Start reading after my friend had a couple books he brought back from his vacation. 1970 issue paperbacks! Mind blowing for a ten year old! Howard really broke ground creating something new! The original stories were amazing. Would love to read the original magazine serials!
I had to order in The Complete Chronicles Of Conan ($65 Australian) through a book shop as I couldn't find a single copy in any store at the time. Its lack of presence in local book shops is kind of odd as H.P. Lovecraft is everywhere.
Great job! As a young reader, I was quickly able to discern the difference of writing styles between REH and everyone else. I do appreciate the attempts of the other authors to “fill in the gaps” of the chronology; however, NO ONE can write Conan like REH.
Very good, and helpful. Have just been buying the 70’s paperbacks - for the Frazetta artwork, as they hold much nostalgic feeling for my youth, and can’t help but see F.F.’s paintings as part of the ‘real deal’, as you say. No other visualisations capture that arcane undercurrent, for me - ‘tho I appreciate the text itself is corrupted.
I think Roy Thomas is hugely unsung for his contribution to Marvel etc. Unfortunately overshadowed by Stan, but then who wasn't? I doubt even God could dim Stan's wattage. They say it's obvious when some people enter a room. Stan WAS the room!
Hello, very helpful vid, your enthusiasm is infectious. Just ordered the Complete Chronicles to start my Conan journey. I read the Conan, Hulk, Avengers comics as a kid here in the U.K back in the 70s. I also picked up a fantasy book about the Frazetta artworks today. When i was 14 all my comic collection was obliterated in a flood, i was heartbroken and never bought a comic again and switched my passions to vinyl. You have inspired an old timer to start reading Conan again. I am getting the same buzz i used to get waiting for my comics to be delivered every Saturday morning. All the best from England U.K.
Komiksy są już wymyślone tak jak kilkudziesięciu autorów co kontynuowało historię o Conanie ...tylko orginalne napisane przez twórcę co wymyśl swojego bohatera z Cymeri Roberta Howarda są najlepsze nie ujmując .Wagnerowi , Jordanowi , Campowi i innym 📚📚👋👍
I was lucky enough to get the chronicles at a second hand store for $4 aus. Feeling very lucky at the moment. Thank you for your review. Reading at the moment
5:25 Cracked me up! My introduction to Conan was with the movies, but as far as literature, I've only read Howard's stories. I'm not even interested in anything else that calls itself "Conan." I guess that makes me a purist.
Overall, I think L. Sprague DeCamp did more good than bad. He actually took the character's tales and put them into a chronological order (Howard wrote them randomly). Thus, we were able to follow Conan's life from about 19 years old until 70 or so. I enjoyed the fact that he converted some REH stories into Conan tales because Howard only wrote about19 stories or so. The stories by DeCamp and Carter were not bad ones either. DeCamp seemed to be a bit possessive, and passionate about the REHestate/ library, but at the same time, strangely disrespectful. But he did spread the good word of Conan in the 60s and 70s. THE DEL REY EDITIONS CONTAIN SOME GREAT TOP NOTCH ART / ILLUSTRATIONS ALSO!! Go and get 'em!
100% agree "did more good than bad"! I really love and enjoy REH's own writing, he was a master. But, I LOVE Conan the character and read him in any form I can. TY so much to REH and all the writers (and artists) that followed.
Thank you dude! I picked up those three books for 52 bucks on Amazon. Ez pz. Although i was thinking about searching for a video like yours but never actually typed anything about it in yet RU-vid recommended your video so that's kind of weird.
Hi Michael, thank you very much for this great quick history of the Conan publications. I was looking at the different versions trying to narrow down my selection so this was hugely helpful. I'm going with the Del Rey version (all 3) as a gift for my partner. I really enjoyed your enthusiasm for the subject which made this a fun watch.
Actually Wandering Star did finish the Conan series. They are three volumes which collect the entire REH Conan library. Each volume is hardcover, it has colored illustrations, with artist signatures and protected by slip case. I have had these three volumes for over a decade and they are still the best Conan edition on the market. The Del Ray versions have the identical content but the illustrations are in black and white only.
Totally agree with you, i have 2 copies of all the editions they brought out (leather bound/hardbacks all signed by the artists). Unfortunately i have tried selling my spare copies for about 2 years now with no takers. Madness
I started with the Le Sprague de Camp series back in the 60s, and spread out to the Kull series, Brak Morn and others. I also read Wagner and Robert Jordan and Solomon Kane.
