Lancer/Ace Conan the Usurper: Rereading and Reminiscence

When I discovered, and started reading, the Lancer editions of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, many volumes in the series had already been in print a good five or six years, but it wasn’t old news. It wasn’t passé. No, on the contrary, Conan was at his peak in popularity and these editions were being reprinted on a regular basis and a few of the books were still scheduled for their first printing.

It was an exciting time for us sword and sorcery buffs. Conan’s literary popularity pawned the floodgates for all the other S&S heroes to be reprinted from their pulp days or for authors to create new characters and adventures.

By the time I read Conan the Usurper, I was already reading the novels and anthologies of Michael Moorcock’s Elric, Fritz Leiber’s Fafard and the Gray Mouser, and John Jakes’ Brak the barbarian (0ddly enough, despite my love for Lin Carter, I never read any of his Thongor of Lemuria books), to name a few.

And Sword and Sorcery made its way to comics with Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, being the most successful, but there were also others. DC put out Sword of Sorcery, which featured Fafard and the Gray Mouser adventures and there was Dax the Warrior with art and writing by Esteban Maroto in Warren’s successful black and white comic magazine, Eerie, which was followed by Marvel and it’s B&W comic magazines, such as Savage Tales and the Savage Sword of Conan.

It was an exciting time to be alive.

But let’s get to Conan the Usurper which is book 8 in the Lancer/Ace series of Robert E. Howard’s Conan published back in the late 60s and 70s. This edition was reprinted seven times between 1967 and 1973, the year Lancer went bankrupt.

Frank Frazetta did the cover. It depicts Conan in chains straddling a monstrous serpent that is rising above him to strike, which came from this passage: “Slowly, a huge, hideous, wedge-shaped head took form before his dilated eyes, and from the darkness oozed, in flowing scaly coils, the ultimate horror of reptilian development.”

Conan, in this book, is now in his early to mid-forties.

Conan the Usurper, 1967

Conan the Usurper (1967) by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp

Contents
“Introduction” (L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Treasure of Tranicos” (Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp)
“Wolves Beyond the Border” (Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Phoenix on the Sword” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Scarlet Citadel” (Robert E. Howard)

Introduction. As always, de Camp starts things off with a little essay on Howard and Conan.

The Treasure of Tranicos. The manuscript was found in the house of the Howard estates’ late literary agent, Oscar J. Friend. It started life as a Conan story that kept getting rejected, so eventually Howard changed it to a pirate tale. L. Sprague de Camp took the original story, edited it, and it was published in Fantasy Magazine for February 1953. It was then published in hardcover in the anthology King Conan (1953, Gnome Press). It was then reedited once again by de Camp, where he added elements such as the wizard Thoth-Amon to make it fit biographically into Conan’s life, then published in the paperback edition of Conan the Usurper. The story was then republished in The Treasure of Tranicos (1980, Ace Books), Echoes of Valor (1987, Tor Books), The Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon (Gollancz, 2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Three (1935-1936) (Del Rey Books, 2005).

The story was adapted in Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan #47-48 by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.

The story starts with our hero on the run from the savage Picts, having made his way west from his last adventure in Conan the Warrior in the frontiers to the coast.

To escape the Picts, he clambers up a steep stone crag, which turns out to be feared b the Picts and they abandon the chase.

Inside a cave, Conan finds a tunnel that has several chests in it and a closed door. Opening the door, a blue mist solidifies and black hands try to choke him, but he manages to break free to run down the passage. He realizes the demon isn’t following and is confined within the room; a room filled with dead men and treasure.

Meanwhile, the story shifts to a coastal fort, where Count Valenso of Korzetta is in hiding from something. Suddenly, Baracan pirates appear, seeking a treasure they believe the count has. They try to storm the fort but leave when another ship appears on the horizon. That ship contains Zingaran buccaneers, who had been following the pirates to find the treasure.

Add Thoth-Amon, the cave’s demon, Picts, and Conan finds himself in a rousing adventure against five adversaries.

Wolves Beyond the Border. The story is from an unfinished fragment and a one page synopsis that Howard wrote and de Camp finished to fit into Conan’s history. It was republished in The Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon (Gollancz, 2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003).

The story was adapted in Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan #59 by Roy Thomas and Ernie Chan.

This is a jarring tale compared to everything else in this series. For one thing, it’s told in first person. For another, Conan never appears in the story at all and is only mentioned by way of the characters talking about Conan and his followers rising up against the king of Aquilonia.

The Phoenix on the Sword. Originally published in Weird Tales, December 1932. It was republished in King Conan (Gnome Press, 1953), The Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon (Gollancz, 2001) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003).

Known to any Conan afficiando as the very first published story about the Cimmerian. Also known is that it is a rewriting of the rejected Kull story, “By This Axe I Rule!” Now I enjoyed this story, and consider it among the best Howard Conan stories. After all, it is fast-paced, exciting, and introduced the readers of the day to Conan for the first time. Nevertheless, I think the Kull story was somewhat superior. The Kull story is longer, adding more details of the treachery of those who would slay the king, whereas the Conan story is pretty much just the battle between the king and his betrayers. Also, there is a love story between a slave girl and a noble that shows more of Kull’s character as a caring monarch. In comparison, Conan is almost one-dimensional.

The Scarlet Citadel. This was the second Conan story ever published, and again, he is king of Aquilonia, betrayed by two neighboring kingdoms and placed in a pit to die. But this is Conan! There is sorcery, monsters, and plenty of great battles and skirmishes.

I wonder how readers of the day greeted these last two stories, being introduced for the first time to Conan, king of Aquilonia, only to have Howard write the next 16 Conan tales out of biographical order as a younger man, just learning the ways of civilization. Personally, I would have found it somewhat jarring and just a little off-putting.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Howard and think he’s a fantastic story teller, but I just find it baffling that he would start writing about Conan toward the end of his life, then proceed to write the rest of the stories sort of willy-nilly throughout the character’s younger years.

This is why I really like the Lancer editions because they follow Conan’s life chronologically from beginning to end. Say what you will about how de Camp and Carter edited the Hell out of Howard’s words, at least they tried to arrange the tales in a sort of biographical timeline that makes sense.

