Conan the Barbarian #193

Issue #193 of Marvel's long-running sword-and-sorcery series brings Conan face-to-face with something formidable, and the cover by Val Semeiks and Geof Isherwood makes the stakes unmistakably clear — a close-up, teeth-gritted Conan strains with both hands against a gleaming sword, while the massive clawed limb of a hulking blue creature presses back with terrifying force. The title "Shedu" promises the kind of mythological menace that suits a struggle this raw and physical. Writer James C. Owsley and artist Val Semeiks deliver what looks to be one of the Cimmerian's more intense confrontations of 1987.