I thought Frazetta’s Conan covers were done in the 60’s which popularized Conan enough for a Marvel to do the comic. Also, Boris didn’t do any of those paperback book covers (though I’m sure he would have done a fine job, given his later great covers for SAVAGE SWORD).
SUBSCRIBED!!! You answered what ive been trying to self google search for WEEKS!! I honestly didnt want you to stop talking, Cannot wait for the next video of the Phoenix and the sword. Cheers My Friend
I like the 2011 Gollancz reprint of the FM/Chronicles in a 3-volume set, released for the 2011 movie reboot. I like them because they are cheap (at least in UK), are smaller in size than the Del Rey's, FM an Chronicles at 13cm x 20cm and most importantly printed on cream paper for less eye fatigue. The Dey Rey's are big and floppy, and printed on laser-white printer paper for illustration contrast. If you can get/resize the Del Rey pdf's they would make a great Lulu print project though!
Agree on those issues with the Del Rey editions, only question for me before I take the plunge is do the Gollancz 3 volume set include the same pictures as the Del Rey as these do seem to bring it to life?
@@crom9741 No, unfortunately the 3-book Gollancz version has no illustrations. The 1-tome Complete Chronicles of Conan has some sparse illustrations but not the same ones as the Del Rey ones. The Kindle versions of Del Rey's and CCoC include images from the print books and that's how I enjoy those. Not sure if the FM version has illustrations, but I doubt it.
The precursors to the Marvel comics were a really in depth series of novels and compilations of short stories published by Lancer and beginning with "Conan the Adventurer" collection of short stories which came out in the early 60's. (I know this because that was my first introduction not only to Conan but also to Frank Frazetta's who painted the cover of the paperback collection. I was 13 years old...now I'm 74.) It had four of the Howard short stories. It was followed by "Conan the Usurper" another collection of Howard stories and included "The Phoenix on the Sword" (which was a reworked Kull story.) In all there were 12 Lancer publications with full novels and collections of original Howard stories and pastiches based on surviving Howard outlines and notes, principally written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Frazetta's cover art dominated most of these publications although some were done by Boris Vallejo. Ironically the last painting done by Frazetta for Lancer's Conan series, "Conan of Aquilonia" was sent to the Lancer offices in 1978 but Frazetta never got paid. Lancer went bankrupt and the original Frazetta painting was stolen from the Lancer offices and has never been recovered. It would probably be worth millions today...one of Frazetta's paintings, "Dark Kingdom" done for Karl Edward Wagner's "Dark Crusade" novel sold for over six million dollars, edging out his previously highest value painting "Egyptian Queen" done in 1969 which sold for 5.4 million dollars in 2019.
I remember back in the 1990s, before the internet bookstores carried stacks of the paperbacks. People would keep them in a front jacket pocket and read them.
Hi Michael! Great video, I enjoyed it a lot! Just a couple of things: Wandering Star DID publish the whole Conan, but not all Howard. The Fantasy Masterwork editions has all Conan but not in the order of publication (it's a sort of Conan chronological life order), whereas the Gollancz Black book has all the Conan in the order the stories were published. Cheers!
One of the pivotal moments of my life was coming upon the Lancer Books' "Conan the Adventurer" with its Frazetta cover in the spinning book rack at my local convenience store when I was in my early teens.
It was a real battle to find all del rey Howard books and complete chronicles,since the bookshops in Croatia rearly had anything from guy,i had to find alternative,but,book depository sometimes works sometimes not so i fought and i fought with my patience and feeling of holding a book in my hand but it finally paid it of,i gave fortune for del rey collection especially for that big chunk but im a happy man now :)
Those Del Rey editions were how I first read Conan back in high school. I still have them, and they are indeed wonderful, so there's no need for me to have that Gollancz edition, but it's so damn beautiful that I'm almost tempted to buy it. XD
I just discovered your video blog a few days ago. What could i say? Let's be honest! One of the best video blog of books i've ever seen! And yeah, i was a big fan of the Conan movie from my childhood, but i didn't underdtand its philosophy back than, didn't know what the riddle of steel really is. Later when i was around 10 i belive, i started to read more and more books etc etc.. This was relly limited cos i'm from hungary and at time i didn't even speak english :D 3 years ago i moved to Scotland and maybe that is why i tried to read english books, and i told myself: why not? So as i said i just discovered your blog and i enjoy totally! I will watch all your videos as i can do, but Honestly you have lots of good themes. And why am i here? Cos of conan! Hats off and Respect sir. Thank you i can be a part of your subscribers! Cheers from Edinburgh!
