Are there any fans here of the various old comics Marvel produced featuring Robert E. Howard's fantasy character Conan? They included Conan the Barbarian, Savage Sword of Conan, King Conan, and Conan the Savage. I have an idea a lot of REH purists don't hold them in very high regard, which perhaps isn't all that surprising, but I wondered what people here think.
Marvel's Conan
- Thread starter EJA
- Start date
I have yet to check them out but am a big fan of Kurt Buisek's run on the Dark Horse version of "Conan". I apologize if you wanted to stick to the Marvel run.
The Dark Horse stuff is what really made me a fan of the character and his mythology. I'd never really been exposed to it before outside of the movie.
The early Conan was a lot of fun and many of the stories came from Howard's writing, occasionally adapted. Red Sonja, for instance, being one of the adaptations. The original being a mercenary fighting the Turks, but the basic story is the same. Dark Horse has collected a lot of the run in a fine collection of trades.
I prefer the DH stuff. They were more faithful to the vague timeline of Conan's life than Roy Thomas's work.
I like the early Marvel adaptations from the early 70s - Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith (and later John Buscema).
Everyone seems to prefer the DH comics. How are they more faithful to Howard's original prose?
^ You could read them and find out?
Seems a whole lot less time-consuming to ask a simple question.
Not to mention a whole lot less cash-consuming.
^ There are libraries 
Which is where I read the entire collection of trades and it didn't take that long to read.
Which is where I read the entire collection of trades and it didn't take that long to read.I confess to liking both.
I had read the Marvel Conan as a kid. I remember owning a book which was "The Twilight of the Grim Grey God" - probably Conan the Barbarian #3. Drawn by Barry Windsor Smith who used to draw a very young lithe Conan. As a kid, I read that book many many times and I tend to think of the story as being Howard-esque. I think it might have been a pastiche or whatever Conan/REH biographers term the thing - with some ideas taken from another REH story and reworked into a Conan story but it greatly appealed to me. The whole idea of Gods who "pass from this world" when their followers are no more, really made sense to me as I was getting exposed to multiple myths/gods (Greeks, Romans etc at that time).
Barry Windsor-Smith's Conan work is pretty great. There are a couple of really great collections - Conan: The Barry Windsor Smith Chronicles - Parts 1 and 2 that you can get from Amazon or if financially-challenged (in my case) from your friendly neighborhood library (utilize the Inter Library Loan mechanism if your library doesn't have it).
John Buscema's Conan *is* Conan to me. I never saw the Frazetta covers. He came on as the artist after Barry Windsor Smith left. He had been the primary person in contention as the artist when Marvel was starting Conan per Roy Thomas except that he was too pricey an artist for what Stan Lee had originally planned for this. The way Buscema drew Conan is how I truly imagine Conan in my head - not Arnold
- who except for the accent made a pretty decent Conan - tho' there's something to be said for Arnold's Conan's delivery of the following quote
Dark Horse's Conan visually doesn't appeal to me as much as BWS' Conan and definitely doesn't come close to Buscema's Conan. However, they tried to make him more "realistic" and not have him be his usual bare-chested self - a different approach. I liked the writing quite a bit. I liked how they set up the story within a story aspect which is vaguely Arabian Nights and yet seems to be tying up in the future. (I sure hope that the tie-up happens and Dark Horse doesn't end up cancelling Conan without us ever learning more about the Vizier (who we all suspect to be... <no spoilers> ) and if... <no spoilers again>).
It's well-written and tries to lay a structure to Conan. When REH wrote Conan, he wrote about several episodes at different times in Conan's life and what they are trying to do is string it into a coherent storyline with their own "inventions" filling the blanks until they get a chance to do an adaptation of the REH story.
So - yes, I do like Dark Horse and I like their story telling. I started liking Cary Nord's watercolor approach too after a bit. They did a few adaptations quite well - the Gunderman storyline was a splendid addition to Conan as is their take on Jenna. It works better for me in the Dark Horse comics than in the old Marvel comics. However the tower of the elephant is still more splendid in Marvel.
