BLACK COLOSSUS

"Black Colossus" is a really stellar Conan story that has a little bit of everything, and the more I think about it, the more I love this story.  It was published in the June 1933 issue of Weird Tales, with a Margaret Brundage painting gracing the cover of princess Yasmela pleading to the god Mitra.

Conan has headed far east of Asgalun from "Hawks Over Shem" to the tiny kingdom of Khoraja, and the capital city which shares its name. Conan isn't here long before he leads an army away from the city, through the Pass of Shamla, and then rides alone to Kuthchemes. I've got a new map tracking him up to this point.

I have to say, "Black Colossus" does peak a little bit early, but that's not a knock at the rest of the narrative. It opens on the ancient, domed ruin of Kuthchemes, with a master thief named Shevatas hoping to plunder it. The air is tense and the atmosphere of fear is palpable. Truly, it's a tomb raiding scene to match the best of them. 

Conan isn't introduced until a bit later in the story, after we spend some time with the princess Yasmela. She's not quite a damsel in distress, but she's not as compelling as some of the other Hyborian heroines, either. I always like when we get to spend some time with non-Conan characters: it always helps define the stakes and flesh out the world a bit.

We get to hear the voices of the gods for the first time, as Mitra speaks to Yasmela to find the first man she runs into on the street in order to help her save her kingdom. It just so happens to be everyone's favorite Cimmerian. I was talking with someone recently on Reddit about this episode: it seems to me that this is proof of the gods in the Hyborian Age. Mitra not only responds to the prayer, but also tells Yasmela exactly where to find Conan. The commenter was pretty much making the argument that this was a trick of a priest of Mitra, like we'll see in "The Ivory Goddess," with someone throwing their voice from a hidden location, but it seems like a huge leap of faith for that person to tell Yasmela exactly where to go to find Conan. It's too coincidental for me!

I found this scene to contain a passage that seems pretty illustrative of Robert E. Howard's personal philosophy. As Yasmela asks Mitra for aid, we get a descriptive passage of the effigy carved of him in a hidden temple beneath her palace:

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"Behind an altar of clear green jade, unstained with sacrifice, stood the pedestal whereon sat the material manifestation of the deity. Yasmela looked in awe at the sweep of the magnificent shoulders, the clear-cut features—the wide straight eyes, the patriarchal beard, the thick curls of the hair, confined by a simple band about the temples. This, though she did not know it, was art in its highest form—the free, uncramped artistic expression of a highly esthetic race, unhampered by conventional symbolism."

Most of Howard's stories contain at least some element of distain for cities. It's pretty unsurprising for a Texan author who was so interested in westerns, as this attitude seeps into most of his work. He clearly considers city life less pure, less clean, and less moral than life in the country. A lot of times, this tinges his writing with what we would call the "noble savage" trope today. I often think that he would very much get along with regionalist writers like Willa Cather.

The above passage in particular shows a reverence for the unencumbered. A sort of rugged individualism, or artistic state of nature that he seems to yearn for as if to say, If only I could create whatever I liked without having to worry about society's response to anything.

"Black Colossus" feels like a real turning point in Conan's journey. For the first time in his life, we see Conan growing to be the shrewd, skilled military commander that would be able to take Aquilonia and become king. He says that he's more careful than usual because it's not only his life on the line, and it's true that this is a more careful Conan than we've ever seen before. It's always seemed to me that Conan is not the best military commander because he's necessarily the smartest or most experienced leader, but because he's the most unflappable. It takes a hell of a lot to rattle Conan of Cimmeria, meaning that he makes few mistakes. There are some real banger lines in this story, one of which shows how Conan thinks of battle.

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"Conan listened unperturbed. War was his trade. Life was a continual battle, or series of battles, since his birth. Death had been a constant companion. It stalked horrifically at his side; stood at his shoulder beside the gaming-tables; its bony fingers rattled the wine-cups. It loomed above him, a hooded and monstrous shadow, when he lay down to sleep. He minded its presence no more than a king minds the presence of his cupbearer. Some day its bony grasp would close; that was all. It was enough that he lived through the present."

Conan gained his panther-like stealth skills in the thief stories. He learned military ways and horsemanship in the Turanian army. He got his sea legs in "Queen of the Black Coast." He's now learning to command and strategize. It's a real pleasure to follow this chronology fully and see him become, you know, Conan a bit at a time.

According to "A Probable Outline of Conan's Career", Conan "may be about 27. I've used this essay as a tool to help map his career, but I would like to say that I'm not treating it as gospel truth- if I did, there wouldn't be much point in me trying to map out these stories. That essay's authors do note that King Yildiz of the Turanian empire seems to have died around some point here, being replaced by King Yezdigerd, who gets mentioned so incredibly often in stories following this. You know how sometimes a person might be your best friend but then you realize you're not their best friend? It definitely seems like King Yezdigerd is not Conan's arch nemesis, but Conan is King Yezdigerd's arch nemesis.

"Black Colossus" fucks. Part of me wishes that we got to see more of the villain, but that feeling also goes away when we finally get to see him riding a chariot, pulled by some kind of black camel demon, driven by some kind of black ape demon, and there stands ​Thugra Khotan on the back of it.

​There are clear stakes, Conan is badass, the villain is menacing, the setpieces are epic, and the pacing is very solid. This might be one of the most well-rounded adventure stories I've ever read. I like to think that Roy Thomas agrees with me about how good this one is, since he didn't waste any time adapting it to Savage Sword, with it appearing as just the second issue complete with one of the best Savage Sword covers of all time. It's probably not the best Conan story of all time, but it's certainly in my top 3 (up there with "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Queen of the Black Coast" as of now. In fact, I think when I'm done with this chronology, I'll rank all the Howard-written stories.

Next time, we're reading "Shadows in the Dark," which I've never read an adaption of, nor have I ever even heard anyone discuss the story if I remember right. We'll see how it compares to today's epic.

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