By the way, Subterranean Press continued publishing some of the high-end REH editions after Wandering Star stopped doing so. I wish I had known about them doing so when they were released, because they’re too expensive to buy now.
hmmm....how would you prevent howards death if you went back.........then again......the books in the 70s were the best.....with the other editors and writers of the conan stories.....they mark the pinnacle of conan stories. the comics allso dragged conan to public eye of an epic character. even though the originals were great but greatness was opened up with reworked of conan....
any chance you could do a video like this on any editions of the later pastiches by other authors? i bought the The Coming, Bloody Crown, and Conquering Sword audiobooks on your recommendation and love it, I would also like to have audiobooks of the non-Howard stories as well
I had those original De Camp paperbacks and recently sold them all on eBay because I already have all the Frazetta Conan art in several Frazetta books, and the stories in the Wandering Star/Del Rey editions.
This Conan series led me to Robert E Howard, Casca series and The Destroyer series. Had listened to SSGT Sadler's records for years as my dad served with him. Supposedly, I met him, sat in his lap while stealing sips from dad's 🍺.
Despite the fact that the editor Stephen Jones says eighty percent. of the texts come from _Weird Tales_ magazine, and that (at odds with this) the book itself claims to present all the stories "exactly as [Howard] wrote them," the texts used in the Gollancz edition _The Complete Chronicles of Conan_ come from a variety of different sources. Only "Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age" and "Wolves Beyond the Border" are taken from the original manuscripts, while "Queen of the Black Coast" and "The Slithering Shadow" are taken directly from _Weird Tales_ magazine. The texts of "The Phoenix on the Sword," "The Scarlet Citadel," "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Rogues in the House" are from _Skull-Face and Others_ (Arkham House). "The Hyborian Age," "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," "A Witch Shall Be Born," "Shadows in Zamboula," "The Devil in Iron," "The People of the Black Circle," "Red Nails," "Beyond the Black River," "The Black Stranger" and _The Hour of the Dragon_ (both novel and verse) are from various editions edited by Karl Edward Wagner. "The Hall of the Dead," "The Hand of Nergal," and the poem "Cimmeria" were taken from volumes edited by Glenn Lord. "The God in the Bowl," "The Snout in the Dark," "Black Colossus," "Jewels of Gwahlur," "Shadows in the Moonlight," "The Drums of Tombalku" and "The Pool of the Black One" are from Donald M. Grant Publishers. "The Vale of Lost Women" is from the _Magazine of Horror_ #15.
@@The8bitFighter I believe that the Del Rey editions of the Conan stories ("The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian," "The Bloody Crown of Conan," and "The Conquering Sword of Conan") use the original unedited texts. However, on the back of the second of the volumes, we read that _two_ of the three stories featured in that book are taken directly from Howard's typescripts. Where, then, does the third come from? I am at a loss to know, but the Del Rey editions seem, when taken as a whole, to be the best choice for those looking for textual accuracy (provided one can afford three books instead of the one Gollancz edition).
I was a bit surprised that you didn’t cover the differences between the Lancer and Ace series paperbacks, the Gnome hardcovers from the 50’s, or the Grant hardcovers from the 70’s/80’s. Also, if you care to seek them out, the three books edited by Wagner were originally published in hardcover as well.
I have the fantasy masterworks editions. The cover art was done by John Howe who is famous for his Lord of the Rings artwork and working on the movies providing art concepts.
Just got the leather bound edition! Thanks for confirming my wants lol The Easton press is amazing looking Not the price tag though But I’m going to be proud to hang onto this in my book collection for years to come
Hey Michael, do you have any plans to eventually do a review of non-Howard Conan stories? I'm curious to hear you take on some of the other authors who attempted to write Conan after Howard had passed away. The one Conan author I'd especially love to hear your thoughts on is Robert Jordan, seeing as he was a famous author in his own right with The Wheel of Time.
Just discovered your channel and its getting me back into reading seriously. I would love to see a version of this video on the John Carter books. Would the edition on your bookshelf be the best one?
