“Web of the Spider-God”
Writers: Roy Thomas and John Jakes
Artist: Barry Smith
Conan is riding in Ophir at the Zamorian border when he is ambushed by brigands. They knock him out and take his horse. Conan now stuck in the desert wanders with hallucinations of water and fights off vultures. A peasant named Thanx finds him and gives him food and water. Thanx is going to Yezud to rescue his daughter Lea who was captured for sacrifice to the spider-god Omm. Conan goes along to repay his hospitality. They reach Yezud and Conan boldly goes up to the gate and demands entrance so he can kill their high priest. Naturally he and Thanx are taken prisoner.
In the dungeon they meed Tork an engineer in the employ of the king of Zamora. He was scouting under the city and finds that a few loosened boulders will collapse Yezud. When the priests come Conan starts a fight so Tork can escape to bring down the city. Conan, Thanx and Lea are brought to the arena and face Omm a huge spider. Conan manages to throw the high priest into the arena where Omm eats him. Then Conan is pushed in but he manages to kill Omm. A vengeful mob kills Thanx and will start on Lea and Conan when the city collapses. Conan and Lea manage to escape and meet Tork. Tork offers to take Lea to Shadizar as Conan rides off.
“Conan the Marvelous A Tangled Web…”
By Roy Thomas
An article that announces that this is the last issue of Conan Classic. Since issue 11 & 12 of Conan the Barbarian were not full length it was decided to adopt 13 as the last issue. This issue is adopted from a brief synopsis written by John Jakes. The synopsis is included with the article.
So the final Conan Classic. Sad that it couldn’t continue since I loved the quality of the reprints and informative articles. Thankfully it lasted long enough to get the rare eleven first issues. I was able to fill out my Conan the Barbarian collection. This story was awesome. Jakes is a very imaginative writer known for his Brak as well as historical novels. This was a fun story and Conan is his barbaric self. He is a badass who just plows his way through adversity and comes out on top.