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Lancer/Ace Conan
Lancer/Ace Conan of Cimmeria
Conan the Freebooter
Conan the Wanderer
Conan the Adventurer
Conan the Buccaneer
Conan the Warrior

 

Sword and Sorcery loses another voice

Andrew Jefferson Offutt (August 16, 1934 to April 30, 2013)

Andrew J Offutt passed away yesterday, April 30, 2013, and sadly, his death seems to have gone relatively unnoticed.

Outside of Wikipedia adding his date of death and a small obit on the Locus website, if you do a search you’ll get very few indications that he passed. In fact, a search for “Andrew J Offutt obit” brings up another “Andy” Offutt, no relation, who passed away April 9th.

Which makes me sad. Maybe he wasn’t among Fiction’s Giants, maybe he didn’t have the name recognition of a Ray Bradbury, but Offutt had as much influence upon my life, both as a reader and a writer, as many other more heralded authors did.

Offutt was an author and editor in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He began his writing career winning a young writers or college writers writing contest in 1954 (I read this somewhere but can’t just now verify this), and the story”And Gone Tomorrow” was published in “If” magazine. Despite that, he didnt make his first professional sale with the short story “Blacksword,” until 1959 to Galaxy magazine. His first novel under his own name (he had at least two pseudonyms, J X Williams and John Cleve), “Evil is Live Spelled Backwards” was published in 1970.

He became a major player in the sword and sorcery genre shortly thereafter, which is when he came to my attention. In the 1970s, I devoured sword and sorcery. Anything by or related to Robert E Howard and his creations interested me, along with anything similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs and his sword and planet adventures.

That’s about when AJO arrived. I don’t believe he ever created a Conan-like barbarian as many of his peers did (e.g. Lin Carter’s Thongar, John Jakes’ Brak), but he was still very involved in writing pastiches of REH’a Cormac Mac Art and Conan. He also wrote what I thought was a memorable erotic parody of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series with “Ardor on Aros.” A novel I have been trying to find to replace my now time-lost copy.

But his greatest contribution might have been as editor for a top notch sword and sorcery anthology series, “Swords Against Darkness.” It consisted of five volumes of which I currently own the first two.

Seems I have a lot of eBay searching to do to restock my paltry collection of AJO paperbacks that I once owned but sadly today do not.

Offutt’s writing came out at a time when I was becoming an avid reader and an awkward writer. He impacted my formation as a writer within the fantasy genre positively. I owe him a debt of gratitude.

Thank you, Andy. May you rest well.

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The riddle… of steel

Thulsa Doom: Yes! You know what it is, don’t you boy? Shall I tell you? It’s the least I can do. Steel isn’t strong, boy, flesh is stronger! Look around you. There, on the rocks; a beautiful girl. Come to me, my child…

[coaxes the girl to jump to her death

Thulsa Doom: That is strength, boy! That is power! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it? Look at the strength in your body, the desire in your heart, I gave you this! Such a waste. Contemplate this on the tree of woe. Crucify him!

That, of course, is from the godawful movie, “Conan the Barbarian” (1982) starring Ahnold.

I only bring it up because in the scene in the crypt where Conan finds the Atlantean sword, it merely has some sort of crust on it that Conan easily smashes off.

But stop and think about that for a moment. If you took a piece of steel, and left it sitting out for a millennia, what would happen to the metal? It would RUST, of course. Unless it was stainless steel, in which case it would make for a lousy sword. But I doubt very much they even knew how to make stainless steel back then. It was still considered an art to create quality steel of any sort.

There was no rust on the blade. Now, maybe when they entombed that ancient Atlantean king, they were nice and protected his sword for all eternity by coating the blade with some sort of prehistoric petroleum jelly or possibly bee’s wax or Carnauba wax, which might have protected it and inhibited rust, thereby causing that crust that Conan had to smash off.

Maybe, but I doubt it, only because I won’t give that movie, or anyone associated with it, any credit for intelligence.

And I only bring it up because it’s been bothering me for 31 years!

Now I’m over it.

At least that portion of it.

And yes, I do obsess about that movie. Only because I was a huge Conan and Robert E. Howard fan at the time of it’s release. I looked forward to that movie more than any movie before or since. I couldn’t wait to see Conan on the big screen. He was a great literary character. Marvel was doing an excellent job portraying him in the comics. Conan was a natural for the big screen. What could go wrong?

Everything. That’s what. My eager anticipation of the movie was matched only by my utter disappointment in the final product.

I blame that movie for killing the whole sword and sorcery genre.

Yes, I’m bitter. And ranting about it is very cathartic.

Thanks for letting me vent.

And I promise, I’ll be posting my thoughts on the third Lancer/Ace Conan, Conan the Freebooter soon.

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More thoughts on swords

Growing up, I don’t know about you, but I always felt like I didn’t belong. Not in the “I have no friends, I’m an outsider, woe is me” kind of way, but in the honest to goodness, “I think I belong in a different time period” kind of way.

Some people believe these feelings of belonging to a different time are merely remembrances of past lives, like some people think nostalgically about their youth, you’re experiencing memories of having lived somewhere in another time and another place. Whatever. I don’t have the space or inclination to discuss that here and now.

My feelings arose from reading about Conan the barbarian and other sword and sorcery tales. I wished that I had lived in those times. How exciting. How deadly. As the proverbial 98-pound weakling, I’d have lasted all of ten seconds then. Just long enough to insult someone and then be disemboweled before I could withdraw my sword.

So let’s blame those feelings on a poor sense of self and my undiagnosed and untreated ADHD, shall we?

But Even today I think about living in the past, The Migration Period where barbarians descended upon Rome. Or the Viking days of pillaging and plundering. Of knights and chivalry. Or of the Renaisance and a rapier at your side.

I’d still probably live all of 10 seconds, but it would be a glorious 10 seconds. A lifetime of living by the sword, defending your honor and manhood, dueling for pride and country — in 10 seconds.

