Brian48

How the heck do you store these books in order to keep them preserved like this?

Holy . Those are the best Batmans I've ever seen. Puts my copies to shame. Also, I love those Shazams. I bought all 3 of them off the stands back in the day. Read them to pieces.

No, not the original mag, but rather the hardbound reprinting. Completely forgotten about this title until I stumbled across this at a LCS. I remember seeing the ads for this back in the Kirby DC days, but never saw it on the stands or even in comic shops later on during my teen years. Was always curious about what this was all about. Admittedly, the stories haven't aged very well like the Warrens, but I guess for the times, this was supposed to be edgy stuff (by Kirby standards anyway).

I still think Conan #1 (maybe even Chamber of Darkness #4 for that matter) are undervalued considering the character's importance in introducing the genre to the industry. You can also lump in Conan #23-24 for that matter, which is even more undervalued.

Picked up this one on the cheap. Quite a value actually compared to the other Harley statues out there.

Cool. Another excuse to bump up thread. Wasn't looking for another copy as I already have 2 very nice raw copies and a sweet 9.6 WP, but for $5, I couldn't say no. Except for the color breaking crease towards the bottom right corner, this is actually a very nice copy. Found it in a box of low grade BA drek. I take it whomever bagged it, had no idea what COD 4 was all about.

I view these as early BA and not SA. A couple of bargain bin (semi drek) box finds that I stumbled across this week. I don't think the person bagging the book had any idea what COD 4 is.

I can't get passed how the nose is drawn.

I had no idea how much that book is selling for. I buy moderns strictly for reading these days so I normally collect. Pretty amazed.

Doesn't seem to be. I still wonder why OSPG took The title out of the guide years ago and never put it back despite several similar type magazines are listed.

Her. From Savage Tales #2. She eventually made her way to the regular color comic. Although I think most folks remember her from the Conan movie, although that wasn't the true Valeria. Rather a mix between Valeria and Belit.

Sold mine a few years back and I still haven't replaced it. One of the biggest holes in my collection. Yeah, those magazines have been overlooked for a long time. Many Marvel characters made their first appearances in the ol' B&W pages, Satanna, Rocket Raccoon, Starlord, Valeria, and probably a lot more that I can't think of right now.

It's like Bizarro Superman. On his planet, it's KFH - Kentucky Fried Human. Mmmmmmm. Chicken........

Well, for me, Adams does hold the title of best cover in both Savage Tales and SSOC in my opinion. This would be issue 4 and 2 respectively. His inking job to Gil Kane's pencils in ST #4 is great too, one of the best Conan stories published by Marvel. It's too bad Adams came off the main title so soon and abrupt. In one of his interviews, I take it he was planning some sort of multi-issue epic, but it never materialized and he was off on something else. Issue 37 is a beautiful book to look at, but the story is mind-numbingly bad.

BWS's stuff was best when he did his own inking (and coloring when needed), where as I don't recall Buscema ever inking his own artwork. This obviously made Big John's art very dependent on whomever was his collaborator. When paired with an able inker like Ernie Chan or Alfredo Alcala, Buscema's work was great. Anyone else, it was just serviceable in my opinion. By the way, if no one has ever read it, I think this is Buscema's finest work on Conan (with help from Alcala and Marie Severin). "Black Vulmea's Vengeance (Revenge of the Barbarian)" which appeared in Marvel Super Special #2 (a key Conan book in my opinion). http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2008/12/stocking-stuffer-marvel-super-special-2.html The entire issue is posted online if you want read it or just look at the artwork.

Regarding his character faces, BWS used Native American references for all his drawings which is why you have the same characteristics through out. Not sure why he stuck with this, but it seemed to work for him. Unfortunately, Smith didn't really refine his style until the very tail end of his Conan run, culminating with Red Nails, which is his finest comics work bar none. Because of this, a lot of his earlier works on the title, often inked by other people, gets referenced in discussions. I read somewhere [might have been an interview or something written by Roy Thomas] that BWS didn't know how to draw comics when he first started out. His earlier works essentially ape'd Kirby because he thought that's how it was supposed to be drawn. I'm a fan, but I will readily admit that his earlier works didn't look very good to me, especially on the X-Men and Daredevil titles. It wasn't until he discovered it was OK for him to draw it in his own way that he started to take off. This of course, also led to all the scheduling issues as well since the artwork needed more time to finish. Not surprising he bailed out of the Hour of Dragon project. Although I love Gil Kane, a fully mature BWS doing that story line would have been epic. When I think of Barry Smith, this is what comes to mind visually for me.

Conan was supposed to be scrawny during that time period. According to the chronicle timeline, he was supposed to be teenager with wanderlust just leaving Cimmeria. I think the problem is when Buscema took over the title with issue #25, Conan automatically looked like he was 40 years old. I think that was the only thing I didn't like about Buscema's Conan. Whether Conan was 18 or 60+ as King Conan, he looked exactly the same.

I've [somewhat] started to pick these up. Some hi-grade (with W pages) finds from about 4 months back. All from a .75 cent drek box.

9.4 and 9.6 copies are very affordable compared to other titles, but if you're looking for a large [slabbed] run like that, it can get hugely expensive with resale value not being very high with this title. I'd stick with raw. I stuck with only key issues for my slabbed books and tried to stay at 9.6, but wounded up getting some 9.4s and 9.2s mainly because they were so cheap. I will eventually try to upgrade the 9.2s, but it's not high on my priority list right now. Regarding the older issues, despite the recent upswing in some auctions, it's a buyer's market in my opinion due to low popularity. Get it while it's still good because I think this title will eventually take off again one day. Especially if Hollywood can actually come up with a good movie.

What are those? Chamber of Darkness 4, Starr the Slayer by Thomas and Smith Thanks. I will have to look into those. There's only one tryout book. This is the one. The story was later reprinted in Conan #16, I believe. Starr the Slayer sure looks familiar, doesn't he?

Tough break for the dog. Great episode, I thought. The dark humor is really funny. What's surprising to me is that every character, good or bad, has a bit of charm to them. I can't find myself hating on anyone in this show.

Just a side note, CGC got it completely wrong with Giant Size 1 being the first appearance of Belit. It's actually Conan 58. Belit absolutely does not appear in this issue at all. Not even in a cameo. All Conan does is mention her name [once], along with Valeria and Red Sonja, in one word balloon as he reminisces about the women he's paired up with in the past. She's never drawn or delved into any further than that. What GS Conan #1 should be famous for is part #1 of the epic Hour of the Dragon drawn by Gil Kane.

The ultimate Conan thread. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8143890&fpart=1

Modern key?