Andrew J. Offutt: The Conan Pastiche

Introduction: Around the age of 12, I read a steady diet of Conan pastiche. A Conan pastiche (to me the word "pastiche" sounds like a good cheese) is a story featuring the character Conan, but not written by Howard (although a pastiche is not a cheese, some Conan pastiche are indeed cheesy). It was not until the recent publication of Howard's works in their unadulterated entirety that I made the move from a "works of Howard fan" to a "Robert E. Howard fan". While I am now solidly in the camp of REH Fans, I am not a pastiche snob, meaning, I will give a pastiche a good shake without immediate dismissal. Some recent lucky finds at a yard sale have given me liberty to dive into the realm of Conan pastiche. Some works I am re-reading after 25 years, others I am reading for the first time.

The Skinny: Conan and the Sorcerer and Conan The Mercenary were written in 1978 and 1980 respectively. They were published by Ace Fantasy, written by Andrew J. Offutt and featured about 50 internal illustrations each by the artist Esteban Maroto.  They were written as "Mercenary" being a sequel of sorts to "Sorcerer"; however, Offutt recaps the events of "Sorcerer" in "Mercenary" well enough that either could be read independently of the other. A third book exists, The Sword of Skelos, that I have not read which makes a trilogy. Andrew J. Offutt has written much Howard pastiche for the character Cormac Mac Art and is also known for his stories adding to the "Thieves World" series, particularly for the creation of the character Shadowspawn. Offutt is also well known for editing the Swords Against Darkness volumes. Esteban Maroto is no stranger to Howard's creations either. He created the famous chain-mail bikini worn by the Howard inspired, but Roy Thomas created, character Red Sonja and was at the forefront of the "Spanish" invasion of comics during the 1970's. His early works were featured in the Warren Publishing titles Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.

The plot (SPOILERS ALERT): The two stories take place shortly after Howard's tale "The Tower of the Elephant", feature a very young Conan (his age is placed at 17 in the books) in search of wealth and adventure. The plot of "Sorcerer" has Conan trying to steal a relic called the Eye of Erlik from a sorcerer's tower. While doing so, he stumbles across two other thieves who beat him to the prize; however, it is Conan who is caught by the sorcerer, one Hisarr Zul. Zul is a sorcerer that steals men's souls and forces their soulless bodies into his servitude. Conan encounters some of Hisarr Zul's soulless guardians and is freaked out by them. As punishment for his attempted burglary, Hisarr Zul steals Conan's soul and traps it in a mirror. He then places Conan on a quest to steal back the Eye of Erlik from the thief that made off with it (a lovely she-thief named Isparana). In "Mercenary", after recovering the Eye of Erlik and slaying Hisarr Zul (events which occurred in "Sorcerer"), Conan has recovered the mirror that holds his soul, but is still separated from his soul within. He sells his services to a young, lovely lady noble named Khastris. Conan journeys with her to her homeland in hopes that her cousin, the Queen of Khauran, can join him with his soul (he learned from a sand lich in "Sorcerer" that one way of retrieving his soul is to have the mirror shattered by one wearing a crown). In Khauran, he gets embroiled in a sorcerous plot to take over the kingdom.

The Good: Offutt does not attempt to imitate Howard; instead, he writes in his own voice. This is something I prefer in pastiche versus someone trying to sound like Howard. While Offutt is not, in my opinion, the strongest of writers, he is accomplished enough to push a "Howardesque" yarn along. Complementing Offutt's writing are a healthy dose of illustrations by Esteban Maroto. See examples (with my apologies for my slip-shod photography):

Conan battling the Sand-Lich (Conan and the Sorcerer)

Illustration of Isparana of Zamboula (Conan And the Sorcerer)

Conan rescuing Lady Khashtris from night assassins (Conan the Mercenary) 

Conan brooding over his murdered lover (Conan the Mercenary)

The Good (continued): The highlight of both short novels for me was Conan's encounter with the Sand-Lich. An indestructible creature clearly out of his league, Offutt doesn't miss a chance to highlight Howard's character and his defiance of death and giving up. All in all, Offutt writes a fast paced yarn, full of well written fight scenes. His portrayal of Hyborea is well done, written with simple, yet effect prose.

