Conan and me

How did I learn about the Conan character, said to be The barbarian? Probably through the ads published in the French LUG editions comic-book magazines featuring Marvel superheroes. Lug was publishing giant-sized softcovers of the Barbarian’s adventures, even if I don’t remember buying one at that time period.

 In fact I really fell in love with Conan’s world through the novels, released by the trade paperbacks “J’ai Lu” editions, the first being simply called “Conan”, with a magnificent cover by Frank Frazetta. I bought thereafter all the books I could track down in the series. To my great despair, it would take me many years to get a hold on the second in the series, “Conan le Cimmérien”, which must have been out of print at that time!

 It was already pretty clear to me, even in an unconscious way, that the stories written by Robert E. Howard alone were infinitely superior to the pastiches thrown together by Lyon Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Worse, many of the stories were “posthumous collaborations”, without any possibility to determine who wrote what exactly. My impression was that Howard didn’t write much things during his life because they needed to be expanded quite a lot!

 Of course, I was light-years away from the truth, and I discovered that Howard was quite a prolific writer. One of my friends, who was much a fan of Lovecraft than of Howard, made me discover some texts he wrote, which had been translated in French for the “Editions Néo” by my new hero, François Truchaud. The spooky novelettes were as awesome as his Conan stories, as well as his historic novels. I discovered in this instance the feats accomplished by the prototype in more way than one of Conan, Kull the Barbarian King. And at least, it was pure Howard!

 Then came the comic books, thanks to the publication of “Super Conan”, a monthly magazine released by the “Mon Journal” editions. It featured one episode (sometimes spread among several issues for length reasons) of Savage Sword of Conan, as well as the Conan the Barbarian series in color. I discovered thus the drawings of John Buscema and of these marvelous inkers as Ernie Chua (Chan) and Tony deZuniga (strongly criticized by Buscema purists, who consider that their style drowns too much the pencils of the artist). And the magazine was establishing a constant dialog with its readers, through fan mail and the publication of fan drawings, as well as publishing articles about the Conan world. It was, by far, the best publication about Conan in France in my opinion, superior to the next publications by Semic/Panini, which didn’t last.

 A pocket collection also allowed me to discover the extraordinary work of Barry Windsor Smith on the first issues of Conan the Barbarian, very refined and classy.

 Finally, this view couldn’t be complete without mentioning the movies. I was too young to go seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian in theaters, but I remember vividly trying to distinguish scenes from the movie on an encrypted channel, Canal+. Through buzzing lines I was able to spot interesting scenes, including some that showed couples that apparently weren’t there to play cards.

 Sherry on the cake, et non the least, the recent release, thanks to Patrice Louinet’s efforts, of the original Conan texts by Robert E. Howard, as they had been written at the time, without any addiction or alteration even when the original text is just a few lines. A true wonder in three volumes, in French and in English.

 All this brings us to the event that made me reminisce all this, the boardgame by Frédéric Henry and Adrian Smith, Conan, which will be made in the company created for the occasion, Monolith, which we hope will beat records on Kickstarter. To tell you everything, Fred Henry revealed that he had begun to work with the BBE company on a Conan roleplaying game, but that an American company had bought the rights in the meantime. Apparently, a partnership could be possible between Monolith and this company. To be continued, but the gaming future of the most famous Barbarian in the world seems to be in the right hands!