Robert E. Howard Readers discussion
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message 51:
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Michael
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Jul 12, 2016 10:25AM
I have several versions of the story and honestly don't know anything about a missing chapter.
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Jim wrote: "Bobby wrote: "JHow the heck do you read 180 books a year? My goodness! I wish. I don't have the time. "Audio books. I 'read' over 200 each of the past 2 years. 2/3 of them were audio. My commute,..."
I have tried the audio books and have a hard time concentrating while doing other things. Even while driving I find that I have to go back to listen to sections I daydream through. I do like listening to the REH books while driving long distances by myself but I don't do it that often. I certainly don't retain it and I agree with the studies about retention when reading Kindle as well. For some reason I get more out of holding a book in my hands.
If I heard about that I forgot all about it. I've never heard any controversy about it so I will assume that it was a misprint as well.
Michael wrote: "I have tried the audio books and have a hard time concentrating while doing other things....."I think it takes some practice. When I first started listening, it was rereading mostly & I did have some trouble focusing. Now I have no problem, though. Look at some of my reviews of nonfiction books on the audio shelf (1audio, 2nonfiction) & you'll see I retain a fair amount. Here's my last nonfiction listen review which was an overview of forensics:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Not every book is good to listen to. Ayn Rand uses too many $5 words in very precise ways, sometimes not their primary definition, so I have to think about her words too much. Popular science, mystery-thrillers, & such are fine, though.
Some books are great to listen to, even better than regular reading. I've managed to get through quite a few I wouldn't have been able to read as a 'real' book. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin & Pride and Prejudice are 2 examples.
I've heard of the missing chapter controversy. I think the consensus is a misprint, but since the chapters are pretty self-contained, another chapter could have easily been there.
It has been a little slow here the last few months. It was once thriving at times. You'll pardon me, I really don't have much to say about the controversy with The Hour of the Dragon although I do like to delve into what people research concerning Howard. I attended Robert E Howard Days last month and it is interesting the efforts people go to in discovering things. There was a panel that presented three people's scholarly research into different areas of Howard Fandom: http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/a-t...
The final researcher was Dan Look a Mathematics Professor at
St. Lawrence University who "used software to perform stylometric analyses of the text of Howard’s Almuric in an attempt to determine who completed the unfinished novel. Look focused on the numerical frequency of short “function” words, which he thinks is most objective and revelatory about the likely author of text samples when compared to texts of known authorship. Look compared the ending of Almuric to texts by REH, Otis Adelbert Kline, Farnsworth Wright, Henry Kuttner, E. Hoffmann Price, and Otto Binder, finding that Howard was as likely to be the author as any of the others, but he acknowledged that other types of stylometric analysis might give different results." words in quotations by Lee Breakiron in Two Gun Raconteur. It was very interesting although I am just a fan and have been since 1967 when I first discovered the Lancer paperbacks. Without them I am not sure we would have what we have today. The research to me is a bit tedious and I don't take the time for it but I certainly appreciate those that do and we benefit by their hard work
Some of these researchers and scholars sometimes post here. Vincent Darlage who answered your question is one of the moderators and he has and is working on some of the Conan role playing games. Bobby Dee has written "Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos" and also a book "The Collected Letters of Robert E Howard, Index and Addenda" which is for sale on the REH Foundation website. Others post from time to time. The REH forum on Conan.com has closed. I believe that the many REH FB pages have kind of taken over as more of a forum than these forums. If you are on FB check out them out. The international Robert E Howard page and the Dog Brothers of Robert E Howard take new people all the time. Also H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith pages and they have lots of comments and topics.
Anyway I think you would enjoy them. Bobby Dee posts several times a day. Also Jeff Shanks and many others on occasion like Rusty Burke, Mark Finn, Chris Gruber and mostly the many many fans of REH. Do post here. I get the emails but not many have been posting here as often as we all used to.
I've been meaning to get around to Jack Campbell. His books sound great! If you want to get into more Howard check out the Robert E Howard Foundation website. Between what is published there and the Del Reys you will have just about everything by Howard at the most affordable price. Of course, I while I have them all I am a collector at heart and have lot of other versions of the same tales...Gnome Press, Donald M Grant, Some Arkham, Wandering Star, etc. I am incorrigible in that way. Battlestar Galactica (the newer version) was a great show!
BTW I have been fortunate to have lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the last 30 plus years so it has been relatively easy for me to get to Robert E Howard Days. I do suggest making the trip at least once if you can. This year had a lot of new people although it has never been too crowded although it is getting bigger. Cross Plains is a small town. Maybe one day it will outgrow it and they will have to have part of it in Brownwood.
