why is ASM #129 considered a bigger key then Conan #1?

[kimik]

With that said, I don't think those Arnold Conan movies get made if there wasn't a bunch of very popular Conan comics/magazines. Were Conan paperbacks still selling well in the late 70's/early 80's?

 

I got into comic book collecting via Conan around '81 or '82, and it lead to the paperbacks. I'd say the comic book sales had a huge roll in the production of the movies.

 

While I have no sales figures to back this up, it is my belief based on my recollection of the times, that the paperbacks were selling well, too. It was around '83, I think, when Ace came out with new editions (from white border Frazetta covers to full bleeds). Anyway, all of my friends who were reading Conan comics then were also reading the paperbacks. That's just a handfull of twelve year olds though, doesn't actually prove anything...

 

As for ASM 129 vs. Conan 1, I think someone summed it up quite well when they pointed out that Conan may have a bigger worldwide appeal, but comic collecting is still a very American-centric hobby, and that presently means superhero, superhero, superhero.

 

I think we touched on it in a Conan discussion in one of the many start/key book of the BA threads, but the late 60s paperbacks were the catalyst for the Conan comic. They were great sellers at the time and created a fan base for the comic. While the comic was successful for a time, I would argue that by the early 80s it would have been the paperbacks that drove the wider public appeal of Conan again for a movie and not comics.