Daily Comic Book Mission #026: Conan the Barbarian #44

Are you ready for fun? Raise your hand if you're ready for fun. My hand is in the air, as I hope yours are as well, unless you have tentacles or robot claws. That's cool. Raise them in the air because today I'm taking a look at one of my favorite Conan the Barbarian issues of all time.

I've read hundreds of Conans by now and I keep coming back to this one as one of the best. I was doing some writing on it this week and I'm...

So I'm going to record my daily comic book mission and recommend, and I recommend, I mean demand, that all of you go out there and read issue number 44 of Conan the Barbarian from November of 1974.

The cover's actually got one of the best covers, I think. It's got a beautiful bright yellow cover with Conan wielding a knife. It says “The Fiend in the Flame” and there's like a skull and there's fire and Red Sonja.

So this is a cool team-up between Conan and Red Sonja, who I think make a better team, a more interesting pair than Conan and Bêlit, but we don't get very many Red Sonja appearances in Conan, so you guys savor the ones that we do get because she's awesome.

And I think she brings out the best in him too, as seen on page two. These are two of the strongest panels that I think I've seen from John Buscema.

Everything John Buscema drew was amazing, but on page two, the look on Red Sonja's face and then two panels below, the look on Conan's face, and just all the layouts in this whole issue are just unbelievable.

Buscema at his peak, and well, I mean, he was at his peak for quite some time, but I think this issue is just fabulous.

Written by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and the Krusty Bunkers are the artists. I guess it's like, is that what they just called themselves when all the inkers got together?

I don't know. Glenis Wein did the coloring, John Costanza does lettering.

And this one picks up after issue 43 where Conan and Red Sonja get trapped in this tower of blood by these two sorcerers, a brother and sister. They're both crazy and this is kind of brutal, it's really nasty.

They keep this whole pen filled with subhumans, these kind of mushy, liquified humans, and they drink their blood and that sustains them for immortality.

So they're breeding these weird subhumans, but they're having a hard time breeding them. So they need to bring in some new human stock.

And that's what Conan and Red Sonja—well actually, no, that's what Conan is for. The brother wants Red Sonja. So good luck with that.

But Conan is going to be basically used as a stud to keep these two sorcerers alive.

And this is one of the few issues where Conan shows any sort of vulnerability at all. And even Red Sonja for that matter, because Conan, well, let's see, they drug him and they basically mind-rape him as they get him, as he's tripping out of his mind.

And Buscema, once again, just at the peak of his game here, draws these outrageous pictures of Conan being thrown into the pit of these subhumans.

Behold your blushing brides and members of the wedding. And he's like these just horrible-looking creatures and I guess he doesn't end up going through with it.

And then we get some nice shots of Red Sonja tending to him afterwards and then the sister shows up and she appears in the wall.

And the way that Buscema draws this, it's just remarkable. Great color work too.

Red Sonja punches the wall because she's trying to hit the sister.

There's actually a scene in here too where Red Sonja is even questioning her decision. She clearly likes Conan, but she's got this thing where she won't get with any guy unless that guy defeats her in battle.

And since they're both trapped in prison, she's starting to question this a little bit, but then she snaps out of it.

And no, there's no place for such womanish things in my life and there never will be in Conan's...

Got kind of a sad look on his face after that comment.

But Conan does appeal to the sister's loneliness and tries to kind of side deal with the sister who's lonely.

Red Sonja is like, she's gross, are you kidding me? And he's like, yeah, but I want out of here. A barbarian does what a barbarian needs to do, even if it sucks. Red Sonja kills her beforehand, don't worry.

And then they fight a bunch of monsters and there's some fire and wizards involved and Conan ends up fighting a bunch of monsters from his past.

And it's just an absolute trip of an issue. It's really dense, filled with panels, just intricate artwork of Conan and Red Sonja. And it's just one of the best issues. I think in order to fully appreciate it you want to read issue 43 as well.

I love the ending. You get to see some of the Cimmerians' climbing abilities and how Red Sonja is not nearly as good at climbing. But she actually ends the issue in a pretty funny way. And it's a lot of fun. And I wish we got to see more issues with Red Sonja, who I just think is a cooler character than Bêlit.

But this is one you gotta read. You like Conan and you want to see Conan at the best, Buscema at the best, check out Conan the Barbarian issue 44.

Won't cost you all that much. These 1970s issues aren't really high in demand and they're just awesome.

So that's your daily comic book mission.

Happy reading and you're welcome from ComicBook.beer.

Enjoy.