Conan or Clonan?

In this post, I am referring to the new Conan: The Barbarian movie. Let me state first that I have spent most of my summer reading, and in some cases re-reading, all things Robert E. Howard.

I've always been a fan of Conan, and I've been a peripheral fan of REH; however, it was within the past two years that I became a hard core REH fan.

My introduction to the character of Conan came from issues of Marvel Comic's The Savage Sword of Conan. These comics coupled with the "Arnan" movie drove me to a thirst for all things Conan that has lasted twenty years. As an adolescent, I devoured every Tor Conan paperback that I came across, gleefully innocent of the fact that most didn't match up to the real thing, and over the years, I have followed Conan in comic book form, traveling from Marvel to Dark Horse.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to become a REH fan, but it did. I read other things besides Conan, namely Kull and a few, odd Solomon Kane stories, but I never felt the need to dive into Howard's other creations. This changed with the recent Del Rey Robert E. Howard library series.

I bought them all as they came out, and read the Conan stories immediately. I must admit, I believe this is the first time I had ever read all of the Conan stories, I'm sure I had read most of them in one form or another - mostly various comics adaptions, but never all of them. My initial experience to the true Howard Conan stories was also through the Lancer editions edited by L. Sprague de Camp. Thus, I had never read un-edited Howard.

As I said, it was not until early this past spring that I began reading everything Howard that I could get my hands on. I bought all of the Del-Rey trade paper backs as they came out (minus The Horror Stories of REH, which I for some reason missed). It started because I was so impressed by the Solomon Kane stories that I immediately launched into the Kull stories, followed quickly by Bran Mak Morn, both "Best of" books, El Borak and sadly the last in the series "Historical Tales".

Wow. I am hooked. That being said, I finally found time to see the latest Conan movie at my local second-run-bargain theater. Even though I am now a solid REH enthusiast, I am not an REH Purist; meaning, there are REH fans that loath pastiche. It has been years since I've read any Conan pastiche (other than in comics, which I have read a mountain or two of), and while I am certain I most likely would not enjoy the Tor pastiche novels as much as pure REH, I do have fond memories of reading them. I will have to revisit them one day.

Even though I am not an REH Purist, I did not have high hopes for the new film. My feeling was that if it was better then Conan The Destroyer, or at least as good as "Arnan" The Barbarian (which I still enjoy watching to this day), I would be happy.

I left the theater happy with the $3 I spent on watching it. My son, who is neither an REH fan, nor a particularly big Conan fan, enjoyed it as well. Yes, I have problems with the overall plot, particularly, I had problems with the fact that for nearly two hours our heroes are dreading the bad guy completing and activating the mask. Spoiler Alert: Big Bad Guy does so, but the mask doesn't seem to do much of anything. It was akin to Sauron gaining the One Ring and after much dread, it just looks pretty on his finger.

There are other quibbles, Jason Mamoa has brown eyes, not blue, etc.. However, it was a fun movie. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough of a box office smash to warrant more Conan movies and that is sad. I can promise you this, it's better then, and truer to Howard's vision then the television show Conan the Adventurer, and the cartoon of the same name and don't even get me started on Conan and the Young Warriors.

Overall, three stars. It is not Conan, but is just more Clonan, but check your brain at the popcorn stand and enjoy.

My Absence, Lin Carter and my Appendix N.

Not that I have lots of followers, but to those few who do stop by here every now and then, and to those who have never been here until now, I want you to know I'm still here.

Sadly, there has not been much gaming in my life as of late. Summer is always difficult for me. I travel all year long, but summer is my busiest season, with often no rhyme nor reason as to when I will return home. Over the past five years, this has led to often several weeks, and sometimes months without gaming, which in turn often fuels my gamer ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and too frequently leads to the premature death of a campaign before its due time. It is often too hard to return to a game where that initial spark of energy is gone.

I don't think that will happen with my Darkling Ways campaign. The spark is still there for me; however, this summer bleeding too soon into fall (and I don't want to think about the looming Alaskan Winter just around the corner) it is not just my schedule which is hectic. One of my long time gaming buddies has returned to school, and can not make our regularly scheduled night (Tuesdays) for the foreseeable future. Another player is bogged down in school work as well, and working his ass off to graduate sooner versus later.

We've looked at changing the night in the past, but for some reason, Tuesday always pops up as the best night, so I'm not sure if we will investigate that proposal further. I would love to game on a Friday or Saturday night, but those are reserved as date nights for my wife and I (and as much as I love gaming, I love kindling our relationship even more); Sunday afternoons would be keen, but we always seem to have family stuff going on that day, as does everyone else. So Tuesday it will most likely remain. This means Osamu the Cleric of Solomon will be handed into my not-so-tender hands as an NPC (I've had a bad track record with NPCs and/or henchmen in this campaign, not intentionally, I have adopted a strict policy of "let the dice fall where they may"--this has also led to two character deaths). Osamu will, hopefully, be there for when his controlling player can join us again.

I'm still plugging away at world creation, but have not had the time nor inclination to post anything lately. More will come.

I have been busy reading. Initially, I was reading Appendix N from the DMG; however, by pure chance this has led more into an interest in literature "pre-Tolkien" and not necessarily Appendix N (although the two often collide). My sole inspiration for this has been Lin Carter. I picked up a copy of his "Imaginary Worlds" a non-fiction speculation of his written about fantasy and part of the famous "Ballentine Adult Fantasy" series of which he edited (1969 - 1974).

Carter is an author that I had always marginalized as a simple hack; and not unfairly. As an author, he rarely rose above the average author of fan fiction, and as a Robert Howard enthusiast, his name along side L. Sprague de Camp, lives in infamy for me. Carter had another side: he was amazingly well read, and had a love for the genre of fantasy that is inspiring and admirable.

This has led me into a side project. I'm exploring what fantasy was before Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings forever changed it. It is a not a slam against JRRT. I love LOTR and have a particularly soft spot in my heart for The Hobbit. It is undeniable that the genre of fantasy changed after the immense popularity of LOTR took the world by storm, and has degenerated (in my opinion) into the realm of Tolkien impersonation.

In effect, I'm building my own Appendix N. There is more to come on this in future posts.

As to gaming, the gang is getting together Labor Day for a board game. Talisman I believe and I hope to have a session of Darkling Ways as well.