MARVEL'S CONAN SAGA COVER GALLERY...

CONAN characters copyright CPI

If events truly occurred as I remember them, I bought the first issue of Conan Saga in Glasgow, maybe in AKA Books & Comics, in 1987.  The mag is cover-dated May, which means it went on sale (in America at least) around February.  If it was an advance copy (one the UK customer paid a little more for), it was likely available in Britain around the same time or thereabouts.  It started with the Barry Smith illustrated tales and worked its way through later adventures by other artists in sequential order.  The mag lasted for 97 issues until 1995, which was a good long run for a reprint publication.  I can only assume it became difficult to get in Scotland as I didn't last the course and gave up after missing a few later issues.

Anyway, there must have been a problem with the trains that day, because I got a bus home, which is unusual for me as I don't like travelling by that mode of transport if I can help it.  As I was sitting leafing through the mag, who should board the vehicle but my ol' night-school chum Hugh, who sat himself beside me and we nattered away throughout the journey.  Regular readers may have read my post entitled 'Hugh And I', in which I mentioned him being sadly and untimely killed by a bus a few years later.  Whenever I look at the BWS cover of the above debut mag, 'tis Hugh that springs to mind.  He was a nice lad, who, ironically, was hit by a bus, and I intend no humour in that remark in the slightest.

I dug my collection of this title out of my cupboard a few months back to check just how many I had, and noticed it petered out around #64, though there were a few missing for some forgotten reason.  I know I didn't give any away so I must've been unable to acquire them at the time.  Problem soon solved  via the auspices of eBay and I now have every issue up to and including the 64th.  Will I ever track down the remaining 33 and complete the collection?  I haven't decided yet, but never say never, Crivs.  Anyway, I've been threatening to do a cover gallery for a while now, so here's the first instalment of four for your perusal.  If you've got a favourite (or favourites), share it with the rest of us in the comments section.

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Incidentally, I was living in another house when Conan Saga first came out, but we moved back to our previous residence just a few months later.  I tend to associate the mag with that other house, even though I'd only have bought 5 or 6 of them at the very most before returning to my present abode, the rest of them being acquired subsequently.  So I got most of them here, but associate the title with there.  (What am I like?!)  One more thing: The first 9 issues sported all-new covers specially produced by Barry Smith as they contained his Conan tales, though #8 also contains two stories illustrated by John Buscema and Neal Adams respectively.