Conan Saga #81

Part one of "Conan and the Conjurer's Curse!" arrives in this December 1993 Marvel magazine, and Frank Brunner's painted cover sets an immediate tone of dread and spectacle. A muscular, bare-chested Conan brandishes a dagger as he grapples with an enormous, grotesque rat — while the looming, purple-hued face of a snarling supernatural conjurer fills the background with menace. The cover teaser asks it plainly: "Can Conan survive the Rats of Ravegard?" — and Brunner's vivid, atmospheric artwork makes you genuinely eager to find out.