BTW Robert E Howard Readers is a good page. Most people post to all of the pages to catch those that don't belong to all of them.
Lorenzo wrote: "I’ve heard of a few of these researchers you mentioned. Burke and Finn, for example. I’ve even read Finn’s wonderful book Blood and Thunder. I loved it! I also read DeCamp’s biography about Howard...."Hi Lorenzo interesting to read about The Hour of the Dragon issue and welcome to this group if you are new here. Im an avid REH reader, huge fan that havent read much recent years but this group, other places i talk to REH fans is very important to me.
Were you a member of the forums in Conan.com ? There were alot of fans there even people from this group, those fans, regular members have moved to http://swordsofreh.proboards.com.
Frankly i have only one desire, interest in vising US and Texas thats only because of REH, as you said a pilgrimage to Cross Plains, his house,museum, grave site. That i will do in recent future for sure :)
Thanks Mohammed for the info. I lost my pw on Conan.com and hadn't posted in a long time. I will get on the new forum.
This is an oldy, but a goody & is funny. Jo Walton writing about "The Suck Fairy" who visits beloved books & sucks the fun out of them.http://www.tor.com/2010/09/28/the-suc...
It would be Robert E. Howard's 112th birthday today. Are you going to celebrate with your favorite libation & story of his?
It's hard to pick a favorite story OR libation -- so many good options! -- but yes, I will.
I am! Not a favorite story, but the next one on my reading list (Guns of the Mountains, chapter 4 of A Gent from Bear Creek, in The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Vol. 2. And some Scotch.
I read 'Pigeons from Hell' again, and quaffed an ice-cold Schlitz in his honour.
Late to add this but "Daughter of Erlik Khan" and a vodka martini (with Tito's Handmade Vodka made in Texas :)
There is a new batch of online pharmacy spammers joining Goodreads. I've found them here & deleted them which will also block them from rejoining the group. Most of the profiles listed "Canadian trusted online pharmacy' as their website, have just a few books read, & the currently reading book is often pharmacy related. I did this quickly & don't think I deleted anyone but them. If you think I did, please PM me & let me know.
My son-in-law sent me this interesting article. Anyone ever been to one?Edible Book Festivals Are for Pun and Food Lovers:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
No, but that's a pretty cool idea. It'd be fun to do one based on REH stories.
Looks like Marvel is re-launching Conan comic books, starting at #1 This is the main artist, I take it: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHh2tBn2...
Yes, they are. They also relaunched the Savage Sword. I believe the first couple of issues are out already.https://www.marvel.com/articles/comic...
Maybe it will generate some new interest in reading REH. It's how I first arrived on the scene as a kid, via Marvel Conan.
Although I had read two Conan books (Conan the Adventurer and Conan the Usurper) when I first encountered the Conan comics, I do remember my first Conan comic - Issue 152, "The Dark Blade of Jergal Zadh" (reprinted in The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 20: Night of the Wolf and Other Stories). I liked Jergal Zadh so much I made AD&D stats for him and he became a major baddie for my campaigns (I was 13 at the time).I stayed with the comic from 152 to the end (and managed to buy all the back issues until I had the full run). I hope this new run is as inspiring to today's youth as it was to me... but I also wonder how many kids are buying comics today. Every time I go into a comics store (which is not often these days), I only see adults in there. Back when I was buying comics, they were on newstands in drug stores and grocery stories, places where kids tagging along with parents would see them.
I, for one, was never keen on the 'Conan' comic books so much. In truth, the only ones I liked to read were the ones that contained Howard's original stories, but even those are half-baked renditions (they are, after all, only comic books). As for the other stories, the 'Conan' comic books that are not based upon any of Howard's stories, I altogether despise them. The writers of those comics pretty much just reinvented the character of Conan and their reincarnation never was in keeping with REH's Conan - in my own opinion.For all of that, I did buy and collect Conan comic books. Why? The artwork! I confess, the comic books have given many REH fans some spectacular images of the Cimmerian. There have been many artists throughout the decades, and not a few of these artists have nailed my perception of Conan to the mark. Probably my favourite illustrations of the Cimmerian are from the Spanish artist, Esteban Maroto. In my eyes, Maroto has created the ideal Conan. He is a comic book artist, but he has also done illustrations for books, namely: "Conan, the Flame Knife", an L. Sprague De Camp-revised REH tale.
Other artists whom I think draw a pretty good Conan - John Buscema, Earl Norem, and I do like Ernie Chan's rendition.
