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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 1, 2019 10:08:01 GMT -5
Over the years, when asking people how they were first introduced to Howard, I have found that most of the stories are pretty similar, but I still love hearing them. Recently, while listing to the Appendix N Book Club podcast, one of the guests told his story of how he was first introduced to Howard and, once again, I was captivated by the story. So, share with us how you were first introduced to the writing of our favorite author, Robert E. Howard.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 1, 2019 10:10:27 GMT -5
I’ll start this thread with my story.
In February of 1979, my parents told me they were divorcing and, inside of a week, I was living with my mom across town. She started working full-time, so as an 11 year old, it was a pretty lonely time period for me. That first weekend after we moved, my mom needed to buy clothes for work, so I had to go with her to the mall (Ugh!). I wandered around the mall until I stumbled upon a gaming store. I went in and perused the bookshelves. And that was when I stumbled upon the Frank Frazetta covers on the Ace paperbacks Conan and Conan of Cimmeria. I took my little treasures home and finished them before the next morning. I was hooked!
The next week, my mom needed to go back to the mall (not a problem this time). I immediately went to the gaming store and found more paperbacks by this Robert E. Howard guy. And then, while looking around some more, I stumbled upon Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Scanning the books, I realized I could actually be Conan with this game, so that was how I ended up hooked on Dungeons & Dragons.
Because of Howard, Conan, and D&D, by the summer of 1979, I had a group of three friends who all shared my newfound interests and we played D&D nearly every day that summer. So, I certainly owe a debt of thanks to Howard.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 11, 2019 18:11:53 GMT -5
I found a great “Discovering Howard Story” by author James Reasoner, who writes some great westerns, though I actually like his Civil War series the best. I came across a book edited by W.C. Jameson titled: Notes From Texas: On Writing in the Lone Star State (TCU Press, 2008). Reasoner has a chapter in the book titled, “Barbarians, Cowboys, and Private Eyes: How I Became a Texas Writer.” In it, he tells his story of discovering Howard. It’s a great story!
He tells of being an avid reader when he was young and how he pestered his mother to take him into Fort Worth so he could go to Barber’s Bookstore. As he then explains: “As vividly as if it were yesterday, I remember standing in front of that rack and looking down to see a paperback with a particular striking cover.” His reaction was just like mine: “Whoa!” As he continues: “The artist was Frank Frazetta. The book was the Lancer Books edition of Conan the Usurper. And the author was Robert E. Howard.”
Reasoner then read Howard's bio and, having grown up in the area himself, he was familiar with Cross Plains, Texas. As Reasoner wrote, “I struggled to wrap my brain around the idea that somebody from a little town like Cross Plains, Texas, could write a book that would have a great cover like that. Then I read the stories and fell in love with Howard’s writing, a relationship that continues to this day.”
Even better was when he learned that Howard was born in Peaster, so he convinced his older brother to drive him over there one day. Just like today, there wasn’t much to see, but as Reasoner wrote, “that didn’t change the fact that one of my favorite authors had been born in a little Texas town even smaller than the one I lived in.”
And then, the best line in the chapter, he added: “If Bob Howard could do it, I asked myself, then why couldn’t I?”
Kudos to Reasoner for following in Howard’s footsteps and writing some great novels.
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Post by themirrorthief on Sept 11, 2019 19:37:13 GMT -5
well my intro was through the comics. I bought an issue of Conan the Barbarian 2 and I truly loved it. Soon after I read some of the paperbacks but none were by Howard. At the time it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. The first actual story by Howard that wasn't a comic adaptation was a Solomon Kane that I found online. I was blown away by the character, been a hardcore fan ever since tho it started back with conan 2 which I think was a Roy Thomas tale?
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Post by themirrorthief on Sept 11, 2019 19:40:58 GMT -5
so I kinda got exposed to three geniuses at once...Howard, Smith,andThomas
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Post by deepermagic on Sept 12, 2019 10:32:54 GMT -5
Being born the same year Conan the Barbarian was released, I sort of always had an awareness of Conan via the movie (and I was vaguely aware that he was in the comics). Conan was just always there. But my first encounter with Howard came years later.
You'd think being born in the 80's, a fan of Conan and sci-fi/fantasy in general, I would have gravitated to Dungeons & Dragons, but no. That was satanic in my house. So it wasn't until a few years before 2010 that I was introduced to D&D. I had the same experience as linefacedscrivener above. I could create a character like Conan! or Strider! We started with 3.5, gravitated to 4th, and then the group broke up, but I was still thirsty for more. I nabbed some old AD&D books (among other stuff) for my own enjoyment. I read through the old DMG, and being an eager reader, I was delighted to discover Appendix N. From that I created my own book list and scoured the internet and used book stores. I read my first Howard story via Project Gutenberg. I don't recall the first, but it might have been Red Nails.
