Fantastic
August, 1972
Vol. 21 #6
Ziff-Davis
Fantastic was started in 1952 by Ziff-Davis to compliment their magazines Amazing and Fantastic Adventure. Apparently, it was possible to get too much of a good thing, because Fantastic Adventure was cancelled soon after.
Fantastic didn't seem to have the track record of other magazines of the genre, publishing very few pieces that were memorable, or ground-breaking. This issue is a bit of an exception, since it features a new Conan story and was published when the interest in Conan, and Howard, was beginning to gain some momentum. The rest of the contents, considering it is a "20th Anniversary Issue" are rather mundane.
Some mention must be made about the Conan story, since there is a bit of history behind it. In the early 50s, deCamp was the editor of a number of Conan reprint books that were published by Gnome Press. These books, along with additional material by deCamp, Carter and others were the core of the Lancer Conan series that was published in the 60s and 70s, when the attempt was made to put Conan's life into a chronological order.
Unfortunately, while deCamp seemed to like Conan, he didn't necessarily like Howard's writing style, so much of the material in the Lancer books is rewritten to fit deCamp's standards, or, in a few minor cases, changed to fit the invented chronology. In the case of the story in Fantastic, Conan is the character that Howard created, but it is there that the similarities end.