King Conan #4

Marvel's "Mightiest Monarch of a Time-Lost Land" faces his darkest hour in this 1980 showdown, as the cover — penciled by John Buscema and inked by Ernie Chan — crackles with energy: a sword-wielding Conan lunges forward amid surging lightning while the robed sorcerer Thoth-Amon raises a serpentine ring against him, flames and chaos filling the background. The cover copy bills it as "the sword-and-sorcery saga that had to be told" — Conan vs. Thoth-Amon to the death — and Buscema and Chan deliver the raw ferocity that promise demands. Roy Thomas scripts the interior tale "Shadows In the Skull!" with John Buscema on art, making this a strong creative pairing for one of the Hyborian Age's most personal rivalries.