Conan comic

[slaughterj]

I think the original poster who mentioned Venarium's absence in REH's Conan meant we didn't have a story that took place there, not that it wasn't meanioned at all. At least, that's what I took their comments to mean.

Could be, I took it to mean that he thought it was pastiche-based...

 

[slaughterj]

Howard loved to start his Conan stories with action and then add a little backstory. Many of them begin with Conan in a fight, having just finished a fight, running from someone, or chasing someone.
The Venarium story's presentation was part of that literary style. It was glimpsed at and described enough in various other stories that it gave the reader the feeling they knew what went on there without having to read a detailed account.

Nothing wrong with running things in media res I used to do that with Star Wars d6 a lot, and have been thinking heavily of doing it with Conan RPG. I'm not sure how players like it, I mean they like the early action, but they might not like being stuck in situations that they felt they might have avoided, e.g. session starts "The Nemedian thug across the table from you rises suddenly, hand on the pommel of his blade, bristling at the perceived insult. Several others present in the tavern rise as well, as if they were his guards. He seems insulted by the price of your offer to retrieve a holy chalice from the local temple of Ishtar. What do you do?" That one's pretty mild, it gives them a chance to calm down the situation and talk their way out of it, but others can be more severe, e.g. "After bungling your last attempt to thieve gems from the local merchant, you needed to flee town quickly, signing up as guards for a caravan as it was departing. You travelled for days into the desert of Shem, only to have your caravan attacked by overwhelming forces. You were able to fight your way free, seeing most of the caravan already slain, and cross a dune out of sight of the main force, but now a small horde of raiders approaches from further out, cresting the next dune over about 30 feet away. What do you do? (Everyone is down by 1d10 hit points, and has only what equipment they carry when walking, i.e., minimal water.)"

 

[slaughterj]

Since Venarium isn't mentioed in any of Howard's stuff you probably wont see it in the comic.

'But the Picts are divided into small clans,' persisted Balthus. 'They'll never unite. We can whip any single clan.'

'Or any three or four clans,' admitted the slayer. 'But some day a man will rise and unite thirty or forty clans, just as was done among the Cimmerians, when the Gundermen tried to push the border northward, years ago. They tried to colonize the southern marches of Cimmeria: destroyed a few small clans, built a forttown, Venarium - you've heard the tale.'

'So I have indeed,' replied Balthus, wincing. The memory of that red disaster was a black blot in the chronicles of a proud and war-like people. 'My uncle was at Venarium when the Cimmerians swarmed over the walls. He was one of the few who escaped that slaughter. I've heard him tell the tale, many a time. The barbarians swept out over the hills in a ravening horde, without warning, and stormed Venarium with such fury none could stand before them. Men, women and children were butchered. Venarium was reduced to a mass of charred ruins, as it is to this day. The Aquilonians were driven back across the marches, and have never since tried to colonize the Cimmerian country. But you speak of Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there?'

'I was,' grunted the other. 'I was one of the horde that swarmed over the walls. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already my name was repeated about the council fires.'

Balthus involutarily recoiled, staring. It seemed incredible that the man walking tranquilly at his side should have been one of those screeching, blood-mad devils that poured over the walls of Venarium on that long-gone day to make her streets run crimson.

Beyond the Black River, Robert E. Howard.

Er, Vincent, do you just happen to have all REH works in a text file for easy searching?

 

[Anonymous]

I think the original poster who mentioned Venarium's absence in REH's Conan meant we didn't have a story that took place there, not that it wasn't meanioned at all.

If you're refering to my post, then yeah - that's exactly what I meant. Still, it's been a while since I read through BtBR. That's as good an excuse as any to re-read it. :wink:

 

[slaughterj]

I think the original poster who mentioned Venarium's absence in REH's Conan meant we didn't have a story that took place there, not that it wasn't meanioned at all.

If you're refering to my post, then yeah - that's exactly what I meant. Still, it's been a while since I read through BtBR. That's as good an excuse as any to re-read it. :wink:

Gotcha, I figured since you said "Since Venarium isn't mentioed in any of Howard's stuff", that you meant not at all

 

[VincentDarlage]

Er, Vincent, do you just happen to have all REH works in a text file for easy searching?

No, but if anyone knows of a eText source for Howard material, I'd love to get access to it. I am, however, a fair to middling typist in terms of speed (in addition to teaching accounting classes, I also teach keyboarding classes). I also have read a lot of Howard - and re-read it so many times I can usually find what I am looking for in a matter of minutes.

 

[Geezer]

I'll get it as soon as I find it here in Sweden. I really liked the samples on the Dark Horse web page.

Conan RPG, computer game, new comic... film planned etc. Talk about The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian.


Darn! I just found this on the official page:

Newsflash Feb 27:
Dark Horse reports that Conan #1 completely sold out on its first day of release (2/34/04). Series editor Scott Allie revealed that the second printing will feature a new variant cover by noted artist J. Scott Campbell, best known for his work on Gen13 and Danger Girl.

http://www.conan.com/f_issue1_out.shtml

Maybe I wont even be able to get it with the first cover?! It will surely become a collectors item.

 

[dbenson]

Geezer,

I wouldn't hold my breath on that Conan movie. Also, I've played the demo of the computer game. It pretty much blew. What I'd love to see is a computer game made with the depth of say, KOTOR or Baldur's Gate, set in Hyborea. Wish I was a programmer.