I’m not interested in guns, but as I’ve said, I’ve had a lifelong obsession with swords. I’ve had guns in my hands and honestly, they just don’t do anything for me. But a sword in the hand quickens the pulse, excites the imagination. Swords were manly, you had to face your opponent, eye to eye, knowing that the only thing standing between you and death was that 3 foot piece of steel and your ability to wield it.

Any punk can pull a trigger. Shooting someone doesn’t make you a man. That’s because, as the saying goes, you have no skin in the game. Most shootings happen from a distance as in drive-bys. Or the other person is unarmed. Where’s the honor in that? There is none. We lost the concept of honor with the gun.

But with a sword, there were rules, rules of honor, rules of etiquette, rules of fair play, and skin in the game. You knew it wasn’t just a game, you knew the odds were equal and you were just as likely to be injured as your opponent was. There were no drive-by sword deaths. You didn’t have punks with swords stabbing people to make themselves seem like men. And there certainly were no mass murders at the hands of a single unbalanced sword-weilding individual.

I admit I have a romanticized notion of what life with a sword was like. Much of it brought on by the books I’ve read and Hollywood’s notion of what sword fighting was like. And yes, I know that much of the Errol Flynn-styled dueling is as far from real sword fighting as you can get.

But still, I have my dreams of those times, of what it must have been like, and of how I’d have fared.

So let us, for a moment, return to those days. I’d like to like to think they had a chain of armoury stores called Swords and Roebuck, and you could go in and handle all their wares, from deadly side swords and curved sabers, to straight double-edged Viking swords and massive two-handed Claymores, to beautiful swept-hilt or cup-hilt rapiers with needle sharp blades. And you’d be able to try on different leather frogs and other scabbard attachments, all the while checking yourself out in the three-way mirrors. You’d be like, “You talking to me? Are you talking to me?” then you’d whip out your blade and thrust toward the mirror with a “Yeah, I look cool” smile on your face.

You’d go up to the register. “I’ll take these.” And the cashier would ask, “You want this bagged?” And you’d say, “No, I’ll wear them out.” And she’d say, “Cash or charge?” And you’d whip out your Renaissance Express and put everything on.

Then you’d step outside, dressed to the nines in all your fancy, creaking fresh leather accoutrements, a shiny new sword at your side that you withdraw and slash it back and forth a few times, smiling as it makes the vwoot! sound slicing through the air. Then, you insult the first likely person, and he runs you through before you can even defend yourself.

Ah. Those were the days.

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Swords, no sorcery, part 4

When last we visited our hero, he was impatiently waiting for his latest eBay purchase to arrive. He had believed it was going to be nothing more than another SLO, good for nothing more than hanging on a wall. Let’s join our story, already in progress.

Yes, so if you recall from my USPS post “The saga of the wayward package,” this final sword took two weeks to arrive from the time I actually won the bid and paid for it. In eBay time, two weeks seems like an eternity, at least from my experience (and it doesn’t help to have ADHD). Most purchases I’ve won arrive within a week.

And this one was particularly frustrating because it seemed the Post Office was conspiring against me.

Finally, it did arrive and I tore open the package with reserved zeal. I was excited, but guarded. I knew not to get my hopes up that I had won an actual real antique US Cavalry sword.

So when I pulled the sabre out I was pleasantly surprised. It had heft. It was solid. It was long. The blade alone was longer than all my other wall hangers (excluding the foils). It wasn’t sharpened and I can’t tell the difference between stainless and carbon steel, but this blade had some rust spots and corrosion.

The hilt was nice and tight. The knuckle-bow (hand guard) and the backstrap (a metal piece running the length of the grip) were solid brass and the grip itself is made of leather (or a really nice imitation of it) wrapped in brass wire.

The entire sword seems of good quality to my amateurish, know-nothing eye. But seems is a dangerous thing if you’re swinging a large sharp metal blade around (ok, this isn’t sharp but it does have a point).

The sword had a small brass nut in the pommel, holding it all together. So I unscrewed it and took the sword apart. Again, to my untrained eye, the tang seems solid. It isn’t a welded on rat tail.

So maybe I lucked out and actually bought a real sword for cheap? If so, then this will become my project sword. I’ll clean up the blade, attempt to sharpen it, and maybe by the time nice weather arrives, I can go out and do some test cutting. (First, I’ll have to build a cutting stand.)

Yes, I’m not going to just assume anything. I’ve got more research to do. Take more pictures and see if someone with more knowledge can tell me something about it. I have looked online and there are some carbon steel sabers for sale for around $50. That seems awfully cheap for a “battle ready” sword considering most other sword styles of that quality go for $100 to $300. Are sabers an exception? Maybe they aren’t as popular among collectors as Europeon medieval swords or Japanese katanas and that reflects in the price.

I don’t know. And I’ll check it out before I do anything silly.

But in the meantime, I’m now excited to own what is the closest thing I have to a real sword.

I can’t wait for my tax refund to arrive because I have my eye on a few battle ready swords from real quality manufacturers.

But that’s a other post for another day.

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Swords, no sorcery, part 3

In our last episode, there I was, learning about swords and waiting for my final disappointment to arrive in the mail.

In the meantime, my oldest son, who also has an interest in bladed weapons, expressed an interest in a katana.

He is almost 18. He is mature and responsible. Ok, why not?

But this time, I’ll research it. I’ll read reviews. Compare prices. And buy an affordable, yet good quality katana — not an HSN disaster.

So after much research, I decided on a Musashi Wind Dragon. A very good sword for under $100.

When it arrived I was surprised by how a real sword feels. It has heft. It’s solid. It has good fit and finish. The blade is razor sharp and I’ve tried to explain to him it is not a toy. It’s a weapon. Act like its a loaded gun. Don’t just swing it around carelessly.

You probably think I’m being overly protective. “C’mon, Ed. It’s just a sword.”

Just a sword. True. But consider that swords were designed for one thing: to kill, to cut through flesh and bone with minimal effort. A properly sharpened sword is as dangerous as the butcher knife example I used before. It’ll cut through steaks like a hot knife through butter. And your leg or arm or any other part of you that gets in the way. And we’re talking about a katana, that if you believe the legends, is so mystically sharp it’ll cut you just looking at it. So allow me to present a video of what can happen if you don’t respect the sword. It’s somewhat graphic and the anticipation of waiting for her to injure herself is almost painful in itself.

