Conan #24, Nude Variant, Dark Horse, '06

Conan #24 Nude Variant is one of the rarest issues in the Dark Horse Conan run, with a publishing history worth knowing. When Tony Harris joined the series as cover artist starting with issue #24, he submitted a fully nude version of the cover as an in-joke with editor Scott Allie. Allie ran the image as a back-of-book advertisement inside Conan and the Demons of Khitai #3. Comic store owners complained, and Demons of Khitai #3 was reprinted with a censored version of the ad. Dark Horse then capitalized on the controversy: exactly 4,000 copies of Conan #24 were printed with the nude Tony Harris cover and distributed exclusively through the Diamond Dateline retail newsletter, shrink-wrapped in black plastic. Written by Kurt Busiek with interior art by Cary Nord, this is a legitimately scarce piece of modern age collecting history and a standout for any serious Conan collection.