Fantasy Fiction #3

Fantasy Fiction #3 (Fantasy Magazine #1 was retitled Fantasy Fiction from the second issue on. There were 4 issues total. This issue contains THE FROST GIANT’S DAUGHTER, reviced by L Sprague de Camp.

Fantasy Magazine #1

Fantasy Magazine #1 from March 1953. Contains the very first release of THE BLACK STRANGER. L Sprague de Camp rewrote the original Conan story into a different Conan story (“The Treasure of Tranicos”). For publication in Fantasy Magazine #1, the story was abridged, edited by L Sprague de Camp, and re-written further by Lester del Rey. 

Fantastic Universe October 1955

Fantastic Universe Volume 5 Number 3.

Contains THE BLOOD-STAINED GOD by Howard and L. Sprague de Camp. Originally a Kirby O’Donnell story titled ‘The Trail of the Blood-Stained God’. It was re-written by L. Sprague de Camp into a Conan story titled ‘The Bloodstained God’. De Camp changed the names of the characters, added the sorcery elements, and recast the setting into Howard’s Hyborian Age.

Sword & Fantasy #10

Features include a long article on Virgil Finlay by Sam Moskowitz, a folio of the 1953 Kelly Freas art from the TOPS IN SCIENCE FICTION reprint of “Lorelei Of The Red Mist” (just the art, not the story, too), 5 page reprint of the James Blish anti-A. Merritt reviews from the 1957 FANTASY TIMES and the original fan responses to them, facsimile reprint of Donald A. Wandrei’s 1926 OVERLAND MONTHLY article on Clark Ashton Smith “The Emperor of Dreams”, a 2 page article written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1929 discussing his own horror stories “In The Vault,” “The Hound” and “The Colour Out of Space”, reprints of the 1933 & 1934 letters by Forrest Ackerman and others regarding whether the fantasy stories of Clark Ashton Smith belong in the science fiction mag WONDER STORIES (even H.P. Lovecraft weighed in on the debate), a tribute to artist James Cawthorn (1929-2008), and more. Full color front and back covers by Mahlon Fawcett.

The Coming of Conan

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collection of Howard’s Conan stories, including all the original Howard material known to exist at the time, some left unpublished in his lifetime.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.