Conan the Barbarian #80

Issue #80 of Marvel's long-running sword-and-sorcery series drops Conan into a brutal arena showdown, as the cover — penciled by John Buscema and inked by Ernie Chan — puts him in raw, bare-handed combat against a powerful blond warrior billed as the Man-Slayer "from another time." Ringed by a crowd of armored soldiers, robed onlookers, and a wide-eyed woman in blue, the two fighters grapple with everything on the line, the cover copy making the stakes grimly clear: "And to the vanquished — Death!" Roy Thomas scripts and Howard Chaykin joins Ernie Chan on interior art, making this November 1977 entry a vivid collision of Hyborian muscle and spectacle.