 

[Geezer]

I wouldn't hold my breath on that Conan movie. Also, I've played the demo of the computer game. It pretty much blew. What I'd love to see is a computer game made with the depth of say, KOTOR or Baldur's Gate, set in Hyborea. Wish I was a programmer.

Ahh, the joy of different tastes.

I have played the demo, and while it was a console-type of combat-adventure, I thought it was great fun. It was hard to control without a gamepad though, but I have one since before (need to play NBA Live series). It is going to be release in April here in Europe. After learning some cool combos, I had a great time combating hordes of enemies. I mean, sure KOTOR and the likes are great games, but I prefer realtime action in combat like the Conan game.

I know that the movie has a rough way ahead, but I'm patient. F.e. an Alien vs. Predator movie was talked about in 10 years (since the comic), and now its coming this year!

/Per

 

[Faraer]

I'd think that though the new management of Conan Properties doesn't mind the comic deviating from past 'official' chronologies, they wouldn't want two versions of the Venarium story out at the same time, even if Kurt Busiek wanted to tell it.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is available as an ebook, which is handy for searching (and Acrobat Reader can search across multiple files), though not for printing or copying unless you can decrypt it. I recall David Gentzel offering to distribute some Howard etexts for broadly scholarly purposes, but it may be someone else.

The comic is terrific; the circumstances of its production are just about ideal, and it's so much better than any Conan comic that would have been done in the 1990s.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I'll get it as soon as I find it here in Sweden. I really liked the samples on the Dark Horse web page.

Conan RPG, computer game, new comic... film planned etc. Talk about The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian.


Darn! I just found this on the official page:

Newsflash Feb 27:
Dark Horse reports that Conan #1 completely sold out on its first day of release (2/34/04). Series editor Scott Allie revealed that the second printing will feature a new variant cover by noted artist J. Scott Campbell, best known for his work on Gen13 and Danger Girl.

http://www.conan.com/f_issue1_out.shtml

Maybe I wont even be able to get it with the first cover?! It will surely become a collectors item.

I was wondering about this. Has the publisher run out or has every comic shop in the world written in to say they have sold out? Probably the former and not the latter. I ordered the comic online and it hasn't been shipped yet. They better not stiff me! :x

 

[Anonymous]

I'd think that though the new management of Conan Properties doesn't mind the comic deviating from past 'official' chronologies, they wouldn't want two versions of the Venarium story out at the same time, even if Kurt Busiek wanted to tell it.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is available as an ebook, which is handy for searching (and Acrobat Reader can search across multiple files), though not for printing or copying unless you can decrypt it. I recall David Gentzel offering to distribute some Howard etexts for broadly scholarly purposes, but it may be someone else.

The comic is terrific; the circumstances of its production are just about ideal, and it's so much better than any Conan comic that would have been done in the 1990s.

Conan of Venarium /Turtledove was commissioned and contracted by the old management.

Fredrik Malmberg/CPI LLc.

 

[Geezer]

Conan of Venarium /Turtledove was commissioned and contracted by the old management.
Fredrik Malmberg/CPI LLc.

Nice to see you are checking the boards. Conan is really coming to life again, and I guess its in part done by the work of Paradox Entertainment.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Conan is really coming to life again, and I guess its in part done by the work of Paradox Entertainment.

Amen to that!

 

[slaughterj]

I'd think that though the new management of Conan Properties doesn't mind the comic deviating from past 'official' chronologies, they wouldn't want two versions of the Venarium story out at the same time, even if Kurt Busiek wanted to tell it.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is available as an ebook, which is handy for searching (and Acrobat Reader can search across multiple files), though not for printing or copying unless you can decrypt it. I recall David Gentzel offering to distribute some Howard etexts for broadly scholarly purposes, but it may be someone else.

The comic is terrific; the circumstances of its production are just about ideal, and it's so much better than any Conan comic that would have been done in the 1990s.

Conan of Venarium /Turtledove was commissioned and contracted by the old management.

Fredrik Malmberg/CPI LLc.

What's your position with CPI?

 

[Anonymous]

Fredrik Malmberg/CPI LLc.

What's your position with CPI?

Here are the current positions in Paradox Entertainment:
http://www.paradox-entertainment.com/about.asp

 

[slaughterj]

Fredrik Malmberg/CPI LLc.

What's your position with CPI?

Here are the current positions in Paradox Entertainment:
http://www.paradox-entertainment.com/about.asp

Thank you for the information. How are CPI and Paradox related? (Wondering such things from a professional standpoint - I'm an intellectual property attorney.)

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Paradox owns the rights to Conan. They bought all of them. Not a licensing deal, rather they own the license. (That's a non-lawyerly explanation but if you look at the top dogs in Paradox and the top dogs in CPI... they are the same people.)

 

[terryallenuk]

Yes , the old Conan Properties , part of the Howard estate , originally sold the rights to Stan Lee , when his company went bust they reverted back to the Howard people then they went to Paradox.

Terry

 

[bolen]

what has caused this new interest in conan. I own the old 12 paperbacks by de Camp et al. Now all of a sudden the comming of conan and the RPG and the comic are being published. Is this coincidence or is this a planed market stratagy to make conan as popular as it was in the 1970's.