Posted By Dan Greenfield on Aug 18, 2020 | 1 comment

What Conan wrought…

The older I get, the more I appreciate the comics genres I actively ignored when I was a kid. Is that maturity? Changing taste? Blind curiosity? I’m really not quite sure.

But I can tell you that I’m often fascinated by the themes that Back Issue magazine spotlights when it comes to comics I’ve never read.

A great example? Conan the Barbarian and all his imitators — good and bad — in the Bronze Age, which is the focus of Issue #121, out this Wednesday, Aug. 19.

I was never much for sword and sorcery and yet now I find myself fascinated by what Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith unleashed 50 years ago with Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #1. Editor Michael Eury has a field day with the Cimmerian, with an issue that’s jammed with over-the-top dialogue, lusty carousing and bloody battle.

Dig the table of contents:

The backbone of the issue is the Top 50 Bronze Age Conan Stories but I don’t want to spoil that for you in our regular EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT.

Instead, I’ve chosen a really cool look at Conan’s legacy, compiled by Eury himself: IN CONAN’S SANDALSTEPS, a series-by-series timeline of many of the Bronze Age comics that followed 1970’s Conan #1. The illustrated piece gives you a superb view of exactly what a profound impact the Hyborian Age had on comics. (DC is missing because the publisher has its own article in the mag. So worry not, fans of Tor, Rima and the Warlord.)

In any event, dig this — and make sure you pick up the issue Wednesday at your local shop. It’s pretty much a Conan bible. You can also order it directly from TwoMorrows. (Click here.)

Right on.

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Back Issue #121 will be available in comics shops Aug. 19. You can also get it directly from TwoMorrows. (Click here.)

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MORE

— Marvel to Reprint OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE CONAN UNIVERSE. Click here.

— RED SONJA’s Marvel Debut Gets EPIC COLLECTION Treatment. Click here.