Conan: The Barbarian - The Original Series (Marvel)

[deuce]

Like some on here, I first found Conan and REH via the Roy Thomas/John Buscema color Conan comics. There is a lot to be said for that long run and the Barry Windsor-Smith issues that came before. After Roy left, others took over the writing. Eventually, even Big John left. He lasted longer than I did, I have to say.

Mike Perschon over at the Triple Bladed Sword website has his own remembrances of his first Conan comic:

triplebladed.blogspot.com/2011/05/conan-barbarian-issue-115.html

[terryallenuk]

I came in during BWS's run and stayed about a year after Roy left.The continuity and reverence to REH disappeared and so did I. I returned when Roy did and stayed during the last rites of those rather poor mini's.

Terry

[Deleted]

I always loved the Queen of the Black Coast run.

[lordyam]

I'll admit I have somewhat of a soft spot for Jim Owsley's run. It actually made an effort to be consistent with howard and it's serialized storytelling was a massive step in the right direction for me. It also helps that we got some of the greatest action sequences period (Conan's final battle with Wraal as they travel through dimensions with each blow was easily one of the best action sequences in a conan comic)

[Deleted]

Feb 23, 2017 16:58:30 GMT -5 lordyam said:

I'll admit I have somewhat of a soft spot for Jim Owsley's run. It actually made an effort to be consistent with howard and it's serialized storytelling was a massive step in the right direction for me. It also helps that we got some of the greatest action sequences period (Conan's final battle with Wraal as they travel through dimensions with each blow was easily one of the best action sequences in a conan comic)

Yeah, the Jim Owsley run was pretty good. But, once John Buscema left I lost interest. 

[Deleted]

I only found out about this quite recently (rehcomicsgroup facebook page).

The Tribe (Tony DeZuniga and friends) inked the final published artwork for Conan the Barbarian #65 -  yet, somehow, the following unpublished pages appear to have been inked by Steve Gan!


Final published pages on left --------------------------- Mysterious pages inked by Steve Gan on the right.





There's a little more info collected at this link:
www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/416377-mystery-of-two-different-sets-of-inked-pages-for-conan-the-barbarian-65/

[Deleted]

A couple more pages:

[eja]

In CtB #37, Roy Thomas not only adapted Howard's Kull poem The Curse of the Golden Skull, he also made the story a sequel to it having the sorcerer Rotath, having been killed by Kull, resurrected in the Hyborian Age. In this tale, the place of Rotath's death and rebirth is somewhere in the northern wastes of Turan. All well and fine. But years later, Thomas penned a prequel to Curse of the Golden Skull, actually depicting Kull's slaying of the wizard, in SSOC #231-233. Here the Lemurians dispatch young Kull, at this time a slave, from Lemuria-of-the-West (an outpost of theirs in the sea near Atlantis) to Rotath's isle located nearby. But as already noted, in the original story Rotath's temple was located in what would become northern Turan, on the Thurian/Hyborian main continent, nowhere near the western ocean. It should be noted that in the RAVAGERS OUT OF TIME graphic novel, when Rotath in the Hyborian era travels back in time to Thuria not very long after his first death, he does attack Kull's Valusia from the east of that kingdom, which would fit with CtB #37. What do we do to resolve the discrepancy? Could Rotath, just before dying, have teleported himself all the way to an additional temple he had in far north-eastern Thuria at the same time he transmuted his skeleton to gold? Or should we just write of the story in SSOC #231-233 as apocryphal?

[linefacedscrivener]

G.W. Thomas over on Dark Worlds Quarterly did an ode to the Gil Kane Conan Covers: darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas.org/gil-kanes-conan-covers/

[Deleted]

Feb 27, 2020 7:39:45 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

G.W. Thomas over on Dark Worlds Quarterly did an ode to the Gil Kane Conan Covers: darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas.org/gil-kanes-conan-covers/

Thanks Linefacedscrivener.

Layout pencils for the cover of CtB 46 by Gil Kane.

[emerald]

Roy Thomas writes about his first encounter with REH, Lancer's Conan the Adventurer, and The People of the Black Circle over on Black Gate.
I left a semi-coherent fanboy remark in the comments.

www.blackgate.com/2020/05/15/rogue-blades-author-how-robert-e-howard-and-glenn-lord-changed-my-life/

This is an excerpt from a longer essay that will appear in Jason Waltz's forthcoming book How Robert E. Howard Changed My Life.

