Conan the Barbarian #1

A $200 barbarian

Roy Thomas wanted a sword-and-sorcery hero for Marvel. His first choice was Thongor, a character created by the writer Lin Carter, and when that deal fell through he turned to Robert E. Howard's Conan. Thomas later recalled telling the Howard estate's representative, "we can't offer much money but it might increase Conan's audience."

The fee was a modest $200. Because the license left so little in the budget, Marvel could not afford John Buscema and the assignment went instead to a young English penciler, Barry Smith.

Conan the Barbarian #1 went on sale on July 21, 1970, with an October cover date. It cost 15 cents, ran 36 pages and was printed by World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois. Stan Lee was credited as editor.

Howard, Thomas and Smith

Robert E. Howard was born in Peaster, Texas, on January 22, 1906, and spent most of his life in Cross Plains. Conan first appeared in "The Phoenix on the Sword" in Weird Tales in December 1932, and between 1933 and 1936 Howard placed seventeen Conan stories in that magazine. He had earlier created another barbarian, Kull. Howard took his own life in Cross Plains on June 11, 1936, after learning that his mother was dying.

Roy Thomas was born in Jackson, Missouri, on November 22, 1940. A former high school English teacher who had edited the fan magazine Alter Ego, he became Stan Lee's first successor as Marvel editor-in-chief in 1972 and went on to write hundreds of Conan stories in color comics and black-and-white magazines.

Barry Smith was born in Forest Gate, London, on May 25, 1949. He studied industrial design and illustration, came to the United States in the summer of 1968, and drew X-Men #53, Daredevil and The Avengers before Conan. He penciled about 21 of the first 24 issues, with Thomas co-creating Red Sonja, and later worked as Barry Windsor-Smith.

The Coming of Conan

Smith penciled the cover, inked by John Verpoorten, and Sam Rosen designed and lettered the logo. Inside, "The Coming of Conan!" was scripted by Thomas, penciled by Smith, inked by Dan Adkins and colored by Mimi Gold. In the story, Conan fights at Vanaheim and sees a vision of his future, including a flashback appearance by King Kull. The story is numbered as 20 pages, but two of them are half-pages shared with ads.

The issue also carried a one-page "Hyborian Page" by Thomas, a short introduction to the world of Conan with a map of the Hyborian Age. Ads for a novelty catalog, model kits, a muscle-building course and a record club filled out the book, a snapshot of what a 15-cent comic sold to readers in 1970.

Near cancellation, then a craze

Early sales were weak, and Marvel nearly canceled the title around issue #7 before Thomas argued to keep it going. It became one of Marvel's most popular titles of the 1970s and set off a sword-and-sorcery vogue in American comics.

Thomas wrote the first 115 issues. John Buscema, the artist Marvel could not afford at the start, penciled most issues from #25 to #190. The series won Shazam Awards for Best Continuing Feature in 1971 and 1974, introduced Red Sonja in 1973 and spawned the magazine The Savage Sword of Conan. It ended with issue #275, cover-dated March 1994. Marvel later regained the rights and launched a new series in 2019 before the license moved to another publisher in 2022.

The market for a 9.8

No print run or census count appears in the sources consulted here. Auction records for CGC 9.8 white-page copies go back to April 3, 2004, when one sold for $4,830, and stayed between roughly $3,800 and $6,000 through 2020.

The high point came on April 19, 2022, when a CGC 9.8 copy sold for $14,400. Results then settled, with most sales from 2024 through 2025 near $7,800 to $8,400. In 2026 copies sold for $7,930 in March, $9,150 twice in May and $10,065 in July.

Beyond the comic

Barry Windsor-Smith left mainstream comics in the mid-1970s, co-founded The Studio art collective in 1975 and returned for projects including the 1991 Wolverine serial "Weapon X." His 2021 graphic novel Monsters won three Eisner Awards in 2022.

Roy Thomas stepped down as editor in August 1974 but kept writing Conan for decades, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011. The first issue remains the starting point for collectors of Marvel's long Conan run.

The numbers

Cover price

15 cents

Pages

36; story 20 numbered pages (19 by page count)

Frequency

Bimonthly

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

Census

No verified CGC census count found in the sources consulted

Series length

275 issues, 1970 to 1994

Timeline

1. Jan 22, 1906

   Robert E. Howard is born in Peaster, Texas.

2. Dec 1932

   Conan debuts in "The Phoenix on the Sword" in Weird Tales.

3. Jun 11, 1936

   Howard dies in Cross Plains, Texas.

4. 1968

   Barry Smith arrives in the United States and begins drawing for Marvel.

5. Jul 21, 1970

   Conan the Barbarian #1 goes on sale for 15 cents.

6. 1971

   The series wins a Shazam Award for Best Continuing Feature.

7. 1972

   Roy Thomas succeeds Stan Lee as Marvel editor-in-chief.

8. 1973

   Red Sonja is introduced in the series.

9. Mar 1994

   The series ends with issue #275.

10. Apr 3, 2004

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $4,830.

11. 2019

    Marvel launches a new Conan series after regaining the rights.

12. Apr 19, 2022

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $14,400, the highest result in the sources consulted.

13. May 14, 2026

    Two CGC 9.8 copies sell at auction for $9,150 each.

14. Jul 23, 2026

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $10,065.

The world in 1970

• Apr 13, 1970

  An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13; the crew returns safely on April 17.

• Apr 22, 1970

  The first Earth Day is held.

• May 1, 1970

  President Nixon orders U.S. forces into Cambodia.

• May 4, 1970

  The Kent State shootings kill four students protesting the Cambodia incursion.

• Sep 1970

  Jimi Hendrix dies at 27; Janis Joplin dies 16 days later.

• Sep 1970

  Monday Night Football debuts on ABC.

• Dec 2, 1970

  The Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Conan the Barbarian #1 is number 51 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (75 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Roy Thomas tried to license Lin Carter's Thongor before settling on Conan.
• The license fee was so small that Marvel could not afford John Buscema, so the job went to Barry Smith; Buscema took over later.
• Barry Smith drew X-Men #53 shortly after arriving from London in 1968.
• King Kull, Howard's earlier barbarian, makes a flashback cameo in Conan's first Marvel issue.
• Robert E. Howard placed seventeen Conan stories in Weird Tales and died at 30.
• Marvel nearly canceled the series around issue #7; it ran to #275.