See? So what did she do wrong? She didn’t respect the sword. She was waving it around like it was a harmless stick. But a sword isn’t a stick. If you aren’t careful, mishandling a sword could prove dangerous as the girl in the video found out. There was very little force behind that blow and it laid open her ankle. So consider that even just dropping a sword, you could lose a toe or, if it hits your leg just right, it could severe the femoral artery and you’ll be dead before help arrives.

So observe safety at all times. Swords are not toys. That cannot be emphasized enough. Treat them with the idea they can hurt you. You wouldn’t wave a loaded gun around in a crowded room, don’t wave a sword around.

Always have someone with you. That way, while you’re screaming and bleeding, they can calmly call 9-1-1.

Never handle a sword when tired or under the influence of alcohol.

Be aware of your surroundings. If you are going to test swing it in the yard, or do some cutting, make sure no pets, people, or anything else is in the vicinity.

Have a sure, dry grip. You don’t want the sword flying out of your hand into the neighbors yard. (I have read the advice of tying the sword to your wrist with a cord to prevent it from flying away like you would a Wii controller, but to me having a sword swinging around on the end of a rope at arm’s length seems pretty dangerous, too.)

Plan your swing. Don’t just wave it wildly about. Don’t just take a haphazard swipe at that water bottle. Plan it all out, visualize it. Take slow test swings, like you were lining up a putt in golf, from where you’ll start the swing to where you’ll end up. Hopefully, not in your leg.

Always have control of the sword. This goes with planning your swing. Make sure of where your start point and end point will be, but also be cognizant of the blade’s entire trajectory and that it’s always solidly in your control.

In other words, don’t let its momentum control you like some baseball players allow the bat’s centrifugal force determine where it ends up — often in the catchers head. A sword won’t just leave a bruise, it’ll slice you open.

Here’s a good safety video put out by Sword Buyers Guide.

So, there you have it. Safety first.

And my son has a real sword before I do. How fair is that?

But finally, after almost 2 weeks of waiting (I felt like a kid sending off boxtops to fabled Battle Creek, Michigan for some eagerly awaited toy), the final sword that I had purchased before knowing what I was doing, came.

And when it came, I was expecting another scale-model replica disappointment. When I extracted it from the box, I was pleasantly surprised to find …

… that the story is continued in the next segment.

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Swords, no sorcery, Part 2

Ok. So where was I?

Oh, right. I was voraciously reading about swords, after the fact. So I’d made my purchases and then realized how stupid that was.

I already own two scale-model replica swords, and now I was thinking I just ordered more off of eBay.

Keep in mind, wall-hangers still look nice, they’re inexpensive to own, they require little maintenance (stainless doesn’t rust and doesn’t require oiling), and visitors will probably be just as impressed seeing them if they have little knowledge of swords also.

However, if you ever want to take them down and pretend to be Sir Galahad, or one of the Three Musketeers, or maybe even Conan, you have to be aware that they could become a dangerous flying object if they aren’t of good quality.

I mentioned the tang in my last post and showed a video of a katana attacking a HSN salesman.

So, the things I’ve learned so far: a quality sword is made of carbon steel and it has a full tang not a welded on metal rod (although I also learned that full tang is incorrect unless the tang is actually sandwiched between two handle pieces so you can see the metal edge, like on most kitchen knives)..

And real swords, quality swords, often called “battle ready” cost money. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If someone is selling something on eBay and they can’t answer even the most basic questions on it (who is the manufacturer, what it it made of, does it have a full tang, is it battle ready) chances are they’re selling a wall-hanger. Odds are very slim that you’ve lucked onto that rare find of a genuine antique offered by a naive seller. Things like that don’t happen. And since quality swords cost a few hundred dollars, don’t think that anyone is selling their collection for pennies on eBay. You might find a sword made by a quality manufacturer, but expect to pay for it.

So after learning more about swords, my first pre-knowledge purchase rolled in. I had picked up what had been described as Vintage Colada del Cid. Well, it was another scale-replica with a dulled blade of only 22 inches. Sure, it fits right in with the other two and really, it is kind of cool with the swept hilt (which is funny because swept hilts didn’t come into vogue until 4 or 500 years after El Cid died), but its still pretty much a wall-hanger. I’m not even sure how safe it is to swing.

Still, I’m polishing it up and it is still fun to ghost fence with. But I was disappointed it wasn’t a real sword.

So I waited for my next purchase. When it arrived I was fairly happy. These I knew weren’t battle ready swords. They were three “dueling” swords as eBay called them. But I could tell from the description they were old fencing foils with blunted ends. One is in pretty sad shape with the handle material unwrapping, but the other two look pretty nice with decorated cup hilts and a good sized foil blade. If I get some masks, maybe we can play in the back yard with them.

So that left one more sword. By now I knew not to expect much. I hadn’t paid much. All three purchases came to about $70. But this one was a tease. This is the one I wrote about a few blog posts ago that took weeks to arrive.

So now I’ll tease you in turn and tell you about that next time.

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Swords, no sorcery, part 1

From the moment I read my first Conan story by Robert E Howard, I had an interest in swords. Heck, it might have gone back to when I read “The Song of Roland” as a child.

As a teen I wanted to take up fencing, but unlike most sports, it wasn’t taught in school. Maybe it was and maybe my mom didn’t think it was a good idea. I don’t recall. I do recall that settled on other martial arts, generally of the non-weapons variety — judo, tai chi, and tae Kwon do.

Not being able to play with them in real life, I wrote fiction about them, some of it the sword and sorcery type.

But I never thought of collecting them. For one thing, where would I put them in the Navy? And it’s not a cheap hobby, as I’m finding out.

It wasn’t until I took my family to the renaissance faire that I realized, I really wanted a sword. I mentioned my desire to my wife who bought a couple off of eBay. Neither of us knew any better.

So for years I had two swords. One was a Scottish claymore style. The other, I have no idea what it is. I assumed maybe it was a Viking sword. What did I know?

