Roy Thomas and Big John Buscema prefigure Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, from Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 5.

Thrown decapitated heads were just one of many obscure forms of communication used during The Hyborian Age.

Illustrations by Big John Buscema and Klaus Janson, from Savage Sword of Conan #48, reprinted in the fourth SSoC collection from Dark Horse.

Check out Great Caesar’s Post for an explanation.

Image courtesy of Frank Frazetta, as filtered through The Obamicon.

If you’re visiting this site looking for T.R., try The X-Men and The Micronauts mini-series.

T.F.’d in The Savage Sword of Conan volume 4.

In a year of great comics, and even greater comic reprint projects, I’m surprised to find myself leaning toward Dark Horse’s Savage Sword of Conan as my favourite publication of the year, so far.

I’m especially drawn to the depictions of the environment. It’s taking me twice as long as it normally would to get through each book. I find myself stopping at random panels and just drinking in Buscema’s compositions and Alcala’s brushwork. This is as close to the adventure strips of Raymond and Foster as Marvel or DC ever got.

In every interview with the artist that I’ve ever read, Buscema has stated his preference for working on Conan, and it shows. There’s a lot of love put on display here.

All images from the first volume of the collected Savage Sword of Conan. The three volumes released so far this year add up to over 1600 pages of comics, the majority of them by Buscema.

Thomas and Buscema bring the beefcake in The Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 2.