Conan the Barbarian #39 – “The Dragon from the Inland Sea” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema
This one starts with Conan riding through some wastelands on his way to Zamora. He’s waylaid by some bandits and ends up killing them all, but his horse is lamed and he’s forced to kill it. While contemplating his next move, Conan is bitten by a snake. He sucks as much poison out as he can, but succumbs to what remains inside his veins, passing out in the desert. He awakens in the tent of a trader (since he wasn’t far from the major caravan route when he passed out) named Ben-Hassal and his niece, Rachalla. Ben-Hassal explains that he was once lord of a nearby town on the Vilayet Sea called Keshaan, but a sea-god suddenly began to rise from the waters once a month and attack the city. A dark priest called Ghul-Azalel
told Ben-Hassal that the sacrifice of a maiden would appease the sea-god. Ben-Hassal didn’t like it much, but went along to spare his city … until Ghul-Azalel told him the next sacrifice had to be Rachalla. Not willing to condemn his niece to the fate he’d meted out to the other unlucky girls, Ben-Hassal fled with Rachalla to Zamora. But he’s heard that Ghul-Azalel is dead, so he wants to reclaim the city and asks Conan to help, in case there are those who would oppose him. Conan agrees but when they reach Keshaan, it turns out to be a trap. Ghul-Azalel is still alive and bribed the messenger to tell Ben-Hassal he was dead so he’d bring Rachalla back. Conan and Ben-Hassal are tied to stakes while Rachalla is chained to a rock to await her fate. Conan busts loose and wastes a bunch of Ghul-Azalel’s 
men, swimming out to cut Rachalla free. The “sea-god” arrives and turns out to be a giant crocodile. Conan stabs it and leads it ashore, where Ben-Hassal orders the soldiers to kill it. The giant crocodile rampages through the town and Ghul-Azalel tries to feed Rachalla to it, which gives Ben-Hassal the courage to attack the beast. Conan rescues Rachalla again and stabs the croc with a sharpened post. He throws Ghul-Azalel to the crocodile, which shambles back into the sea with the evil priest. Afterwards, Conan finds out the reason Ben-Hassal didn’t just kill Ghul-Azalel before … he was Ben-Hassal’s brother, and Rachalla’s father. This is a pretty good story, although the trappings will be familiar to anyone who knows anything about mythology. This tale isn’t based on Robert E. Howard’s work, or on any of the numerous
pastiches by people like Carter and de Camp (although Roy was using De Camp’s chronology of Conan’s career to figure out where Conan would be heading next). This story has a lot in common with the Perseus/Andromeda myth (seen in Clash of the Titans), but Roy said the initial inspiration came from one of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant strips. He even had John Buscema do some homages to Foster’s style in the art and I think it works.
Conan the Barbarian #40 – “The Fiend from the Forgotten City” – Roy Thomas/Rich Buckler/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan riding through the desert, still bound for Zamora. He sees a piece of torn silk on a jagged rock and tracks the owner, thinking he might be dead … and rich. He turns out to be neither, but an old man named Libro who tells Conan he’s seeking the lost city of Ababenzzar. Conan agrees to help him get there, since Libro claims the place is full of treasure. They find the ruined city after a few days and Conan heads inside to look for the loot. But he’s not the only one interested in treasure; he finds a band of brigands arguing over the lot they stole from a rich caravan, including a huge diamond that catches Conan’s eye. The brigands hear a noise and rush out to investigate, but before Conan can go after the
diamond, a woman comes rushing in and he grabs her. They don’t have time for introductions, since the bandits return and attack immediately. Conan takes a couple of them down before fleeing with the mysterious woman. They run into Libro, who was supposed to be waiting outside, and the woman says her name is Alonia. Conan heads back to get the diamond, but as soon as he leaves, we see that Libro and Alonia seem to know each other … and they aren’t exactly friends. Conan kills the bandit chief and grabs the diamond, but the rest of the brigands show up to stop him. He offers to leave them all the other loot if he can keep the diamond but they don’t go for it, so he’s forced 
to fight them. He pounds some of them and takes off with the diamond, running into Libro who reveals he’s not as helpless as he seemed earlier. Libro summons a demon that slaughters the brigands and grabs Conan, trying to get the diamond from him. But a dying bandit kills Libro and Alonia uses her own sorcerous power to weaken the demon enough for Conan to shatter it. He gives her the diamond, which turns out to be a lifestone that Libro stole a long time ago. Now that she has it back, she takes on her true form—that of the goddess Ishtar—and fades away after vowing that no gems shall leave her city again. Conan isn’t sure what to think, but decides not to take any of the gems the bandits looted from the caravan, reasoning that it’s best not to piss off a goddess. This story is shorter than usual because it was originally
meant to fill fifteen pages in Savage Tales magazine, but ended up getting used here instead. It’s a minor story, based on a plot by SF writer Michael Resnick, who was known more for Sword & Planet stories than Sword & Sorcery. Rich Buckler was the guest artist and was in full Kirby imitation mode here, which doesn’t quite fit the S&S genre. Having Conan meet an actual goddess seems a bit outside the usual scope of his adventures too, so this tale isn’t exactly what you’d call a classic.