Am currently reading my way through The Savage Sword Of Conan Volume I, which reprints the early Savage Tales and Savage Sword tales featuring Conan. Some great stuff here. I think I actually prefer John Buscema's Conan in black and white to the color version - there's an edginess about the artwork and the b&w linework and shading gives it a certain aura that the regular comic doesn't have.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Roy and John's work on Conan The Barbarian, but they're not as restricted in the b&w format and it allows for longer stories. This is in the same b&w TPB format as Marvel's Essentials or DC's Showcase. Good value for the money and some great stories.

Miss Linda, feel free to add an AmazWAN link so others can discover these great works.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593078382/?tag=imwan-20

I'm reading this right now. Great book.

I placed an order for this last week. I used to love those magazines.

I want a collection of Conan the King. I lubbed that one.

I hope someone eventually does this for the Warren horror mags.

I read that Volume II is out today. There are TPBs of the classic and current Conan also scheduled for release next month. Great time to be a Conan fan.

Yep, here 'tis:



In the mid 1970s a comics magazine was published containing some of the most exciting epic fantasy tales the world has ever known - [title]The Savage Sword of Conan[/title]. Based on the work of renowned author Robert E. Howard, each issue offered multiple thrilling of tales of the legendary barbarian. The magazine was also a showcase of comics talent, headed up by Conan aficionado Roy Thomas. Now for the first time ever, these stories are being collected in a series of omnibus-style books, with over 500 pages of classic sword and sorcery - for the complete Conan collector! Included in this volume are tales featuring the stunning art of such comics luminaries as Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Pablo Marcos, Walter Simonson, and many more.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593078943/?tag=imwan-20

I read some recent talk of that, but apparently Warren himself (Jim Warren?) is a crotchety piece of work.

I saw the Creepy one with a date listed at Talesofwonder.com

[bigred]The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 3[/bigred]
[lilred]Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Various[/lilred]
[lilred]May 14, 2008[/lilred]



Conan's phenomenal popularity in the early comics series Conan the Barbarian would soon reach new heights thanks to a supplementary publication whose very name would come to represent quality in epic-fantasy storytelling -- [title]The Savage Sword of Conan[/title]! These pulp tomes would become an inspiration to generations of Conan fans, containing some of the best adaptations and pastiches of Robert E. Howard's work ever to be seen in sequential form.

Now for the first time ever, these stories are being collected in a series of omnibus-style books, with over five hundred pages of classic sword and sorcery-for the complete Conan collector! Included in this volume are tales featuring the stunning art of such comics luminaries as Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Pablo Marcos, Walter Simonson, and many more, including a heart-stopping adaptation of the classic Howard tale "The Jewels of Gwahlur." This collection includes Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian issues 25-31.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593079605/?tag=imwan-20

I've only got volume 1 so far. Great stuff.

Am currently reading Volume V and just finished the four part epic adaptation of Conan The Liberator.



These were great stories. Buscema was a workhorse in those days. He must've worked 24/7 because he was doing the color comic and the magazine every month, in addition to whatever other titles he worked on. And he would add King Conan to his workload towards the end of the decade.

I'm debating having this be the last volume I get as there are only a handful of Roy Thomas-written stories in the next volume. I still say that I think the Savage Sword stories are better, free of the censorship and page count restrictions of the color comic. Not to mention that they don't follow a continuity. And to a certain degree, I think the black and white look suits the character and the tales.

Aren't all the recent reprints of the magazine Conan censored with no boobies, though?

Crazy to think that Conan was once popular enough to support Conan, Savage Sword of Conan, King Conan, etc all at the same time.

Nope. There's boobies. I haven't read the second or third volumes because I own most of those in individual issues. Great great great magazine. A pillar of my pre-teen days.

Euphemism?

The comment is rife with unintended Freudian fodder for jokes.