Conan the Barbarian #55 – “A Shadow on the Land” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Tom Palmer
This one continues from last issue, with Conan, Tara, and Yusef returning from the oracle and trying to figure out what her cryptic words mean. They run into the shadow creature not far from Ronnoco and it has grown even bigger after devouring so many people. Conan and company return to King Belzamo’s throne room, where Yvonna is telling the king she won’t marry his son, Vanni. Conan warns the king and Murilo about the shadow creature and repeats the oracle’s prophecy. As he speaks the words, Conan gets an inkling of what the words mean and how the shadow might be defeated. Taking Murilo’s
horse, Conan rides out to the ruins where they found the Ring of Black Shadow and revives the crystal scorpion that served as the Ring’s guardian. The scorpion scuttles off towards Ronnoco, with Conan following on foot since he rode Murilo’s horse to death. The shadow creature has reached Ronnoco, where Belzamo has all the city’s livestock driven out to feed the ravenous beast. But the shadow just keeps coming, getting larger with everything it feeds upon. Vanni suggests sending Murilo’s men out to fight it, or even letting the monster devour the city’s peasants while he and Belzamo escape. But Belzamo is more noble than his son and refuses to sacrifice the citizens to save his life, preferring to die with them. That’s not good enough for Vanni, who takes Yvonna 
hostage so he can get out of the city. Murilo directs the defense of the city, but nothing they do can stop the devouring shadow. But the crystal scorpion shows up to challenge the monster, the two creatures being proxies for their opposing gods. Vanni gets out of the city with Yvonna and a retainer, but they run into Conan and after a vicious fight, Conan kills Vanni. He takes Yvonna back to the city just in time to see the scorpion dissolve the shadow-beast, turning it back into a ring, after which the crystal scorpion becomes immobile again. Before Belzamo can celebrate too much, a contingent of soldiers from Yvonna’s home city of Pergona arrives to demand her return, as well as another army from Carnolla, whose prince Yvonna was originally supposed to marry. Belzamo figures the two armies will decimate his city, but Yvonna speaks to both captains and they stand down. Yvonna is tired of being a pawn in political games, so she’s decided to return home and marry someone of her own choosing … when she’s ready. Murilo ponders whether
he might make a good mate for her some day, but for now he’s staying in Ronnoco to keep the peace. Conan knows how boring that will be, so he decides to head for Argos. Tara agrees to come with him, even though she’s fallen for Yusef. At Murilo’s urging, Yusef joins Conan and Tara, which naturally delights the girl to no end (although Conan isn’t surprised at all). This is a pretty good story, with plenty of action and Conan using his brains to figure out the prophecy and save the city (and potentially the entire world). I’m glad to see Tara getting past her crush on Conan and falling for someone closer to her own age (and someone who reciprocates her feelings) and Murilo’s musings about a relationship with Yvonna will pay off in future issues.
Conan the Barbarian #56 – “The Strange High Tower in the Mist” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Pablo Marcos
This one starts with Conan, Tara, and Yusef coming upon a strange city that doesn’t appear on their maps and wasn’t there when Yusef journeyed this way with Murilo’s men a few weeks ago. Although the mysterious city gives all of them the creeps, they have to go through it to get to Argos, so they head inside … on foot, since their horses refuse to enter the place. There are plenty of people in the city, but Conan notices they’re all men—and warriors at that—without a woman or a merchant to be seen. The citizens act strangely, like they’re half asleep, although they certainly take notice of Tara as she passes by. A gong is sounded and a beautiful woman emerges from a temple, only to be grabbed by a weird bat-demon that flies
her to the top of the temple’s tower. None of the city’s inhabitants seem to care about the kidnapped woman, so Conan and his friends enter the tower to rescue her. They’re forced to split up to follow separate staircases, both of which have gates barring the way partway up. Conan wrenches the bars open on his barrier and continues on his way, but Tara and Yusef are forced to detour into a different corridor and take a separate staircase. They end up in a chamber where a grotesque little man named Mad Jakk is chained to a chair. Mad Jakk begs them to free him, but they’re not sure if they should. Conan reaches the top 
of the tower, where he fights the bat-demon, their struggle shaking the very foundations of the tower. Conan triumphs but the woman is gone and the tower is falling apart around him. Tara and Yusef find him and lead him down another staircase just before the tower falls to pieces, followed by the destruction of the entire city. Conan and the others get out just in time and watch as Mad Jakk stands on the tower right before it falls apart. Tara recounts the story Mad Jakk told them: he was shunned for his deformities and left Argos, using magic to create this city. But he ended up being trapped here because the city had a mind of its own. It used the image of the beautiful woman to lure brave men into the city, to be defeated by the bat-demon and become trapped too. But when Conan proved stronger than the demon, the city fell apart and Mad Jakk chose to die with it rather than return to a world that had shunned him. Conan ponders the non-existent beauty that he tried to save, then heads off
on the road to the sea, with Tara and Yusef close behind. This is kind of a strange story. Based on the title, you’d think it would have a Lovecraft feel to it and while there is some Lovecraftian atmosphere present, Roy says the main idea came from the musical Brigadoon, about a magical city that only appears once every hundred years. There’s no resemblance at all to Lovecraft’s “Strange High House in the Mist”, and the whole thing reads like filler material … which I guess it is, since we’re coming to the time in Conan’s life when he takes to the sea and meets the she-pirate, Bêlit. But we’ve got one more story before that happens, as we’ll see next week.