Conan the Barbarian #115 – “A War of Wizards” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan still making his way towards Akkharia, when he’s startled by the appearance of a green light with a face inside it … a familiar face. It’s the wizard Zukala (who we last saw in issue 15) using magic to speak to Conan even though body is far away in Ghaza. Zukala wants Conan to come to Ghaza to do a job for him, but the demanding tone he uses pisses Conan off and he tells Zukala’s vision to go to hell. Conan arrives in Akkharia and finds shelter in the stable of a
crowded inn, bedding down in the straw with another traveller low on funds. The next morning, Conan is surprised to find his stablemate is Red Sonja, who’s there to sign up as a mercenary with King Sumuabi just like Conan. They’re startled to see a Temple of Ibis in the middle of the city, since they’d believed their old enemy Karanthes to be the last priest of that particular god. Conan and Sonja have breakfast together, but when she starts grilling him about Bêlit, Conan gets pissed off and slaps her. That provokes a sword duel which Conan technically wins (although Sonja slipped in some spilled wine) and he 
reminds her that she’s sworn to give herself to any man who could best her at swordplay. She reluctantly agrees, but it’s obvious she’s doing it out of honour, not desire. Before they can consummate the agreement, Conan admits Bêlit is dead and freaks out, taking off to find somewhere else to drown his sorrows. After getting hammered, he’s accosted by another magical vision from Zukala, who tells Conan he can bring Bêlit back from the dead if Conan will bring Karanthes to him. Apparently, Karanthes took Zukala’s place as court wizard to King Sumuabi and forced Zukala into exile, so he wants revenge. Conan agrees to bring Karanthes to Zukala to be killed, but he’s uneasy about it. He returns to Akkharia and heads for the Temple of Ibis, followed by Red Sonja, who
wonders what he’s up to. Conan confronts Karanthes, who was expecting him, and tells him he’s there to take the wizard to Zukala. Sonja emerges from hiding and declares that she’ll stop Conan from taking Karanthes, but the wizard tosses some sleep powder to take care of the barbarian himself. Unfortunately for Karanthes, Sonja is the only one knocked out by the powder, so Conan takes her and Karanthes to see Zukala. Conan gets a shock when Zukala tells him that he needs to exchange Sonja’s soul for that of Bêlit in order to resurrect the dead she-pirate. At first, Conan refuses and Zukala summons the demon Jaggta-Noga (who we saw in issue 5). Conan decides to let Zukala use Sonja’s soul, 
but changes his mind at the last minute. Zukala sends Jaggta-Noga to kill Conan, but Karanthes banishes the demon and Conan goes after Zukala. The wizard uses magic but Conan shrugs it off, so Zukala shows him images of the happy life he could have if Bêlit was brought back. Conan ignores the images and kills Zukala before passing out from his wounds. He wakes in time to say farewell to Sonja, who refuses Conan’s offer to ride with him because she’s afraid of losing the warrior side of her nature. After she leaves, Karanthes tells Conan that Zukala’s magic wouldn’t have restored Bêlit to life, it would have animated her as an undead horror. Karanthes casts spells to destroy Zukala’s lair and Conan gets him out just before it collapses. Karanthes admits that he manipulated Conan into helping him dispose of Zukala, but Conan figures
things worked out for the best and takes off to continue his adventures. This is Roy Thomas’s last issue of Conan (at least until the late 80s when he returned to Marvel), and it’s a pretty good story to go out on. It was cool to see some familiar faces and to see Zukala get what he deserves after all this time. The sexual tension between Conan and Sonja still hasn’t really been resolved, but I can understand her reasoning when she says she’s not willing to subordinate the warrior part of herself to the part that actually wants to get involved with Conan.
Conan the Barbarian #116 – “Crawler in the Mist” – Len Wein, J.M. DeMatteis/John Buscema/Neal Adams
This story takes place between issue 12 and issue 13. We start in the eastern deserts of Corinthia, with Conan getting tossed off his horse and bitten by a snake, which he quickly kills. Conan tries to suck the poison out but succumbs to it. He wakes to find himself chained to a trader named Rasto, who plans to sell Conan in the slave market at Shadizar. Conan quickly turns the tables, yanking Rasto off his camel and using him as a giant flail to pound the other two traders. In the confusion, their camels run off and the traders surrender, but since Rasto lost the key to the shackles during the fight, Conan is forced to bring him along as he heads of to find a way to
release himself from his chains. They stumble upon a city in the middle of the desert and Rasto gets worried, having heard evil tales about such a place. Conan isn’t worried, even when one of the city’s inhabitants warns him to leave. Since everyone in the city (which is called Kamalla) avoids them, Conan decides to sleep in the city square. They’re awakened by a huge red slug attacking them. The chain is broken easily and Conan is knocked out.When he wakes up, he considers leaving but decides to rescue Rasto first. While following the slug’s trail he runs into another such creature, black this time, but finds he can’t hurt it with his sword. He ends up dropping a pillar on its head and crushing it before taking up the trail again. But when he finds Rasto and the red slug, the creature (called M’najj) uses telepathy to talk to Conan, telling him that 
he and his mate (who Conan just killed) came from another dimension looking for old and sickly people (like Rasto, who has some kind of degenerative disease) to repopulate their empty homeland. M’najj says Rasto will be the last person he takes to his own dimension and Conan watches as they cross the barrier and Rasto becomes whole and hearty in his new home. M’najj tells Conan that such a paradise is no place for someone like him and closes the barrier, leaving the barbarian to continue on his way and maybe contemplate how he lives his life. This story is a bit more esoteric than usual and I prefer Ernie Chan’s inks with Buscema’s pencils, but I guess it could have been worse. I generally like DeMatteis as a writer, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with the character.