Conan

REH: Two-Gun Raconteur #5

01
May

After 26 years without any published issues, Damon Sasser returned with issue #5 of REH: Two-Gun Raconteur in 2003. Contains the story ‘A Horror in the Night’ by Robert E. Howard, an art folio by Stephen Fabian and several articles.

In the mid-1970s, when the Robert E. Howard Boom was just beginning, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur was on the cutting edge of Howard Fandom. During those heady days there was a continuous stream of hardback books, paperbacks, magazines, comics, chapbooks, fanzines, art portfolios and one-shot publications all devoted to the gifted author and poet from Cross Plains, Texas. When the Boom eventually faded out in the late eighties, the fans and admirers of Robert E. Howard still carried the torch, waiting for a time when Howard would return and that time has come. While not on as grand a scale as the earlier boom, it is nonetheless a great time to be a Howard fan.

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REH: Two-Gun Raconteur #6

01
May

Damon Sasser’s REH: Two-Gun Raconteur i#6 from 2004. Contains the story ‘Under the Baobab Tree’ by Howard. Also a Red Nails art portfolio by Gene Day and several articles.

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The Hour of the Dragon

24
Apr

First of three volumes comprising “The Authorized Edition” of Conan edited, with “foreword” by Karl Edward Wagner. Follows the text of the five-part serial published in WEIRD TALES, December 1935 through April 1936.

The story was first published as a five-part serial in Weird Tales between the months of December 1935, January 1936, February 1936, March 1936 and April 1936 (with chapter 20 being misprinted as chapter 21). It was first published in book form in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1950 under the title Conan the Conqueror, a title retained by all later editions until 1977. The first paperback edition was published by Ace Books in 1954. The novel has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers, notably Lancer Books in 1967 and Berkley/Putnam in 1977; the latter, reedited by Karl Edward Wagner, was the first edition to restore the original magazine text and title, under which most subsequent editions have been issued. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. published an edition in 1989, with illustrations by Ezra Tucker, as volume XI of their deluxe Conan set.

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The People of the Black Circle

24
Apr

The People of the Black Circle is a 1977 collection of four Conan short stories. This is the second of the three volumes comprising “The Authorized Edition”. Edited by Karl Edward Wagner. The illustrations by Hugh Rankin are from the original pulp publications. There was also a 1977 Science Fiction Book Club edition, which was retypeset and introduced numerous errors.

The pieces in The People of the Black Circle, in common with those in the other Conan volumes produced by Karl Edward Wagner for Berkley, are virtual reproductions (other than typo correction) of the originally published form of the texts as they appeared in Weird Tales, in contrast to the edited versions appearing in the earlier Gnome Press and Lancer editions of the Conan stories. In contrast to the earlier editions, which included Conan tales by authors other than Howard, Wagner took a purist approach, including only stories by Howard, and only those thought to be in the public domain. His prefaces and afterwords dismiss editorial revisions made in the earlier editions.

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Red Nails

24
Apr

Red Nails is a 1977 collection of three Conan short stories. This is the last of the three volumes comprising “The Authorized Edition”. Edited by Karl Edward Wagner.

The collection was edited by Karl Edward Wagner. It was first published in hardcover by Berkley/Putnam in 1977, and in paperback by Berkley Books the same year. It was reprinted in hardcover for the Science Fiction Book Club, also in 1977, and combined with the Wagner-edited The Hour of the Dragon and The People of the Black Circle in the book club’s omnibus edition The Essential Conan in 1998. The stories originally appeared in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s.

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The Essential Conan

24
Apr

The Essential Conan is a collection of Conan short stories written by Robert E. Howard. The book was published in 1998 by the Science Fiction Book Club. It collects the editions of the Conan books, edited by Karl Edward Wagner and published by Berkley Books in 1977. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines Weird Tales, The Phantagraph and The Howard Collector. The Wagner editions were the first to virtually reproduce Howard’s original stories without any editorial changes other than typo fixes.

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The Complete Chronicles of Conan – Centenary Edition

22
Apr

This is one thick book, but very lightweight. The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian.

The book was published in 2006 by Gollancz and is an omnibus of their earlier collections The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle and The Conan Chronicles, Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon, though the stories are rearranged. The collection is edited by Stephen Jones and was issued to celebrate the centenary of Howard’s birth. Most of the stories originally appeared in the magazines The Phantagraph, Weird Tales, Super-Science Fiction, Magazine of Horror, Fantasy Fiction, Fantasy Magazine and The Howard Collector.

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Spectrum Super Special #2

12
Apr

Combines all-new features with a collection of Conan-related material from past issues of Spectrum (spruced up with different artwork and photos)! The all-star interview line-up includes Barry Windsor-Smith, Kurt Busiek, Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni, Joseph Michael Linsner, and Cary Nord! The discussions cover a wide range of Conan in print, from the classic Marvel comics of three decades ago, to the recent book collections, to the hot new Dark Horse series. This issue also includes a lengthy analysis of all of the Robert E. Howard-based films (the two Conan movies, Red Sonja, Kull the Conqueror, and The Whole Wide World), and a new essay by Charles Hoffman. No Conan fan will want to be without it!

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The Coming of Conan

17
Apr

King Conan is the fourth published and contains several Howard stories (see notes and contents).

The Gnome Press edition of Conan was the first hardcover collection of Howard’s Conan stories, including all the original Howard material known to exist at the time, some left unpublished in his lifetime. Not published in order of previous publication, Gnome’s volumes were organized to present the stories in order of their internal chronology, the sole exception being Tales of Conan, which skipped around to present random episodes from various points in the protagonist’s career. Some stories in two of the later volumes (The Coming of Conan and King Conan) were completed or revised by L. Sprague de Camp; another (Tales of Conan) consisted of non-Conan Howard stories that de Camp rewrote as Conan yarns. The last published volume of the Gnome edition was the first Conan story by an author other than Howard, namely Björn Nyberg, and was revised by de Camp.

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Conan the Barbarian

21
Apr

Conan the barbarian the FIFTH published, but the second book in the series, published and contains five Conan stories. Black Colossus, Shadows in the Moonlight, A Which Shall Be Born, Shadows in Zamboula and The Devil in Iron.

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