The Bad: While I found "Sorcerer" an enjoyable, if forgettable read, "Mercenary" held far less appeal for me. There were three main reasons for this. 1. "Mercenary" lacks a memorable villain. There is a sorcerer introduced in the prologue of the story, but he never makes another appearance. In the prologue, the sorcerer uses his dark arts to make an aging baron appear years younger. The baron hopes to use his young appearing form to strengthen his place in a circle of nobles that have denied him respect and power. It is never explained what this mysterious sorcerer is gaining from this. 2. An interesting back story is set up with the Queen of Khauran, each generation will see the birth of a witch that must be killed. Because of this curse the Queen kills her own child. This has much potential, but is not exploited in the story and rests as back ground noise. 3. Offutt has Conan playing detective in this story, and in the climax, Conan disguises himself as a seer in order to ensnare plotters against the throne in a trap. This rung untrue for me. While I recognize that Conan, as told by Howard, was more intelligent then most give him credit for, it just didn't seem very "Conan-like" to me.

The Ugly: The biggest crime committed in the two short novels occurs in "Mercenary". Offutt commits the crime of "telling versus showing". In about three short paragraphs, he narrates a tale of how Conan is kicked out of the courts of Khauran, falls in love and later in that chapter, broods over the murdered corpse of his young lover vowing that from here on out he will not fall in love. It was way too much story crowded into a short narrative chapter.

Odd Observations: The sand creatures that Conan battled in the 2011 movie Conan the Barbarian share a similarity to Offutt's Sand-Lich in "Sorcerer"; I wonder if there was an inspiration here? The 1997 - 1998 TV series Conan the Adventurer, features as a main villain a sorcerer named Hissah Zuhl (played by Jeremy Kemp). The names Hissah Zuhl and Hisarr Zul strike a certain similarity that again makes me wonder, was Offutt's idea aped for the series?

Conclusion: While I wouldn't recommend these stories as a nice jumping on point for potential Howard enthusiasts, I would recommend them at least as decently written pastiche without glaring non-Howardian faults. The illustrations by Esteban Maroto help elevate them on the list for Conan pastiche collectors, if not as must-haves, then certainly as entertaining curiosities.  

Conan? Not so Much.

As I stated in a previous post, I spent much of my summer reading on all things Conan and Robert E. Howard in anticipation of the movie Conan The Barbarian (2011). While the new movie was largely a disappointment for me, re-reading, and in many cases reading for the first time, Howard's works was time well spent. I also sought out new "Conan" experiences. I watched, or attempted to watch both the 1997- 1998 TV series Conan the Adventurer and the 1992-1994 cartoon of the same name.

From the get-go, it was obvious to me that the live-action show, Conan the Adventurer, was going to be poor pastiche at best. I remember catching a few episodes when the show was originally airing, and thinking, "what is this happy horse-shit?" Meaning, anyone watching this show expecting Robert E. Howard's Conan, will be disappointed.

The Conan of the show is played by Ralf Moller. The Conan he portrays is kind, jovial and honorable. While REH's Conan could be those things, he was more of a loner and could be very unkind when the situation warranted. In the show Conan travels with a band of Adventurers to include Otli, a clever dwarf often used as comedic interlude, played by Danny Woodburn; Bayu, a martial-artist that must overcome his natural tendency towards greed and is often the brunt of Otli's jokes, played by T.J. Storm; and Zzeben, a mute, staff wielding, acrobatic warrior, played by Robert McRay. Many episodes often include the character Karalle The Queen of Thieves, who is a cross between Belit of "Queen of the Black Coast" fame and the character Valeria of the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian staring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Karalle is played by Aly Dunne.

In the show, Conan and crew face legions of bad guys that work for the evil sorcerer Hissah Zuhl (played by Jeremy Kemp). Hissah Zuhl enslaved Cimmeria and killed not only Conan's parents, but also the love of Conan's life (a girl that Conan met and fell in love with in a span of five days). I found it laughable that Hissah Zuhls minions were so easily beaten. They could have easily been replaced with cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica.

All in all, I couldn't stomach this awful Conan pastiche. I found the cartoon of the same name slightly better then the live-action Conan the Adventurer.

In the cartoon, Conan has a shield with a design of a phoenix upon it that comes to life via magic as a fledgling named Needle.This almost sounds cool, but Needle (irritatingly voiced by Michael Beattle) is the Jar-jar Binks of the Hyborean universe.

In the cartoon, Conan is voiced by Michael Donovan. In my opinion, Donovan tries way too damn hard to sound like a tough guy. He over does the machismo of his voice. Instead of machismo, he obtain cheese-mo. I will stop with the negatives of the show. The truth is, I suffered through four episodes and couldn't take it any more.

