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Sunday, 7 September 2014
ROY THOMAS ON CONAN THE BARBARIAN...
Like CONAN THE BARBARIAN? Then you're
bound to enjoy listening to ROY THOMAS talk about
ROBERT E. HOWARD's Cimmerian hero's MARVEL
comicbook adventures. (A link to part two appears at
the end of the clip if you'd like to see that as well.)
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
That was interesting, I never even noticed that there were no "sound effects" in the Conan comics ! His Conan stories are still excellent and still hold up after 40 years unlike some other Marvel stories which come across as rather dated now. I've never thought much of the movie Conan though, even though Roy Thomas wrote the screenplay - Schwarzeneggar was miscast I thought and it didn't really feel like the Conan I was used to. I've tried to get into the modern Dark Horse comics version of Conan but they are really quite tedious and totally lack the excitement of the Marvel version. I didn't read any Robert E. Howard Conan stories till about 5 years ago and I was really surprised how faithful the Marvel adaptations had been, they are almost word-for-word identical which I'm not complaining about as that's the way I'd prefer it. My favourite Conan story is "Iron Shadows In The Moon" and when I was reading the REH original I could see the Marvel version in my mind - I know that story was in the UK Savage Sword No.1 but I didn't read it then, I read it in a Marvel Treasury Edition colour version which came out a year later.
Interestingly, when Roy took the same approach with Tarzan, the ERB estate apparently accused him of plagiarism (or something close to it) - even 'though they'd granted Marvel permission to do adaptations. If he'd produced something that bore little resemblance to the original books, they'd probably have complained about that as well.
The Conan series (both the B&W and color) were my favorite Marvel books when I was growing up. When Thomas left, I sort of lost interest because the story quality just declined so much. It was obvious how much he had invested in the character. I think it was his best work, adaptations or originals.
Like Mr. Jones, when I read the Howard stories, I could see the Marvel versions.....as drawn by John Buscema.
It's strange how Barry Smith now calls himself Barry "Windsor" Smith - I remember about twenty years ago my father received a letter from his brother and saw that his brother had invented a double-barrelled name for himself, he was now Robert Something-Jones rather than plain Robert Jones which he'd always been. My father thought it was pathetic which it was of course. According to Wikipedia Barry Smith was born with that name and so has added the Windsor bit - you'd have to be a right stuck-up tw*t to not only invent a double-barrelled name for yourself but also to use the same name as the Royal family.
I tend to agree with you if someone has added a name because they think it makes them sound more grand. However, if they do it for commercial reasons because they know that others will think it more grand then I suppose it could be argued its an astute move. And what do you make of that Jack Kirby, eh? Adding the word 'King' to his name so that he'd sound more royal. (It's okay - I'm only kidding about that one.)
6 comments:
That was interesting, I never even noticed that there were no "sound effects" in the Conan comics ! His Conan stories are still excellent and still hold up after 40 years unlike some other Marvel stories which come across as rather dated now. I've never thought much of the movie Conan though, even though Roy Thomas wrote the screenplay - Schwarzeneggar was miscast I thought and it didn't really feel like the Conan I was used to. I've tried to get into the modern Dark Horse comics version of Conan but they are really quite tedious and totally lack the excitement of the Marvel version. I didn't read any Robert E. Howard Conan stories till about 5 years ago and I was really surprised how faithful the Marvel adaptations had been, they are almost word-for-word identical which I'm not complaining about as that's the way I'd prefer it. My favourite Conan story is "Iron Shadows In The Moon" and when I was reading the REH original I could see the Marvel version in my mind - I know that story was in the UK Savage Sword No.1 but I didn't read it then, I read it in a Marvel Treasury Edition colour version which came out a year later.
Interestingly, when Roy took the same approach with Tarzan, the ERB estate apparently accused him of plagiarism (or something close to it) - even 'though they'd granted Marvel permission to do adaptations. If he'd produced something that bore little resemblance to the original books, they'd probably have complained about that as well.
The Conan series (both the B&W and color) were my favorite Marvel books when I was growing up. When Thomas left, I sort of lost interest because the story quality just declined so much. It was obvious how much he had invested in the character. I think it was his best work, adaptations or originals.
Like Mr. Jones, when I read the Howard stories, I could see the Marvel versions.....as drawn by John Buscema.
Thomas, Smith, Buscema - a hard act to follow, Graham.
It's strange how Barry Smith now calls himself Barry "Windsor" Smith - I remember about twenty years ago my father received a letter from his brother and saw that his brother had invented a double-barrelled name for himself, he was now Robert Something-Jones rather than plain Robert Jones which he'd always been. My father thought it was pathetic which it was of course. According to Wikipedia Barry Smith was born with that name and so has added the Windsor bit - you'd have to be a right stuck-up tw*t to not only invent a double-barrelled name for yourself but also to use the same name as the Royal family.
I tend to agree with you if someone has added a name because they think it makes them sound more grand. However, if they do it for commercial reasons because they know that others will think it more grand then I suppose it could be argued its an astute move. And what do you make of that Jack Kirby, eh? Adding the word 'King' to his name so that he'd sound more royal. (It's okay - I'm only kidding about that one.)
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