Conan the Barbarian #100 – “Death on the Black Coast” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with the Tigress sailing the Black Coast as usual, but Bêlit’s destination is well outside their normal haunts. She takes the ship to the mouth of the Zarkheba River, which they passed once before and reminds Conan that its waters are said to be poisonous, inhabited only by venomous reptiles. Bêlit recounts how she once chased a Stygian ship to the mouth of the river, lying in wait for it to emerge. But when it did, the ship was deserted save for one gibbering madman, although its cargo was intact. Bêlit has heard
rumours of a fabulous city up the deadly river and wants to sail up and loot its treasures, so Conan agrees to try it. They head up the river, discussing religion, philosophy, and death, with Bêlit pledging that her love for Conan will transcend death. Conan kills a huge river serpent and Bêlit gives the crew the option of turning back, but they choose to stick with her in spite of N’yaga’s warnings. They find the lost city and are freaked out by the sight of a winged ape flying off into the jungle, but Bêlit’s treasure-fever has taken hold of her and she leads them into the ruins. They find an altar and Conan prepares to move it 
with the help of some corsairs, but Bêlit tells him she heard a snake in the bushes that she wants him to kill. When a rockfall trap crushes the men moving the altar stone, Conan realizes Bêlit suspected a trap and called him away to save his life, although she apparently didn’t give a damn about the lives of her corsairs. They clear the rubble and find a trove of gems beneath the altar, as well as a blood-red necklace that Bêlit claims for herself. When they see the winged ape returning from the direction of their ship, Conan goes to check it and finds all their fresh water casks have been smashed. While Bêlit prepares to haul the treasure to the ship, Conan leads some men into the jungle in search of fresh water. Conan thinks he hears someone following and hangs back to check, but ends up in a profusion of black lotus blossoms
that put him to sleep. He has visions of how the ancient city was founded by winged ape-men eons ago, only to see the inhabitants devolve into demons and start killing each other until only one remained. That one used sorcery to turn the first human visitors into giant hyenas and to lure other men to their doom. In his vision, Conan sees himself coming into the jungle and watches his corsairs get slaughtered by the winged demon. The shock of that brings him out of his lotus-induced reverie and looks for the corsairs. He finds M’gora but his old friend has turned into an animal and attacks, forcing Conan to kill him. Conan finds the other corsairs dead and runs back to check on Bêlit and the 
rest of the men. He finds the men slaughtered and Bêlit hanging by the necklace from the ship’s yardarm. He places her body in the ship and piles loot around it, while waiting for the winged demon to come for him. The demon sends hyenas after him first, but Conan kills all of them. He’s waiting to take revenge on the demon for killing Bêlit, but it collapses a pillar on him and he ends up trapped. The demon comes to kill him, but Bêlit’s spirit appears and attacks the demon, giving Conan enough time to free himself and kill the fiend. Later, Conan steers the Tigress out to sea and sets it on fire, thinking it to be a fitting
funeral pyre for Bêlit. Her death has tainted his affection for the sea, so he resolves to head inland. This issue completes the adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “Queen of the Black Coast” that began way back in issue 58. In that story, Conan’s time as a pirate with Bêlit was glossed over, but according to the Miller/Clark timeline (which got the approval of Howard himself just before he died) Conan spent about three years with Bêlit and her corsairs. Roy wanted to show that time passing since he was basically writing the comics as if one year of issues took one year 
of Conan’s life, so he had Conan and Bêlit together for about 43 issues. That makes her death more heartfelt, not just for Conan but for us too, since we’ve gotten to know her better than we could by reading the original story. I think this is a pretty good adaptation of the source material and of course Bêlit’s death will haunt Conan for some time. It’s interesting that Bêlit said her love for Conan would transcend death and her spirit did end up saving him, kinda like what happened with Valeria in the first movie.
Conan the Barbarian #92 – “The Thing in the Crypt” – Roy Thomas/Sal Buscema/Ernie Chan
If you’re wondering why I’m reviewing this story now, it’s because I’m following the Chronicles of Conan collections and this is where they placed it, although the story is actually set between issue 2 and issue 3. This story starts with Conan being chased by wolves while armed only with a chain. We get a flashback to him escaping Hyperborean slavers and running into the wolves, some of which he kills with the chain. But the rest of the wolves continue the chase, so he takes refuge in a cave. He finds ancient writings and broken furniture in the cave and when he manages to kindle fire, he’s startled to see a skeleton on a throne. The skeleton is dressed in finery (or what remains of it) and holds a
very nice-looking sword. Conan takes the sword, which brings the skeleton to life. It attacks and no matter how much damage he does, it won’t stop coming for him. Finally he tosses the undead monstrosity into the fire and it’s consumed, leaving Conan to take the sword and head outside to face the wolves … which are gone. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. This comes from a later Conan tale by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter that Roy had wanted to adapt earlier. But Marvel didn’t have the rights to the de Camp/Carter stories at the time, so Roy made up a similar story about Conan finding a magic sword in 
a cave and having to fight his own shadow (which we saw in issue 31). After getting the rights to the de Camp/Carter tales, Roy decided to adapt their story and place it right before the one he wrote earlier. So in Marvel comics continuity, Conan escapes slavers, finds a magic sword in a cave and fights a skeleton, loses the sword soon after, then finds another magic sword in another cave and fights his shadow, before going on to get embroiled in the battle between Hyperboreans and Brythunians that we saw in issue 3.