Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/27/conan-the-barbarian-the-compl.html
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Ah, Conan is one of The Shadow’s peers and one of the few characters to come from the pulp era of the early 30s and is still around today.
I heard about a new board game on kickstarter. Looks neat, but I don’t have the time or money for it.
Thanks for the link, grabbed it.
It’s always weird to see Conan drawn in non-Frazetta / non-Marvel style. I know that cover is from another collection and predates them by decades, but from the stories in the book I would not have gotten ‘cheerful Roman Legionnaire’! I guess that’s supposed to be when he’s King - or maybe the artist just never read the book.
Better than the original pulp covers where he’s a weedy looking British dude, I guess:
I see “Conan” on the cable box scroll, and am always disappointed.
I picked up a $5 version a few years ago and I am still working through it. They are great fun.
Howard was an interesting man, and then some.
Not sure how true to life it was but the Biopic The Whole Wide World is quite good.
Thanks for the heads up.
By Crom, what a bargain! At Conan’s Bargain Book Emporium!
I’ve always wondered about Ed Emshwiller’s “laughing Roman” Conan. Surely Emsh hadn’t read the stories. I picture a phone call from the editor along the lines of, “Hey, Ed, we need a quick cover…warrior type, sword, long hair, you know.”
It is only slightly embarrassing to admit, but I read all the Conan and swords and sorcery novels I could get my hands on during my teenage years, averaging about a book a week. This includes all of the original and expanded Conan universe by other authors (I think I counted having digested about 50 books, which is still woefully incomplete in the expanded universe).
A significant percentage of the words I have ever read have been about Conan.
This caused some small amount of weirdness over the years, when I found out words I had been using in conversation haven’t been in common English usage in decades (or sometimes centuries). To this day, I still occasionally find out I am mispronouncing words I’ve only ever read as a teenager and never heard aloud.
If this seems extreme reading as a teen, it was completely dwarfed by my older sister, who regularly inherited bags of harlequin novels from my patriarchal grandmother.
It was also entirely possible they just reused a cover from something else.
Also if you like sword and sorcery with a bit more fun and whimsy, try Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales. One of my favorite adaptations was a 4 part Marvel Epic series by Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola.
Please give us some examples.
Trull, trollop. Glaive, swordbreaker, man catcher.
Do I pass?
Eta: strumpet, portcullis, falchion, offal, ichor.
Yup, it is all whores and swords. Don’t look so shocked.
How about one little twonk?
L. Ron Hubbard dies at 30.
Robert E. Howard lives until 74.
What could go wrong?
This is also available at BN.com for nook for free
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/conan-the-barbarian-robert-e-howard/1124770900?ean=9788822851017
By all means keep using these words. ️
I’m still trying to bring back proper use of the word “ye.”
Bahahaha. Finally my impact on The Algorithm has messed up y’all’s recommendations instead of the other way around. Though needs more knitting and less office-style self improvement.