The story is somewhat of a beautiful metaphor for a person named James Allison, who is dying, where he is transported into a dream to the land of Niord where he is engulfed in a battle between tribes. It's sad as there is a real sadness in that when an attempt to slay the worm fails, his life in the real world diminishes too which is a beautiful mirror to look at it.
The art itself is sending my wig with the fine detailing of the abs and pecs... I mean the ferocity and savagery of the lit-er-ral slayage. I like that the women do get their hands dirty too. The art styling of what resembles Big Foot (I always knew BF existed!) calls upon the big worm who is in fact really terrifying and got my boots quaking. The detailing of the creature is astonishing!
It's kind of ironic that a whole tribe is slain in the most gruesome way bar one who is spared which equates to world peace after an agreement has been carried out between the two tribes. More to the fact that the that Gorm (the person spared) is, in fact, a woman after James astonishingly calls them an "old woman". She wasn't even sporting a bra. I never knew the #freethenipple campaign started this early and living for it!
But anyway, euphemism count:
- Tom-toms throbbed
- Gorm's great hole in the earth
- From the shaft, there rose something -- inhuman
- Hands that held the wierdling pipe
Subscribe? Yes
Asgard gets a mention! (Albeit probably not the one I'm thinking of but still!). James and I are on a first-name basis
True Believers: Conan: Serpent War #0 - The Valley of the Worm (originally printed as Supernatural Thrillers #3)
Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway - scripters
Gil Kane - artist
Ernie Chua - inker
Adapted from a story by Robert E. Howard
Marvel - publisher