SAVSCO 53-55, 217-218, 56-58

[wolverine7230]

Yet another Conan post! This time, I'm looking at the three adaptations of Andrew Offutt's novels Conan and the Sorcerer (SAVSCO 53-55), Conan the Mercenary (SAVSCO 217-218), and Conan and the Sword of Skelos (SAVSCO 56-58).

These are currently placed all in succession of one another according to Roy Thomas' chronology, like so, when Conan returns to Zamora following the events of COB 12. In his chronology he states "some chroniclers have placed [these stories] a bit earlier in Conan's colourful career". Indeed, I believe that these stories must take place during Conan's first period in Zamora, and that Roy's placement of the stories here is simply for equivalence with the chronology being published in the back of the Conan paperbacks at the time.

The general outline of the stories is as so: 53-55 occur at a time when Conan is in Arenjun. 217-218 are a sequel, but do not have to take place immediately following the former story. This takes place at a time when Conan is in Shadizar. 56-58 occur at a time when Conan is in Shadizar. It does not have to immediately follow 217-218, but likely does, as the events of 217 occured only "less than a fortnight" prior.

As to why these stories must be placed in an earlier slot:
-SAVSCO 53 explicitly references COB 4 as being "a few weeks back", and the entire setting of Arenjun is that the city is still in the wake of the death of Yara
-SAVSCO 53 also references Conan's "barbarous massacre of the Zamorian tongue", meaning Conan hasn't been in Zamora for very long
-In SAVSCO 54, Conan says he left Cimmeria "less than a year ago". While this isn't true in either placement, this certainly implies the earlier. In 57 he again says he left Cimmeria "some months ago".
-At the end of SAVSCO 55, and through 56-58, Conan is shown to have his horned helmet, which disappears around the time of COB 6.
-SAVSCO 217 says "he does seek to ply the new trade of thief, which he's learned since wandering south to the fleshpots of Zamora. He's already made a mark in Arenjun, city of thieves, and he hopes Shadizar will afford him equal opportunity." This tells us Conan is both new to thieving, and that this takes place early during his time in Shadizar.
-In SAVSCO 218 Conan remarks "I haven't been through Nemedia that often" though in it's current placement, Conan is en route to Zamora shortly following "months" "thieving his way across Nemedia (ref from COB3 3).
-In SAVSCO 56, Conan is a wanted man in Shadizar for actions in Arenjun. In current placement, there are no stories of Conan causing trouble in Arenjun in the leadup, whereas in his first period of time there, Conan was a known thief, always on the run from authorities (see SAVSCO 100 and SACSCO 84).
-In SAVSCO 58, we are told Conan is "far from an accomplished thief, being at this stage of his career more daring than adroit".

And then something I noted earlier in the chronology:
-SAVSCO 100, placed during Conan's first period in Arenjun, sees Conan reference the Eye of Erlik, despite the fact he only learns of that item in SAVSCO 53!

In fact, there are no in-story references anywhere that would place this story any later than Conan's first Zamoran adventures. Roy always tried to keep level with the paperbacks when he was writing Conan (he mentions this several times in the two volumes of Barbarian Life, a great read, by the way!), so it makes sense that he would do so as well while compiling Conan's chronology for Conan Saga. However, Conan's life clearly didn't occur the same way in Marvel as it did in prose! As I hope the reasons listed above help to illuminate!

As such I suggest these new placements:

CONAN
...
SAVSCO 174
COB 4
SAVSCO 165-FB-FB
SAVSCO 99/2
SAVSCO 53 (add)
SAVSCO 54-FB (add)
SAVSCO 54 (add)
SAVSCO 55 (add)
SAVSCO 100 [ref to Eye of Erlik now no longer problematic, and in fact makes sense as Conan is in possession of the item!]
SAVSCO 84
COB 5
SAVSCO 81
SAVSCO 217 (add)
SAVSCO 218/2 (add)
COB 56 (add)
COB 57 (add)
COB 58 (add)
SAVSCO 93 [placed here as discussed in a previous post]
...
COB 12
COB3 1 (3-23)-FB / COB3 10 (7-10)
SAVSCO 53 (remove)
SAVSCO 54-FB (remove)
SAVSCO 54 (remove)
SAVSCO 55 (remove)
SAVSCO 217 (remove)
SAVSCO 218/2 (remove)
COB 56 (remove)
COB 57 (remove)
COB 58 (remove)
COB:CIM
...

Any questions, feel free to ask, as always!

NOTE: I know that I have been making a lot of Conan posts recently, and shall probably continue to do so, and I tend to use my evolving chronology as I go. I'm keeping track of what posts I make in what order, so if anyone needs access to this to see what changes I suggest where and why, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll send the link. I understand it may be easier to always use the MCP's current chronology, but when there are clear errors, and their fixes cause other placement alterations, it becomes clear why doing this may become nigh-on-impossible!

EDIT: If it's easier to access and track, I'd be happy to put this index of my Conan chronology work in it's own thread, with my current working chronology and any changes marked with links to the thread where I discuss that change. If that's alright with you Russ, then let me know!

[Col_Fury]

A potential problem I see with this suggested placement is that Conan loses his soul in SAVSCO 55 and doesn't regain it until SAVSCO 218/2. I'd have to look at SAVSCO 217-218/2 to see how soulless Conan acts, and if anything in SAVSCO 100, SAVSCO 84, COB 5 & SAVSCO 81 contradicts any of that.

Keep up the Conan audit, wolverine7230! It's appreciated!

[wolverine7230]

A potential problem I see with this suggested placement is that Conan loses his soul in SAVSCO 55 and doesn't regain it until SAVSCO 218/2. I'd have to look at SAVSCO 217-218/2 to see how soulless Conan acts, and if anything in SAVSCO 100, SAVSCO 84, COB 5 & SAVSCO 81 contradicts any of that.

Keep up the Conan audit, wolverine7230! It's appreciated!

Soulless Conan acts pretty normally in both SAVSCO 54-55 and SAVSCO 217. We see that he keeps the mirror with his soul in wrapped away and hidden, so it's not a stretch to assume that during the other adventures Conan has the mirror either on him, or in a safe place (he must be living somewhere while he's in Arenjun!). Same goes for the Eye of Erlik. The only thing that would really mess with things is if Conan meets a crowned person in one of those stories, as if he did then he would've asked them to free his soul! From my notes this is not the case, fortunately, unless I've missed something!