I scored a beaten up old late '70s copy of the uncut Kull collection (including fragments) for under $2 at my used bookstore. There are a lot of memorable lines and phrases in Kull, like "red doom and black luck" or "Who rides beyond the sunset, returns not." The character of Conan seems to be a hybrid between the Atlantean King Kull and his faithful Pictish companion, Brule The Spear-Slayer.
Kull is good stuff, though a tad more "ancient mythology" and "Lovecraftian" in tone than Conan. Kull's "By This Axe I Rule!" was rewritten by REH as Conan's "The Phoenix On The Sword" --- comparing the versions is interesting.
Can you believe I've read nothing but Robert E. Howard short stories (Kull, Red Sonya, Conan) and twenty Conan pastiche novels since January 2004? Plus the Conan comics, RPG and magazines? I'm finally starting in earnest on The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian. Aside from the final two Robert Jordan pastiches (The Magnificent, The Invincible), I'm out of Conan material to read. I have never read this many books in a year before, and must say, aside from Roland Green's "Conan The Guardian" (which I finished) and Poul Anderson's "Conan The Rebel" (so much so I couldn't finish it), I've enjoyed them all immensely.
The only other authors and/or characters I've read even close to this much in recent years were the 1970s and early to mid 1980s horror novels of James Herbert (Rats, Lair, Domain, The Dark, The Fog, The Spear, etc.) and the savage crime noir novels of James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, etc.), or Grant Stockbridge's long-running 1930s bloody pulp adventure saga, "The Spider" (like "The Shadow" except without the invisibility and with tons more graphic violence).
Kull is good stuff, though a tad more "ancient mythology" and "Lovecraftian" in tone than Conan. Kull's "By This Axe I Rule!" was rewritten by REH as Conan's "The Phoenix On The Sword" --- comparing the versions is interesting.
Can you believe I've read nothing but Robert E. Howard short stories (Kull, Red Sonya, Conan) and twenty Conan pastiche novels since January 2004? Plus the Conan comics, RPG and magazines? I'm finally starting in earnest on The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian. Aside from the final two Robert Jordan pastiches (The Magnificent, The Invincible), I'm out of Conan material to read. I have never read this many books in a year before, and must say, aside from Roland Green's "Conan The Guardian" (which I finished) and Poul Anderson's "Conan The Rebel" (so much so I couldn't finish it), I've enjoyed them all immensely.
The only other authors and/or characters I've read even close to this much in recent years were the 1970s and early to mid 1980s horror novels of James Herbert (Rats, Lair, Domain, The Dark, The Fog, The Spear, etc.) and the savage crime noir novels of James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, etc.), or Grant Stockbridge's long-running 1930s bloody pulp adventure saga, "The Spider" (like "The Shadow" except without the invisibility and with tons more graphic violence).
