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Post by deuce on Feb 5, 2016 17:12:30 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2016 19:24:06 GMT -5
Roy Thomas was the writer the that got me into REH. The early SSOC issues always had some interesting articles about Howard and Conan. It's amazing to think that Conan was selling as well as Spider-man in the 1970's and now barely selling 7,000 copies a month.
I have the first 60 SSOC - The extra pages in SSOC was ideal for Roy Thomas's adaptations of the original short stories. The beautiful artwork by John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Neal Adams and the gang made this magazine exceptional. best comics ever! Thomas and Buscema even made the Decamp stories tolerable - that was after issue 30. With the CTB I only have the Queen of the Black Coast comics, bound in 2 volumes. I love the Amra arc where Conan fights the Marvel Tarzan, Amra. Great stuff!
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Post by Jason Aiken on Feb 5, 2016 23:26:20 GMT -5
At least he's honest about Conan: The Destroyer
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Post by KiramidHead on Feb 5, 2016 23:54:09 GMT -5
Destroyer wasn't really Thomas' fault, honestly. The bits I've read of his script honestly weren't that bad, even if I think killing off Subotai three pages in was a bad choice. -_-
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Post by deuce on Feb 6, 2016 0:20:30 GMT -5
Destroyer wasn't really Thomas' fault, honestly. The bits I've read of his script honestly weren't that bad, even if I think killing off Subotai three pages in was a bad choice. -_- The graphic novel RT based off his own screenplay was much better than CtD, IMO.
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Post by KiramidHead on Feb 6, 2016 1:03:40 GMT -5
Destroyer wasn't really Thomas' fault, honestly. The bits I've read of his script honestly weren't that bad, even if I think killing off Subotai three pages in was a bad choice. -_- The graphic novel RT based off his own screenplay was much better than CtD, IMO. Oh, definitely. Horn of Azoth may have had its weak points, but at least there was no Malak in it.
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Post by KiramidHead on Feb 6, 2016 22:20:40 GMT -5
He also tended to drag out Olgerd Vladislav from time to time in SSOC.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2016 3:14:09 GMT -5
Yeah, Olgerd appeared in the 'Witch Shall be Born' sequel in SSOC 6. In that issue Olgerd was killed by the 'The sleeper beneath the sands.' From what I remember Marvel got the rights to the Decamp's work around SSOC 31. That issue was the beginning of a 2 part adaptation of a Decamp Conanisation 'The Flame Knife,' of course this was originally an El Borak story called 'Three-Bladed Doom.' Once the Decamp stories were added to the Marvel Conan Roy Thomas had no choice really but to reintroduce good old Olgerd Vladislav - resouceful guy that one escaping the sleeper beneath the sands. His escape from the sleeper was not explained until around issue 50.
I wonder how Roy would have handled Conan if Marvel never got the rights to the pastiche work and he only added to the original REH Conan?
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Post by Von K on Feb 8, 2016 7:40:33 GMT -5
Thanks for the links Deuce!
Even considering that he wrote Conan for such a long run and had to deal with the Comics Code, he's probably the overall best of the pastichers. He tends to get overlooked from that angle because he worked in comics rather than straight prose.
Must have been great for Roy in the early days to be able to read the unpublished REH material from Glen.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Feb 22, 2016 19:04:29 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Mar 19, 2016 10:48:15 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Mar 19, 2016 12:04:08 GMT -5
I should note that John C. Hocking provides some great insights in the Comments section.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Mar 20, 2016 21:45:29 GMT -5
That's interesting that Roy Thomas put in a mechanism that allowed the readers to disregard those past Conan issues published after he left the title. It's actually a brilliant idea. If you're coming back to read Roy Thomas, he's basically telling you, "You don't have to read anything you missed." If you were reading the title all along, he's basically saying, "if you want those stories to count, they can count, if not, they don't." A nice strategy.
The only Roy Thomas non-King Conan comics I've read were Dark Horse's Road of Kings. I thought his King Conan was pretty solid and I enjoyed Road of Kings, so I might give this first arc a try. There are plenty of comics like these in the back issue bins given the era.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 13:33:44 GMT -5
When Roy Thomas returned to the SSOC he had Conan relate his adventures to the Khitan pirate Kuchum. From what I remember Roy Thomas included the run of Jim Owsley. here's the cover to that issue.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2016 14:19:24 GMT -5
I just picked up the recent issue of Alter Ego. This issue includes the return of Roy Thomas to Conan in the 1990's. Also included is how Roy Thomas was to adapt the Round-Robin tale 'The Challenge from Beyond' by REH, H.P Lovecraft, C.L Moore, A. Merrit and Frank Belknap Long in the SSOC. The adaptation was to be a Conanised version of the tale. There are 3 pages of art by Fred Harper in this issue of Alter Ego. I have merely scratched the surface concerning the wealth of information in this issue - this is a period that has been unjustly neglected. If you grew up in the days of Marvel's Conan ( even if you did not.) I highly recommend this issue of Alter ego. Here's a link to the preview. twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1232
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