Nothing as it turned out. Recently I got an ADHD bug up my ass. For those who don’t know what that is, that’s where we sufferers of that disorder suddenly become obsessed with something and dive in head first into a hobby or interest and we become consumed by whatever it is.

So I suddenly wanted more — a couple weeks ago. And I watched eBay and saw some good prices, and pulled the trigger.

And then, I started researching. I know, research should have come first, but I wanted them now! Only after I made my purchases did I discover my error.

I found a lot of good information on swords online and discovered that the swords I had were known as wall-hangers or SLOs (Sword-Like Objects) and were good for nothing more than display. And not even that in the case of the two I already had.

Aside from the fact that the swords are made of stainless steel (good for knives, not so good for swords), the two swords are actually scale models, so to speak, of the real swords.

Both have blades of about 22 inches, whereas a “battle ready” production Scottish Highland Claymore is generally a two-handed weapon with an overall length of over 55 inches and a blade length of 41 inches. Here’s an example of one over at Kult of Athena:

As you can see, that one is nothing like the one I own.

So drat it all. I just realized I’d purchased more wall-hangers because I didn’t research my topic, which is really unlike me. Sometimes I’ll spend months in the research phase just enjoying that as an end to itself. But here I jumped in head first without looking.

So what did I find out, aside from the fact that eBay offerings of swords are generally crap?

I found out that quality swords, not SLOs, are made of carbon steel — generally either 1045, 1060, or 1095, which represents the percentage of carbon within the steel. The higher the better. Stainless steel is OK for knives and blades under a foot in length, but the steel is too brittle for anything longer. Carbon offers strength and flex, something you need for a sword if your going to be doing anything other than hangin it on a wall.

Real swords have a solid tang–the part that isn’t the blade that the hilt (handle) surrounds. A quality tang is actually a continuation of the blade, slightly narrower. This is important, because some swords have what is known as a “rat tail” which is a small thin piece of metal welded onto the blade. In other words, it’s a terrifyingly weak point of the sword and if you were to actually hit something with it, it could snap off. Hell. it could snap off under forceful swinging and the blade could helicopter away from you toward who knows what or whom.

If you don’t believe me, here’s the infamous Home Shopping Network Katana Incident. Keep in mind that although my wall-hangers are not sharpened, for some reason decorative katana’s often are. Why? I don’t know, but it’s like having a 2 or 3 foot long sharpened butcher’s knife in your hand. Now imagine that blade breaking off and striking something. Now watch the video.

Think about that until I return with Part 2.

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Lancer/Ace Conan of Cimmeria: Rereading and Reminiscence

When people think of sword and sorcery, the first think that pops into their head are the tales of Conan the barbarian from the Northern wastelands known as Cimmeria, as originally written by Robert E. Howard.

But it is possible that those stories might have faded into the distant past as the majority of stories did that were published back in the halycon days of pulp fiction had it not been for the diligent investigations of L. Sprague de Camp. Howard’s legacy had been passed on from his father, who continued to work with REH’s literary agent after Howard’s death. But then things got convoluted and confusing. Dr. Howard passed the rights onto a friend, who passed them on to his wife and daughter. From there they ended up with a cousin’s widow, who passed them on to her children. Today, the rights are allegedly held by a Swedish Company, Paradox Entertainment Inc., although questions of copyright renewal arise.

But the point is, had it not been for the de Camp ferreting out Howard’s Conan stories, editing them, rewriting others, and publishing them in fiction magazines and in book collections in the 1950s, today when we speak of Conan, we might all just think of the late night talk show and not our beloved sword swinging barbarian.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m working my way through the Lancer/Ace Conan series of books that were released in the late 1960s and 1970s and blogging about each. I’ve finished the second book in the Lancer/Ace collection of Conan printed in the late 1960s and 1970s, Conan of Cimmeria.

First, here’s the book’s cover, illustrated by Frank Frazetta. This is one of my favorite illustrations of Conan by Frazetta. I had a reproduction of it on my wall back when I was a teen and first reading this series. Not sure what ever happened to it. Looking at it now, I think I’d like to purchase another, frame it, and put it in my library.

The Snow Giants by Frank Frazetta

The piece is titled, “The Snow Giants,” and also was used as the cover for the American rock band, Dust on their second album release, “Hard Attack.”

Conan of Cimmeria (1969) (by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Lin Carter)
Contents
“Introduction” (L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Curse of the Monolith” (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
“The Blood-Stained God” (Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Frost Giant’s Daughter” (Robert E. Howard, edited by L. Sprague de Camp)
“The Lair of the Ice Worm” (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
“Queen of the Black Coast” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Vale of Lost Women” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Castle of Terror” (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
“The Snout in the Dark” (Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)

Introduction. A brief essay on Howard and his writings on Conan and his creation of The Hyborian Age, an essay on the prehistory of Conan’s world.

The Curse of the Monolith. First publication was in Worlds of Fantasy Vol. 1, No. 1 in 1968 as “Conan and the Cenotaph” Later publication: Warlocks and Warriors anthology (Mayflower, 1971, ed. Douglas Hill) and The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989). The story was also adapted in Marvel’s black and white graphic magazine, The Savage Sword of Conan #33, scripted by Roy Thomas, penciled by Gene Colan, and inked by Pablos Marcos.

A non-Howard story. Conan is a Captain in the Turanian army on a diplomatic mission to Kusan. Returning, Duke Feng, a high noble of the court of Kusan, takes Conan into his confidence: there is an ancient, hidden treasure in a king’s tomb only he knows the whereabouts of. Conan agrees to help him and at the Duke’s behest because of all the dangers, dons all his armor. When they arrive at a tall stone monolith and all the metal digging tools are snatched from Conan’s grip and quickly he becomes ensnared in the unseen magnetic force until he too is stuck fast to the stone. Feng plays a weird tune on a pipe and an amoeba-like creature materializes at the top, slowly oozing it’s way down to devour Conan. As a de Camp/Carter story, it isn’t bad and has enough of a Howardian feel to it that it fits in just fine.

