Conan de Barbaar Special #3
Conan de Barbaar Special #3 is part of Juniorpress's landmark effort to bring Marvel's full Roy Thomas–era Conan saga to Dutch-language readers in a collected, album-sized format — a publishing model that gave an entire generation of Benelux comics readers access to John Buscema's definitive sword-and-sorcery artwork years before comprehensive English-language reprints existed. The issue collects a tightly linked arc from Conan the Barbarian #67–70, presenting Buscema and Thomas at a peak of their long collaboration on the character. As the third installment of a series that would run to 27 volumes through 1991, it helped establish Juniorpress as the primary conduit for Marvel's Conan material in the Netherlands and Belgium. Its Dutch title, 'In de klauwen van Tijgerman' ('In the Claws of the Tigerman'), reflects the localisation approach Juniorpress applied across the line.
Conan de Barbaar Special #3 (1985) features a story titled "In de klauwen van de Tijgerman," with art by John Buscema and contributions from Roy Thomas, Rob van Eyck, and The Tribe. The issue includes appearances by Logan, Rogue, and Wolverine, rendered in a distinctive style by Gil Kane on the cover, inked by Al Milgrom.
In de klauwen van de Tijgerman unfolds in the sun-scorched city of Messantia, where Red Sonja bests Belit in a fierce duel—claiming a page of skelos as her prize. Conan, meanwhile, slays the fearsome Man-tiger and frees the captive Yusef, setting off a chain of events that leads to a high-stakes chase as Conan and Belit pursue Red Sonja across the sands.
In "De demon uit de diepte," Conan recounts a tale from his youth to Belit as they sail near the Western Sea, where he was captured by the Vanirmen and forced to confront a monstrous creature from the deep—a merman whose deadly presence threatens the village of Tigris and Vanir. As the sea grows restless and the air thick with dread, the line between man and monster blurs in a story of survival, betrayal, and the price of courage.
In "Stad in de storm," Conan, Belit, and their corsair crew fight to defend the island city of Kelka from the brutal onslaught of Auro and his Argossean pirates. As the storm rages and the city burns, their victory is short-lived when they are betrayed and captured by Kelka’s own ruler, Akkheba, who offers them wine laced with a drugging substance.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Juniorpress, the Dutch publisher that held Marvel reprint rights for the Benelux market throughout the 1980s, launched the Conan de Barbaar Special line in 1985 as a companion to its regular-format Conan de Barbaar series. Each Special collected several consecutive American issues into a single, squarebound Dutch-language album, following the same model Juniorpress used for its Spider-Man and Avengers reprint lines. The source material — Conan the Barbarian #67–70 — was written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema, the creative team most responsible for defining Marvel's Conan aesthetic after Barry Windsor-Smith's earlier foundational run.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Published in 1985 by Juniorpress (Netherlands) as the third issue in the Conan de Barbaar Special album series.
- Dutch title: 'In de klauwen van Tijgerman' ('In the Claws of the Tigerman').
- Reprints US Conan the Barbarian #67, #68, #69, and #70 (Marvel, 1976–1977).
- Source material written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by John Buscema.
- Part of a 27-issue Juniorpress reprint series that ran from 1985 to 1991, covering Marvel's core Conan the Barbarian run.
- Conan the Barbarian #68 (one of the reprinted issues) has also been collected in the English-language Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3 (2019) and the Epic Collection Vol. 5 (2022), confirming the significance of the underlying source arc.
- The Juniorpress Special line presented Marvel Conan material to Dutch-language readers in a collected album format, a format more common to European comics publishing traditions than the American single-issue format.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Conan the Barbarian #67 (1976), Conan the Barbarian #68 (1976), Conan the Barbarian #69 (1976), Conan the Barbarian #70 (1977), Wolverine #1 (1982), De New Mutants #1 (1985), De X-Mannen #34
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