Friday 9 June 2017

King Conan #1 (Marvel/1980)



King Conan #1 (Marvel Comics)

Roy Thomas (w) & John Buscema (a)

Conan the Barbarian was once one of Marvel comics hottest properties, albeit on lease from the estate of Robert E Howard the characters creator. In 1980 Conan already had a successful four-colour comic and was the star of the most successful black & white comic magazine ever published Savage Sword of Conan. It was hardly surprising that Marvel added a third, albeit quarterly title to the roster.

Launched with a cover date of March 1980, King Conan was a "giant-sized" all new comic costing 75 cents, the price of an Annual way back then. This featured Conan as the King of Aquilonia married to his queen Zenobia and had a son, Conn some twelve summers of age.

This first adventure sees Conn lost in the woods and captured by the hag-witch of Hyperborea and used as bait to entrap Conan before a cabal of mages including  the dreaded Thoth-Amon.

Under-rated by his enemies (except for Thoth) the sorcerers get their comeuppance as you would expect.

This series lasted 19 issues before having the title changed to Conan the King (no idea why) and was published for a further 36 editions until 1989.

 

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