However, there were a few things I liked. The main bad guys of the show were serpent people. These are torn right from the pages of Howard's Kull stories, but have more in common with the same serpent people portrayed in Marvel Comics Kull books back in the day.

I may not have given the show that much of a chance, but I did find one episode I particularly enjoyed, "Hanuman the Ape God". It is worth mentioning that the Ape God of this episode is named after the Hindu Ape-God of the same name. In this episode, Conan and clan encounter an alien that is apish in appearance. The alien, Hanuman, is being held captive by the wicked ruler of a city that Conan comes upon. Conan ends up freeing him and returning his magic rod to him that allows Hanuman to return to his people. I really dug the science fiction angel of this episode, and appreciated how it reminded me of Robert E. Howard's Conan tale, "The Tower of the Elephant".

Unfortunately, despite how much I enjoyed the episode "Hanuman the Ape God", the show over all failed to resonate with my barbaric soul.

My Own Sword and Sorcery Game: Part 2, Influences

I'm still in the note-taking process of mashing together my own role playing game, but it is fun just thinking about it.

Step one of this process is declaring "what" my game is going to be about. In three words: Sword and Sorcery.

The definition of Sword and Sorcery I prefer is by Philip Martin in his work The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest.

"Sword and Sorcery [is characterized]...by a strong bias towards fast-paced, action rich tales set within a quasi-mythical or fantastical framework. Unlike high or epic fantasy, the stakes tend to be personal, the danger confined to the moment of telling" (Martin 35).

I also like Karl Edward Wagner's definition: "[Sword and Sorcery is]...a fascinating synthesis of horror, adventure and imagination...displayed to best effect in a universe in-which magic works and an individual may kill according to his personal code". I like KEW's definition for it puts "horror" first. This is important for I feel that the proper father of Sword and Sorcery is Robert E. Howard.

The roots of Sword and Sorcery, just as those of Epic/High Fantasy, stem from the great epics (Gilgamesh, Beowulf, etc.) and the much later Lord Dunsany story, "The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth"; however, it was Howard's 1929 Kull story, "The Shadow Kingdom" which solidified what Sword and Sorcery would become, even if the phrase Sword and Sorcery would not be coined until 30 years later by Fritz Leiber. Howard, of course, was heavily influenced by his contemporary, H.P. Lovecraft, and horror, and/or a sense of dread, was often a large factor in the Sword and Sorcery writings of Howard, and those of Clark Ashton Smith.

Thus I've begun my project by deciding upon my own early Appendix N. I'm sure the list will change as I go along.

Another early decision I'm trying to arrive at is a good working title. The best I've come up with so far is: Sword and Sorcery Game Algorithm, or SAGA. It is a mouth full, and the use of the word "Algorithm" is forced as an synonym for "System", but works as an acronym in the spirit of Fudge and GURPS, and it serves as a tribute to both the North sagas and the 1960's Swordsmen and Sorcerer's Guild of America, whose membership included Lin Carter, Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance, just to name three.

My second option is MOSS-Game, My Own Sword and Sorcery-Game.

Advice, votes and suggestions are welcome.

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.

Conan, Illustrated through the Ages

In anticipation of the new Conan movie being released in August of this year, my mind and free reading time has been occupied with the writings of Robert E. Howard. I have not been reading his Conan stories, per se; however, I did recently read his Kull stories and his Bran Mak Morn tales. Currently, I'm reading El Borak.

The character of Conan has always intrigued me, but (and here REH enthusiasts are free to hate me) my favorite media to enjoy Conan tales has always been in the medium of comics, be those stories directly REH inspired or not.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good Conan yarn written by the man himself, "Red Nails" and "The Tower of the Elephant" being two of

my favorites, but I'm quickly finding that REH's writing was more powerful with his other, lesser known characters versus with Conan. I believe this is because in Conan he found a marketable character that become more "bread and butter" for him rather then exploratory.

I did a quick search of Conan illustrations, and found it interesting to show case how the Barbarian has been depicted in illustrative interpretations throughout the years.

Pictured above is, as far as I know, the first professional attempt at illustrating the character of Conan. It is an interior illustration from the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales. Consequently, "The Phoenix on the Sword" was Howard's first Conan tale successfully sold (and was of course a re-write of the Kull tale "By This Ax I Rule"). The illustration above is by Jayem Wilcox. I don't know much about Jayem Wilcox. A quick Google search didn't turn up a whole lot, but (as far as I know) he goes down in history as the first artist to render a drawing of Howard's Conan character.

