 Just right off the bat, like Conan and the Sorcerer, I didn't actually read the novel here, I'm just including it because I read the Roy Thomas adaption while reading through Savage Sword. Savage Sword of Conan issues 49, 50, 51, and 52 are a four-part adaption of Conan the Liberator, the novel by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. The four stories: "When Madness Wears the Crown," "Swords Across the Alimane," "Satyr's Blood," and "The Crown and the Carnage" were written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Sal Buscema, each with a cover by Nestor Redondo. This story, showing Conan become King of Aquilonia, is a direct sequel to "The Treasure of Tranicos," and opens with Conan offloading that treasure. Howard & de Camp's “Treasure of Tranicos” was published in 1953, and this sequel was published in 1979, with the comic adaption in Savage Sword being published just one year later. Conan is about 40 years old here, as corroborated by a line in one issue, and is well-known enough that should he fail his military campaign against the king of Aquilonia, he laments he won’t be able to slink away into anonymity like his younger years. This one leans much more heavily on political intrigue, with spies and plants in Conan’s army as they prepare to attack Aquilonia’s mad king.  The essay by Jeff Shanks included in Titan Comics' Savage Sword #3 (from 2024) describes Conan as “qualified good versus unqualified evil,” which felt very fitting for this tale of Conan as a “liberator.” While his rebel army of the lion is hailed as breakers of chains where they go, it’s not like Conan ever really seems to have the good of the people at the forefront of his mind and while the story clearly considers him the good guy, it comes across more as a power grab and hatred for the mad king Numedides than a desire to be a champion for the common man. He’s not conquering Aquilonia out of altruism, anyway, and I feel like the story’s just a bit weaker for the lack of motivation there. While Thulandra Thuu is definitely unqualified evil, Conan can only be said to be qualified good. Maybe Conan the Regime Changer or Conan the Slightly Better would be fitting titles. Because Conan is mostly confined to wooded camps and basic prairies and canyons, it’s missing some of the more adventuresome elements to the best Conan tales, though there are some magicians and satyrs and spells.  The parts with the king Numedides being enchanted by a Khitan magician named Thulandra Thuu are probably the best parts. We don’t often get to see the far eastern side of the Hyborian map, so it’s fun to have a character from Khitai (Howard’s stand-in for China) at the center of it. I don't think we've seen many people from Khitai since "The Curse of the Monolith." It seems that the authors were aiming for a story epic in scope, but the pacing feels a little drawn-out to me, we decently long stretches of little happening between Conan being poisoned, armies being ambushed, and Conan’s army of liberation marching on Tarantia, capital of Aquilonia. It is a great scene when Conan finally confronts Numedides and Thulandra, becomes king, and then quickly begins to regret it. Everybody loves paperwork. Howard often borrowed from the Cthulu mythos of his friend and contemporary HP Lovecraft, and Thulandra Thuu calls out the names of a few deities like Cthulu and Nyarlathotep during Conan’s attack. Because of how this story confines Conan to thoroughly unimaginative settings and mostly sticks to just politicking, I can't say it's a great story. While I didn't hate it, it's certainly a lesser one. Lucky for me, "The Phoenix on the Sword" and "The Scarlet Citadel" are up next! "Phoenix" I already know I love, but I've never read "Scarlet Citadel!"
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AuthorHey, I'm Dan. This is my project reading through the career of everyone's favorite sword-and-sorcery character, Conan the Cimmerian, in chronological order. 
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