A Witch Shall be Born

Robert E. Howard's story was first published in Weird Tales, December 1934, and composed of six chapters.

1. The Blood-Red Crescent

2. The Tree of Death

3. A Letter to Nemedia

4. Wolves of the Desert

5. The Voice From the Crystal

6. The Vulture's Wings

While there's obviously a lot more to famous yarn, all and sundry jumped on Conan's crucifixion in Chapter 2.

Description follows:

"By the side of the caravan road a heavy cross had been planted, and on this grim tree a man hung, nailed there by iron spikes through hands and feet.  Naked but for a loin-cloth, the man was almost a giant in stature, and his muscles stood out in thick corded ridges on limbs and body, which the sun had long ago burned brown.  The perspiration of agony beaded his face and mighty breast, but from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low, broad forehead, his blue eyes blazed with an unquenched fire.  Blood oozed sluggishly from the lacerations in his hands and feet."

After spitting savagely at his captor's face, Constantius mockingly reminds to think of him when the desert scavengers are tearing at his living flesh.

He is ultimately rescued (albeit in cynical fashion), by Olgerd Vladislav, war-chief of the fierce nomadic Zuagirs.

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Iconic sequence changes things somewhat, as instead of saltire, muscular frame is pinned to the Tree of Woe.

The man hanging on the 'cross' was the one touch of sentient life in a landscape that seemed desolate and deserted in the late evening.  Khauran, less than a mile away, might have been on the other side of the world, and existing in another age.

Shaking the sweat out of his eyes, Conan stared blankly at the familiar terrain.  On either side of the city, and beyond it, stretched the fertile meadowlands, with cattle browsing in the distance where fields and vineyards chequered the plains.

In his dulled ears sounded the louder beat of wings.  One dipped - dipped - lower and lower.  Conan drew his head back as far as he could, waiting with terrible patience.  The vulture swept in with a swift roar wings.  Its beak flashed down, ripping the skin on Conan's chin as he jerked his head aside; then before the bird could flash away, Conan's head lunged forward on his mighty neck muscles, and his teeth, snapping like those of a wolf, locked on the bare, wattled neck.

Ferocious triumph surged through Conan's numbed brain.  Life beat strongly and savagely through his veins.  He could still deal death; he still lived.  Every twinge of sensation, even of agony, was a negation of death.

Arnie's maniacal laugh is classic.

Oh, rescue is played out off-screen, so in terms of gore; recreation is very mild. 

Marvel Comics Super Special #21

While point is obviously made, diet of fucked up thanksgiving turkey is omitted.

For the record.

Conan the Barbarian Movie Special is a rewrite of Marvel comic.

Licensed video games were nothing to write home about.

NES outing was a butchered adaptation of the C64 version of Myth: History in the Making.  They changed sprite, bizarrely removed areas and horrific soundtrack made ears bleed.

Best of all, final stage was cut.

Lazy bastards.

Scraping the bottom of Hyborian barrel.

Conan (2004)

God of War wannabe failed to impress.

The Savage Sword of Conan #5 (April 1975)

Cover may be signed by Boris Vallejo, but painting is actually a joint collaboration between Peruvian maestro and John Buscema.
John painted Conan on the cross, huge skull, vultures and skulls on the ground below, while Boris added the tree-crouching vulture on the right, and painted over the whole thing.

So now you know.

Script: Roy Thomas
Art: John Buscema and The Tribe

Chapter III: The Tree of Death

Not only is pencil and ink awesome, adaptation is obscenely accurate to source material, including the gory removal of iron spikes.

Miscellany

#52 (May 1980)
An excellent double-page spread by Ernie Chan.

#190 (October 1991)

And.

Conan the Savage #3 (October 1995)

Conan the Avenger #21 (December 2015)

Unlike TSSOC which crammed entire story in a single comic, Dark Horse bloated situation across six issues (or parts), between November 2015 - April 2016.

Cover by Paul Renaud.

Next time I'll be looking at live-action.

'Probably'...