The Savage Sword of Conan #146

Marvel's long-running black-and-white magazine series delivers a visceral arena showdown in this March 1988 installment, with a story aptly titled "Blood Circus." Daniel Horne's cover painting puts Conan front and center — wild-eyed and snarling, sword raised high and a battered round shield in his other hand — as he tears through a press of opponents that includes a helmeted warrior and a grotesque, wide-mouthed brute lunging from the foreground. The raw energy of the image, rendered in rich earthy reds and browns, perfectly captures the sword-and-sorcery chaos that Charles Dixon, Gary Kwapisz, and Ernie Chan bring to the interior pages.