Daily Comic Book Mission #017: Conan the Barbarian #92

Welcome back to your Daily Comic Book Mission from the always trustworthy ComicBook.beer where today I'm bringing you a recommendation and a and I guess a review of a small review a short review, mini review, whatever you want to call these pony bottle sized review of Conan the Barbarian issue number 92 we're taking it way back to 1978 here with a tale of young Conan titled The Thing in the Crypt. And this one's interesting because it's illustrated not by John Buscema, who many of us associate with Conan the Barbarian, but his brother, Sal Buscema, who I learned just died recently. So read this one in honor of Sal and then go read some awesome ROM Space Knight. That's always what I associate with Sal Buscema's work. He's just terrific, so what a talented family.

And this is a cool issue because it's like a standalone issue that's not part of like the main plot line at this time. There's nobody to lead. There's just Conan running from a pack of wolves in between issues number two and three, according to this little insert here at the beginning. So Conan's got the weird helmet from the first couple, like the Barry Windsor Smith helmet where the horns are in front. It's like Conan's a bottle opener.

It's a terrible helmet. I don't know. I'm not sure why that bothers me so much, but it really does. Like just give him anything. Give him like a fedora. I've still got this theory that Conan the Barbarian and James Bond are the same person from different eras. Anyway, I'll talk more about that later. But, there's a great ad for the Micronauts starship in here. The Battle Cruiser. Wow, I want one of those. I wonder if that coupon still...

I'm so tempted to send these coupons in. Anyway, this issue starts off with Conan running from a pack of murderous wolves. And to escape the wolves, he dives into this cave in the mountainside. It's dark and it's gloomy. And we get some really nice pencil work here by Sal Buscema. Great colors too. Who does the coloring on this one? Is it Glenis Wein or George Roussos? Let's see who we got here. George Roussos!

One the two of them from this era, I think. Anyway, Conan fumbles about in the darkness and then wouldn't you know it, he stumbles into a giant skeleton in a throne and there's a sword in its lap, and he takes the swor,d and it's like Conan should know better, but the skeleton stands up and starts to fight him. Because of course, it would be a super boring issue of Conan the Barbarian otherwise. Of course, the skeleton starts to fight Conan. Conan fights back, and it's like eight pages of Conan X Skeleton in Dark Cavern. Who wins? Well, who's got their name on the front of the comic book? Not the dead skeleton. Surprise here. Conan the Barbarian wins by just basically beating the living shit out of this thing. Just brute force. He wins the battle, and just, you're reading it, it's like the edge of your seat.

The skeleton starts to go down, he's like, cut his head off or whatever. You turn the page and it's Thor, and good overcomes evil where Thor is advertising Hostess fruit pies. You get a big delight in every bite of Hostess fruit pies with cherry apple and the mystery flavor, the one I don't think I've ever had. See, now I'm gonna have to like find one of these things, except they're only like, you know, they're probably 50 years old now. The peach-flavored Hostess fruit pie. Conan ends the battle by eventually kicking this thing into the fire.

It's a very cool issue because it's a standalone issue. No Belit. No other main plot line. Just Conan literally mauling a skeleton in a cave. And then he walks off into the wilderness. I guess I gave away the ending, but you should enjoy this. It's not the writing that makes this one good. It's the art. It's the atmosphere. It's the ads for Hostess fruit pies. It's a little something different.

And I like that. And it's also still only 35 cents.

Probably to this day, I don't think these are in very high demand. Conan the Barbarian, issue number 92 is your daily.... Lack of professionalism. Comic book... But still highly regarded... Mission. From ComicBook.Beer. See you next time. And cheers.