Howard's Conan tales were granted "issue cover status" nine times in Weird Tales. All nine covers were by fan favorite Margaret Brundage. Brundage was known (and favored) for her images depicting bondage and flagellation of women, her women being soft, with a doe like innocence, their faces contorted with fear from the situations Brundage depicts them in. I find her illustrations charged with an undercurrent of repressed sexuality.

Of the nine Conan covers she painted, only three prominently featured the Cimmerian. Those were the May 1934 issue ("Queen of the Black Coast"), August 1934 ("The Devil in Iron") and December 1935 ("The Hour of the Dragon).

So from 1932 to 1935, these were the depictions of the Cimmerian.

The next time Conan would grace the cover of a magazine was in August 1948, issue 8 of Avon Fantasy Reader ("Queen of the Black Coast") then again in October 1949, issue 10 of the same ("A Witch Shall be Born").

Avon Fantasy Reader (hereby referred to as AFR) was published from 1946 to 1952 and ran for 18 issues in total.

AFR published (reprinted actually) works by REH, HPL, C.L. Moore and A. Merritt just to name a few.

I could find no information regarding who illustrated the covers for these two issues. While I find that I prefer the depictions of the damsels in Brundage's illustrations, I find the depiction of Conan on much the same mark as first Wilcox and later Brundage depicted him.

I find the cover of issue 10 interesting as it features a Conan without a "shaggy mane". Conan as depicted here has a decidedly Romanesque look to him, which I also noticed in Jayme Wilcox's interior illustration for "The Phoenix on the Sword". On another side note, I do dig the "target" bra worn by the damsel on the cover of issue 10. It is a bit, mesmerizing.

In 1950, Conan would move from magazine covers to his first collected book editions, the

hardback editions published by Gnome Press from 1950 to 1957.

GP would published seven volumes, collecting together not only those stories which first saw light in Weird Tales but also included previously unpublished tales. It was with Gnome Press that L. Sprague de Camp would begin his habit of rewriting Howard tales to "improve" upon them.

It was also in the final volume of these editions, The Return of Conan (1957) that the first Conan pastiche was born, written by Bjorn Nyberg.

Five of the seven volumes had Conan depicted upon their covers. 1950's Conan the Conquerer (AKA, The Hour of the Dragon) featured a simple drawing of another Romanesque Cimmerian by John Forte. Forte was primarily a comics artist best known for his work on Legion of Super Heroes.

The Coming of Conan, 1953, was for me the most interesting interpretation of Conan to date. The art is by Frank Kelley Freas. Freas was a Hugo award winning artist. He did illustrations for books, magazines, album covers and even NASA (more of his art can be found here).

It wasn't until Lancer Books published Conan the Adventurer in 1966, that Frank Frazetta would paint his character defining images that would influence every artist that depicted Conan after him.

Groo versus Conan, Thomas Yeats, New ERB Book

Yes. It is true. A Groo/Conan comic is in the mix. I read about this news on one of my favorite Conan related blogs Crom! here. I direct you there for more information, not to mention, if you dig Conan, like I dig Conan, you will enjoy the blog.

I would also direct you to Thomas Yeat's website here. While Sergio Aragones is drawing Groo, Yeats is drawing Conan. At his site, link above, sample pages can be found.

When visiting Yeat's site, I would direct your attention to the fact that he has advertised there an upcoming project that Edgar Rice Burrough's fans will find exciting: an adaption of The Outlaw of Torn titled The Outlaw Prince. More details found here.

This puts me in a good mood, a new Conan comic featuring my favorite Conan parody in Groo, plus a new ERB project.

Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword #1 - Dark Horse Comics

It took me a long time to get my hands on this magazine. I was out of town the week it was published in December. I ordered a copy on-line and finally received it today.

REHSS, is meant to be reminiscent of the sprawling black and white Savage Sword of Conan magazines published by Marvel in the day. I was in fact disappointed when I read the previews of this issue and learned that it would be in color. Those disappointments are lain to rest.

I can't heap praise upon this book, but I really wanted to. Don't get me wrong, while I believe the price of all comics is too high, with the 80 pages of this particular one and a price tag of $7.99, it weighs in at just under .80 a page.

It is not a Conan cash cow for Dark Horse. There is a Conan tale in the first issue, actually the first part of a three parter, and I would be shocked if there wasn't Conan tale in each issue, but the Cimmerian is not all that is offered.

In issue one, the reader is given a Conan tale, a John Silent story (actually, this is kind of a sequel to Dark Horse Comics Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil), a Dark Agnes story, an El Borak text piece, and a Bran Mac Morn story.

