Paneling: Savage Sword Of Conan #82

Note: The panel that is the focus of this Paneling entry includes a crude reference to SA.

Last night, there was a post on Bluesky of a page from that I initially thought was from the first issue of Savage Sword of Conan I ever bought.

I was mistaken, as the issue I picked up came out several months later. The confusion was due to the issue in question having a main story entitled “The Colossus of Shem,” whereas the issue I picked up had a main story entitled “The Colossus of Argos.”

For the next few years from that point on I would semi-regularly pick up new issues SSoC.

Unlike most regular comics, which were not always consistently available at the places where I got comics, I probably could have picked up every new issue of the black-and-white magazine, as it was always in stock at my local K-Mart, but at $1.50 a pop I couldn’t always convince my mom to let me add it to the shopping cart.

Thus, I missed #81, but picked up #82, which is the subject of this post.

Because it was a magazine, SSoC didn’t fall under the purview of the Comics Code Authority the way all of the other comics I read did and was therefore not bound by its strictures.

This meant that Conan’s black-and-white adventures were less restrained than his four-color adventures, and while the writers and artists didn’t necessarily go all-out, they did tend to include themes and scenes that wouldn’t be too likely to appear in a Code-approved book.

Like the panel that is the subject of this post, the fifth and final panel of the 18th page, in the main story entitled, “Devil in the Dark,” written by Michael Fleisher and illustrated by the incomparable Alfredo Alcala.

Even at that age, I knew enough about the birds and the bees to understand what that “horsie in the stable” line meant, and it burned itself into my brain for being so overtly sexual. (And also creepy.)

Really, some of the panels that followed it, which featured ample amounts of the young woman’s uncovered skin, probably should have stood out for me more, but that crude line about what the two “jackal-spawn” had in mind was the thing that surprised me most and has stuck with me throughout the years.

Besides, despite the strict rules of the Code, copious amounts of skin weren’t exactly unheard of, as can be seen in these panels from an issue of Arak: Son of Thunder, a Code-approved book that came out just a month or two before this issue of Savage Sword.

I’m not entirely sure why that uncouth line stuck with me, but it did, and it’s honestly one of the first things I think of when I think of the old Savage Sword of Conan magazine.

(For some of my thoughts on the current Savage Sword of Conan magazine, check out this post.)

I’m especially surprised that I was surprised, given that by this point I had been reading similarly Code-free comic magazines like MAD and Cracked, which featured plenty of sexual innuendo and bare skin, for years.

Anyway, for context, the young woman was bathing in a stream when she was accosted by these two ne’er do wells, only to be rescued by a certain sullen-eyed Cimmerian.

Of course, Conan is no angel either – he was available to rescue her because he’d been in the bushes spying on her.

But while he may be a voyeur and a barbarian, he does at least have some understanding of the value of consent.

Anyway, as will usually be the case with this feature, this latest Paneling was brought to mind by some other discussion, and as with pretty much everything I write it led me off on some tangents.

But discussion will keep happening, and panels will be brought to mind, so check back…whenever for another Paneling installment.

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