The Blood-Stained God. This is from an unpublished story by Howard, found and rewritten by de Camp, called “The Trail of the Blood-Stained God” that was set in modern Afghanistan featuring another Howard character, Kirby O’Donnell. In rewritten form, as a Conan tale, it was first published in 1955 collection Tales of Conan (Gnome Press, 1955).

The story concerns Conan seeking out the people who stole a treasure map from him. He comes upon a Kezankian prisoner being tortured and intervenes. In the process he is knocked unconscious but awakens in the company of an Iranistan named Sassan. They agree to become partners, until such time as it’s convenient that one kills the other, to find the treasure in an ancient, hidden temple in the mountains. As a modern middle eastern story crammed to fit into the Conan mold, it isn’t badly done, and in fact, has an interesting middle eastern flavor to it that, I’m guessing, de Camp couldn’t completely eliminate without totally rewriting the entire story. My only issue with the story is the supernatural element, which is a statue of a god coming to life and just sort of smacks of the story, “The City of Skulls” from the first book in this series, Conan.

The Frost Giant’s Daughter. An REH story that was rejected Weird Tales. Howard rewrote it, changed the character from Conan to Amra of Akbitana and retitled it, “The Frost King’s Daughter.” It was published in the March 1934 issue of The Fantasy Fan under the title, “Gods of the North.” L. Sprague de Camp found the story and rewrote it. The new version was published in the August 1953 issue of Fantasy Fiction. It was also published in The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press, 1953). Later publications were in The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003). The story was also adapted by Marvel in Conan the Barbarian #16 by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith.

Conan is on a battlefield facing the last Vanir. Conan defeats him but is exhausted and collapses. He is surprised to hear a woman’s laugh and he sees a beautiful, nearly naked woman. She taunts him and he rises to give pursuit. She dances just out of his reach as they travel miles toward the mountains, until she leads him into a trap set by her two frost giant brothers. (See cover illustration.) I’ve always enjoyed this story in the various incarnations of it I’ve read. I think its the dream-like quality of the story that even Conan isn’t sure any of it happened. In the end, he’s found half-frozen in the snow by his comrades who do their best to thaw him out as he tells his story. They disbelieve him until they manage to open his hand and find a gossamer raiment from the girl.

Conan the Barbarian #16

Conan the Barbarian #16, July 1972, cover by Barry Smith

The Lair of the Ice Worm. This De Camp/Carter stories appears in print here for the first time. It is later republished in The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989). I think the term “filler” is fitting here. It is a forgettable story and is thrown in simply to show what a 23-year-old Conan did between the previous story and the next.

Queen of the Black Coast. This story first appeared in the May 1934 issue of Weird Tales. It was reprinted in Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8, 1948, and The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press, 1953). Later publications were in Sword & Sorcery annual (Ziff-Davis, 1975), The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003). It has also been adapted by Marvel in Conan the Barbarian, with a story arc about Bêlit introduced in issue #57 and continued until #100. Most recently, it is the basis for three issue story presented in Dark Horse Comics’ Conan the Barbarian #10 – #12.

Bêlit! This is as classic a Howardian epic as there is. The ship Conan has hitched a ride upon is beset by pirates. Conan, the only real warrior on the ship and the only one wearing armour, is the sole survivor, and he battles the pirates like a living hurricane, until:

Befit sprang before the blacks, beating down their spears. She turned toward Conan, her bosom heaving, her eyes flashing. Fierce fingers of wonder caught at his heart. She was slender, yet formed like a goddess: at once lithe and voluptuous. Her only garment was a broad silken girdle. Her white ivory limbs and the ivory globes of her breasts drove a beat of fierce passion through the Cimmerian’s pulse, even in the panting fury of battle. Her rich black hair, black as a Stygian night, fell in rippling burnished clusters down her supple back. Her dark eyes burned on the Cimmerian.

Conan meets Bêlit the pirate and it’s love at first site. If you want to read it now, it’s available for free at Gutenberg Project. And lest I forget a chance to rip on the 1982 schlockfest known as Conan the Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. That movie took a small piece of this story and incorporated it rather poorly (Warning: SPOILER): the idea where Bêlit dies, promising to return to protect Conan in time of need. It was an embarrassing scene with Sandahl Bergman all silver, sparkly, and silly, saying, “Do you want to live forever?” Well, yes, if dying means I have to dress like that. Adapting “Queen of the Black Coast” as written would make a glorious movie, but as usual, Hollywood thinks they can write better than Howard and just pick and choose concepts instead of adapting stories whole cloth.

The Vale of Lost Women. An original Howard story that was published posthumously for the first time first published in The Magazine of Horror, No. 15, Spring, 1967. Later publication came in The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003). It was adapted by Marvel Comics in Conan the Barbarian #104.

More of Howard’s wonderful prose, but although this is a Conan story, it’s told from the point of view of Livia, a woman held prisoner by a Bakalah jungle tribe. Enter Conan, who is chieftain of a rival tribe at this point. Livia sneaks out of her tent (not much of a prisoner) and enlists Conan’s aid to free her, promising if he kills the king, he can have his way with her. Conan agrees and the next day his warriors launch their attack. Livia, not wanting to be ravished, escapes in the confusion, but ends up lost and wanders into an ancient valley that legend says is filled with ghost women. It is and they capture her to sacrifice to their giant bat-god. Will Conan save her?

The Castle of Terror. Another de Camp/Carter Conan pastiche that appears here for the first time and is reprinted in the The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989).

Another filler piece that is part “The Thing in the Crypt” and part “The Vale of Lost Women” in that here Conan is traveling across the plains, being pursued by lions this time instead of wolves, and he comes upon an ancient citadel this time instead of a rock cave, that is filled by male spirits this time instead of female. Anyway, the spirits are energy suckers, but they’ve been starved for so long, they can’t suck Conan’s energy. So they start to coagulate into one monstrous spirit being while Conan sleeps just as a group of Stygian slave traders enters to escape the rains. The spirit monster is attracted to them because there is more “food” upon which to eat. The monster made up of hundreds of heads, arms, and legs, attacks and in the confusion, Conan makes his escape.

