Beginner's Guide To Conan The Barbarian

Beginner's Guide To Conan The Barbarian:

For your information: Obama's a Conan collector.

Conan of Cimmeria goes by countless titles. Thief. Pirate. King.
Conqueror. Barbarian. The most fitting, however, would have to be “most popular
pulp hero of all time.” Since his debut in a 1932 issue of the legendary WEIRD TALES magazine, Conan’s starred
in countless novels, cartoons, TV shows, movies and, of course, comics,
maintaining a foothold in the popular imagination that arguably that of his pulp contemporaries like Doc Savage and Zorro. So profound
is this character’s influence on fantasy fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien even admitted
to being partially inspired by his adventures when he was first writing THE LORD OF THE RINGS, some 20 years
after Conan’s creation. CONAN stories created a breed of
sword and sorcery underlined with human nature’s nastier side, and the lineage of that breed traces all the way to the likes of George R.R. Martin’s GAME OF THRONES.
As a new CONAN THE BARBARIAN
movie bows this week to introduce a whole new generation to the character on
screen, what say we unfurl the scroll of his chronicle some and quickly review Conan's long history in print?

The archetypal sword and sorcery hero, Conan's a wandering warrior who
lives in a fictitious “Hyborian Age” that existed in some mythic time between
the sinking of Atlantis and the dawn of recorded history. His origin may not
have as many twists as Batman or Spider-Man's, but it’s just as
striking nevertheless.
The son of a blacksmith, Conan was born on a battlefield and came of age in the near-constant combat his tribe, the Cimmerians, engaged in. Setting out on his own a teenager, Conan had countless adventures throughout the awe-inspiring, treacherous landscapes of his pre-historic world. He romanced innocent princesses and pirate queens,allied with roguish thieves and noble lords, and battled hideous beasts and vile necromancers... all of which have subsequently become standard in this genre.
One quality of Conan's stories that's especially memorable is how they're all pieces of a fully-realized life. His age and occupation will change significantly from tale to tale - - he'll be a young pirate in one story and a seasoned mercenary in another - - but he's pointed to the destiny of eventually usurping the throne of Aquilionia and becoming a "king by his own hand" in middle age.

The circumstances of Conan’s creation and the tragically-short life of his
creator, Robert E. Howard, are really as intriguing as the details of his adventures.
Howard was a troubled loner from small-town Texas who committed suicide at age
30, and many see the melancholic tone of even his most rousing adventures as
evidence of how the man’s inner demons fueled his creativity.
During
correspondences with his friend and fellow “weird fiction” author, H.P.
Lovecraft, he often described his writing of CONAN as some dark presence surrounding him - - as if a real spirit of the
barbarian were in his direct vicinity.
It may as well have been something unnatural forcing him to write, because Howard produced an impressive number of CONAN stories in the all-too-brief years between the character’s creation and his death. I think somewhat of Jack Kirby, here, in how Howard’s output
was so boundlessly creative as to inspire generations for all these decades after his
passing. He established an entire genre.

While he starred in prose pastiches throughout the intervening years,
Conan secured his seat in the popular imagination with
the inception of Marvel’s CONAN THE
BARBARIAN and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN in the 70’s. With Roy Thomas as the main writer, and Barry Windsor-Smith and Sal
Buscema as the most frequently-contributing, these comics made significant additions
to the Hyborian Age, including a new heroine, the “She-Devil with a Sword” Red
Sonja.
After nearly 30 years of continuous publishing, the license eventually
went to Dark Horse in 2000, where the likes of Kurt Busiek, Cary Nord, Tim Truman, Ron Marz and Darick Robertson have been using it ever since.
While Conan’s starred in several cartoon and live-action TV shows, his most
famous turns on screen have unquestionably been in the movies starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though those flicks cherry picked plot elements from a
variety of CONAN shorts (as well those starring Howard’s other barbarian heroes,
Kull and Bran Mak Morn,) they eschewed strict adaptation of the original
stories in favor of hewing the Hyborian Age closer to the real history that
inspired it.
This new movie, starring Jason Momoa, is expected to be closer to the source material. We'll have to see it to know for sure then, won't we? At least you maniacs will all know the key basics going in to it.
Tom Pinchuk’s
the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk