August 1st, 2025 | John Miller

Review: The Savage Sword Of COnan

A refreshing adventure.

August is one of my favourite months of the year. The days are hot and long and the season is at its peak. It reminds me of my youth, being outside riding bikes, catching frogs, and letting my imagination run wild. A big part of the summer back then was comic books. Sure, you could read them all year round, but in the summer, it was somehow better and more exciting. Big crossover events would often happen in the summer, and I have great memories of riding down to the local comic book store to pick up the weekly dose of fantastic world-in-the-balance adventures offered by the publishers of the day.

This was back in the 80’s and 90’s when comic book reading was at its zenith. This was the era that Hollywood now mines for the latest blockbusters that normies have cottoned onto 30 years later. The comic book industry has declined in a big way since then, and the culture of reading comic books has waned. Partly due to kids preferring games and phones and online alternatives, partly due to publishing costs soaring out of reach for most kids (and yes…comics are first and foremost for kids)... and lastly and possibly most importantly, the insidious rise of wokeness infiltrating the pages of comics over the past ten years.

I don’t want to recount the whole sordid ordeal, but the wokeness brigade that started with Gamergate in the video game industry did the same thing to comic books. Suddenly, your favorite comic-book character was gay, and gayness had to be on full blast in mainstream comic books aimed at young boys. Comic-book fans turned off and tuned out and the Woke purveyors of this propaganda heralded it as a victory. If they couldn’t win over new readers with their political agenda, at least they could take satisfaction in desecrating traditional heroes.  

But with the vibeshift rapidly occurring in the United States and spreading like wildfire across the Western world, we’re going to be introduced to some new and exciting developments that will perhaps harken back to some old and exciting developments.

One of those developments is the return of The Savage Sword of Conan. 

Originally, the title The Savage Sword of Conan was launched back in the 1970’s in an oversized magazine format. Marvel Comics did this so that they could avoid the censorship standards that were imposed on comic books at the time. Consequently, The Savage Sword of Conan was like an R-rated adventure movie aimed at older young readers. Readers who maybe had an appetite for rougher violence, scarier monsters, higher stakes, darker themes, and of course... some scantily clad women to decorate the action. 

This series ran from 1974 to 1995 and featured a constant array of Robert E. Howard adventures and spin-offs. During the original run, I never picked the book up. The comics era I grew up in was all about X-Men and Spider-Man… Conan seemed like a throwback to the old Arnold movie, and it all felt a bit seedy and out of style, to be honest. But that was then…

"The sword is an extension of my will. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. Greatness lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Blood may be spilled, but honor remains intact. In the end, it is not the size of the warrior, but the size of his heart that truly matters."  - Conan The Barbarian

In today’s Woke world, the return of The Savage Sword of Conan reads like a breath of fresh air. There is an attraction to this character, in this age, that is far more necessary than ever. This is a testosterone-fuelled book of mythology that plays hard and fast with modern counter-cultural themes. The world that Howard created is more vibrant and appealing than ever before. The attitudes, morals, and masculinity that pours from every page is a testament to the fierce staying power of Conan.

These dark and melodramatic tales of pulp fiction feature fantastic tales of rugged survival stories and supernatural mystery. Whether Conan is facing werewolves or witches…pirates or dinosaurs…he’s always doing so as a man of action… no nonsense or quips… he’s hardcore… large and in charge… a living legend. 

The audience for this book is likely nostalgic Gen-Xers like myself who occasionally still pick up a comic book from time to time or even older guys who are already diehard Conan fans, but for young guys looking for high-adventure and some relatively red-pilled style action, this is a magazine worth jumping into. It’s an anthology series, so you can pretty much pick up any issue without being lost. The artwork is stellar. The stories are hardcore with some interesting mythology and plot twists along the way. 

Usually, these books have short stories attached featuring other Howard creations like Solomon Kane, a 17th-century Puritan who travels around vanquishing evil. He’s a devout and incorruptible, principled Christian who investigates and eliminates supernatural threats. It’s weird and wild stuff.

Howard also created the Hero from Atlantis, Kull the Conqueror. You may find some of his stories popping up in these issues as well.

If you like comics, pulp fiction, and heroic artwork, and you are also a based conservative, then this is a treat I recommend. Pour yourself a beverage, soak up some August sunshine, and enjoy a nostalgic splash of adventure and imagination with The Savage Sword of Conan!