Did Moorcock write Conan pastiches?

[alexander]

I'm re-reading Elric's adventures.
In the preface to a French edition Moorcock wrote something I find intriguing. He said that Elric started when in 1959 John Carnell asked him to write a series for Science Fantasy. Moorcock originally thought Carnell wanted him to go back to his work on Conan. Moorcock mentions that a little earlier (than 1959 then) he had drafted/sketched/outlined (that 's the best translation I can find for "ebaucher") a few Conan adventures for Fantastic Universe with the authorization of L. Sprague de Camp. Carnell wanted something different and the rest is history.

Does anyone knows anything about these Conan adventures???

[Von K]

Here's how Mike describes it in his essay The Secret Life of Elric of Melnibone, Sojan, Savoy Books, 1964:

I had been in touch with Sprague de Camp and Hans Santessen of FANTASTIC UNIVERSE about doing a new series of Conan Tales.


... Later on in a pub Ted and I were talking about Robert E Howard and Ted said he'd been thinking of running some Conan-type stuff in SCIENCE FANTASY. I told him of the FANTASTIC UNIVERSE idea which had fallen through when FANTASTIC UNIVERSE folded, and I still had the stuff I'd done and would he like to see it. He said he would. A couple of days later I sent him the first chapter and outline of a Conan story.


... Ted liked it - or at least he liked the writing, but there had been a misunderstanding - he hadn't wanted Conan - he had wanted something on the same lines.


This suited me much better. I decided I would think up a hero as different as possible from the usual run of S-and-S heroes, and use the narrative as a vehicle for my own 'serious' ideas.


Michael Moorcock

[Von K]

Here's some more:

Long ago, before the dawn of time, when all my old friends and heroes were still alive and I was an enthusiastic teenager editing a magazine called Tarzan Adventures, I was asked, I thought, to write a story about Conan the Barbarian, creation of Robert E Howard, who committed suicide in Texas in 1936, some four years before I was born. I was already in touch with L. Sprague de Camp, a writer whose own reputation was chiefly for humorous fiction but who had a huge admiration for Howard and had helped initiate a new series of Conan stories which continue to this day.


To tell you the truth, by the time I began to write my Conan story I was a little jaded with barbarians, sorceresses, legendary mystical jewels and unstable vamps and felt that Howard's wonderful Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon had taken the character as far as he could reasonably go. So when John Carnell, editor of Science Fantasy magazine, told me he didn't actually want a Conan story but "something along the same lines," I offered him Elric, the character I had been writing in private and discussing with my friend the author and illustrator James Cawthorn


I was actually tired of sword-and-sorcery as the genre then existed. I admired the work of C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett and Fritz Leiber and continued to respect the vitality and invention of Howard, but I had little time for the likes of Tolkien and Lewis, whom I regarded as bad popular children's writers whose moral attitudes were highly questionable and whose particular syntheses had none of William Morris' vision, Howard's manic originality or Leiber's sophisticated flair. I was, I suppose, bored with the form itself. So when Carnell commissioned the first Elric story I decided I would try to do something as different as possible from everything which then existed.

Michael Moorcock



Excerpt from Introduction to Tales of the White Wolf, White Wolf Inc, 1994.

The upshot being, I suppose, that I don't think Mike has ever revealed what exactly was in those outlines he discussed with de Camp, Santesson and Carnell.

[karasuthecrow]

As far as I know, Moorcock only wrote Tarzan pastiches, but he designed Elric to be the anti-Conan.

Conan is a wanderer, Elric is an emperor.
Conan hates wizards, Elric is a powerfull warlock
Conan is strong and muscular, Elric is weak and needs potions to remain helathy.

[alexander]

Aug 14, 2021 17:30:54 GMT -5 Von K said:

Here's some more:

Long ago, before the dawn of time, when all my old friends and heroes were still alive and I was an enthusiastic teenager editing a magazine called Tarzan Adventures, I was asked, I thought, to write a story about Conan the Barbarian, creation of Robert E Howard, who committed suicide in Texas in 1936, some four years before I was born. I was already in touch with L. Sprague de Camp, a writer whose own reputation was chiefly for humorous fiction but who had a huge admiration for Howard and had helped initiate a new series of Conan stories which continue to this day.


