Conan the Barbarian #155 – “The Anger of Conan” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Steve Leialoha
This one starts with Conan enjoying the sights of Ramuda, in the Border Kingdoms … specifically, the sight of two beautiful wenches who are doing their best to attract his attention. He’s interrupted by a Brythunian (Yadlo) fleeing from some thugs working for Baron Vjerzak, who wants to get his hands on Yadlo for some slight. Vjerzak’s appearance scares away the women (and everyone else), so Conan is happy to let the Baron and his men pound Yadlo a bit. But when they start using a knife (slitting his nose like Jack Nicholson in Chinatown), Conan
pounds Vjerzak and his thugs and takes Yadlo to safety. Yadlo leads Conan to a tavern where he tells Conan he sold Vjerzak some gems that turned out to be fake. Yadlo also recounts how the Baron extorts money from all the merchants, kidnaps and abuses their wives and daughters, and even dabbles in dark magic (which keeps the local governor from doing anything to stop him). We see Vjerzak in his palace, pissed off at being knocked around by Conan. He uses his magical abilities (which he apparently hasn’t quite perfected) to release a demon from a globe so it can kill the thugs who let Conan best them so easily. After confining the demon in the globe again, Vjerzak tells some 
other thugs to find Conan and bring him in alive so he can watch the demon dismember him. At the tavern, Yadlo is still looking out for Conan, warning him when a wench tries to steal his money and settling down outside Conan’s room while he sleeps. Unfortunately, that loyalty gets Yadlo killed when the thugs show up, but Conan quickly avenges him and heads for the Baron’s palace to confront him. The townspeople follow, hoping Conan will get rid of the Baron for them. The Baron releases the demon but Conan makes short work of it and goes after the Baron himself, who retreats to his chamber to try some more magic. But the pressure confounds him and Conan forces him through
the window to fall into the mob below, who soon take their bloody revenge. This was a pretty good issue, with some cool action scenes and Conan showing his noble side by avenging Yadlo, who—although rather annoying—did help Conan when he needed it. I thought it was cool that the villagers were the ones to kill the Baron, since they were the ones who suffered the most from his evil ways.
Conan the Barbarian #156 – “The Curse” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan caught in a storm in the Borderlands and seeking shelter in an old castle. Someone tosses a dagger out a window with a note that says “Leave!”, but the master of the castle (Tarcas Melphorr) invites Conan in to meet his wife (Melanie) and spend the night. Melanie is the one who threw the dagger and she tries to warn Conan again, but Tarcas interrupts, taking Conan to show him some of the treasures he’s acquired in his travels. Conan goes to sleep, not waking when a beastly howl echoes through the castle. But he does wake when a trap door under his bed dumps him into a subterranean cavern. He arms himself with a stalactite and searches for a way out. He encounters a
freaky-looking monster which he fights and kills. He finds the way out blocked by iron bars and settles dwn to rest beside them. Tarcas comes in to look for the monster (which he calls Rastor) and freaks out when he finds it dead. He attacks Conan with a dagger but the Cimmerian kills him and Melanie invites him to hear the tale of what has transpired. She tells him how Tarcas and his brother Rastor used to ride out to adventure, finding themselves on one of their excursions in the southern jungles. They heard about a place full of gems and went there to mine some, getting the approval of the local tribe to avoid trouble. But when Rastor came down with fever, the shaman couldn’t cure him and Rastor killed the shaman’s daughter in a fit of delirium. The shaman cursed 
Rastor to turn into a monster that could eat only human flesh, so Tarcas (who still loved his brother) chained him up in the caverns and started bringing him human victims to eat. It started as necessity, but Tarcas began to enjoy the game of luring people to their deaths … until he tried it on Conan and paid the ultimate price. This is a pretty good issue, with more of a Gothic horror vibe to it than sword and sorcery. John Buscema plotted these last two issues and they have a different feel to them, almost like something from the old EC comics. This one also has Dracula vibes, with the benighted traveller and the spooky castle.