“Conan is knocked on the back of the head during a tavern confrontation. When he awakens, the villain has escaped to an abandoned castle ruin. Within, our Cimmerian will find something far more dangerous than a bar thug – an immortal wizard who is determined to send Conan to his grave!”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to The Classic Conan Countdown, a series of reviews focusing on the original 275 issues of Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian, which were published from 1970 to 1993. This is a review of Conan the Barbarian (Vol. 1) #114.)

By BOB FREEMAN — Paint Monk’s Library Writer

This issue marks the penultimate of Roy Thomas’ Conan the Barbarian run, adapting a Robert E. Howard horror tale, “The Shadow of the Beast,” and transposing it into the Hyborian Age.

It is a talent for which Roy was well-suited.

Aided by the consistency of Buscema and Chan, Thomas could take a Howard penned tale set in any era, with any number of characters, and he had a way of making them work as Conan tales.

“The Shadow of the Beast” is an odd one. As a set up to Roy’s final issue on the title, it’s an ill-fit, but ultimately, it works because, well, it is Roy after all, and he rarely misfires. He leans heavily at times on his artists, trusting them to maintain the artistic continuity that would provide the necessary verisimilitude for the readers.

For me, Roy Thomas is virtually synonymous with Robert E. Howard with regard to Conan. He will be sorely missed on the title, as subsequent reviews will reveal.

REVIEW: Conan the Barbarian (Vol. 1) #114

Conan has a run of bad luck tossing dice, losing most of his coin, but he has enough left for a room and a Shemite girl on his arm. After decking a large ruffian who offended her, the Cimmerian loses the rest of his coin and his girl when the brute knocks him unconscious by striking the barbarian from behind.

After being awakened, Conan and a lynch mob follow the Kothian murderer, Kagal, far outside the city. The outlaw has taken refuge in the cursed keep of a long-dead sorcerer. The townspeople leave Conan to the task and scurry back to the city, their superstitious ways getting the better of them.

Conan enters the keep, eventually finding Kagal’s corpse, then later, the skeletal remains of the sorcerer, Caldix.

Following the sounds of a woman’s halting sobs, the Cimmerian discovers his companion,Tamris, chained to a wall. A large mastiff lays beside her.

Suddenly, the dog rises up on its hind legs and speaks. A miscast spell left the sorcerer Caldix for dead. When the starving mastiff ate its master, the sorcerer’s soul took control of the beast. Now trapped in the barren wasteland surrounding the keep, Caldix is intent on keeping Tamris as his plaything, but Conan will not stand for this.

Conan hurls his sword at the dog, then leads the beast on a chase outside of the accursed keep. As the dog catches up to him, the Cimmerian kicks the beast, hurtling him outside the unnatural ring that surrounds sorcerer’s tower.

Caldix’s spirit rises out of the mastiff and attempts to assault Conan with his spectral hands, but he is a disembodied form and cannot gain purchase. Conan feels nothing but a slight chill. The sorcerer is trapped, formless, for eternity.

As the keep begins to crumble, Conan races back inside to break Tamris’ bonds and they flee together. Conan asks the girl what her name means in Khitan. She responds, “Favored by fortune.” Conan laughs.

CAPSULE REVIEW:  This was a fine issue. Not great, mind you, but a fun read nonetheless. The talking dog was odd, but the story was an interesting one, with a serviceable twist. What really jumped out at me though was at the beginning of the story, Tamris was an archaic Shemite word, but when Conan asked what it meant at the end of the story, he called it Khitan.

Not a big problem, but still, something an editor should have caught. Of course, when the editor is also the writer, things sometimes slip through the cracks.

Mark Gruenwald was listed as ‘assisting editor’. One wonders if this was his gaff, and not Roy’s, beyond Roy making the initial scripting error. Regardless, it distracts less than a talking dog walking around like a man.

Buscema and Chan delivered another knock out punch…I’d rate this issue 6 out of 10 skulls of my enemies.

—Alba Gu Brath,
Bob Freeeman
(Occult Detective)