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Lately I've been reading comics about Conan the Barbarian.
These are, of course, related to Robert E. Howard's classic pulp hero. There have been two series of comics of note, a very long (250+ issue) run that began at Marvel Comics in the 1970s and a much more recent (50?+ issue) run that began at Dark Horse a few years ago.
One of the nice things about Dark Horse's acquisition of Conan is that they've been doing their best to get everything into print, thus they've put out something like 13 collections of Marvel's Conan and 6 collections of their own, not even counting various miniseries and the old black & white Marvel series.
I've been quite liking both of the series that I've read, though they're clearly very different.
Marvel. The Marvel series was written by Roy Thomas and he set out to do the same thing as de Camp and Carter had done over at Lancer book in the 1960s. He decided to tell the whole story of the life of Conan, beginning with the earliest days when he was a boy come down out of Cimmeria.
I have a lot of respect for that ideals, especially back in the 1970s when comic books were much less serialized. Granted, the adventures were still pretty individual. It took a year before he wrote his first two-issue story and several issues beyond that before he told a multi-issue saga. But the idea of a character really growing over time was relatively original in comics at that time (and could probably only have been done at the Marvel of the 1970s).
I also expect that the comic causes "purists" to gnash their teeth. Not only did Thomas adapt the original Conan stories, but he also wrote many stories of his own, to bridge the gaps. However I expect what purists really hate is that he adapted lots of other stories. Much of it was Howard's writings, but from different time periods and about different heroes, abruptly turned into Conan stories. Most famously, a relatively modern story co-starring a heroine named Red Sonya was adapted into a story with the hero Red Sonja, who has thus become an important part of the Conan mythos, even though she never lived in Hyborian times in Howard's writing.
Thomas even went out to other pulp writers. Moorcock wrote a story guest-starring Elric. John Jakes likewise contributed the plot for an issue. Thomas even adapted a story by Norvell Page called Flame Winds, as usual turning it into a Conan story.
(As it happens, I think it was one of the best Conan stories of the first few years of the comic.)
Anyway, I find the 1970s comic lots of fun.
Dark Horse. The more recent Dark Horse comic was by Kurt Busiek for its first run. It followed in Thomas' footsteps by being a chronological tale of Conan's life, but it steadfastly has refused to adapt anything but Howard's own work (with some bridging stories too, of course, else the comic would last just a few years).
The writing is very sharp--probably better than any of Thomas'-- though you can certainly see the changing times because the stories end up very decompressed. What Thomas told in a single issue often runs longer than that. The comic has also had beautiful, beautiful art.
If I were a big Howard fan, I'd want to have both series on my shelf.
(I'd actually like to have both on my shelf even though I'm not a Howard fanboy, but money constrains me otherwise. So instead I've been checking them out from the library. Sadly, checking things out from the library is sometimes an exercise in frustration with serial fiction, particularly comics. I've thus far read books #1-5 of the Marvel series and #1-2 of the Dark Horse series, but at that point I hit a wall. None of the 49 libraries I have easy access to through Link+ have the next book in either series. I could get #8 and #12 of the Marvel and #4 of the Dark Horse, but that's it. I'll just have to sit and wait, I suppose, but in the meantime I've sent a note to my local library, who had all the books I've read so far, that they should get the rest.)
Crossposted to Xenagia; come talk about genre stuff with us there
These are, of course, related to Robert E. Howard's classic pulp hero. There have been two series of comics of note, a very long (250+ issue) run that began at Marvel Comics in the 1970s and a much more recent (50?+ issue) run that began at Dark Horse a few years ago.
One of the nice things about Dark Horse's acquisition of Conan is that they've been doing their best to get everything into print, thus they've put out something like 13 collections of Marvel's Conan and 6 collections of their own, not even counting various miniseries and the old black & white Marvel series.
I've been quite liking both of the series that I've read, though they're clearly very different.
Marvel. The Marvel series was written by Roy Thomas and he set out to do the same thing as de Camp and Carter had done over at Lancer book in the 1960s. He decided to tell the whole story of the life of Conan, beginning with the earliest days when he was a boy come down out of Cimmeria.
I have a lot of respect for that ideals, especially back in the 1970s when comic books were much less serialized. Granted, the adventures were still pretty individual. It took a year before he wrote his first two-issue story and several issues beyond that before he told a multi-issue saga. But the idea of a character really growing over time was relatively original in comics at that time (and could probably only have been done at the Marvel of the 1970s).
I also expect that the comic causes "purists" to gnash their teeth. Not only did Thomas adapt the original Conan stories, but he also wrote many stories of his own, to bridge the gaps. However I expect what purists really hate is that he adapted lots of other stories. Much of it was Howard's writings, but from different time periods and about different heroes, abruptly turned into Conan stories. Most famously, a relatively modern story co-starring a heroine named Red Sonya was adapted into a story with the hero Red Sonja, who has thus become an important part of the Conan mythos, even though she never lived in Hyborian times in Howard's writing.
Thomas even went out to other pulp writers. Moorcock wrote a story guest-starring Elric. John Jakes likewise contributed the plot for an issue. Thomas even adapted a story by Norvell Page called Flame Winds, as usual turning it into a Conan story.
(As it happens, I think it was one of the best Conan stories of the first few years of the comic.)
Anyway, I find the 1970s comic lots of fun.
Dark Horse. The more recent Dark Horse comic was by Kurt Busiek for its first run. It followed in Thomas' footsteps by being a chronological tale of Conan's life, but it steadfastly has refused to adapt anything but Howard's own work (with some bridging stories too, of course, else the comic would last just a few years).
The writing is very sharp--probably better than any of Thomas'-- though you can certainly see the changing times because the stories end up very decompressed. What Thomas told in a single issue often runs longer than that. The comic has also had beautiful, beautiful art.
If I were a big Howard fan, I'd want to have both series on my shelf.
(I'd actually like to have both on my shelf even though I'm not a Howard fanboy, but money constrains me otherwise. So instead I've been checking them out from the library. Sadly, checking things out from the library is sometimes an exercise in frustration with serial fiction, particularly comics. I've thus far read books #1-5 of the Marvel series and #1-2 of the Dark Horse series, but at that point I hit a wall. None of the 49 libraries I have easy access to through Link+ have the next book in either series. I could get #8 and #12 of the Marvel and #4 of the Dark Horse, but that's it. I'll just have to sit and wait, I suppose, but in the meantime I've sent a note to my local library, who had all the books I've read so far, that they should get the rest.)
Crossposted to Xenagia; come talk about genre stuff with us there