"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars...
.
Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet... "
( click on image to see full-size enlargement )
The sheer quality of the 1970 launch of CONAN THE BARBARIAN, followed by SAVAGE TALES (1971), and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (1974), set a new standard of sophistication for writing and illustration in comics.
CONAN and SAVAGE SWORD both had enduring high-quality runs, which concluded in the mid-1990's. Which were followed at the end with later admirable short-lived mid-1990's revival efforts, CONAN THE ADVENTURER (1994-1995), CONAN THE SAVAGE (1995-1996), and the most recent Cross Plains reprint of Thomas/Conrad's BRAN MAC MORN: WORMS OF THE EARTH, and Dark Horse's reprint of Thomas/Conrad's ALMURIC, among others, each of whose quality speak for themselves. Some of the finest comics storytelling work of the last 35 years.
But as well-told and engaging as these early 1970's Conan adaptations are simply as great storytelling, they had other effects on the comics industry when they were published:
1)
BROUGHT A GREATER DIVERSITY OF GENRES. The success of CONAN in 1970 brought a whole lot of other non-superhero material to the field.
They expanded on the simultaneous resurgence of mystery and monster books (HOUSE OF MYSTERY, SWAMP THING, CREATURES ON THE LOOSE, FEAR, MONSTERS ON THE PROWL, etc.), as well as paving the way for a flood of Edgar Rice Burroughs material at DC, such as TARZAN, KORAK, WEIRD WORLDS.
As well as opening the door for other fantasy books, such as SWORD OF SORCERY, STALKER, BOEWULF, CLAW, and ultimately for me, Grell's THE WARLORD.
And CONAN's success also brought other pulp adventure and crimefighters from the 1930's, such as THE SHADOW, JUSTICE INC., DOC SAVAGE and many more.
2.
CREATED A MORE SOPHISTICATED AND CULTURED FAN MARKET. On the heels of Barry Smith's run in the first 24 issues of CONAN, and "Red Nails" in SAVAGE TALES, Barry Smith began Gorblimey Press, releasing a number of beautiful prints and portfolios, that still grace my walls.
Although Steranko was already publishing
COMIXSCENE /
MEDIASCENE /
PREVUE and his celebrated
HISTORY OF COMICS, volumes 1 and 2, when Smith left Marvel in 1973 and started Gorblimey Press, I think it was Smith's posters and limited prints that brought the sophisticated sense of book illustration, pulp roots, adventure literature, science fiction illustration and
pride to comics fandom.
And for a time, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, with its articles, pin-up portfolios of artists, and ads about comics fandom, provided a window to more adult (in a refined and sophisticated sense) material in comics fandom.
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN was a spearhead for the kind of material in comics I've long admired, and missed in comics since the late 1980's:
Richard Corben's fantasy/horror material, HEAVY METAL, EPIC ILLUSTRATED, WARRIORS OF THE SHADOW REALM,
The Studio art book (Jones, Kaluta, Windsor-Smith, Wrightson, for me the single best representation
ever of the comic book art field), Pacific Comics, Eclipse, and so much else that collectively have made comics such an enduringly rich entertainment medium for me over the last three decades, all came forth from CONAN THE BARBARIAN and SAVAGE TALES.
Crossgen's current new BRATH series attempts to re-create Conan and other Robert E. Howard characters, although I find it a rather weak and unsophisticated attempt, with nothing really original in its equation.
Roy Thomas and Tim Conrad's "Worms of the Earth" (SAVAGE SWORD 16 & 17) and "Almuric" (EPIC ILLUSTRATED 2-5) adaptations offered far more than the recent BRATH offering.
As did Scott Hampton's 1988 graphic novel for Eclipse, PIGEONS FROM HELL.
It's amazing to me in recent years how many truly
horrible Conan miniseries have been done. I just can't stomach the art in the newer Conan miniseries. And I'd think the best artists would be lining up to draw Conan and other R.E.Howard material. But somehow the well has dried up.
I wonder what can be done to revive the era of experimentation that existed and evolved out of the Robert E.Howard/CONAN material, and the wonderful art, portfolios, adaptations, and fine-art of comics it inspired.
So... what are some of your favorite CONAN/Robert E. Howard adaptations?
Or what are some other great pulp/adventure work adapted to comics, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and others from the pulp era?
The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie satisfied my itch for pulp-style action better than anything else out recently, including the Alan Moore/Kevin O'Neil comic that inspired it.
Any well-scripted and illustrated pulp offerings in comic book form in the wings? Or possibly one I missed?
