Conan the Barbarian #6
Issue #6 marks the debut of Jenna, Fafnir (Hellhand), Blackrat, Maldiz, Hajii, Nubion, and the Night-God — a remarkable cluster of first appearances that seeded years of ongoing Conan storytelling, with Fafnir in particular returning as one of the barbarian's most enduring allies. The story 'Devil-Wings Over Shadizar' was also the first fully original script Thomas and Windsor-Smith had crafted together since issue #2, demonstrating the team's growing confidence in generating new Hyborian-world narratives rather than adapting pre-existing Howard prose — a creative pivot that would define the series' long-term voice. The tale earned a Shazam Award nomination for Best Individual Story from the Academy of Comic Book Arts, a recognition that placed it in the same conversation as the era's most celebrated mainstream comics work. It also introduced Jenna, Conan's cunning bar-wench companion, whose morally ambiguous role in these early Shadizar adventures gave the young Cimmerian his first sustained recurring civilian relationship in the Marvel universe.
In "Devil-Wings over Shadizar," Conan finds himself drawn into a deadly mystery in the city of Shadizar, where a beautiful waitress named Jenna is taken by fanatical priests to be sacrificed to a night god said to be unseen. When the god reveals itself as a monstrous bat-like entity, Conan must fight to save her—only to be saved in turn by Jenna, who outwits the priestess Hajii before vanishing with his gold. Written by Roy Thomas and brought to life with bold art by Barry Smith, inks by Sal Buscema, and vibrant colors by Stan Goldberg, this 1971 Marvel classic features a striking cover by Barry Windsor-Smith.
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Writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith (then still credited as Barry Smith) produced 'Devil-Wings Over Shadizar' as an entirely original story set in Shadizar the Wicked, a city Robert E. Howard had named but never depicted — giving Thomas and Windsor-Smith free rein to visualize it from scratch. According to Thomas's memoir Barbarian Life: A Literary Biography of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1 (Pulp Hero Press, 2018), Windsor-Smith drew the opening splash page in deliberate homage to the classic film The Thief of Baghdad, and Thomas was so pleased with the script's Howard-esque atmosphere that he later noted several fellow comics writers assumed it had been drawn from an actual Howard source text. The production credits place pencils by Windsor-Smith, inks by Sal Buscema, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Mike Stevens, and editing by Stan Lee; Buscema is documented as having corrected a subtle anatomical error in Windsor-Smith's rendering of the giant bat's wing joints during the inking stage. The issue was released on March 23, 1971, with a June 1971 cover date, at a point when Marvel's editorial staff — including Stan Lee, who had briefly considered canceling the title before issue #7 — was still uncertain whether the series would sustain a monthly schedule.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'Devil-Wings Over Shadizar!' — an entirely original plot by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, not adapted from any Robert E. Howard prose source.
- First appearances in this issue: Jenna (recurring companion/love interest), Fafnir (later Fafnir Hellhand, a Vanirman thief who becomes one of Conan's most prominent long-term allies), Blackrat (Fafnir's treacherous partner), Maldiz (Jenna's blacksmith 'uncle'), Hajii (priestess of the Night-God, dies in this issue), the Night-God (a giant bat-creature worshipped by a murderous cult, dies in this issue), and Nubion.
- Fafnir and Blackrat were deliberately conceived by Thomas as riffs on Fritz Leiber's celebrated sword-and-sorcery duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a literary in-joke embedded in the story.
- Fafnir appears to die at the close of the issue's opening sequence but is confirmed alive when he resurfaces as a pirate captain in Conan the Barbarian #17; he goes on to accumulate over 20 appearances in the Marvel Conan canon.
- Jenna, introduced here as a bar wench in Shadizar, becomes Conan's girlfriend after he saves her from the Night-God's giant bat, but later betrays him — an arc described in the Wikipedia character entry as being loosely inspired by an unnamed character from Howard's prose story 'Rogues in the House.'
- 'Devil-Wings Over Shadizar' was nominated for a 1971 Shazam Award (Academy of Comic Book Arts) for Best Individual Story, losing to Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' 'Snowbirds Don't Fly' (Green Lantern #85); the Conan series itself won Best Continuing Feature that year, and Thomas took Best Writer – Dramatic Division.
- Creative credits: script by Roy Thomas; pencils by Barry Windsor-Smith; inks by Sal Buscema; colors by Stan Goldberg; letters by Mike Stevens; editor Stan Lee.
- The issue has been reprinted in numerous formats including Conan Saga #2 (1987), the Dark Horse Chronicles of Conan Vol. 1 (2003), the Marvel Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (2018), the Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 1 (2020), and the Titan Comics Original Comics Omnibus Vol. 1 (2024), as well as in several international editions spanning Sweden, the Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, and Norway.
Cast · 8 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
In Shadizar, Conan meets the beautiful waitress Jenna. She is however kidnapped by religious fanatics and taken to be sacrificed to the mysterious night god. The god no-one has ever seen is revealed to be a gigantic bat-like creature. Conan saves Jenna from the bat creature, while Jenna in her turn saves Conan from the priestess Hajii. Jenna then steals all his gold and leaves...
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).