[Deleted]

VISUALIZING ROBERT E. HOWARD’S “THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT” IN CONAN THE BARBARIAN #4 BY ANTHONY CARO

“The Tower of the Elephant” ranks as one of Robert E. Howard’s best Conan yarns. Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith deserve enormous credit for effectively translating the 30-odd page pulp tale into a 20-page comic book. Crafting a tighter, visualized version of the narrative garnered Thomas and Windsor-Smith (then credited as Barry Smith) a “Best Story, 1972,” nomination from the Academy of Comic Book Arts for the adaptation published in Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian #4 (April 1971).



Although abbreviated, the duo’s Bronze Age classic captured the spirit and underlying emotional impact of the original prose published in the March 1933 issue of Weird Tales.



Tightening the Tower

1970s era comic books focused on fast-paced action, so the Cimmerian fit perfectly in the Marvel Comics publishing slate. Conan does not speak in a nuanced manner. He says what is on his mind and, more frequently, commits to action. In his prose, Robert E. Howard also spoke his mind without nuance. Exposition found in action sequences and narrative descriptions often serves as a soundboard for Howard’s opinionated musings. In “The Tower of the Elephant,” the esoteric author weaves commentary seamlessly with the story’s movement. Could a Marvel Comics’ team effectively translate Howard’s quirky approach to the comic book medium?



Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s challenge involved slimming down the prose while retaining the story’s impact. When limited to panel artwork, caption boxes, and word balloons, fitting the bulk of Howard’s commentary becomes next to impossible. Thomas and Windsor-Smith seem to do the impossible. They retained the original short story’s magazine prose “spirit” through using the “Marvel method” of allowing the art to tell the tale and then supporting the visuals with appropriate dialogue and descriptive text. Sometimes, the best adaptations come from creators who know what to cut to allow a workable transition to a new medium.

Wanna read more?
comicbookhistorians.com/visualizing-robert-e-howards-the-tower-of-the-elephant-in-conan-the-barbarian-4-by-anthony-caro/

[Von K]

Aug 14, 2020 14:13:35 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

VISUALIZING ROBERT E. HOWARD’S “THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT” IN CONAN THE BARBARIAN #4 BY ANTHONY CARO

Thomas and Windsor-Smith’s challenge involved slimming down the prose while retaining the story’s impact. When limited to panel artwork, caption boxes, and word balloons, fitting the bulk of Howard’s commentary becomes next to impossible. Thomas and Windsor-Smith seem to do the impossible. They retained the original short story’s magazine prose “spirit” through using the “Marvel method” of allowing the art to tell the tale and then supporting the visuals with appropriate dialogue and descriptive text. Sometimes, the best adaptations come from creators who know what to cut to allow a workable transition to a new medium.

Wanna read more?
comicbookhistorians.com/visualizing-robert-e-howards-the-tower-of-the-elephant-in-conan-the-barbarian-4-by-anthony-caro/

Thanks Hun, very interesting overview.

[danieljames495]

As I've mentioned before in a previous thread, I only started collecting the Original series at the beginning of this year and I'm making my way through reading the original Roy Thomas run for the first time ever. (I know.. I'm really late). I'm currently at issue 87 but I'd much prefer to read my books online although I have hard copies lying around so I can preserve the quality. I currently own Issues 12 to 22 and then issues 41 all the way to 275. I'm currently trying to fill in the gaps in my collection and just a few minutes ago I won an auction for issue 24 (The first full Red Sonja appearance).

My thoughts on the book is that it is absolutely phenomenal so far but there are two things I noticed. Just after Barry left, there seemed to be a barrage of people, quite the majority, that seemed to hate Ernie Chan inking John Buscema's work. I find this weird because personally, Ernie seems to be the best inker Conan had ever had and he's definitely one of the best artist's to ever draw Conan. Any idea why people hated him at first?


Also, there seems to be a lot of fill in issues because John Buscema's schedule kept getting crowded with several other titles. Like... a lot of filler issues and reprints which is understandable but I still don't understand why they wouldn't keep John off SSOC till he finished Tarzan or something and have him focus on the main title but to be honest, I'm glad they didn't.

[emerald]

I’m re-reading Roy Thomas’s second run at Conan the Barbarian.

His return to the magazine, which ran from issue #241 in 1991 to issue #275 in 1993 when Marvel discontinued the mag, seems to be almost forgotten in comparison with his initial run from issue #1 to #115.

This is true for me as I’ve read those first 115 issues so many times I can almost read them again simply by closing my eyes and remembering.
Yet, I haven’t re-read the issues he wrote when he came back to the mag since they first appeared 30 years ago.

Does anybody have impressions or recall much about them?