COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Conan the Barbarian 4 Universal
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Pedigree:
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Rocky Mountain
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Certification #:
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1010462007
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Owner:
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Rune
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
This book is the crown of my collection (well, at least one of them since this is my second Conan the Barbarian #4 CGC 9.8 book with pure white pages). In my opinion the story "The Tower of the Elephant" in ths book was the first of many great Conan tales by Barry Windsor-Smith. Sure, Windsor-Smith also drew issues 1 to 3 (actually #5 is the correct #3, since these stories were swapped), but the stories in #1 to #3 are of a weak and poor quality compared to the imaginative power of "The Tower of the Elephant" in #4. To me, Conan the Barbarian number 4 is the true beginning for all great Barry Windsor-Smith Conan tales.
In 1971 the story "Tower of the Elephant" by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith was nominated by the Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards for the Best Individual Story.
In an interview May 1998 Barry Windsor-Smith mentioned that Conan 4 was quite special to him:
"Roy had sent me all of the Lancer paperbacks some months prior to our beginning the first issue, so my prior affinity was merely months old but, as it happens, that made my perceptions energetic and fresh because I was utterly hooked by Howard's writing style. "The Tower of the Elephant," in particular, was a real head trip, to use the vernacular of the time". (Excerpt from "Comic Book Artist" #2.)
In 2010 Roy Thomas confirmed that Conan #4 also was quite special to him:
"For #4 I decided to do something different. From the beginning I had wanted to adapt Robert E. Howard‘s storles as well as make up so my own, but our contract with the REH estate gave us rights only to use Conan, not any particular stories. Now I got permission from Glenn Lord in a letter to adapt the story in which the Cimmerian is chronologically youngest—"Tower of the Elephant," which had quickly become my favorite Conan tale of all-as an issue of Conan. Either Marvel or I-I suspect Marvel-paid a little extra for the rlght to adapt the story, but at thls point I‘ve totally forgotten how I swung that or how much it cost. Working with Howard's actual prose, not just my couple of pages of accompanying notes, apparently turned Barry on, and he did a wonderful job. From the time Barry drew "Tower of the Elephant," there was no looking back for either of us."
Excerpt from "The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives Volume 1" 2010 (the foreword by Roy Thomas).
Furthermore this books is part of the Rocky Mountain pedigree, so named based on its Colorado roots, containing over 5,000 comic books in high grade runs of Marvel and DC titles from the 1960s and up. CGC has described the Rocky Mountain pedigree, to which this book belongs, in these words:
"The comic books were stored meticulously for decades in a cool, dry basement, and have bold, newsstand-fresh colors and white or off-white to white pages. There are many Rocky Mountain examples that are the highest certified for their issue [...] Mark Haspel, CGC President and Primary Grader comments, “One of the unique things about the Rocky Mountain pedigree is that there are photographs of it in its original state, making it one of the most thoroughly documented pedigrees. It has long runs of Marvel and DC, and because of their high grades and their market acceptance, this collection certainly has special merit.”
And according to the sellers:
"The original owner collection that is now established as the Rocky Mountain Pedigree collection is comprised of over 5,000 books and it is by far the most impressive Silver, Bronze and Copper Age collection ever consigned to ComicLink since the business was founded in 1996. Across the board, whether they grade out 9.0, 9.4 or 9.8, these issues are newsstand fresh and glossy, with rich colors and either white or off-white to white page preservation. You cannot truly measure the look of them by the grades they were given. They were an incredible sight to behold prior to CGC slabbing and we are, quite frankly, as blown away now as we were when we first laid eyes on them".
Read more here: http://www.cgccomics.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=1148
Current status of the 11 Conan the Barbarian #4 CGC 9.8 books, and I have seen them all (July 2017):
0034604003, WP, Oakland pedigree
1010462007, WP, Rocky Mountain pedigree
1027530004, WP, Suscha News pedigree
0091113003, WP
0096990016, WP
0096990017, WP
1341464010, WP
1341464012, WP
0175147008, OW-W
1465784016, OW-W
1338632002, OW
(WP = White Pages and OW-W = Off-White to White Pages.)
1338632002 has (near-)perfect cover orientation, but has the worst page quality (pff-white). All the WP books seem misaligned, but of these 0091113003, 1010462007 and 1027530004 have the most perfect cover centering, the winner is probably 1027530004. You can see the 11 books here:
http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/runesr2/library/Issue04
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