Conan the Barbarian #270
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeConan the Barbarian #270 sits near the end of Marvel's original 275-issue run — a series that, per Wikipedia, ran from October 1970 through December 1993 and helped launch a sword-and-sorcery vogue across American comics. The issue is part of Roy Thomas's celebrated return engagement on the title: after writing the first 115 issues, Thomas came back to script issues #240–275, personally steering the series to its conclusion. Within the ongoing storyline, #270 formally names and maps the Lake of Salts for the first time, expanding the published geography of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian world in the Marvel canon. It also marks the first appearance of the Kothian settlement of Bisara, a small but concrete addition to the Hyborian Age's fictional landscape in its final months of publication.
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Roy Thomas returned to the title with issue #240 after a decade-long absence, determined to close out the run he had originally shaped. For #270, Thomas scripted over pencils by Mike Docherty, who had become one of the book's workhorses in its final years; Ricardo Villagran provided inks, George Roussos handled colors, and John Costanza lettered — a late-era production team assembled under editor Richard Ashford. The cover was painted by Colin MacNeil, a British artist whose painted style gave the late issues a different visual texture from the Buscema-era interiors that defined the series' golden years. Tom DeFalco served as Marvel's editor-in-chief during this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'A Fire On The Lake' — written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Mike Docherty, inked by Ricardo Villagran.
- Cover art by Colin MacNeil; colors by George Roussos; letters by John Costanza; edited by Richard Ashford.
- First appearance of Bisara, a Kothian location in the Marvel/Hyborian Age continuity.
- First time the Lake of Salts is named on-panel, expanding the mapped Hyborian geography.
- The antagonist Xuthl appears, and Wrarrl the Devourer of Souls appears in a vision or hallucination — an ongoing menace introduced earlier in the series by writer Christopher Priest.
- Supporting cast includes Isparana, Drago, Lt. Milo, and Zorka; the character Jubal dies in this issue.
- On sale May 18, 1993, with a July 1993 cover date; one of the last 6 issues before the series ended with #275 in December 1993.
- Reprinted in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 10 (Marvel, January 2023, ISBN 978-1302947279), which collects #241–275 — Roy Thomas's entire return run through the series finale.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Conan #2/2000 (2000), Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus #10 (2022), Conan #47
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