Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine. July/August 2000. Volume 10, Number 7/8. Collecting Robert E. Howard and Robert E. Howard Checklist by Don Herron. Filled with b & w photos.
15
May
May
Kulørte sider is a Danish magazine about comics as a media. Contains an article about Robert E. Howard and the breakthrough Marvel did. Also some information about the non-Howard Conan movie, amongst others an interview with the director.
01
May
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.
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.
01
May
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.
24
Apr
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.
24
Apr
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.
24
Apr
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.
24
Apr
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.
22
Apr
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.
22
Apr
Apr
The Return of Conan is the sixth book published by Gnome, but for some reason considered the last in the series. It contains four stories originally written by Howard, but changed into Conan stories by L. Spraque de Camp. Since de Camp was interested in placing the stories chronologically, the four short stories collected as Tales of Conan represent an add-on to Gnome’s Conan series, coming between stories published in the remaining volumes. The first “tale” would fall within the collection The Coming of Conan, the second between that volume and the collection Conan the Barbarian, the third within Conan the Barbarian, and the fourth between that volume and the collection The Sword of Conan.