THE COMING OF CONAN

Celebrating its 40th anniversary (right alongside the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide) is Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian. Roy Thomas, one-time editor-in-chief and longtime Conan scribe, remembers discussing the possibility of adapting Conan at Marvel: "Stan Lee had no feel for what sword and sorcery  was, but I had bought (though I hadn't read them) all the Conan paperbacks that had come out to date, largely because of the Frazetta covers." Thomas told Diamond’s Scoop that he wrote a memo to Marvel publisher Martin Goodman saying that a sword and sorcery comic would contain some of the same qualities super-hero comics did—a strong hero, beautiful women, monsters, and villainous sorcerers.

“I noticed in a new Conan paperback that L. Sprague de Camp listed the mailing address of the literary agent for the Howard estate, Glenn Lord," Thomas continued. "I contacted him offering $200 an issue, and he accepted, convinced I suppose by my argument that a six-figure comic book print run might increase the audience for Conan."

Conan No. 1 sold well, but each of the next half dozen issues dropped in sales. Thomas recalled Lee stepping in around the eighth issue. "Stan 'suggested' that we have more humanoid foes for Conan on the covers than giant spiders, man-headed snakes, apes in armor, and women turning into tigers. With Nos. 8-9 and afterward, the sales [consequently] picked up, and afterwards Conan was never in danger of cancellation for another 25 or so years."