winds screamed past Conan, tugging, tearing at him, striving to wrench him from his feet, to drag him into the vortex that spun madly before him.

    …And specializes in choking his victims to death:

    And like the stroke of twin cobras, the great hands closed on Conan’s throat. The Cimmerian made no attempt to dodge or fend them away, but his own hands darted to the Kosalan’s bull-neck. Baal-pteor’s black eyes widened as he felt the thick cords of muscles that protected the barbarian’s throat. With a snarl he exerted his inhuman strength, and knots and lumps and ropes of thews rose along his massive arms. And then a choking gasp burst from him as Conan’s fingers locked on his throat. For an instant they stood there like statues, their faces masks of effort, veins beginning to stand out purply on their temples.

    Whose neck survives and what happens next? I won’t spoil how it all wraps up, but suffice to say it’s exciting and pulpy as all get-out. Conan does a few things early on that seem out of character for him, but by the end they’re justified in a relatively satisfying way.

    The Hyborian Age is a time of inherent brutality and there are merciless killers of every creed and color, but the “cannibal killer” material has aged particularly poor. If you can look past that as an artifact of its age, the rest of the story clips along relatively well.

    Shadows was adapted in Savage Sword of Conan #14 with dynamic pencils by the one and only Neal Adams.

    If you haven’t read the original Conan prose stories, I recommend the Del Rey 3-book set, which has each story unedited and essays that add context around their publication.