Cover (pencils & inks) - Barry Smith & John Verpoorten
(from Conan the Barbarian #1, October 1970)

CONAN THE BARBARIAN
"The Coming Of Conan!"
(19 pages)
(complete reprint of Conan the Barbarian #1, October 1970)
Story - Roy Thomas
Pencils - Barry Smith
Inks - Dan Adkins
Lettering - Sam Rosen

KULL
"A King Comes Riding!"
(9 pages)
(First 9 of 19 pages from Kull The Conqueror #1, June 1971)
Story - Roy Thomas
Pencils - Ross Andru
Inks - Wally Wood
Lettering - Sam Rosen

Savage Sword Of Conan #1
(UK, 3 March 1975)

Mighty World of Marvel #1
(7 October 1972)

Dracula Lives #1
(26 October 1974)

Planet Of The Apes #1
(26 October 1974)

Towards the end of the 1960's "Silver Age", Marvel had increasingly cultivated the concept of (also) catering for the more mature comic book reader, with Stan Lee giving talks at colleges and universities. As the 1970's "Bronze Age" rolled around, this target group increasingly demanded more than the classic superheroes - and the House of Ideas was more than happy to oblige.

In late October 1974, Marvel UK followed in those footsteps by simultaneously launching two more titles "with a difference". Rather than featuring more superheroes, the House of Ideas now brought its expansion into other genres to the British Isles - with Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes. Six months later, Marvel UK launched two more weeklies, and whilst The Superheroes left no doubt as to its contents (bringing the Silver Surfer and the X-Men to Britain's shores), the second title followed up with more non-superhero fare: The Savage Sword of Conan.

ENTER - THE HYBORIAN AGE!

Created by Robert E. Howard in the early 1930s, Conan the Barbarian would become one of Marvel's most popular and successful licensed characters - so much so that the comic book adaptation made a lasting impression on the public's perception of the character.

Roy Thomas convinced Stan Lee and then publisher Martin Goodman - although the initial suggestion came from outside the company:

"Marvel’s readers kept writing us letters saying we should pick up the rights to a few of these things that were coming out in the book stores (...) One thing they suggested a lot was a sword and sorcery title, and especially Robert E. Howard and Conan were being mentioned. I was somewhat familiar with them and Stan really wasn’t." (Roy Thomas in NN, 2010)

Dracula Lives #20 (8 March 1975)

Roy Thomas (*1940) in the early 1970s

London-born Barry Smith (who would later add Windor to his name) had been inspired by Jack Kirby's work to seek out job opportunities at Marvel in 1968 using his own artwork. Roy Thomas was impressed enough to assign him to draw both the cover and the interior pages of X-Men #53 (February 1969). Smith was off to a successful start from that point on, as

"Stan loved my stuff because although it was pretty amateur and klutzy, it had the essence of Jack Kirby about it, and that was what sold Marvel comics in those days." (Smith in Cooke, 1998)

Barry (Windsor) Smith
(*1949)

As far as the character and Robert E. Howard's "Hyborian Age" were concerned, Smith's knowledge was, not unlike that of Thomas himself, limited.

"Roy had sent me all of the Lancer paperbacks some months prior to our beginning the first issue, so my prior affinity was merely months old but, as it happens, that made my perceptions energetic and fresh because I was utterly hooked by Howard's writing style." (Smith in Cooke, 1998)

Smith (whom Marvel UK made sure to point out as being "Britain's own" in the "personal message from Stan Lee") provided the appropriate visuals, and whilst the original material was essentially left unchanged, the transfer to black and white didn't always turn out quite right as far as greytone shading was concerned (as can be seen from the example panels here).

Smith would remain on the title for issues #1-16 and 19-24, before John Buscema took over for his famously long run on the title as of Conan the Barbarian #25 (April 1973).

Editorial may have missed a chance there to insert a textbox with something along the lines of "read more about Kull later on in this very issue", but then editorial had really nothing to do anyway and probably just let it all be as was. That was the upside of reprinting an entire US issue in one go - no need for extra splashpages etc., as was the case with all other Marvel UK weeklies at the time.

The downside of this approach was the speed at which Marvel UK went through the original material - four original issues in one single month. In March 1975, Conan the Barbarian #51 hit the news stands, giving Marvel UK a headroom of 47 issues - which would last just about a year in which the original material would only advance by 12 issues.

During a hiatus from October 1971 to June 1972 (between issues #2 and #3 of Kull the Conqueror), he featured (again as "King Kull") in Monsters on the Prowl #16 (April 1972). Once the title picked up again, Kull the Conqueror changed its name to Kull the Destroyer as of issue #11 (November 1973) and ran up to issue #29 (October 1978) - but not without yet another publishing hiatus from September 1974 to July 1976, between issues #15 and #16. The end came in October 1978 with Kull the Destroyer #29. Besides his cameo in Conan the Barbarian #1, he also featured in a plot flashback in Tomb of Dracula #26 (November 1974).

Given this back and forth publication history it made perfect sense for Marvel UK to ignore the story featured in Creatures on the Loose #10 and start the reprint series with the first 9 (of 19) pages from Kull The Conqueror #1.

Kull the Conqueror #1
(March 1971)

Accordingly, since the Kull story only reprinted the first 9 of a the 19 pages of Kull The Conqueror #1, editorial dropped the two last panels on the original page and replaced it with a blurb stating "Next Issue The Saga of Kull Continues-- To Kill A King".

As was so often the case with this editorial pruning, British readers would never get to see the two left-out panels; the Kull feature continued in Savage Sword of Conan #2 with a specially created splashpage (actually a touched up enlargement of panel 4 from page 9) featuring a few bits of exposition text, followed by the original page 10 of Kull The Conqueror #1.

Avengers #85 (3 May 1975)

In the end, the title and its material simply failed to find an audience. One indication of this is the late arrival of a letters page; whilst this would usually be introduced around the fourth issue of a new title, it wasn't until Savage Sword of Conan #10 that readers' letters were published (under the heading "The Hyporian Page"). Most likely there simply wasn't enough reader feedback to publish prior to that issue - as the accompanying text to a full-page map of the "Thurian continent in the time of King Kull" in Savage Sword of Conan #8 also seems to point out: "Savour and save it, friend -- 'cause when the letters start coming in, this space is definitely going to be filled!"

All the 18 covers used were taken from the original issues (with the exception of Savage Sword of Conan #11, which featured a new cover by Frank Giacoia), so all there was left to do was adapt them slightly to the different page size of the UK reprints (8.25" x 11", compared to the standard US 6.9" x 10.5") and modify or add blurbs for the British weekly.

But somehow it all got messed up very quickly, with blurbs advertising content that wasn't there: first (issue #6) Kull is indicated as a feature when in fact readers would find Ka-Zar, and when the covers (issues #8-10) did promise Ka-Zar he had in fact already been replaced again by Kull.

Avengers #95 (12 Juy 1975)

A "Bullpen Special" on the inside cover explained it all (after starting out with a terrible and glaring grammatical error), and if the "personal message" purported to be from Stan Lee (it certainly wasn't) in Savage Sword of Conan #1 had lacked the typical Marvel hyperbole, this missive was full of it.

Essentially, merging Conan into Avengers (and thus unceremoniously bumping Doctor Strange off the line-up) was presented as Marvel UK simply doing what readers wanted and had requested. It was, of course, a nifty way of putting a positive spin on what clearly wasn't really good news for neither the readers nor the publisher.

Avengers #95 (12 Juy 1975)