No animals were harmed during this post...except that one, I guess.

Although I read Marvel's Conan the Barbarian for most of it's 275 issue run, there were a few dogs in there. Um, I mean, a few stinkers, let's say. This month, Conan's chatting up a barmaid, when he gets smacked in the back of the skull and the wench stolen by a bar thug. (In best pulp tradition, Conan gets hit in the head more than Hal Jordan.) Conan gives chase, but the bar thug has taken refuge in an abandoned, and presumably haunted, wizard's tower.

Upon entering, Conan discovers the body of the thug, killed by something; and the skeleton of the wizard, eaten by something. Then, Conan finds the girl, and...

...a Scooby-Do episode gone so very wrong. No, actually, it's the wizard Caldix, who died some years back, and then his spirit became trapped in his dog after his dog ate his corpse. Moreover, the dog-wizard is trapped in the tower because of his final spell; or else because Caldix may have been a shut-in before that. Conan treats him to a bit of stabbing, before throwing him out of bounds, and Caldix's spirit is forced out into the void. The dog dies, sadly; but Conan rescues the barmaid, who had been telling Conan her name means, "lucky."

From Conan the Barbarian #114, "The Shadow of the Beast!" Written and edited by Roy Thomas, illustrated by John Buscema and Ernie Chan, and adapted from a story by Robert E. Howard! Well, they can't all be The Frost-Giant's Daughter...