Conan the Barbarian: The Complete Collection - free Kindle edition

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.

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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:

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I see “Conan” on the cable box scroll, and am always disappointed.

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I picked up a $5 version a few years ago and I am still working through it. They are great fun.

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Howard was an interesting man, and then some.

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Not sure how true to life it was but the Biopic The Whole Wide World is quite good.

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Thanks for the heads up.

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By Crom, what a bargain! At Conan’s Bargain Book Emporium!

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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How about one little twonk?

L. Ron Hubbard dies at 30.
Robert E. Howard lives until 74.

What could go wrong?

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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

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By all means keep using these words. :crossed_swords:

I’m still trying to bring back proper use of the word “ye.”

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Amazon’s algorithms are inscrutable, indeed:

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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.

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