Sword-brothers, sword-sisters, your local spinner rack is once again showcasing another new issue of SSOC!
64 pulsating pages of barbaric savagery in black-and-white printed on newsprint!
Inside this magazine you will find the following:
THE COILS TIGHTEN an intro by Jim Zub
Awe-inspiring art pin-ups:
Conan the Barbarian by Max Von Fafner
Spear & Fang by Ivan Gil
Sailor Steve Costigan and Mike the bulldog by Gerardo Zaffino
CONAN: TWICE PAID DEBTS part 1: The Traitor Returns by Jim Zub and Doug Braithwaite
Shem. Conan is drinking with the Kozaki (mercenaries known as the "Free Companions").
10 years have passed since the events of Conan the Barbarian #18. Conan sees the traitorous thief, Tarnasha traversing the tavern.
Conan follows Tarnasha outside, she stabs him in the back, they fight.
Another Tarnasha sedates Conan with a tranq arrow.
CONAN: TWICE PAID DEBTS part 2: Sacrifices by Jim Zub and Doug Braithwaite
Conan awakens from a nightmare (featuring the slithery deity, Set), he's in a wagon with Arami and her twin sister Imara... who can both morph into Tarnasha at will.
Arami noticed that Conan has the divine mark of Set on his stomach (his old scar from the "The Fangs of The Serpent"; i.e., Thulsa Doom's Dagger from the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film).
The sisters of Mother Set are bringing Conan to the Master of the Mound.
Captain Nkosi (from Sacrifice in the Sand, way back in Savage Sword of Conan #1 (2024)) exposes Conan as a pretender and jails him.
The Master of the Mound and his Stygian thugs are using blood sacrifices to desecrate a sanctum of Ishtar.
Set implores Arami to free Conan from his cell, so she does. Conan chokes Arami out. Conan frees every single prisoner.
Conan and the prisoners eliminate the Set followers. Conan kills Imara, she reverts back to her true snake-woman form.
Nkosi and some of his soldiers have already departed the scene... and so has Arami.
FANG & SPEAR: A PREHISTORIC TALE by Jim Zub and Mike Rooth
An ocher tattooing tints A-aea's cheek, a mark that indicates that she is now married to the artist, Ga-nor.
Ga-nor has just traced a gigantic serpent figure on the wall of a cave.
A-aea notices that Ga-nor's marriage tattoo is now gone from his cheek. The real Ga-nor appears out of nowhere and terminates his serpent-man doppelgänger.
The real Ga-nor informs A-aea that their whole village has been taken over by serpent-people.
The serpent-people are tossing the bodies of their victims into a bonfire.
Ga-nor pitches a pot of pitch (resin) into the bonfire, it explodes. A-aea sets fire to the huts of the Cro-Magnon village.
Ga-nor and A-aea eradicate the serpent-people, together.
SAILOR STEVE COSTIGAN in THE SNAKESKIN SHUFFLE by Jim Zub and Roberto de la Torre
Singapore (Lion City), 1930.
Mandarin speaking gangsters from the "Thoth-Amon/Thoth's Breed" gang are threatening Miss Xiu, they are looking for her family heirloom, a serpent ring. Steve (an able seaman on the merchant ship, the Sea Girl) pummels the hoodlums... they flee with Xiu's purse.
Steve goes to retrieve the ring from the gang. The leader of the gang wants to test the serpent ring's PHYSICAL gifts on Steve.
Steve has to fight the ring-powered bespectacled boxer, Pervaiz the PYTHON (an homage to Dennis Dorgan) in the ring to win Xiu's serpent ring back.
During the bout, Steve thinks of Bill O’Brien (Steve's best buddy), Mushy Hanson (another sailor/boxer/poet friend) and The Old Man (the captain of the Sea Girl).
The serpent ring's evil energy is melting Pervaiz's boxing glove... he needs a new one. Steve's bulldog bites Pervaiz's middle finger off and runs away with the ring in his belly.
Miss Xiu is peeved that she will not be able to sell her beloved serpent ring. Sailor Steve Costigan and Mike the bulldog escape on the Sea Girl.
Mike spews Thoth-Amon's ring into the sea.
What I did like:
Saridis (a town of Shem) mentioned.
Ishtar mentioned.
Torre is for Rob De La Torre and Dagni is for Fernando Dagnino Guerra.
We can see the real Ga-nor's depiction of a mammoth on the wall too.
"Spear and Fang" was adapted by Roy Thomas, Richard Corben and Eric Hope in Robert E. Howard's Myth Maker #1 in 1999.
Spear and Fang from Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal are homages to Robert E. Howard.
Nice covers by Mike Mignola and Alex Horley.
Women appear on one of the covers. A rarity for Heroic Signatures' Savage Sword.
Women appear in all 3 stories. Bravo!
Alex Horley promotes on his cover the Conan Series One figure of Bêlit "disguised as a Stygian priestess" (from McFarlane Toys in 2004).
Yankee Doodle mentioned.
A Lucky Luke homage (Miss Xiu's hat).
An advert for the Conan: Battle of the Black Stone limited edition action figure!
What I did not like:
Where's the Thulsa Doom Tribute issue of The Savage Sword of Conan to honour the memory of James Earl Jones?
No removable poster in the middle of the magazine!
The Fire Dragon (the Son of Set) from McFarlane Toys does not appear in Twice Paid Debts. Very disappointing.
The Neanderthals were absent. Ga-nor really could have used their help.
Steve does not dive after the ring.
The editor is not doing his job.
Needed stories by other authors!
No letters page!
Needed way more pin-ups!
Boxing with glasses on? Really? Idiotic.
Zub's Conan is a slow-witted, haunted, angry, violent, vindictive, cruel and bitter ogre.
I give it a 0/10. Zero! You keep putting your hands on defenseless women, you'll keep getting zero. Zub ties up some of his dangling plotlines from Conan the Barbarian #18. We Finally get a story illustrated by Canadian freelance artist Mike Rooth! The Sailor Steve story was very entertaining, fans of Film Noir will love it.
