Download Conan the Barbarian v1 #70
With nearly eighty years in the business, Conan is the most successful barbarian going. He first set up shop in the December 1932 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Conan was the invention of Robert E. Howard, a young Texan who'd begun turning out large quantities of pulp
stories while still in his teens. When he wasn't writing for the pulpwoods, he was reading them. The swords-and-sorcery facet of his work was much influenced by such authors as Harold Lamb and Talbot Mundy. Howard borrowed from both of them, though he was never able to imitate their restraint."As nearly as such things can be calculated, Conan flourished about 12,000 years ago," explained L. Sprague deCamp, who revised and refurbished the Conan pulp material for book publication. "In this time," according to Howard,
"the western parts of the main continent were occupied by Hyborean kingdoms... Conan, a gigantic adventurer from Cimmeria, arrived as a youth in the kingdom of Zamora. For two or three years he made his living as a thief in Zamora, Corinthia and Nemedia. Growing tired of this starveling existence, he enlisted as a mercenary in the armies of Turan. For the next two years he traveled widely and refined his knowledge of archery and horsemanship." Conan had several odd jobs thereafter. He was a super-muscular, skull-splitting fellow who was fond of spending his days with lovely princesses and slave girls, or in struggling against malignant magic and sorcery. The rest of the time, he got into fights."The City in the Storm!" freely adapted from the story "The Marchers of Valhalla" by Robert E. Howard.
Credits:
Cover: Gil Kane and Pablo Marcos
Script: Roy Thomas
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Ernie Chan
Reprinted:
- in Conan le Barbare (Artima, 1979 series) #11 (February 1982).
- in Conan Saga (Marvel, 1987 series) #87.
Click here to read the conclusion in Conan the Barbarian v1 #71.
Howard borrowed from both of them, though he was never able to imitate their restraint.
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth would he want to? Howard's unbridled exuberance is what makes him unique and amazing. Would his fiction be better if he was as tidy and reserved as Mundy and Lamb?
"As nearly as such things can be calculated, Conan flourished about 12,000 years ago,"
This assertion always bothered me, since de Camp also seems to place Kull 20,000 years ago - despite Howard clearly placing Kull 100,000 years ago in "Kings of the Night" and a list of notes where he places dates next to some of his protagonists.
First off, my apologies for the delayed reply as my schedule has been insane the last few weeks.
ReplyDeleteI can see how one can easily infer that I meant Robert E. Howard tried or wanted to imitate Mundy and Lamb's "restraint," but I did not mean to imply any such thing.
My apologies for any confusion my phrasing may have caused.
No problem, sorry for misunderstanding. I'm quite a fan of the site, and I greatly appreciate you posting the tales!
ReplyDelete