Henry10MY LIFE IN COMICS PART 3
February 6th 2007 06:23
There I stood, at the crossroads of life. Of the comics I was collecting, Transformers was cancelled, and G.I. Joe was failing to hold my interest as I grew older. I had a choice - to take the path of the non-comics reader, or to find another book that would fire my imagination and deny me the interest of girls for the next ten years.
No prizes for guessing what I did - the real choice was just what comic I would pick. I was playing Dungeons & Dragons hardcore at the time, so something fantasy-based was certain to attract my attention. I was also obsessed with the films of that startling thespian Arnold Shwarzenegger. See where this is headed?
My choice, of course, was Conan the Barbarian. I jumped on board with issue #243, and few comics before or since have fired me up as much as this one did. It was a good time to jump on the title, as Roy Thomas was returning to the book after about ten years absence. For those who don't know, Marvel bought the rights to Conan in the early 1970s, and it was Roy Thomas who wrote it up until about 1980. What I've read of that first run is great stuff, and any fans of sword-and-sorcery style fantasy would be well served to check out the collections that are currently being released by Dark Horse. The comic had gotten a bit crappy without Roy at the helm, and had also strayed quite a lot from Conan's life as it had been outlined in the original short stories by Robert E. Howard. But now Roy was back at the helm and ready to get things back on track, and I was ready to soak it all up.
The day I bought that Conan comic I think I read it at least five times, and I distinctly remember counting how many people Conan kills in it, because I was a vicious and violence-loving little sod, almost destined to grow up into a droogy of some kind. Conan killed 41 men and a demon in that comic, and thus I decided that this here is something I like very much.
The next six months or so provided some great comics. Conan fought Varnae, the first ever vampire, alongside she-of-the-chainmail-bikini Red Sonja. Conan became the general of an army. Conan fought a guy with a flaming sword. Conan beaned some prince guy right on the nose with a severed head. It was all great.
And then, it stopped. Issue #250 was coming, and I was excited. It never arrived at the newsagency. In a fit of pique, I vowed never to frequent that newsagency again, and took my business up the road to my home town's only other newsagency. They too did not have Conan in stock. And so I moved on. It didn't matter so much - I very quickly found something else that would make my Conan obsession pale in comparison.
The greatest gift that I received from my short stint reading Conan was that it pointed me in the direction of the original Robert E. Howard material. If all you know of Conan is the excellent first movie and the dire second one, you are missing out. Howard's stuff, written in the late 1930s, is absolutely essential fantasy reading. It's action-packed stuff, but with a horrific edge that owes a bit to H.P. Lovecraft, and some deeper themes should you care to dig for them.
NEXT: X-MEN, X-FORCE, X-FACTOR, X-THIS, X-THAT, X-EVERYTHING.
No prizes for guessing what I did - the real choice was just what comic I would pick. I was playing Dungeons & Dragons hardcore at the time, so something fantasy-based was certain to attract my attention. I was also obsessed with the films of that startling thespian Arnold Shwarzenegger. See where this is headed?
The day I bought that Conan comic I think I read it at least five times, and I distinctly remember counting how many people Conan kills in it, because I was a vicious and violence-loving little sod, almost destined to grow up into a droogy of some kind. Conan killed 41 men and a demon in that comic, and thus I decided that this here is something I like very much.
The next six months or so provided some great comics. Conan fought Varnae, the first ever vampire, alongside she-of-the-chainmail-bikini Red Sonja. Conan became the general of an army. Conan fought a guy with a flaming sword. Conan beaned some prince guy right on the nose with a severed head. It was all great.
And then, it stopped. Issue #250 was coming, and I was excited. It never arrived at the newsagency. In a fit of pique, I vowed never to frequent that newsagency again, and took my business up the road to my home town's only other newsagency. They too did not have Conan in stock. And so I moved on. It didn't matter so much - I very quickly found something else that would make my Conan obsession pale in comparison.
The greatest gift that I received from my short stint reading Conan was that it pointed me in the direction of the original Robert E. Howard material. If all you know of Conan is the excellent first movie and the dire second one, you are missing out. Howard's stuff, written in the late 1930s, is absolutely essential fantasy reading. It's action-packed stuff, but with a horrific edge that owes a bit to H.P. Lovecraft, and some deeper themes should you care to dig for them.
NEXT: X-MEN, X-FORCE, X-FACTOR, X-THIS, X-THAT, X-EVERYTHING.
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