Adventures in Fiction: Robert E. Howard
Our Appendix N Archeology and Adventures in Fiction series are meant to take a look at the writers and creators behind the genre(s) that helped to forge not only our favorite hobby but our lives. We invite you to explore the entirety of the series on our Adventures In Fiction home page. There may not be a more iconic character in fantasy—and particularly sword and sorcery—fiction than Conan the Barbarian. From...
Classic Covers: Frank Frazetta’s Lancer/Ace Conans
Second only to Robert E. Howard in importance in the development of the perception of Conan, Frank Frazetta’s explosively elemental take on the Cimmerian achieved instant cultural cache and has become the defining image not only of Howard’s most famous creation, but of the barbaric hinterlands of fantasy fiction itself. Frazetta’s frenzied depictions of havoc and battle, his iron-muscled killers taut with violent...
Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails”
Goodman Games and Tales From the Magician’s Skull are honored to report that this essay by Jason Ray Carney, Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails,” has been nominated for a 2022 Robert E. Howard Award in the category of Outstanding Achievement, Essay — otherwise known as The Hyrkanian! The Robert E. Howard Awards 2022 will be presented this weekend, June 10 at Howard Days...
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels by Howard Andrew Jones If I didn’t love the writing of Robert E. Howard I would probably never have bothered with any Conan pastiche. As a matter of fact, those Conan novels on store shelves in the ’70s and ’80s made me so skeptical of Conan that I didn’t try Robert E. Howard’s fiction until years later. I wrongly assumed that because the series looked cheap and...
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard by Bill Ward Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) was a giant and a father to giants, his literary creations so potent that they have informed popular culture and permeated mass consciousness down to the present day. But their very ubiquity can obscure and deceive – if two people strike up a conversation about Conan, are they actually talking about the same Conan? What’s going on with all of these...
Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails”
Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails” by Jason Ray Carney Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery tale “Red Nails,” published as a three-part serial in Weird Tales in 1936, tells the story of the city of Xuchotl, the enduring, blood-soaked war between the Tecuhltli and the Xotalanc, and the dehumanizing effect of sustained hatred and violence. “Red Nails”...
Classic Covers: The Weird Tales Conan Covers of Margaret Brundage
We all know what Conan looks like—ferociously muscled, scowling, a barely-contained dynamo of steel-hard flesh and savage energy. It can come as a bit of a shock, then, for those of us in the post-Frazetta, post-Savage Sword, post-Schwarzenegger era to meet Conan in his earliest depictions on the covers of Weird Tales magazine. Howard sold seventeen Conan stories to Weird Tales, the character appearing in twenty-five issues and making...
Free Conan Novel With Purchase
While supplies last and Crom wills it, we are giving away a free Conan novel with any print purchase from our online store of $25 or more! Yes, you read that right! In years past we would have sold these novels as part of our amazing vintage book racks at Gen Con, but now you can get them a different way—for FREE! While you’re at it, make sure to check out the Robert E. Howard section of our Adventures in Fiction page. He’s an amazing...
Hyborian Age World Building
Hyborian Age World Building by Bill Ward Robert E. Howard, pioneer of sword & sorcery fiction, creator of Conan and Solomon Kane, author of scores of stories across half a dozen genres or more, is rightly praised as a master of pacing, a crafter of visceral action, and a writer of vivid and poetic prose. What often goes unremarked, even among his ardent fans, is Howard’s impressive achievement as a world-builder, namely in the...
Amra Who? Inside Conan’s Secret Identity
Amra Who? Inside Conan’s Secret Identity by Bill Ward Quick trivia question: what is Conan holding in his hand when we are first introduced to the character? It’s not the bloody head of a Stygian priest or the becrimsoned blade that severed it. No, it’s a pen. Or, to be more accurate, a stylus – King Conan is improving the map of his Kingdom of Aquilonia when first we meet him in “The Phoenix on the Sword,” filling...
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard
Where to Start With Robert E. Howard by Bill Ward Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) was a giant and a father to giants, his literary creations so potent that they have informed popular culture and permeated mass consciousness down to the present day. But their very ubiquity can obscure and deceive – if two people strike up a conversation about Conan, are they actually talking about the same Conan? What’s going on with all of these...
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels
The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels By Howard Andrew Jones If I didn’t love the writing of Robert E. Howard I would probably never have bothered with any Conan pastiche. As a matter of fact, those Conan novels on store shelves in the ’70s and ’80s made me so skeptical of Conan that I didn’t try Robert E. Howard’s fiction until years later. I wrongly assumed that because the series looked cheap and...
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