By the time the Conan Comics came out, I was in college and had lost interest in comics. During the Silver Age of Comics (mostly Sixties) I followed DC and all of the new Marvel Super Hero Comics as they came out. In 1967, I started reading and collecting all of the Lancer paperbacks of Conan with the Frazetta covers. While home from school I happened into a local pharmacy and to my surprise noticed my first Conan comic based on REH's "Garden of Fear" a story I was familar with from Lancer paperback "The Dark Man and Others." I loved Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork although Conan seemed a bit "pretty" compared to the Frazetta version. I bought a few more and was very excited to see Conan in comic book form. I still preferred the original Lancer and Ace paperbacks as well as all the other REH characters that began to be published and of course the CtB movie with Arnold. I also picked up Savage Sword of Conan, particularly the stories that were based on REH stories like "Black Colossus." I was tickled to see the artwork as well but didn't really get back into comics until a few years ago and then lost interest again. When I get a chance I will go pickup some of the new Conan issues and check them out.
I love Esteban Maroto's Conan art. Wish he'd do more REH work.Buscema was my favorite Conan comic artist.
Although I am not really that interested in the comics themselves, I do like that the new Savage Sword has new prose works in them.
Ha, I had forgotten all about Barry Windsor-Smith! I thought he sketched a good Conan too. Then again, my views of Windsor-Smith's art could be youth-biased; after all, the first 'Conan' comic books I ever poured through were illustrated by him. When I look at Windsor-Smith's 'Conan' nowadays, the Cimmerian looks a little too "cartoonish" to me (which is funny given that it is a comic book). For all of that, I do like Barry Windsor-Smith's work, but I think his Conan doesn't compete with the other artists I mentioned. By the by, I think Boris Vallejo's cover art on some of the old 'Savage Sword of Conan' comic books are pretty damn good.
The artwork in comic books and graphic novels definitely provides a different perspective. Now that we're batting it around, the art probably outweighs plot and dialog pretty often. For me, they're a fun aside now and then. But prose books are for the real story.
Yeah, good art can overcome a bad plot or bad dialogue - and poor art can irritate me so much that a good story is missed. Excellent point, John.I seem to recall Conan #1–11 (1995–1996) having some pretty horrid art, especially the covers. #9's cover was especially egregious (April 1996, Godfall).
I've been a fan of Frank Frazetta since I saw the Lancer editions of the Conan books & they sucked me into reading them. I knew his art was pricey, but now it has set a new record. The Egyptian Queen, which originally graced the cover of Eerie magazine, just sold for $4.5 million!https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-...
Wow. Just wow. Worth it, I'd say.I wonder who owns the original for "Conan the Adventurer." Are all of his paintings held by private collectors, or are any hanging in museums?
There are quite a few in his private museum - 30 of his oil paintings. I guess they sell one occasionally to keep the place open. This page has some interesting facts.http://frazettamuseum.com/MUS.html
I believe Robert Rodriguez (the director) has a Frazetta gallery in Austin, TX. I've wanted to go there but have not made it yet. I'm pretty sure you can buy original paintiings there.
Jim wrote: "I knew his art was pricey, but now it has set a new record. ..."Cool stuff. Glad for Frazetta's legacy and his family.
Frazetta was a master craftsman, to be sure. I posted this before, and I'll post it again because I find it interesting: based upon what I've read about the man, Frazetta was never really into heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery. As a matter of fact, I'm fairly certain he never read a single Conan story. Besides painting, Frazetta's main passion was baseball.
Interesting. I don't recall any baseball pictures by Frazetta, although it's not of interest to me & it's been a while since I last read one of his books. he certainly did a great job on fantastic subjects.
Since I finished reading all of Howard's original Conan stories (thanks to the Ballantine/Del Rey 3 volume reprint series) I am now moving on to the Kull stories and I plan to start Kull: Exile of Atlantis in a couple weeks.
Wonderful! You should come here and discuss the stories as you read them!
Vincent wrote: "Wonderful! You should come here and discuss the stories as you read them!"I am thinking about doing that in the Kull thread. I saw that you did that. I skimmed the posts but will go back and read them as I make my way through the book.
Fantastic! I hope you do. It'd be nice to have some good REH discussions happening here.
Robert E. Howard Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Kull: Exile of Atlantis (other topics)The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 20: Night of the Wolf and Other Stories (other topics)
Conan the Adventurer (other topics)
Conan the Usurper (other topics)
The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins, Vol. 2 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Frank Frazetta (other topics)Robert E. Howard (other topics)
Ayn Rand (other topics)
Barry Eisler (other topics)
J.A. Konrath (other topics)
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