The Bob Larkin painting of Conan facing off with Bor'aque Sharaq. Sharaq was a re-occuring villain during Micheal Fleisher's long run at Savage Sword. He was a Barachan pirate who was captured and tortured by the Argossan navy to find Conan's whereabouts, and they gouged out his left eye in the process. After that, the disfigured corsair became obsessed with killing Conan.
All this happened in a story called "Temple of the Twelve-Eyed Thing," which ended with the titular creature flinging Sharaq to his apparent death out a tower window. But Sharaq survived, and reappeared off and on throughout Fleisher's run, on his quest for vengeance. The issue below is one of a two-part story featuring Sharaq. illustrating the climax, in which a demon from the netherworld reaches out to claim a sacrifice, but it's Sharaq he grabs, not the girl on the alter. It is at this climax that Fleisher cheats a bit, refering to Sharaq's "death-shrieks", as we learn in a later tale that the pirate survived the incident by making a bargain with the demon. He is eventually is able to escape the fiend's dimension, and resumes his quest for revenge. This tale was illustrated by Alfredo Alcala, by the way.
One thing that always bugged me about Sharaq is that Fleisher always had him slaughtering without a hint of remorse any innocent person who happened to get in his way, apparently to demonstrate how evil and ruthless he was. It's fine that Sharaq was so evil. What bothered me was the fact that these innocent people got killed. Worse, Sharaq never got his comupance. Each time Conan thought he had destroyed the corsair for good, Sharaq would always bounce back.
That is, until after an adventure with Snow Raven, one of Conan's many love interests, at the climax of which Sharaq was frozen in mystic ice. It was clear that the ice would melt, and Sharaq would be free, once Conan and Snow-Raven were far away. But ironically, this time Sharaq never showed up again. Fleisher's reign was at end at SSOC, and he later took over as the writer for Warlord at DC. Letters often inquired if Sharaq would be back, but he never was, not during Chuck Dixon's reign, or Roy Thomas's return.
Then again, if SSOC is returning, might it be that Sharaq might return as well?
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