So - in a sense - I like the old and I like the new.
What I don't like is Jason Momoa as Conan.
But that's a whole another post.
I had read the Marvel Conan as a kid. I remember owning a book which was "The Twilight of the Grim Grey God" - probably Conan the Barbarian #3. Drawn by Barry Windsor Smith who used to draw a very young lithe Conan. As a kid, I read that book many many times and I tend to think of the story as being Howard-esque. I think it might have been a pastiche or whatever Conan/REH biographers term the thing - with some ideas taken from another REH story and reworked into a Conan story but it greatly appealed to me. The whole idea of Gods who "pass from this world" when their followers are no more, really made sense to me as I was getting exposed to multiple myths/gods (Greeks, Romans etc at that time).
Barry Windsor-Smith's Conan work is pretty great. There are a couple of really great collections - Conan: The Barry Windsor Smith Chronicles - Parts 1 and 2 that you can get from Amazon or if financially-challenged (in my case) from your friendly neighborhood library (utilize the Inter Library Loan mechanism if your library doesn't have it).
John Buscema's Conan *is* Conan to me. I never saw the Frazetta covers. He came on as the artist after Barry Windsor Smith left. He had been the primary person in contention as the artist when Marvel was starting Conan per Roy Thomas except that he was too pricey an artist for what Stan Lee had originally planned for this. The way Buscema drew Conan is how I truly imagine Conan in my head - not Arnold
- who except for the accent made a pretty decent Conan - tho' there's something to be said for Arnold's Conan's delivery of the following quoteDark Horse's Conan visually doesn't appeal to me as much as BWS' Conan and definitely doesn't come close to Buscema's Conan. However, they tried to make him more "realistic" and not have him be his usual bare-chested self - a different approach. I liked the writing quite a bit. I liked how they set up the story within a story aspect which is vaguely Arabian Nights and yet seems to be tying up in the future. (I sure hope that the tie-up happens and Dark Horse doesn't end up cancelling Conan without us ever learning more about the Vizier (who we all suspect to be... <no spoilers> ) and if... <no spoilers again>).
It's well-written and tries to lay a structure to Conan. When REH wrote Conan, he wrote about several episodes at different times in Conan's life and what they are trying to do is string it into a coherent storyline with their own "inventions" filling the blanks until they get a chance to do an adaptation of the REH story.
So - yes, I do like Dark Horse and I like their story telling. I started liking Cary Nord's watercolor approach too after a bit. They did a few adaptations quite well - the Gunderman storyline was a splendid addition to Conan as is their take on Jenna. It works better for me in the Dark Horse comics than in the old Marvel comics. However the tower of the elephant is still more splendid in Marvel.
So - in a sense - I like the old and I like the new.
What I don't like is Jason Momoa as Conan.
But that's a whole another post.
I don't like Jason Mamoa as Conan either but am willing to give the film a chance.
I'll check Momoa out when the film's out.
Tried the DH comics, they didn't do much for me. But when I was a kid, BWS was, as we said, the bomb. His technique was great. He drew great comics.
Here's one: story by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn, scripted by Roy Thomas, drawn by BWS... a team up of Conan and Elric of Melnibone. As a teen fantasy fan, for me this utterly rocked. See if you can find it.
Tried the DH comics, they didn't do much for me. But when I was a kid, BWS was, as we said, the bomb. His technique was great. He drew great comics.
Here's one: story by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn, scripted by Roy Thomas, drawn by BWS... a team up of Conan and Elric of Melnibone. As a teen fantasy fan, for me this utterly rocked. See if you can find it.
It's in the Barry Windsor Smith Chronicles, I think - probably part 2. I remember reading it.
Sorry for waxing on earlier about Conan. My bad. "DH - Aye, Marvel - Aye" is the basic summary of my post.
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