The Highlight: The Return of Kull
The real highlight of issue #9 of The Savage Sword of Conan, is the 'Bonus: A Feature-Length Epic Starring King Kull' teased on the cover.
The story, 'When A Tiger Returns to Atlantis, is really the unpublished next episode from the Kull and the Barbarians anthology, as evidenced by an editor's note at one point in the story referring to 'last issue'.
It's too bad Kull and the Barbarians was canceled before this story arc could run its course because 'When A Tiger Returns to Atlantis' was the best of the Kull stories from that time, and one of the best Kull comics of the 1970s.
It has a few flaws, as might be expected, given the sporadic publishing history of Kull stories. At some point the magical nature of Kull's sword was forgotten, as this story makes a point of stating that it is not "a weapon of sorcery", but an average broadsword.
But aside from small things like that, the comic brims with the potential that could-have-been with this creative team. Writer Doug Moench manages to inject more intrigue than we've seen in Kull in a while with multiple plot lines and antagonists set up in this story alone.
For whatever reason, some of the best artists in comics in the 1970s came from the Philippines. Sonny Trinidad who illustrated this story was one. I had never heard of him before, but I am now going to eagerly search out more of his work. Possibly because of the more adult and morally ambiguous nature of the stories, Kull comics really seem to look better in black and white than in four color comics, and with Trinidad's artwork this story looks just exquisite. For example, see the two page splash page where Kull takes on an army of ape-like beast men. Trinidad's artwork alone makes this story worth checking out.