The Conan story is written by Paul Tobin, illustrated by Wellington Alves. It takes place when the Cimmerian was a young thief. At ten pages, it moves fast and is part one of a three part tale.

Next up is John Silent. This tale is well written and self-contained. The art is engaging.

The text piece about El Borak is more of a teaser for issue 2 which will feature Francis X. Gordon in his first comics appearance with art by Tim Bradstreet.

Part one of a two part Dark Agnes story is next. This was the weak link of the book, but was not terrible.

Worm of the Earth is an adaption of a Bran Mac Morn story of the same name. The script is by Roy Thomas and the art is Barry Windsor-Smith. This is a reprint and makes up the bulk of the book (37 of 80 pages). This was a treat and worth the price of admission alone. Please Dark Horse, more of stuff like this.

All in all, very well done. I would have liked it to have been magazine sized and in black and white, but those gripes aside, this was great.

The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 1

Today being the 105th anniversary of the birth of Robert E. Howard, put me in the mood to review an item that I read many months ago: The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 1. This 544 page book is published by Dark Horse Comics and reprints The Savage Tales of Conan the Barbarian #'s 1-5 and The Savage Sword of Conan #'s 1-10. Both were black and white magazine sized comics originally published by Marvel Comics beginning in August 1973, tSToC, and August 1974 for tSSoC.

This isn't new, I know, again I am late for the bus, I believe at this present time Dark Horse is now up to volume 9 of the series. They intend to reprint all issues of The Savage Sword of Conan. Being a comics guy, I did know of these when they first came out, and I did buy volumes 1 and 2 when they were published; however, I did not take the time to read volume 1 until nearly a year ago, and I have not yet read volume 2.

This isn't from a lack of love for the series, as a teenager, I bought as many issues of Savage Sword as I could get my hands on. I spent much time in art class practicing my skills at drawing Conan while using Savage Sword as a model. I fully intend to buy all the volumes, but I'm slow to the party.

There are many remarkable things about the stories reprinted in the book. I could rave about the Roy Thomas scripts or go on about the art of Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Jim Starlin or Alex Nino, amongst others; however, that has been done elsewhere.

I will write briefly of the story reprinted from Savage Sword #6 "The People of the Dark". It is from a story of the same name originally written by Robert E. Howard. The original incarnation of the story was first published in Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, June 1932 (found here via the Creative Commons Attributions/Share Alike Licence). It was not a Conan story. There was a character named Conan the reaver in the story, but he was Gaelic, not Cimmerian. Roy Thomas adapted the story by REH, and in his version, it is transformed into a Conan story. Many, including myself, believe the Conan of this story was catalyst or earlier incarnation of the Conan first read in "The Phoenix on the Sword" (Weird Tales December 1932--which in turn was a rewrite of a rejected Kull story "By this Axe I Rule!", May 1929).

The art for Roy Thomas script is done by Alex Nino. Nino at the time had drawn for Marvel before, but would hit his stride with black and white horror comics: Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and later Heavy Metal. Being a regular reader of Dark Horse Presents, I am passingly familiar with his work there as well.

"The People of the Dark" is a past-lives story and in both REH's original tale and in the Roy Thomas script, it is told in first person narrative by the protagonist John O'Brien. During the course of the story, John O'Brien is on a quest to kill another man whom he is competing with for the affections of a lover. He is rendered unconscious and has a dream memory of an earlier life in which he was Conan. In REH's version, this is not the same Conan known in popular culture, in Thomas' script, it is the very same.

In both versions of the story, REH's views on barbarism vs. civilization are apparent, plus I came away with a social commentary (or perhaps better stated as a social influence) of evolution. The Children of the Night/Little People/reptile like humanoids of the story are explained as perhaps an earlier incarnation of homo-sapiens that faltered and failed. Howard no doubt was aware of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

The Conan of the story, regardless of which version is read, can not be colored as a hero at on-set. He is seeking to kill another man over a woman that he seeks as a prize. There is a moment of redemption at stories end that does allow him to be viewed in a more heroic manner.

In summary, it was interesting to read both versions of the story and do a comparison. It is also nice to read a Howard tale upon this day of his birth and still enjoy it 78 years after inception to still find it enjoyable and relevant.

In Remembrance of Robert E. Howard

Because there is nothing original I can say of Robert E. Howard on the day of his birth...I've read a number of great posts about Howard today...I will post one of my favorite Frank Frazetta paintings. I first encountered this image on the cover of Red Nails edited by Karl Wagner. Enjoy.