A very excellent review of recommended Conan editions. While I get that the focus here is on Conan an added bonus of the Del Rey editions is that the series went on to collect Howard’s lesser known characters including Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane and a few others plus his horror and other adventuring tales. Does the Del Rey series not contain the entirety of Howard’s stories?
I have all the Conan paperbacks you mentioned but pride of place in my collection is my first edition hard cover of And Their Memory Was a Bitter Tree...
I got the complete chronicles leatherbound in a South Carolina bookstore last year, and man am I lucky it was a decent price AND was a good edition. I also got some of the paperbacks by Lin Carter just for the extra stories.
I loved “The Scarlet Citadel,” because it was one of the very few times Conan was outmatched. The whole time you can feel that this could be the end for him, and he only won cuz he had to rely on the help of others and a bit of luck
A slight correction: Most of the Lancer paperbacks were published from 1966 to 1968. "Conan the Adventurer" (1966) was the first Conan book I ever bought, and "People of the Black Circle" was the first Conan story I ever read. It was an electrifying experience for a 14-year-old boy, to say the least.
I agree with most of this, but you missed some early hard cover editions that came out in the ‘50s/‘60s that I’ve seen in rare book shops. I wonder if they’re pre-DeCamp.
Those would be the Gnome Press editions. They were edited by DeCamp and the paperbacks were based on them originally. I left them out because I’ve never actually seen one, and Conan really didn’t take off until the paperback series.
Conan is the best. I love (some) modern fantasy figures, like, let's say, Logen ninefingers. But all those books are way to bloated, the first trilogy of Abercrombie is, what?, 1500 - 2000 pages. Now read Conan, beyond the black river. It's about 80 or so pages, but you feel you've read a much larger book, because it's written so tense and alive. Such is the skills of Robert E. Howard....
Are you aware of the Gnome Press Editions? Those were the hardbound editions I collected after the success of the Ace/Lancer books. Edit: They were published in the '50s and included many of the Carter/DeCamp pastiches.
I cant like this video enough. Ive been a fan of Conan for so long, keep em coming! ps Im so getting that black book you showed. Doesn't matter how long it takes!
Robert was writing with a lot of true history that made people nervous Mithra for instance was sun worship before son worship, but it didn't fit the narrative of the time
The 3 volume set is definitely the way to go. I have the Audible versions; they are soooo good. I love that they include notes and drafts. Do the print editions contain the excerpts from Patrice Louinet's The Robert E. Howard Guide that the Audible versions do?
Thanks for the advice! Saw some people claim the Gollancz hardback was incomplete or censored. I should've known that wasn't true, cause their Lovecraft collection is great. But I still didn't want to risk buying it without the opinion from a true Conan fan like you.
Gollancz used the original magazine versions of the Conan stories. These are a bit different in some cases from the versions used in the Del Rey set but not much.
Sprague and Lin carter compared to other writers are good compared to someone like Leonard Carpenter. Its not that the other writers do not fully capture Conan but at times they add their own little addition that make the character feel alien. Credit to all writers however who have through the years helped flesh out Conan.
Having ordered another copy of the complete chronicles of Conan I noticed my old copy says centenary edition on top of front cover and my new one does not does anyone know if this is the only difference
Nice! I saw that a couple of titles were changed in the Gollanz version in comparison to the Delrey books. Do you know what's up about that? I believe The Man Eaters of Zamboula was changed into Shadows In Zamboula? And The Hall of the Dead isn't called anything in the Delrey books? Anyway, they are both nice editions and I'm glad I own them both. I got the Delrey books just because they are easier to hold while you read, and there are more illustrations and bonus material in comparison to the Gollanz :)
I love this kind of history, thanks. I haven't read Phoenix on the Sword yet anyway, I'm busy getting through "The Hyborian Age" as I figure it's the proper introduction to this world (and connecting it to Kull). Do you think you'll do a deeper dive into the Ace books and the pastiches, and on if, in another partition of your brain beside pure Howard, there's some worth while stories that kind of honor the material? I've just started collecting them but I'm not sure how far I want to take it: I really want to see what Robert Jordan and Karl Wagner did with it, but I found and bought John Maddox Roberts, Andrew Outfit and Carter/De Camp originals, and left I behind Steve Perry cause I heard they're extremely silly writing (though part of me is curious because of that). The tampering with Howard's stories, especially rewriting other characters, comes across as greedy, but I'm still curious to read the attempt at story bridges and finishing Howard's fragments just to see how they _might_ end. All this would be after reading the unadulterated stuff of course. I've heard there's a series of trilogies "Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures" from 15 years ago, that tell stories about people _other then Conan_ (while he's busy being king); this sounds like the better approach for a "shared world" to avoid mental disconnects.
