Item Biography
"The Frost Giant's Daughter"
Conan stands ankle-deep in snow, amidst the corpses of warriors from both Vanaheim and Aesgaard with a vengeance-thirsty Vanirman at sword's-length, the last two survivors of the battle.
After dispatching his last foeman, Conan collapses battle-weary, face down in the snow. He is awakened by mocking laughter and a golden, sylph-like apparition.
This vision taunts the Cimmerian with her unnatural, intoxicating beauty, and Conan gives chase, driven by her taunts and by lust for this will-o'-the-wisp of a girl. She manages to evade Conan, and leads him to a vale and two waiting Frost Giants, her brothers.
Perhaps invigorated by his base desire for the nymph, Conan wastes no time hacking through both giants. Physically shaken by what she has just witnessed, the girl takes flight once more. This time the savage Cimmerian catches her and forces himself on her.
Somehow, the temptress manages to squirm free and fall to her knees in supplication to Ymir, the God of ice and snow. With a blinding flash of energy from the northern sky the ice-maiden has vanished from sight.
Unconsciousness claims Conan once more. He comes around in the company of his Aesir comrades-at-arms. He tells his tales, and most attribute it to battle fatigue, but one informs Conan that it was Atali, Ymir's daughter, that he had pursued through the snow that day. Conan looks down to his hand which still clutches her veil.
Reprinted from Savage Tales (1971) #1, here for the first time in color.
"The Sword and the Sorcerers!"
Starr the Slayer is the creation of writer, Len Carson. Carson uses his outlandish dreams of barbarians and wizards to form plots for his stories.
Carson decides to end the series by killing off his character, Starr; because the dreams are becoming more and more intense, threatening his health.
On his way to mail his final manuscript, Carson is stupefied to be assailed by a flesh and blood incarnation of his pulp fiction hero, Starr, who explains that he must kill Carson to preserve his own life. Carson is unable to comment on the irony.
Reprinted from Chamber of Darkness #4.
This story was an early prototype for Conan by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith.