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Cover: Barry Windsor-Smith & Herb Trimpe

Conan the Barbarian #2

Name: Conan the Barbarian #2
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Dec 1970 · Marvel · 0.15 USD

📊 ~17,288 copies sold its debut month

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“Lair of the Beast-Men!”

About this Issue

Conan the Barbarian #2 was only the second outing for Marvel's sword-and-sorcery gamble, and it arrived at a pivotal moment: the series had strong debut sales but faced an uncertain future as Marvel weighed cancellation. By delivering a wholly original story — not an adaptation of a Howard prose tale — writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith demonstrated the creative team's ability to invent new Hyborian Age adventures, not merely transcribe existing ones, which was essential to the title's long-term survival. The issue was nominated for a 1970 Shazam Award for Best Individual Story, signaling early industry recognition that the young series was operating at a level above its Bronze Age peers. Its letters column, stuffed with responses from luminaries including Harlan Ellison, Robert E. Howard scholar Glenn Lord, and comics historians Don and Maggie Thompson, also announced to the direct market that Conan was attracting a critically engaged, cross-genre readership unlike anything Marvel's superhero line usually drew.

writer Roy Thomas · artist Barry Smith · inker Sal Buscema · colorist Mimi Gold · letterer Sam Rosen · cover Barry Windsor-Smith, Herb Trimpe

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $49

CGC 9.8 · 27 in census $2,323

CGC 9.6 · 66 in census $487

CGC 9.4 · 118 in census $254

CGC 9.2 · 103 in census $185

CGC 9.0 · 108 in census $133

CGC 8.5 · 166 in census $133

Show all 18 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 96 in census $126

CGC 7.5 · 94 in census $99

CGC 7.0 · 77 in census $71

CGC 6.5 · 70 in census $71

CGC 6.0 · 47 in census $71

CGC 5.5 · 35 in census $57

CGC 5.0 · 24 in census $57

CGC 4.5 · 15 in census $56*

CGC 4.0 · 8 in census $54

CGC 3.5 · 7 in census $44*

CGC 3.0 · 5 in census $39*

CGC 2.5 · 1 in census $29*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 8.5 $140 1 listing CGC 7.5 $110 1 listing CGC 7 $120 1 listing Raw — VF $66.34 1 listing Raw — F/VF $69.99 1 listing Raw — FN/VF $100 1 listing Raw — FN+ $44 1 listing Raw — FN $80 1 listing Raw — VG+ $50 1 listing

Raw — VG ▾ $64.33–$64.99 2 listings

VG $64.33 VG $64.99

Raw — FR $11 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $22.95–$80 6 listings

Raw / ungraded $22.95 Raw / ungraded $30 Raw / ungraded $39.99 Raw / ungraded $50 Raw / ungraded $70 Raw / ungraded $80

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History

The issue was cover-dated December 1970 and went on sale September 15, 1970, just weeks after the debut issue had shown enough newsstand promise that Marvel accelerated it to monthly publication. Thomas drew inspiration for the Beast-Men concept from Howard's own pseudo-historical essays about the Hyborian Age rather than from any specific Howard story, making it one of the earliest all-original Marvel Conan tales. Production was not without editorial interference: publisher Martin Goodman insisted the opening sequence be redrawn so that a beast-man, rather than the bear Thomas and Windsor-Smith originally placed there, appeared on the first page — a change Roy Thomas later discussed in a 1994 text piece in Conan Classic #2, speculating that Herb Trimpe may also have touched up Conan's figure on the cover at Goodman's or Stan Lee's direction. Windsor-Smith inked issue #1 himself but by #2 Sal Buscema stepped in as inker, a pairing that would continue through several early issues of the run.

Trivia · 8 facts

Story title: 'Lair of the Beast-Men!' — an all-original tale by Roy Thomas, not adapted from a Robert E. Howard prose story.
Creative team: writer Roy Thomas, penciller Barry Windsor-Smith, inker Sal Buscema, letterer Sam Rosen; Stan Lee as editor.
Cover date: December 1970; on-sale date: September 15, 1970 (per Library of Congress copyright records).
First appearances of Thrall Kiord (dies in issue), Moira, and the Beast-Men King Gha-Kree, Gan-Torr, Zha-Gorr, and Har-Lann.
First time Conan is depicted in chains in the Marvel series.
Beast-Man 'Har-Lann' is named as a nod to author Harlan Ellison, who also contributed a letter to the issue's letters column alongside Robert E. Howard scholar Glenn Lord, comics historians Don and Maggie Thompson, Dick Lupoff, August Derleth, and Ted White.
Nominated for the 1970 Academy of Comic Book Arts (Shazam) Award for Best Individual Story (Dramatic).
Reprinted in Conan Annual #1 (1973), and later collected in the Dark Horse Chronicles of Conan Vol. 1, the Marvel Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (2018), and the Marvel Original Marvel Years Epic Collection Vol. 1 (2020).