What a great video , i really enjoyed watching it. I love Robert E Howards writings, his Conan stories are excellent and Soloman Kane is also fantastic . Howards writing style is wonderful . I have the hard cover complete chronicles edition.
I just purchased the single volume hardback for just under $70 and am still considering getting the three volume Masterworks soft cover series. I can't wait to see the Howard's full works on Conan. BTW, you did such a great job going over these, I subscribed! Now, I'm looking forward to looking through your volumes!
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that The Complete Chronicles of Conan one book version contain some heavily edited versions of the short stories by L. Sprague de Camp and others, so I'd recommend the Del Rey books instead of that one.
@@juhaniseppala yeah, you are wrong actually. The Chronicles volume uses the original Weird Tales versions and other original publication versions for The Black Stranger ( not the de Camp version )and others. It’s a decent edition. The Del Rey is the best though.
Really cool survey. I read the Warren publications, Creepy and Eerie, in the mid 60s which featured my first exposure to Robert E. Howard. Editor/writer Archie Goodwin created a barbarian character called Thane, the hero of a half dozen fantasy stories that ran in Creepy, and the final Thane tale was the subject of an awesome Frazetta cover of issue #27 in 1969. The series received positive feedback in the letter columns, readers favorably compared Thane to REH's Conan. I was 8 or 9 years old, and even at that young age, made a mental note of Howard and Conan. In 1966 /67 Lancer started publishing the Decamp-edited Conan series which would persist into the 70s and the 80s under Ace, and no doubt influenced Goodwin. Ads for the Lancer books appeared in the Warren publications in 1969, and the black and white thumbnails of Frazetta's Conan covers blew my mind. I asked my dad, "What was the Hyborian Age?" LOL A year later he bought me Conan the Conqueror, and I started buying Marvel's Conan comic with issue #4's adaptation of The Tower of the Elephant. Over the next couple of years I completed my collection of the Lancer books. Nerd fanboy culture was a bit more physical back then--- my friends and I played in the woods with machetes, axes, and tomahawks, re-enacting our favorite Conan scenes, and we got into weights inspired by Conan's exploits. The Lancer/Ace Conans were pretty much reprints of the older Gnome Press versions that DeCamp had published in the 1950s. I credit DeCamp with keeping the character alive, despite his mercenary motives and weak stories. in 1996, on the 60th anniversary of Howard's death, I rode my Harley to Cross Plains, TX, for the Howard Day celebration. I met Glenn Lord, viewed original Howard manuscripts and copies of Weird Tales on display at the town library, and camped out in Howard's backyard. It was great that Howard's work was finally treated with respect in those publications you cite. I hope for a similarly respectful film adaptation of Conan one day, as opposed to the garbage Milius movies. Arnold's Conan would piss his diapers if confronted by REH's Conan.
There's only one Milius Conan movie, and it's far from "garbage." The three subsequent Conan films (The Destroyer, Red Sonja and the Jason Mamoa reboot) had no involvement from John Milius.
@@RockandrollNegro Milius had no regard for the Robert E. Howard source material, and the Milius Conan has nothing to do with the REH character. Howard's Conan would die before he submitted to slavery, yet Milius portrayed Conan as a docile slave, groveling at the feet of his 'master." The Milius origin story is insipid, inserting Thulsa Doom---- a KULL nemesis from Atlantis--- into the Hyborian Age which came thousands of years after the sinking of Atlantis. The Howard Conan was born on a battlefield, to a ferocious, and Howard specifically states, an unconquered people, the Cimmerians. Aquilonia, the most powerful Hyborian nation, attempted to invade Cimmeria and were massacred at Venarium. Conan was a barbarian from a thousand generations of barbarians, cunning and powerful. Imagine what a skilled filmmaker could have done with Howard's character. Milius consistently portrays Conan as a pathetic, stupid, sniveling oaf, and further dilutes the character with a succession of lameass sidekicks. I understand that people have affection for this truly awful, garbage movie, and I suppose it is an okay fantasy flick, but just call it Fred the Barbarian, Floyd the Barbarian, anything. Just don't call it Conan, because the Milius movie ain't Conan.
