Can anyone recommend me some good Conan books?
Conan recommended reading
Hour of the Dragon
First off you need to read the REH yarns. Read them all. Then from there you're pretty much set to go. The Marvel Barbarian and Savage Sword runs are strong. Dark Horse had a good series. There was the Cimmerian from Ablaze and latest is the Titan run which has also been good. As for the pastiche novels I don't have too much experiance. Emerald Lotus was pretty fun though.
Thanks
The Dark Horse Conan is actually VERY good, not to mention that it follows some of the original Conan short stories written by Robert E. Howard himself.
Beyond the first DarkHorse series I'd recommend Savage Sword of Conan. Unlike the main Conan run at Marvel it's a lot less censored but still just as campy and filled with batshit insane 70s ideas.
The books. Definitely the books.
REH stories
Savage Sword
Dark Horse run
This is the best stuff in descending order of quality. I'd like to note that Dark Horse did a particularly good job with King Conan comics. The actual series and anytime the mainline book flashed forward to that period. 70s marvel is a great comic, but too sanitized to consider the best. You can check out the books by other authors, but they seem to vary in both quality and how true they stay to Howard's writings. So even if Savage and Dark horse may take liberties here or there they have a better track record than the books and are less of an investment of time
Question for the Conan fans: Why is the Red Sonja series (by the same creatives behind Conan) not as highly regarded and/or fondly remembered as Marvel's Conan titles? Is it that bad, or is the material just not easily accessible as Conan? With her new movie coming out, it seems like normies don't really know anything about her besides "Conan spin-off".
I wouldn't call it bad by any stretch but it's also just not really as good. What I've read of the Marvel series is generally all right but the rights are weird so if you're looking to buy stuff you might be bouncing around a bit. As of the Dynamite series it also seems like they really quietly dropped the Conan connection. And generally, as for Sonja herself, she really just kind of doesn't have the same charisma Conan did.
Harder to self-insert and look up to a bitch.
Also, the current Savage Sword run from Titan has been fun. Especially that great Roy Thomas story in number 7.
He still got it.
The Dark Horse stuff, then the current Titan stuff and last Marvel. Definitely you should check the REH stories.
Definitely you should check the REH stories.
And while you're at it check out his other characters. Solomon Kane especially. But Kull and Bran Mak Morn are fun. Why did Bran never get a comic.
I've been wondering this too so thanks anon.
So I was gonna post this in the the comics thread they had a lot of Conan but it unfortunately died, so I'll post it here. Roy Thomas had a story in Savage Sword 39 that he left on a cliffhanger and didn't pick the story back up until Conan the Barbarian 254. He picks up and continues the story smoothly with the only change being the color in CTB vs Savage's B&W. In the story Conan is chained at the wrist by a hyperborean while being held captive with some Aesir. Conan swears to kill the man who chains him and after 254 concludes the story, the final page tells the reader that Conan kills the jailer who chained him in CTB issue 3. Problem is Thomas fucked up and gave the Hyperborean in 254 black hair when he has blonde hair in issue 3
Conan swearing to kill him in CTB 254
And his original blonde form in CTB 3. So a story from 1979 is picked back up in 1992 and sloppily tied into the third issue of the series from 1970
Is the dark horse stuff a 1 to 1 adaptation of the books or does it do its own thing?
Interweaves the original stories with new ones from the comic writers or adapted from non Howard books and stories. So it took Dark Horse about 15 years to actually adapt all the Howard stories
This actually made realize I'm not sure if Dark Horse did Red Nails
Why did Bran never get a comic.
He got a few in Marvel's Savage Sword run.
So what IRL race is Conan supposed to be?
I guess scottish highlander or something like that, there are picts right next to the cimmerian villages and picts lived in scotland
REH calls them ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scots.
Gealic Scots,
REH was very proud of his Irish heritage so a lot of his reoccurring chzrecters have some form of Irish or Highland Scots heritage, with Solomon Kane being the main exception
Roy Thomas's original run across multiple titles.
The first Dark Horse volume. And probably the second one, too.
The French adaptations.
Those are the top tier.
Not that great. Her best stories are all ones where she guest stars in Conan's comics.
irish celt.
i'd love to hear an example of one of her 'best stories
If you want to see something interesting go read The Shadow of the Vulture. It's the original REH red SonYa story that inspired Roy Thomas to create SonJa and it is VERY different.
You're welcome, fellow Conanchad.
I look like this
Read the 3 Del Rey published Robert E. Howard Conan books that collects all of his Conan writing.
That's bad swordfighting form
Complete Chronicles of Conan.
cimmerian by ablaze and dark horse stuff, I liked 2012 run with brian wood and becky cloonan but most people says is just plain OK.