I was flat out astounded at the writing. I'd bought the lie that pulps were trash. Howard was a bolt of lightning. From that point on I devoured whatever I could get my hands on. That eventually led me to the Del Rey books. I still scour used book stores and my Howard collection has grown.
The characters and the genre were the obvious initial draw. The excellent writing/storytelling ability, like I said, was like lightning. It sat me up and drew me in. But the wind that whipped everything into a blaze, what drew me to Howard, beyond his art, though certainly revealed in his art, was an anti-modernism that is reminiscent of other writers I admire; G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien. That is, he saw the world that was and saw the world that is (or what it might become) and realized it was moving in the wrong direction. That recognition bleeds through his art and resonates deeply with me. I'm sure there are thousands of other writers who shared the same feeling, but Howard, along with the other greats I mentioned, infused it better than most. And as much as they had in common, Howard certainly was certainly different. He was an American. He didn't receive the same education. He was young. He didn't see the same level of success as the others. He never married. Etc. I could relate to him better than I could an Oxford don or a London journalist. I don't buy in to all of his (or their) philosophies, but he did and does offer loads of inspiration. All of that still draws me to Howard.
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Post by johnnypt on Sept 12, 2019 11:48:51 GMT -5
Dad takes me to go see Conan the Barbarian in 1982, that summer I go to the bookstore and stocked up on Ballantine Tarzan & John Carter and LOTR and the Ace Burroughs and Conans. First Conan comic was MTE #19 with the color versions of Iron Shadows and People of the Dark.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 12, 2019 18:05:49 GMT -5
well my intro was through the comics. I bought an issue of Conan the Barbarian 2 and I truly loved it. Soon after I read some of the paperbacks but none were by Howard. At the time it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. The first actual story by Howard that wasn't a comic adaptation was a Solomon Kane that I found online. I was blown away by the character, been a hardcore fan ever since tho it started back with conan 2 which I think was a Roy Thomas tale? The Lair of the Beast-Men! Yep, that was a Roy Thomas story based on Howard's "The Hyborian Age." I know a lot of people that came to Howard through the comics, which I always thought were well done. For me, I was visiting my Dad and went up to the 7-11 to get a Big Gulp, M&Ms and some comic books. My favorites at the time were Spiderman and the Fantastic Four. I had, the previous month, discovered Howard. As I was turning the spinning rack, I spied "Conan the Barbarian," and I am sure my heart leaped. I thought, "They made a comic of Conan?" When I looked at the issue, probably around the late 80s, like 88 or 89, I knew which comic I was going to start collecting when my Dad dragged me along to the antique shows. I am reading the book by Roy Thomas, Barbarian Life: A Literary Biography of Conan the Barbarian. It is volume 1 of 2 published by Pulp Hero Press, 2018. I am really enjoying it. He talks about the background to each comic, how he developed the idea, who did the art, the lettering, etc. It is fascinating to get the background on the comic itself, so I highly recommend it to everyone. I just read about issue 2 the other night, so it was fresh in my mind. A great plus for reading the book is for the fact Roy Thomas will be the guest of honor for Howard Days 2020 (that just doesn't sound right? 2020?).
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 12, 2019 18:17:28 GMT -5
Being born the same year Conan the Barbarian was released, I sort of always had an awareness of Conan via the movie (and I was vaguely aware that he was in the comics). Conan was just always there. But my first encounter with Howard came years later. You'd think being born in the 80's, a fan of Conan and sci-fi/fantasy in general, I would have gravitated to Dungeons & Dragons, but no. That was satanic in my house. So it wasn't until a few years before 2010 that I was introduced to D&D. I had the same experience as linefacedscrivener above. I could create a character like Conan! or Strider! We started with 3.5, gravitated to 4th, and then the group broke up, but I was still thirsty for more. I nabbed some old AD&D books (among other stuff) for my own enjoyment. I read through the old DMG, and being an eager reader, I was delighted to discover Appendix N. From that I created my own book list and scoured the internet and used book stores. I read my first Howard story via Project Gutenberg. I don't recall the first, but it might have been Red Nails. I was flat out astounded at the writing. I'd bought the lie that pulps were trash. Howard was a bolt of lightning. From that point on I devoured whatever I could get my hands on. That eventually led me to the Del Rey books. I still scour used book stores and my Howard collection has grown. The characters and the genre were the obvious initial draw. The excellent writing/storytelling ability, like I said, was like lightning. It sat me up and drew me in. But the wind that whipped everything into a blaze, what drew me to Howard, beyond his art, though certainly revealed in his art, was an anti-modernism that is reminiscent of other writers I admire; G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien. That is, he saw the world that was and saw the world that is (or what it might become) and realized it was moving in the wrong direction. That recognition bleeds through his art and resonates deeply with me. I'm sure there are thousands