Monday, October 23, 2023

An action-packed issue, even if Conan spends most of it in bed.

Not that kind of action, pervs! From 1987, Conan the King #39, "The Tower" Per the GCD, written by Don Kraar, pencils by Judith Hunt and Mike Manley, inks by Art Nichols.
The wizard Crassus's attempt to use Conan's son Taurus to kill him has failed, but the king has been grievously injured by a crossbow bolt and couldn't be moved. The witch Zelata gives him a potion to sweat out the poison, and now it was up to Conan if he would live or die. Crassus sends a bunch of demons and devils, to try and shift the balance, and seems to narrate Conan's slow ride down the river to Arallu, or hell.
Conan's jester, Rufio, leads a last-ditch attempt to hold off the demons; then is joined by Conan's daughter Radegund, who wanted to reconcile with her dad before anything happened, and Radegund's new love Deryck, who was trying to get over the fact that Conan had killed his dad. Hearing Radegund's voice helps Conan break free from Crassus's spell, and he wakes up in time for the last push until daybreak, when the demons melt. Deryck asks for Radegund's hand in marriage, and Conan's fine with it: it's not like she'd ever listened to him, good luck, guy.
And in Zingara, Crassus is exhausted and frustrated, before he hears that Taurus had escaped as well. But he wasn't ready to give up yet...I know he wasn't the big-bad for the last few issues of the series, but I'm not sure how much longer he lasted. Or how many more issues Rufio or Deryck had in them, either.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Had to re-read that "The End" post for King Conan, and it looks like his daughter Radegund is effectively written out of the series since she doesn't show up again, but his other kids sure do.

Wonder if this whole plot with Conan hovering around death & visions of his hell was inspired by the 1st Conan movie.