To tell you the truth, by the time I began to write my Conan story I was a little jaded with barbarians, sorceresses, legendary mystical jewels and unstable vamps and felt that Howard's wonderful Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon had taken the character as far as he could reasonably go. So when John Carnell, editor of Science Fantasy magazine, told me he didn't actually want a Conan story but "something along the same lines," I offered him Elric, the character I had been writing in private and discussing with my friend the author and illustrator James Cawthorn


I was actually tired of sword-and-sorcery as the genre then existed. I admired the work of C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett and Fritz Leiber and continued to respect the vitality and invention of Howard, but I had little time for the likes of Tolkien and Lewis, whom I regarded as bad popular children's writers whose moral attitudes were highly questionable and whose particular syntheses had none of William Morris' vision, Howard's manic originality or Leiber's sophisticated flair. I was, I suppose, bored with the form itself. So when Carnell commissioned the first Elric story I decided I would try to do something as different as possible from everything which then existed.

Michael Moorcock



Excerpt from Introduction to Tales of the White Wolf, White Wolf Inc, 1994.

The upshot being, I suppose, that I don't think Mike has ever revealed what exactly was in those outlines he discussed with de Camp, Santesson and Carnell.

Thank you very much! I half expected there were unpublished Conan stories by Moorcock hidden somewhere that maybe Fred Malmberg could publish. One can dream :-)

[alexander]

Aug 14, 2021 18:13:40 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

As far as I know, Moorcock only wrote Tarzan pastiches, but he designed Elric to be the anti-Conan.

Conan is a wanderer, Elric is an emperor.
Conan hates wizards, Elric is a powerfull warlock
Conan is strong and muscular, Elric is weak and needs potions to remain helathy.

Thank you.

Moorcock also wrote pastiches of John Carter (Kane of Mars) so it did not seem too far stretched that maybe he would have written Conan pastiches in his early days.

[robp]

There's a great interview with MM on the Appendix N podcast

[alexander]

Aug 15, 2021 4:07:56 GMT -5 robp said:

There's a great interview with MM on the Appendix N podcast

Thank you so much!!!

[efb]

In a comment on the Multiverse forum, Moorcock confirmed that "Kings in Darkness" was originally intended to be a Conan story, "a few pages" of which were completed. He also confirmed that the plot was outlined by his friend and artistic collaborator James Cawthorn.
www.multiverse.org/forum/q-a/q-a-%E2%97%A6-questions-for-mike-news/the-q-a-archives/elric-of-melnibon%C3%A9-archive/2398-kings-in-darkness

[alexander]

Aug 15, 2021 14:39:31 GMT -5 efb said:

In a comment on the Multiverse forum, Moorcock confirmed that "Kings in Darkness" was originally intended to be a Conan story, "a few pages" of which were completed. He also confirmed that the plot was outlined by his friend and artistic collaborator James Cawthorn.
www.multiverse.org/forum/q-a/q-a-%E2%97%A6-questions-for-mike-news/the-q-a-archives/elric-of-melnibon%C3%A9-archive/2398-kings-in-darkness

Thank you!!!
These few lines from Mr Moorcock explain it all "I never did more than a few pages of a proposed Conan story for Fantastic Universe. The magazine folded before I could do any more and I put it aside. This is what I first showed to Carnell. He then asked me to do something different, so I did something as different as I could."
So I have my answer.

Thanks to everyone who were kind enough to reply to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Von K]

You're welcome alexander!

[Von K]

Aug 15, 2021 4:07:56 GMT -5 robp said:

There's a great interview with MM on the Appendix N podcast

Great podcast - thanks for the reminder.

[Von K]

Aug 15, 2021 14:39:31 GMT -5 efb said:

In a comment on the Multiverse forum, Moorcock confirmed that "Kings in Darkness" was originally intended to be a Conan story, "a few pages" of which were completed. He also confirmed that the plot was outlined by his friend and artistic collaborator James Cawthorn.
www.multiverse.org/forum/q-a/q-a-%E2%97%A6-questions-for-mike-news/the-q-a-archives/elric-of-melnibon%C3%A9-archive/2398-kings-in-darkness

Fantastic link, thanks efb!

Elsewhere on his forum over at multiverse.org Mike says his Jerry Cornelius profile was erroneously blocked by Facebook!