Conan the Barbarian #35 – “The Hellspawn of Kara-Shehr” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan and his new companion Bourtai (who he met last issue) travelling across the desert on their way back to Aghrapur. They come upon some desert warriors harrying a lone man and Conan rides in to help. The raiders try to kill the loner, who apparently holds some kind of valuable secret. More bandits show up, so Conan grabs the wounded man and he and Bourtai ride like hell into the desert, eventually escaping their pursuers. The man they rescued is near death, but manages to tell them his big secret: they’re near the lost city of Kara-Shehr. The dying man was there and saw
the fabulous gem known as the Azure Eye of Kara-Shehr, but warns that the city is dangerous, something Conan knows from legends he’s heard about the city. After the man dies, Conan and Bourtai continue on their way and run into a sandstorm. They lose their mounts and waterskins, but stumble on the lost city of Kara-Shehr. Conan isn’t eager to go into the cursed city, but Bourtai can’t resist the lure of treasure, so Conan agrees to go with him. The city is in ruins, but there are many statues of demons all over the place, which makes Bourtai change his mind about the treasure. But his greed flares up again when they 
find the throne room, where a skeleton sits on the throne clutching a fabulous blue gem in its hand. Conan figures the skeleton will come to life if they touch the gem, but Bourtai grabs it anyway. The skeleton doesn’t move, but the wall behind them starts to slide open (which they don’t notice). Conan asks Bourtai to replace the gem in the skeletal hand to see what happens, and they’re both startled to see the bony hand grasp the gem tightly. The wall also closes behind them and Conan hears it this time, but he’s distracted when the desert raiders burst in and attack. Conan is stunned to see their leader is Kai Shaah, who Conan met in Bab-al-Shaithan (in issue 27). Conan and Bourtai are captured and Conan tells Kai Shaah that it was Turgohl who ended up with the ruby, not him. Kai Shaah isn’t bothered, since he now has the Azure Eye within reach. Kai Shaah has also heard tales of the gem being cursed, and
that anyone who touches it will be dead within the day, but he grabs the Azure Eye anyway and splits the skull of the skeleton on the throne to show his contempt for the curse. His men aren’t so glib and want to kill Conan and leave the Eye, but Kai Shaah won’t hear of it. The wall opens again and this time a dark demon comes out to wreak havoc amongst the bandits. They flee and Conan tries to save Bourtai, but he’s caught up in the demonic mist that fills the chamber. The demon retreats back into the wall, leaving Conan alone with two new skeletons: those of Bourtai and Kai Shaah. The Azure Eye is back in the grasp of the skeleton on the throne and Conan gladly leaves it there, heading out into the desert again to make his way back to Aghrapur. This 
story is based on “Fires of Asshurbanipal”, a non-Conan tale by Robert E. Howard that was published posthumously in Weird Tales magazine. Roy kept the basic plot, just changing the names to make it fit Conan’s world. After only a few issues, Bourtai is gone but I think Conan works better as a loner (except for the occasional female companion, of course). Speaking of which, this is another one of those issues where there’s a hot girl on the cover, but no female characters in the story. I guess they figured having a beautiful damsel in distress on the cover might help sales … something Weird Tales and the other pulp mags were famous for.
Conan the Barbarian #36 – “Beware the Hyrkanians Bearing Gifts …” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan riding into Aghrapur like a madman, half dead from crossing the desert and numerous other trials. King Yildiz is reviewing his new corps of bodyguards, provided by guard captain Narim-Bey. Amytis, Narim-Bey’s mistress, is watching, along with a sarcastic dude named Feyd-Ratha. Conan tries to give the king his report on Wan Tengri, but passes out instead. The king is impressed and commands Conan be taken care of and added to his personal bodyguards when he recovers. Amytis is very concerned about Conan’s welfare, which Feyd-Ratha notices right away, although Narim-Bey apparently doesn’t. He
goes out to inspect some troops at a far outpost for a couple of weeks, leaving Amytis to take care of Conan … which she does by banging him Now that Conan is to serve the king, he receives training in new forms of combat (bow and arrow, axe throwing, and mounted fighting). At first, he’s not too good with a bow, but makes rapid progress. When Narim-Bey returns, King Yildiz shows them a gift he’s just received from his son Yezdigerd, who’s still laying waste to the enemies of Turan. The gift is a headless statue found in a shrine in a newly-sacked city. Yezdigerd has promised to send the head as soon as he takes the sister city where it’s kept. While admiring the statue, Conan notices Narim-Bey giving him a suspicious look and figures he’d better stay away from Amytis. He throws himself into his training, learning many new fighting techniques, 
but he can’t resist Amytis’s charms and ends up on her balcony one night. (She’s apparently drugged Narim-Bey so he won’t disturb them.) Amytis has noticed Conan’s worry every time Yezdigerd is mentioned—small wonder, since they didn’t exactly part as friends—but assures him that Yezdigerd won’t be with the soldiers bringing in more captured booty tomorrow. When the tribute arrives, the head for the statue is brought by a eunuch-priest from the conquered city. Yildiz is thrilled and places the head on the statue, which immediately comes to life and tries to kill him. Yildiz is scared shitless and his guards are pounded into the ground by the living statue, which seems unstoppable. Conan tries to stop it too, but even his strength can do little against stone. He notices the priest who brought the head is holding some kind of amulet and seems to be in a trance, so he throws his axe and kills the priest, which
makes the statue fall lifeless (and headless) to the ground. Yildiz wonders if Prince Yezdigerd sent the statue knowing it would try to kill him and Amytis confirms Narim-Bey’s suspicions by fawning over Conan after the fight instead of him. When Narim-Bey tells Yildiz he needs Conan to help quell some rebellious hill tribes, Yildiz says to take him … but Conan knows Narim-Bey has something unpleasant planned for him. This is a pretty good story, although it isn’t based on any of Howard’s writings. Roy used this to set up a big story coming up in a couple of issues (which is based on a Howard tale), introducing Feyd-Ratha and having Conan’s affair with Amytis stoke Narim-Bey’s jealousy.