Conan the Barbarian #22

History

The story planned for #22 was 'The Shadow of the Vulture,' a Thomas/Windsor-Smith adaptation of Robert E. Howard's 1934 short story—the same tale that would introduce Red Sonja one issue later. According to Marvel's own letters column in the issue, the completed art pages for that story were lost in transit through the mail, leaving the editorial team no choice but to reprint the series' debut chapter, 'The Coming of Conan' from issue #1, with its script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Windsor-Smith, and inks by Dan Adkins. To add original content to the package, the issue also included a previously unpublished Windsor-Smith pin-up page (a 'Special Hyborean Page'), and Windsor-Smith supplied a brand-new cover image—which had actually been drawn for 'The Shadow of the Vulture' but was already printed before the crisis became apparent, creating an infamous bait-and-switch mismatch between cover and interior story that the letters column explicitly apologized for.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Cover date: January 1973; on-sale date: October 17, 1972. Written by Roy Thomas; cover pencils and inks by Barry Windsor-Smith; interior story pencils by Windsor-Smith, inks by Dan Adkins; lettering by Sam Rosen.
• The interior story is a reprint of 'The Coming of Conan' from Conan the Barbarian #1 (1970)—the first time that debut story was reprinted in the main title.
• The new Windsor-Smith cover was originally created for the story 'The Shadow of the Vulture,' which was intended for this issue but had to be bumped to issue #23 after the art pages were reported lost in the mail.
• The letters column of this issue explains the reprint decision to readers and apologizes for the mismatch between the new cover art and the reprinted interior—an unusually candid editorial acknowledgment of a production mishap.
• The issue includes a previously unpublished Barry Windsor-Smith pin-up page (a 'Special Hyborean Page'), added to give the reprint issue some original content. This pin-up was later reprinted in black and white in Savage Sword of Conan #7.
• This is one of the final issues bearing a new Windsor-Smith cover during his landmark Conan run; the story originally slated here, 'The Shadow of the Vulture' (published in #23), would be his penultimate issue of interior art before John Buscema took over the series.
• The delayed 'Shadow of the Vulture' story—originally destined for this issue—introduced Red Sonja when it appeared in #23, making #22's production accident a direct precursor to one of the most important character debuts in Bronze Age comics.
• The Dark Horse Chronicles of Conan trade paperback series (2003–2017) collected the full original Marvel run in 34 volumes; the material surrounding this issue appears in Volume 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (2004), which collects issues #23–26.

Full credits

Key issues in Conan the Barbarian

★

#1 1st appearance — Conan

★

#23 1st appearance — Red Sonja

★

#14 1st appearance — Elric

★

#270 1st appearance — Milo

★

#6 1st appearance — Jenna

★

#7 1st appearance — Thoth-Amon

Variants (1)