The Snout in the Dark. This story was rewritten by de Camp/Carter from an outline and the first half of a rough draft started by Howard. It is published here for the first time and later reprinted The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume One (1932-1933) (Del Rey, 2003).

It’s a story of political intrigue and murder that takes place in Kush within the walled city of Shumballa. The city is inhabited by the Gallahs, but ruled by arristocratic rulers called Chagas. The Queen is Tanada, but a noble, Tuthmes, wants the thrown. So he plots to overthrow her using a wizard who uses a pig-like demon that can materialize out of thin air. The queen has thrown Amboola, a person loved by the Gallahs into prison. Tuthmes kills him using the demon, then blames Tanada for his death. While Tanada is out riding in the city, the angered Gallahs attack. Just as Conan appears, who saves her life and is rewarded by becoming her Captain of the Guard and lover. In the end he thwarts Tuthmes plans but the Gallahs rise up and kill all the Chagas and Conan is on the road again.

All in all, Conan of Cimmeria was a fun read, pastiches and all. If you enjoy Conan no matter what, it might be fun to seek these books out. They’re available online inexpensively (unless you’re looking for first editions) from various used book outlets and to me, with the Frazetta covers, they make a fine addition to anyone’s Conan collection.

Otherwise, if you just want your Conan as written by Howard, the Del Rey additions of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Conquering sword of Conan, and The Bloody Crown of Conan are mandatory. They present every Conan story as it was originally written, plus all of the fragments and outlines Howard wrote on his famed barbarian. Well worth seeking out.

So, until I finish Conan the Freebooter, remember: To crush your enemies — See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women! (Which, not surprisingly, is actually a quote that Conan the Barbarian movie lifted from Harold Lamb’s book, Genghis Khan: The Emperor of All Men.)

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Lancer/Ace Conan
Lancer/Ace Conan of Cimmeria
Conan the Freebooter

Lancer/Ace Conan: Rereading and Reminiscence

As I said in my previous blog outings, I planned on reading each of the original 12 Lancer/Ace Conan paperbacks and then blog my experience. So, surprise! I finished the Lancer/Ace Conan.

Frank Frazetta cover

Conan is the first book in the Lancer/Ace Conan series as edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. “But wait! The cover says ‘Volume Five!’” Yes it does and good catch. The first book published in this series was actually Conan the Adventurer. Conan is the first book in the chronological order as set forth by de Camp and Carter, but the fifth book published. Confused? Good. Me too. But first some particulars:

Conan copyright 1967, first published 1968 (Wiki says it was actually published in 1967, but who are you going to believe?)

Contents

“Introduction” (L. Sprague de Camp)
“Letter from Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Hyborian Age, Part 1” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Thing in the Crypt” (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)
“The Tower of the Elephant” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Hall of the Dead” (Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
“The God in the Bowl” (Robert E. Howard)
“Rogues in the House” (Robert E. Howard)
“The Hand of Nergal” (Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter)
“The City of Skulls” (L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)

First, take a long gander at that Frank Frazetta cover. He’s the reason many of us picked up the book in the first place. I was wowed by his art then, and I’m still a huge fan. He was the master and to me, everyone else is just paying homage to him.

Introduction. Conan starts out with an intro by de Camp that gives a brief bio on Robert E. Howard and a short history of sword and sorcery. It’s a short, but interesting read.

Letter From Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller. The Letter is written by REH himself and is to P. Schuyler Miller, a science fiction writer of the day (Miller also, oddly enough, completes the circle as he also collaborated with L. Sprague de Camp, on the novel Genus Homo, de Camp’s first work of fiction). Miller, along with Dr. John D. Clark, another sci-fi writer, had contacted REH concerning the chronological order in which they thought the Conan stories should be sorted (Howard published the Conan tales without regard to Conan’s age, jumping from a seasoned warrior back to a youth and back again). This letter is much the basis for the order that de Camp and Carter eventually put the Conan stories when they started to create the series of books, with stories of their own to fill the holes. This letter was originally published in the 1953 Gnome Press The Coming of Conan.

The Hyborian Age is, as any Howardian should know, is Howard’s own historical essay on the times surrounding Conan’s life. This is Part 1 of that essay. Part 2 appears in Conan the Avenger, the tenth book in the series. If nothing else, the essay shows the detail that Howard put into the creation of Conan and his world. This was originally published in parts in several issues of The Phantagraph in 1936. It was later printed in Skull-Face and Others, a collection of short stories put out by Arkham House in 1946; in The Coming of Conan (with revisions by John D. Clark); and in King Kull, by Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter and published by Lancer in 1967.

And now, we get to the meat of the collection, the actual Conan stories.

The Thing in the Crypt. When I read this collection the first time, I didn’t really pay attention to who wrote what. I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that REH wrote the majority of the works and de Camp and Carter were merely editors, doing whatever magic it is editors do. But I was wrong. And this is where the Howardian purists get their panties in a bunch. This very first story, the one that introduces us, more or less, to a teenaged Conan, was nothing more than fill written by de Camp and Carter to complete what they perceived to be a blank spot in Howard’s Conan history. For years now, I thought this story was written by Howard himself and only now, reading it this time, have I learned the truth. And what is the truth? That it isn’t a bad story. It stayed with me for 40 years. There must be something special about it. Part of this story, where Conan is running in the frozen wilderness in an attempt to escape a pack of wolves and climbs into a cave, which turns out to be the crypt of some ancient king, was brought to life in the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Conan the Barbarian. However, one of the reasons I dislike that movie so much is it stopped just when the short story gets good. If you remember, in the movie, he takes the sword from the skeletal hand of the king and swings it around. Then the hand moves. But instead of the king coming to life and battling Conan, which would have added a wonderful element of supernatural horror to the movie, the king’s skull just rolls onto the floor and Ah-nold said, “Crom,” with as much emotion as if he were saying, “Eggs.” Do yourself a favor and read the short story and forget the movie. This story was later reprinted in The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989).

