Conan Reviews: Conan the Barbarian 27, Conan the Barbarian 28

Conan the Barbarian #27 – “The Blood of Bel-Hissar” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan

After last week’s digression into Savage Tales territory with “Red Nails”, we’re back to Conan’s regular storyline. This story begins with him riding through some desert land south of the Zaporoska River when he hears a woman scream. He comes upon a huge brute (Turgohl) menacing a Khitan woman (Suwaan) and quickly jumps in to help her. Her attacker is pretty strong (and mute) and Conan has more trouble with him than he anticipated. Their fight is interrupted when a bunch of Turanian horsemen appear and Suwaan suggests they get the hell out of there. Conan wonders if the Turanians are searching for him after his trouble with Prince Yezdigerd during the siege of Makkalet, but he doesn’t wait around to ask them. They’re chased by the Turanians to the gates of an old castle. The gates open and the trio ride inside, but the Turanians stop, showing an unnatural fear of the castle. A shower of arrows kills a number of Turanians and the rest leave. Conan, Turgohl, and Suwaan find their rescuers are a motley collection of brigands from all over the world. Since the odds are overwhelmingly against them, Conan and Turgohl surrender and are taken to the feasting hall of the castle, filled with more international outcasts. But Conan quickly realizes there are two factions in the castle: native Hyrkanians, led by Kai Shaah, a former noble; and the mixed bunch of non-Hyrkanians, led by Kadra Mahmed. Conan also notices that there are no women in the castle other than Suwaan and it doesn’t take long for one of the brigands to lay claim to her. Conan fights the guy, who ends up being stabbed by the bandits’ main leader, Skol Abdhur, who affects to be more civilized than his rough brethren. Skol Abdhur invites Conan, Turgohl, and Suwaan to dine with him and reveals how he holds sway over this band of cutthroats: he has the fabled ruby known as the Blood of Bel-Hissar, a magic gem so famous that even Conan has heard of it. Skol Abdhur tells how the ruby was found ages ago and presented to a king of Acheron named Bel-Hissar, and how it has travelled from hand to hand down the years, its ownership always changing hands by murder. Skol Abdhur uses the ruby to cement his power over the brigands, knowing that if one of them kills him for the gem, he’d instantly be set upon by all the rest. Skol Abdhur also mentions how the gem was once fed with the blood of women, but says he no longer practices that. Conan enjoys the feast and is about to bang Suwaan when he passes out, realizing too late that his wine was drugged. He wakes up just in time to kill a guy about to stab him, who turns out to be one of Kadra Mahmed’s men. Conan goes looking for Suwaan and finds Skol Abdhur and his bodyguards dead, and the ruby missing. He’s found by Kai Shaah and his men, but before things get too intense, someone comes to tell them the forbidden door to the dungeons has been opened. Everyone goes to search the dungeons, thinking whoever took the ruby might be hiding there, but all they find is one of Kai Shaah’s men dead. Suwaan shows up and accuses Conan of stealing the gem, so he’s forced to fight both factions. He’s pulled through a hidden door by Turgohl, who has horses waiting for them to escape. Once they’re clear of the castle, Turgohl reveals that he has the ruby and that Suwaan is his wife. Conan realizes that she wanted the gem for herself, so she recruited two bandits (one from each faction) to help her; Conan killed one and Turgohl took the other one out and grabbed the ruby. In its glittering depths, Conan sees Suwaan’s fate, killed by the bloodthirsty brigands who then turn on each other until no one is left alive. Conan considers fighting Turgohl for the ruby, but figures he’s better off without a cursed gem and rides away. This story is a bit convoluted in places, but it’s still pretty good. It was based on a non-Conan tale by Robert E. Howard called “Blood of Belshazzar”, which originally appeared in an issue of Oriental Stories. Roy changed a few things, altering the beginning and end, dropping some characters and adding a few (notably Suwann, since the original story didn’t have any women in it and Roy thought every Conan tale needed a good-looking woman in some capacity). The original story was set during the Crusades and featured an Irish hero called Cormac FitzGeoffrey. This is technically John Buscema’s first Conan story, since it was completed before the previous two issues. I like Buscema’s art on Conan and I think Ernie Chan is a good embellisher for him.

Conan the Barbarian #28 – “Moon of Zembabwei” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan

This one starts with Conan in a jungle south of the Vilayet Sea, where he stops to quench his thirst. He’s attacked by a giant poisonous snake and rolls into some quicksand while fighting it. The snake is decapitated by a Stygian named Thutmekri, who just happens to be passing by with his retinue (his bodyguard M’gorah, slave girl Helgi, and two native litter-bearers). Thutmekri leaves Conan to die in the quicksand, but the resourceful barbarian uses his dagger and the dead serpent’s body to climb out. He coats his blade with poison from the dead snake’s fangs, anticipating a time when he can pay Thutmekri back. Conan follows the trail through the jungle and finds the bearers dead, with the wounded Thutmekri strung up in a tree. Conan cuts him down and when Thutmekri realizes he’s lost the treasure the bearers were carrying (he doesn’t seem to care too much about Helgi or M’gorah), he offers Conan a rich reward to retrieve it for him. Thutmekri tells how he stole a golden gorilla idol from a tribe in Zembabwei and fled across the desert, buying Helgi on the way for “companionship”. Thutmekri doesn’t know who took the idol, but mentions someone called Dalboor, whom he’s very afraid of. Conan leaves Thutmekri to die and keeps following the trail, coming upon a dazed M’gorah who tells him the Witch-Dancers of Zembabwei have followed them to reclaim their stolen idol. M’gorah says the Witch-Dancers took Helgi to use as a sacrifice to their god (Zemba, the Gorilla God) during tonight’s full moon. M’gorah tells Conan that Dalboor is the head witch doctor of Zembabwei, with powerful magic. Conan finds Helgi tied to a tree and goes to rescue her, but falls into a pit. Turns out Dalboor has sent his spirit from far-off Zembabwei to take over M’gorah’s body and trap Conan, wanting two sacrifices for Zemba at the full moon. Conan climbs out of the pit just in time to confront the manifestation of Zemba, a gigantic golden gorilla … carnivorous, of course. Conan fights the giant ape, stabbing it (which doesn’t seem to bother the ape much) and getting tossed around until he finally gets clear and confronts Dalboor, who’s so focused on killing Conan he doesn’t see the golden gorilla coming. It tears M’gorah’s body apart, which (possibly) kills Dalboor back in Zembabwei. The golden ape gets ready to come after Conan again, but it keels over dead and Conan remembers the poison coating his dagger blade, which must’ve just taken some time to affect the ape. The Zembabweians flee and Conan cuts Helgi free, planning to get her to safety and release her (though it sounds like he might want to bang her first). This is a pretty good story, another one that started out as a non-Conan tale by Robert E. Howard. This one (sometimes known under the title “The Grisly Horror”) was set in the American South in the 1930s and dealt with voodoo and other transplanted African magic. Apparently it was pretty racist—not that this story is completely free of racist stereotypes, but it’s not as bad as the original from what I can tell. Conan is in chivalric mode again, wanting to rescue the girl more than anything else, although the final caption suggests he’ll be getting a special “reward” from her before he lets her go on her way. The snake fight was cool and Thutmekri is an interesting villain who will show up again, many issues from now.