Conan the Barbarian #11
Conan the Barbarian #11 delivers the full Marvel-comics adaptation of Robert E. Howard's 'Rogues in the House,' one of the most celebrated stories in the Conan canon, and does so across a giant-size, all-new 34-story-page canvas that was unprecedented for the title. The issue introduces Murilo — the morally compromised Corinthian lord who becomes Conan's uneasy ally — and brings Thak, Howard's proto-human ape-man antagonist, to visual life in comics for the first time, a character whose cultural afterlife stretched from TSR tabletop miniatures to a villain role in the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer. Jenna's apparent death at Conan's hands here became one of the most-discussed moments in the early run, a morally stark beat that demonstrated how Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith were pushing the sword-and-sorcery genre's storytelling possibilities well beyond the norms of mainstream Bronze Age comics.
In "Rogues In the House," Conan finds himself betrayed by Jenna, who sides with her lover Igon, leaving the barbarian imprisoned. While confined, he strikes a dangerous bargain with the nobleman Murilo, who offers freedom in exchange for assassinating the Red Priest Nabonidus. With his fate in his own hands, Conan escapes and sets out on a path of brutal retribution—his vengeance a storm of steel and fury.
In "Rogues in the House Part Two: The Talons of Thak," Conan and Jo find themselves trapped in the decadent halls of Nabonidus, the Red Peste’s temple, where their mission to kill the priest quickly unravels into a desperate fight for survival. Forced into an uneasy alliance, they must confront the priest’s mind-broken ape guardian—its claws sharp, its rage unmatched—before the beast claims them both.
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The issue was written by Roy Thomas and pencilled by Barry Windsor-Smith (then credited as 'Barry Smith'), with inks by Sal Buscema and editing by Stan Lee; it went on sale August 17, 1971, with a November 1971 cover date. It was one of only two Marvel titles to publish a second consecutive issue in the experimental 25-cent, 48-page 'Giant-Size' format that Marvel briefly adopted in the summer of 1971 before publisher Martin Goodman abruptly cancelled the experiment, meaning the expanded page count was almost immediately discontinued across the line. Thomas had been building toward this adaptation since issue #10, seeding Howard's 'Rogues in the House' source material across two issues; according to Thomas's memoir Barbarian Life Vol. 1, Windsor-Smith was acutely aware of Frank Frazetta's famous painted cover depicting the same story for the 1967 Lancer paperback, lending the young artist an extra creative pressure that Thomas believed he ultimately met.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic-book appearance of Murilo, the Corinthian nobleman who strikes a deal with the imprisoned Conan to assassinate the Red Priest Nabonidus.
- First comic-book appearance of Thak, Howard's semi-human ape-man antagonist, who dies in this issue; Thak later inspired a TSR role-playing miniature in the early 1980s and the mirror-demon villain in the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer.
- Jenna, a recurring character since issue #6, suffers an apparent death when Conan throws her from a rooftop; she reappears much later in Conan the Barbarian #118 (January 1981).
- Full adaptation of Robert E. Howard's prose story 'Rogues in the House' (originally published in Weird Tales, January 1934), the third Howard Conan story adapted by the Thomas/Windsor-Smith team.
- Published as a giant-size 48-page issue (52 pages including covers/ads) at 25 cents — one of only two Marvel titles to publish a second consecutive issue in this short-lived expanded format before it was cancelled by publisher Martin Goodman.
- Creative team: script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Barry Windsor-Smith, inks by Sal Buscema, lettering by Sam Rosen, colors by Mimi Gold/Barry Windsor-Smith (coloring credit acknowledged by Windsor-Smith in Spectrum Super Special #3, 2005), edited by Stan Lee.
- The letters column includes a contribution from then-unknown cartoonist Fred Hembeck.
- Reprinted in over a dozen editions worldwide, including The Chronicles of Conan Vol. 2 (Dark Horse, 2003), The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives Vol. 1 (Dark Horse, 2010), and Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2018).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Savage Tales #2 (1972), Serie-nytt [delas?] #5/1973 (1973), Serie-nytt [delas?] #6/1973 (1973), Savage Sword of Conan #12 (1975), Marvel Treasury Edition #4 (1975), Eclipso #59 (1976), Conan #2 (1978), Conan #4 (11695) (1978), Conan #1 (1979), Conan de barbaar #1 (1979), Conan de barbaar #4 (1981), Conan el Bárbaro #73 (1985), Conan Saga #4 (1987), Conan - Miekan ja Magian erikoslehti #1 (1988), Conan #4/1990 (1990), Conan Le Barbare #32 (1992), Conan Saga #2 (1993), Conan el bárbaro #11 (1998), Essential Conan #1 (2000), A Espada Selvagem de Conan #201 (2001), The Chronicles of Conan #2 (2003), The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives #1 (2010), Conan el Bárbaro. Edición 35 Aniversario #[nn] (2017), Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus #1 (2018) + 7 more
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