The Tower of the Elephant. Finally, we get to a true REH story. Maybe de Camp and Carter have edited, maybe not. I’m not about to compare it to other versions I own just to point a finger at them like others do. Instead, I’ll just say, Howard does a great job portraying Conan, new to civilization and it’s strange ways, as an inexperienced youth wanting to fit in, yet quick to react to perceived slights. To prove his mettle, Conan goes to rob the Tower of the Elephant, despite warnings of strange guardians and an even stranger wizard. To go back to the movie, they condensed this whole story into a mere shell by having them scale a tower where Ah-nold ends up killing a snake worshiped by Thulsa-Doom’s followers. Forget for a moment that Howard created Thulsa-Doom as an antagonist to KULL, not Conan (can you tell I loathe that movie?), they gutted all the best of this story, removing all Howard’s supernatural elements, all the surprise, all the horror and wonder and replaced it all with pretty much nothing. If you want to see a good interpretation of it, find a copy of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #4 (April 1971). Barry Smith does a good job illustrating the tale. This story was originally published in the March 1933 issue of Weird Tales. It was later reprinted in Skull-Face and Others and The Coming of Conan. It has since been reprinted in The Tower of the Elephant (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1975), The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989), The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000), and Conan of Cimmeria (Del Rey, 2003)

The Hall of the Dead. According to the copyright page, was written by de Camp from an outline found among Howard’s papers in 1966 by Glenn Lord, a Howard scholar and his literary agent. Now lets get this out of the way, L. Sprague de Camp was no slouch when it came to writing. He wasn’t handed the reins to Howard’s Conan legacy based on his looks. The man had chops. And he didn’t take up the Howard mantle lightly. He studied. He became a scholar of Howard. He did more for Howard’s legacy than all of de Camp’s detractors combined. And he was one of the Big Names of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, creating nearly 100 books and countless short stories. This story is about Conan being pursued by mercenaries promised a reward by merchants Conan had robbed. Only one of them survives to follow Conan into an ancient, deserted city, where they run into… something. Originally published in the February 1967 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It has more recently been reprinted in The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989) and in its original form in The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria (Del Rey, 2003)

The God in the Bowl. Another original Howard tale. Classic Conan, caught thieving by a guard, he gets caught up in the murder of the owner of the warehouse, until others die mysteriously. This story was loosely adapted in Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #7 (July 1971) as illustrated by Barry Smith under the title, “The Lurker Within!” Originally rejected by Weird Tales, it was rediscovered and edited by de Camp and published in the September 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction and reprinted in The Coming of Conan. More recent reprints have removed the de Camp edits and it was published in the collections The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle and Conan of Cimmeria.

Rogues in the House. An original Howard story that was published in the January 1934 issue of Weird Tales. This is the story the cover art is based on. Conan is thrown in jail. A young nobleman, Murilo, visits him with an offer to slay a political opponent for him, Nabonidus, the Red Priest. In exchange, he’ll make sure Conan gets out of town. Murilo’s plans go awry when the guard who was supposed to assist Conan is arrested, but the ever-resourceful Cimmerian is able to free himself. In the meantime, Murilo decides he has to kill the Red Priest himself and slips into his compound. Conan, of course, could leave, not being bound to his promise to Murilo, but he has a code of conduct, crude as it may be, and he heads over to the Red Priest’s place also. This story, also, was very well interpreted by Barry Smith in Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #11 (November 1971). The story was reprinted in Terror by Night, an anthology edited by Christine Campbell Thomson and published by Selwyn and Blount in 1934; Skull-Face and Others, The Coming of Conan, and More Not at Night, edited by Christine Campbell Thomson and published by Arrow Books in 1961. More recently it was reprinted in Rogues in the House (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1976); The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989); The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle; and Conan of Cimmeria.

The Hand of Nergal. This story was finished by Lin Carter from a fragment Howard had started. Conan is a mercenary, who has found a mysterious golden talisman. Long after the battle, he finds himself alone and runs into a young girl who bids he return with her to meet her master. Curious, Conan follows. He meets a group of men who are all cursed by the local wizard. They tell him a tale of the Hand of Nergal and how the wizard wields it to get his way, but Conan has found the Heart of Tammuz, which they believe will protect him. Will he help them to assassinate the wizard. Sure, what the heck. Unfortunately, the Heart doesn’t protect Conan, and you have to read the rest of the story to find out what happens. This was the first time this story appeared in print, but it was reprinted several times after. In The Conan Chronicles by Sphere Books in 1989 and Beyond the Gates of Dream by Belmont Books in 1969. The original fragment was published in The Conan Chronicles: Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle by Gollancz in 2000 and Conan Of Cimmeria by Del Rey in 2003.

The City of Skulls. The first book ends as it began, with an original Carter and de Camp non-Howardian story. Conan, once again is a mercenary, along with his Kushite friend Juma, assigned to escort the king’s daughter, Zosara, to her wedding. They are attacked by warriors and all the Turanians are killed except for Conan, Juma, and Zosara. They are taken to Shamballah, the City of Skulls, where they are brought before the king, who the people worship as the reincarnated son of their god. Conan and Juma are sentenced to a life of slavery. They escape and return to attempt a rescue of Zosara. This is the story’s first published appearance and is only reprinted in The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989).

As I’ve said, it’s been 40 years since I read these stories (although I’ve read REH in other forms) and truth to tell, I really enjoyed this book. Maybe it’s part nostalgia on my part, I’ll admit, but something about these stories recaptured whatever it is they captured when I was a teen. I feel inspired.

For many of my generation, these were the books that not only introduced Howard’s greatest creation to us, but defined him as well. And I think it bears mentioning again, it wasn’t just the stories, it was the packaging with the Frank Frazetta cover as well. It is quite possible that without the Lancer/Ace releases of Conan, the Cimmerian might have slipped into the mists of forgotten literary heroes. How many other pulp heroes are, today, completely forgotten? How many authors? I know it’s hard to conceive that someone of Howard’s talent or his massive catalog of stories could have simply faded away, but we don’t need to worry about that. We can just be thankful for whatever circumstances in the late 1950s and early 1960s led to the popularization of sword and sorcery and the success of these Howard reprints and made the fantasy world a better place.

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Lancer/Ace Conan
Lancer/Ace Conan of Cimmeria
Conan the Freebooter