Conan the Barbarian #23 – “The Shadow of the Vulture” – Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor Smith/Sal Buscema, Dan Adkins, Chic Stone
This one starts in Pah-Dishah, a city three weeks’ ride from Makkalet, where Conan has come to deliver a plea for help to the king (Ghannif), whose daughter Melissandra is Queen of Makkalet, currently under siege by the armies of Prince Yezdigerd. Conan has a little trouble getting in to see the king, who doesn’t seem too worried to hear his daughter is in trouble. Having delivered the message, Conan leaves the palace and rides right out of the city, heading south to avoid going anywhere near Makkalet again.
Speaking of that beleaguered city, a visitor shows up in in Yezdigerd’s camp with some much-needed supplies. The newcomer is Mikhal Oglu, also called the Vulture, one of the most feared assassins in the world. Yezdigerd wants the Vulture to kill Conan and the assassin says he can track the barbarian with an enchanted seeing stone he “acquired” from a wizard. Later, Conan is woken in a small village stable south of Makkalet by a wench named Ivga, who tells him someone is burning the country side around the village. Conan realizes they’re Turanians and figures they’re probably after him. He’s ready to take 
off (with Ivga), but the town is quickly surrounded. Ivga is killed by an arrow and Conan escapes in the confusion, vowing revenge on the Vulture, who leads the Turanian soldiers. Conan rides like hell back towards Makkalet (since every other direction is closed off), pursued closely by the Vulture and his cohort. Conan’s horse drops just before the city gates, but he’s saved when a redheaded woman warrior named Red Sonja leads a squad of soldiers from Pah-Dishah out to slaughter the oncoming Turanians. The Vulture escapes with a few men and Conan grudgingly thanks Sonja for saving his ass (although she claims she was just defending the city, as King Ghannif sent her to do). We see the Vulture ordering one of his archers to shoot an arrow with a
message into the city, so there are obviously traitors working inside Makkalet. Conan is attracted to Red Sonja, but is told she turns away all men so he wanders into the palace grounds, where he sees Queen Melissandra. Since she gave him an armlet that almost got him killed, he’s not eager to chat and leaves. Melissandra actually does seem to have the hots for Conan, so maybe she didn’t know the armlet was meant to get him killed … maybe Khram-Akkad gave it to her, lying about its true purpose. As a large force of Turanians assaults the southwest wall, Conan is brought by Naram-Pyr (head of the King’s Guard) to another part 
of the city, where he’s ambushed and knocked out by Naram-Pyr’s son, Rhupen. Apparently, Naram-Pyr is the traitor working with the Vulture and the attack on the wall is a diversion. Conan wakes up in an abandoned guard post east of the city, where Naram-Pyr tells him the Vulture is coming to kill Conan (and reward Naram-Pyr for capturing him). But Red Sonja shows up first, freeing Conan and helping him dispatch the traitors. Conan spares Rhupen so he can lay a trap for the Vulture, and when the assassin shows up, Conan confronts him. Later, we see Rhupen arriving in Yezdigerd’s camp to deliver something to Yezdigerd … the Vulture’s head. This is a pretty good story, based on a non-Conan Robert E. Howard story set during the Crusades, with a hero called
von Kalmbach. That story introduced a female warrior called Red Sonya of Rogatine, and since Roy had been thinking for a while about bringing in a female counterpart to Conan, he decided to adapt the story (which also featured a city under siege). Because of the deadline problems I mentioned last issue, this one almost missed its shipping date and ended up being pushed back (which is why last issue sported a cover meant for this story and this issue has a new Gil Kane cover). As you can tell by the three inkers, this issue had deadline 
problems too, but it all worked out in the end. Barry Smith’s art looks good and I like the subtle way he shows us that the Vulture’s head is in the chest at the end, without really showing us. Another bit of subtlety is seen with Ivga, who’s wearing Conan’s necklace when she’s killed. I assume Ivga is either a hooker or some kind of wench that Conan hooked up with in the village. She must’ve been a great lay for him to give her his necklace.
Conan the Barbarian #24 – “The Song of Red Sonja” – Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor-Smith
This one starts with Red Sonja dancing in a tavern in Makkalet. The crowd likes her performance, but one thickheaded mercenary (Big Jax) likes it a bit too much. Conan jumps in and starts a big brawl that engulfs the tavern. He and Sonja take off and go for a swim, where things almost get romantic. But Sonja wants to take care of business first, so she and Conan steal a couple of horses from the night watch and ride towards the palace. We get an interlude with the wizard Kharam-Akkad looking into a magic mirror and not liking what he sees. Sonja leads Conan to a far wing of the palace, where they sneak in and
find a room full of treasure. Sonja sends Conan to guard the corridor, while she searches for a specific item … a serpent crown that was part of Melissandra’s dowry. Apparently, her father (King Ghannif) has sent Sonja to retrieve the serpent tiara, which she naturally hasn’t mentioned to Conan. But she has forgotten the king’s warning about the tiara and gets in trouble. The first inkling Conan has that Sonja is in danger is when he hears her scream. We get another interlude with King Eanatum and Queen Melissandra, where we learn that the Queen’s crush on Conan was probably prompted by the fact that her husband is twice her age. In the treasure room, Conan finds Sonja being 
attacked by a huge serpent. He jumps in to help and they manage to subdue the snake, which Sonja turns back into a tiara with a magic phrase the king gave her (which she forgot to say when she first touched the tiara). Sonja and Conan leave and Conan figures he’s going to get lucky, but Sonja tells him she won’t bang any man who hasn’t defeated her in battle. Sonja heads back to Pah-Dishah, leaving Conan to ponder the night’s events. This story gives us a little closer look at Red Sonja, although we still don’t learn much about her background or personality. Once again, Roy and Barry were skirting the edge of what they could get away with, depicting some rather phallic symbolism throughout the story to represent Conan’s sexual frustration with Sonja. The scene of
them in the water had to be altered, to show less of Sonja’s breasts and to put Conan’s hands on her waist (instead of below the water, where they’d be grabbing her ass). The original art appeared in Comic Book Artist #2 and I’ve included it here for comparison. There are a couple of Kull references here too, with the magic words Sonja uses on the snake coming straight from a Robert E. Howard Kull story, and the mirror Kharam-Akkad gazes into meant to be the Mirror of Tuzun-Thune, also from a Kull story.