CONAN #4

Cover shows strong gloss and sharp corners with no visible creases or spine stress lines. Colors appear vibrant with no fading or staining visible. The book is protected in a plastic sleeve which limits full assessment of edges and surface. Interior pages and back cover were not assessed; grade is based solely on the visible front cover.

Conan #4 comes from the short 1995 Marvel series that revived the character in a monthly format after the long-running Conan the Barbarian ended at #275. Larry Hama scripted, with pencils and cover art by Barry Crain and inks by Carlos Garzon, working from Robert E. Howard's creation. The issue lands in November 1995, the month Marvel pushed its newly acquired Malibu property Rune into several of its own titles; here the pale Ultraverse vampire is set against Conan, with the story threads of the Harach Gnar arc carrying through. It is a crossover chapter rather than a debut: Rune had been introduced two years earlier in Sludge, and nothing first appears in this book.

Market profile is that of a mid-1990s Marvel licensed title published into a collapsing speculator market. The 1995 Conan run is readily available in high grade, dealers price it at or near original cover, and complete four-issue and full-run lots are the usual way it changes hands. Certified copies are almost nonexistent, which reflects indifference rather than rarity; census scarcity in a book with no key content rarely converts into slab premiums beyond the cost of grading and shipping. The Ultraverse angle brings a small, persistent collector following that chases the 1995 Marvel/Malibu crossover books as a set, and that is the only real demand driver above bulk levels.

Buyers are Conan completists filling the post-#275 gap, Ultraverse and Rune collectors assembling the crossover month, and Hama readers working through his 1990s output. Across grades the book trades flat: low-grade and mid-grade copies are effectively interchangeable dollar-box material, and even sharp unpressed copies are more efficiently sold in runs than singly. A certified high-grade example is a submission decision rather than a market opportunity, and anyone considering one should expect the slab, not the comic, to carry most of the value.