of other writers who shared the same feeling, but Howard, along with the other greats I mentioned, infused it better than most. And as much as they had in common, Howard certainly was certainly different. He was an American. He didn't receive the same education. He was young. He didn't see the same level of success as the others. He never married. Etc. I could relate to him better than I could an Oxford don or a London journalist. I don't buy in to all of his (or their) philosophies, but he did and does offer loads of inspiration. All of that still draws me to Howard. That is interesting that your first real Howard story was read on Project Gutenberg! That is the first time I have ever heard that. I was in my heyday of playing D&D when the movie came out and once it did, I had other kids in the neighborhood suddenly interested in playing D&D. It was a fun time. While I was playing, that one troubled youth killed himself and it was blamed on D&D. For a while there, the Satanic accusation was bandied about at my group, but we somehow weathered that storm and kept on playing. I also totally agree with you, especially when you said, "I was flat out astounded at the writing." Because I was into Howard and D&D, and because I had exhausted every encounter by Conan to include in my homemade D&D games, I started looking to other authors at the time. Just about everything I picked up and read either bored me or disgusted me. No one, and I mean no one, wrote like Howard in the fantasy, sword-and-sorcery field (not sure anyone does today either - too many authors trying to be the next Tolkien), so I ended up not reading much fantasy at the time. I have since gone back and found many authors I now like, having missed when I was younger. Great story. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 12, 2019 18:26:35 GMT -5
Dad takes me to go see Conan the Barbarian in 1982, that summer I go to the bookstore and stocked up on Ballantine Tarzan & John Carter and LOTR and the Ace Burroughs and Conans. First Conan comic was MTE #19 with the color versions of Iron Shadows and People of the Dark. Oh, man! 1982 was a good year for you! You also had a good Dad. I had already discovered Burroughs before Howard. When growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, we had Channel 20, and every Sunday morning I watched the double-feature: A Tarzan movie followed by an Abbott and Costello movie. It was like a religion with me. The Tarzan movies led me to reading the Tarzan books, which led me to the John Carter books which blew me away. I devoured those books. Recently, because I am reading from Appendix N following the Appendix N Book Club list, I reread At the Earth's Core. I forgot how much fun ERB can be.
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Post by Char-Vell on Sept 13, 2019 8:09:37 GMT -5
Marvel comics King Conan was my first exposure.
I learned there were Conan books when a kid at school had a Robert Jordan paperback. I got the Ace Conan the Warrior at Red Food Store and read Red Nails and Beyond The Black River.
Shit was on after that.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Sept 15, 2019 17:41:25 GMT -5
Hi Char-vell. Where did you grow up? I'm not familiar with Red Food Store.
One thing I find interesting is how many people have fond memories of not just discovering Howard, but often where they discovered it. You recalled the Red Food Store. Johnnypt mentioned a bookstore. For me it was a gaming store for the books and D&D, and 7-11 for all my comic needs.
Thanks to everyone who has shared their story so far.
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Post by Char-Vell on Sept 16, 2019 6:59:43 GMT -5
Hi Char-vell. Where did you grow up? I'm not familiar with Red Food Store. Southeast Tennessee. Red Food stores were a big deal, then they were bought out by BI-LO who were in turn bought out by Food City.
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Post by Erik on Sept 16, 2019 20:03:36 GMT -5
My first intro to the character was the '82 Conan the Barbarian movie, which my dad took me to see, at age 8, in the theater. I still think my dad was really cool for doing that. I remember liking the film, but I still didn't read anything related to Conan until a few years later when I saw an issue of Conan Saga in the magazine aisle at the local grocery store. I think the cover art drew me to it, and when I opened the pages, I was hooked. I would jump at the chance to go shopping with my mom so I could stand in that aisle and read the latest issue, and she would even buy one for me from time to time.
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Post by Ningauble on Sept 29, 2019 14:26:13 GMT -5
Mine is embarrassing, to say the least. The Conan comic was available in Swedish on and off for years when I grew up, but I was put off by the ad featuring the homicidally glaring muscle mountain in the fur diaper. Then when I was 12 Äventyrspel (actually Fredrik Malmberg's company) started publishing a series of fantasy classics. The first two volumes were Conan (the de-Campified version), and I was still allergic to that fur diaper, so I ignored them. But I did buy Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné, and various others, and by the time Leiber's Swords and Deviltry was published, when I was 14, I knew that I wanted the complete series. So I got a couple of Howard books -- Conan the Wanderer and Conan of Cimmeria, as I recall -- and was hooked. It turned out that the first Conan book was impossible to get hold of, but when I was 19 I finally got it from a friend, at the price of SEK30 and a cup of coffee (a damned good price). So in short, I was not a fan, but I got over my prejudice against that fur diaper and realised that it has little to do with the real thing.
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