I don't think this would've been the worst issue of SSoC I ever read, but as a new launch it didn't knock my socks off, either.
Monday, May 11, 2026
The local toy show was this weekend, and I'm pretty pleased with my haul this year. Also, while I went over budget, I didn't really: there was a sort of ideal target number, then a real number...And as usual, there were some vendors that brought comics. One had a new batch of cheap comics--a bunch of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, which I seem to be finding all over lately: same thing happened recently with Legion of Super-Heroes, where some store puts a bunch out cheap, then everyone seems to be trying to unload them, like they were the newest not-hot book? And another guy had a pile of reasonably priced Savage Sword of Conan, that I really could've blown my budget on, and even now kinda wished I'd grabbed some more. Also, I should've put my glasses on and looked it up: I needed SS #218, the conclusion to the story from Conan's last issue, Conan the Barbarian #275. I did grab the last issue the guy had, though; #234: ooh, so close, that's the second-to-last issue! But we also grabbed the next one: from 1995, Conan the Savage #1, featuring "Hounds to the Slaughter" Written by Chuck Dixon, art by Enrique Alcatena; and "The Circles of Set" Written by Roy Thomas, art by Tim Conrad. Cover by Simon Bisley.
Before we get into the issue itself, I was kind of hoping the Wikipedia for Savage Sword of Conan would get a bit into the sales numbers. While the heat of the barbarian fad had understandably faded over like thirty years, SSoC was a rare beast that had a presence outside of the newsstand spinner rack or the direct market comic shops: as a black-and-white magazine, it was sold mostly away from those venues. I think it was Tegan that pointed out that it was always available in truck stops and convenience stores, racked with the tattoo and trucker mags. The only sales data I could pull in a brief search for 1995 from Comichron was 4700 units of SSoC #231 sold; but that would've just been numbers from comic shops and not necessarily indicative of the title's actual sales. Maybe if I'd bought all those later-run issues, I could've checked for a USPS Statement of Ownership for numbers; but what I'm getting at is I can't tell is Savage Sword's numbers were down or slipping or even bad. (Also, it was still only $2.25? A mainline comic at the time was $1.50 but a lot were $2.50-$2.95.) Was this a legit attempt to relaunch and inject some new life into Conan? Or did somebody at Marvel just have the bright idea that hey, you know what always boosts sales? A new number one! I strongly suspect it was the latter, especially since the relaunch here features Thomas and Dixon, who weren't exactly new blood. And I wonder if the change didn't somehow...break the spell? Not only did it snap a long run, but I worry that retailers weren't paying a ton of attention and maybe the change wasn't ordered or racked like it had been previously. Maybe they just didn't notice it on the order forms or on the racks under 'C' for Conan, I don't know; but Conan the Savage only ran 10 issues, with the last being May 1996. And that would be it for the barbarian, until the Dark Horse relaunch in 2004.
Anyways, on to the issue at hand: "Hounds to the Slaughter" is a fortress-siege number, which Conan in chains at the start of it for breaking a soldier's jaw, but proves his worth when he's still the only one to notice Vanir assassins sneaking in. A veteran of many sieges, from either end, Conan is full of helpful tips for the fort's new commander: clear the snowdrifts away from the walls before the enemy just walks in, all that chopping you hear means they're building a battering ram, and the last commander didn't die of a curse, he was poisoned by his servant. Still, the Vanir smash the gates and the Aquilonian legion, and Conan is forced to retreat after the commander is blinded after a hammer to the skull. Good, but only 24 pages; could've gone a bit longer and a bit harder.
The second feature, "The Circles of Set" has an interesting set-up, but maybe too much: in the desert, Conan finds an oasis, but ringed by a maze of walls and tunnels. Forced to enter in search of water, Conan finds a young woman, and a snake-man, albeit a type of snake-man he hadn't seen before. The woman bashes Conan over the head to defend the snake: it was her lover! She had been a dancer, and her guy was cursed by a priest of Set who wanted her for himself. They had almost made a life for themselves there, but the snake-man asks Conan to take her away, freeing her from any obligation to him. Which breaks the spell! The couple then ask, since they were back together, why didn't the spell come back; but Conan describes spells as like jars: once broken, they don't put themselves together again.
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2 comments:
So I took a quick shot at those sales figures & even, for the hell of it, asked ChatGPT to provide me an answer to your query and this is what I got essentially:
“There’s no publicly available, audited “lifetime total sales” number for the entire original run of The Savage Sword of Conan. Marvel never released a complete cumulative circulation figure for all 235 issues.
What is known:
The original run lasted from 1974 to 1995.
It published 235 issues (plus a special/annual depending on how counted).
It shifted from bi-monthly to monthly in 1977.
It was considered one of Marvel’s most successful black-and-white magazine titles of the 1970s and 1980s.
A reasonable historical estimate, based on comic-magazine circulation norms of the era, would be:
Early peak years (mid-1970s): roughly 100,000–250,000 copies per issue sold or distributed.
Mid/late 1980s: more likely 40,000–100,000.
Final early-1990s years: probably under 50,000.
Using those ranges, the entire original run likely sold somewhere in the neighborhood of:
Estimated lifetime circulation:
15 million to 30 million copies total
That’s an informed estimate, not an official Marvel number.
If you mean gross revenue instead of copies sold, that’s also tricky because cover prices changed from about $1 in 1974 to several dollars by the 1990s. Using average cover-price estimates across the run:
Estimated total gross cover-price revenue:
roughly $40 million–$80 million nominal dollars over the full run
Again, that’s approximate and before distributor cuts, returns, retailer share, etc.
For context, the series was successful enough to:
run 21 years,
survive the collapse of most Marvel magazine titles,
generate UK reprints and multiple omnibus reprint programs decades later.
The closest thing collectors use today to gauge enduring popularity is the aftermarket:
complete runs routinely sell for thousands of dollars,
key issues (#1, #5, #235) remain highly collectible.”
So like you said, even Marvel themselves never publicly released the official numbers. Why I don’t know 🤷
I like how Conan is basically giving the guy his “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two” Farmers Insurance commercial slogan here. Still true though.
Nice twist on that last story honestly. I hope it worked out for them in the end, as well as things can for two (ex?) cult members.
I think finding a bunch of the same series everywhere means that somebody off-loaded a collection but spread it around. Most stores have so many long boxes in storage that they’ll only buy a few and put anything semi-common out within a week or two. I’ve seen that happen a few times with Comico or earlier Dark Horse books.
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