The first comic book appearance of this savage warrior was in Conan the Barbarian #1. This issue has shown across the board uptick over 10,000 titles for the last ten months. The Cimmerian was first created by the brilliant but insane mind of Robert E. Howard in the 1930's. Born and raised in Texas he apparently pooled all the hustlers, oil rig workers, Native Americans, and several other strong blue-collar types he met in that area of the U.S. into one character. From them, he created arguably the greatest of the fantasy hero barbarians: Conan! No Arnold impersonations, please. If you are a true fantasy buff you have got to read at least one Conan story. Later on, these books would be made famous by the art of Frank Frazetta. He did the covers for the pulp Conan paperbacks that people were reading in the 1960's and 70's.

Conan the Barbarian #1

Marvel eventually smartened up and purchased the rights to produce this indelible character. He first appeared in Conan the Barbarian #1 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. The current cost for mint condition (9.8) sold for $4,999 on eBay October 1, 2018. Does this issue print out big barbarian bucks? Over the long-term, this comic book has been the "Usurper" of all other fantasy barbarian heroes. It has positive returns in almost every category of grade except two but the amount of sales for those is inconclusive. To date, the returns have been above average for a "Cimmeria" based comic book. Conan the "Conqueror" becomes the king of fantasy comics with positive grades: (9.8) mint positive +13%, (8.0) positive +47.1%, and (6.0) for a pulse-pounding plus +41.3% return on investment.

The sword of profit that Conan swings is strong, This fun to read, awesome hero jumps off the pages and comes to life as "Conan the (ultimate) Avenger." Finally, CGC Census has only at 3,246 books not bad for a comic from 1970 that was obviously popular.  If you score a great mint copy there are only 62 of them outstanding for CGC Census, meaning it is an instant $5K in your pocket. "Conan the Buccaneer" has nothing on you if you find one of these mint condition Conan the Barbarian #1 in a garage sale, or at a swap meet. Five grand in Hyperborian times would keep "Conan the Freebooter" in ale and wenches for a decade in Aquilonia.

Savage Sword of Conan #1

Later on, Conan was splashed onto every single mag-rag they could fit him in but the one that stands out is the Savage Sword of Conan #1. A black and white epic telling and retelling of Conan also drawn by John Buscema. This book is still inexpensive like many of it's Bronze Age brethren this barbarian has not been saturated by the speculation class. Mainly just obtained for collectors and fans alike in reverence. Now, initially, I found the Conan books and didn't even know about the comics during the 1970's. Instead, I read the Savage Sword of Conan which had no color just ink in the early 1980's. It rocked. Reading about Conan in ink with no coloring was fun. He defeats scores of beasties, brutes, cut-throats, killers and the occasional wrathful warlock. The Savage Sword had a visceral feel reading it in black and white. Because let's be honest the coloring in the early days of comics often interfered with the story. But in the Savage Sword of Conan #1, there was nothing but pure artistic appreciation for John Buscema and the inkers: great artists like Ernie Chan, Pablo Marcos, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, John Severin, Barry Windsor-Smith and Alfredo Alcala to name a few.

Conan the Barbarian is the ultimate profit warrior "Wandering" the lands in search of his unblemished record of returns. His humble appearance in the Savage Sword of Conan #1 has stupendous returns. The mint grade  (9.8)  last sold for $599 on eBay September 2018. The returns have been swashbuckling fun with grade (7.0) returning a positive +151.8%, and the mint copy (9.8) returning a steady positive +16.6% ROI. The Barbarian-Bucks begin and end with Conan. This "Adventuring" barbarian will lead you to the treasure trove; just don't forget to buy him that ale you promised.

Note: The quotations in this blog are for highlighting titles of Conan's late 1960's paperback editions published by Lancer/Ace from 1966-1977? Take a guess as to which of the titles is missing and post on the Facebook page.