Howard Criticism: The Dark Man, Part II Fanzines

This is part II of my look at The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies; particularly Volume 5, No. 2, August 2010. Part I was a short recap of the Roy Thomas interview in said issue. Part II is a short look at the article "Fandom at Crossroads: Johnathan Bacon and the Legacy of Robert E. Howard" by Lee A. Breakiron It is a recap of the article and it is my lamentations for the by-gone world of fanzines.

Breakiron's article is an interesting one on its own merit. It explores the history of the fanzine Fantasy Crossroads, which debuted in November 1974 and was the child of Johnathan Bacon. It was not always entirely dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard; however, REH did play a strong part of its contents. It followed on the heals of other fanzines which were dedicated to REH: Amra (which served as a "play-ground" of sorts for such big names in the Sword and Sorcery field as L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, John Jakes and Fritz Leiber), The Howard Collector (established by Glenn Lord) and Cross Plains (the product of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association [REHupa]).

According to Breakiron's article Fantasy Crossroads is best described as a "hobby publication dedicated to all aspects of fantasy but with a special emphasis on the life and work of Robert E. Howard" (Breakiron 118). Most of the Howard content consisted of poetry by REH or letters written by him or to him; some of the content that appeared in Crossroads was published for the first time, or at least had not been seen for quite some time.

There were some interesting items that appeared in Crossroads during its run. Some that interested me were  an article by Harold Preece titled "Women and Robert E. Howard" in which Preece records what he knew of Howard's interest and understanding of women (parts of which were later rebuked by Novalyne Price in her memoir One Who Walked Alone) and a series of scathing letter exchanges between Professor Dirk Mosig and L. Sprague de Camp in which Mosig tears apart de Camp's Lovecraft: A Biography. "...[de Camp's] detailed list of flaws includes 'amateur pyschodiagnoses' and 'colored by the author's hostile attitude towards his subject'" (124). On a side note, many would later level these same criticisms against de Camp for his Howard biography Dark Valley Destiny.

There was a good bit of fan art featured in the zine; unfortunately, the article only shared three examples, all covers and two are shared here, both of which I chose because they are by artists whose work I know:

art by Gene Day

 Gene Day is known to me for his work at Marvel Comics. He also illustrated one of my favorite Tunnels & Trolls solitaires, Arena of Khazan.

Richard Corben

Richard Corben is famous for many things, namely his work on Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. But to me, he will always be famous for creating his Den series featured in the animated movie Heavy Metal and of course the magazine of the same name.

Crossroads reached a good level of popularity and featured letters from the likes of John Jakes, L. Sprague de Camp, C. C. Beck (whom I revere for his work on Captain Marvel), Robert Bloch and Roy Thomas.

It was not the express purpose of Breakiron's article to appear in the same issue as the Roy Thomas interview, but considering Thomas' past, it is interesting that it did so.

Roy Thomas is a man who has done much for the legacy of Conan. His efforts rank with those of Glenn Lord, Donald M. Grant, August Derleth, L. Sprague de Camp, Frank Frazetta, John Buscema, Karl Edward Wagner, Rusty Burke. Before he got his big shot with Marvel, which pushed REH's barbarian further along the road to fame, he worked the trenches of fandom and published his own fanzine, Alter Ego.

In its day, Alter Ego was the premier fanzine. My personal experiences with AE have been second hand, mostly through the books of Bill Schelly. Bill Schelly was no slouch himself in the world of fandom. He would eventually produce the fanzine Sense of Wonder and if there were a fanzine that could rival AE in the world of comics, it was SoW. I would recommend Mr. Schelly's book Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom. It is not directly related to Conan nor Robert E. Howard, but serves as a great historical memoir about the bygone days of fanzines.

I envy those that were directly involved with fanzines. I can not deny the power of the internet. It is great that on my blog roll I have instant access to others' thoughts on some of my favorite subjects (Conan, REH, H.P. Lovecraft, Mythos Fiction, comic books and role playing games to name a few); however, it does not have the same appeal as opening your mail box to find a new issue of a fanzine that someone took the time to carefully edit (or maybe not), staple together and mail out. I would love to have the satisfaction of writing to fanzines and seeing my letters printed, it is akin to the few comics I have written to later see my letters printed in the mail page--it gives a sense of ownership of something that is important to you.

There are some pretty sharp folks that are producing zines to this day for role playing games. I would love to see a zine about REH and his creations, especially my favorite barbarian.

Howard Criticism: The Dark Man, Part I Roy Thomas Interview

I have a small, but always growing, section of essays and critical works about Robert E. Howard. For sometime now, I've had intentions of checking out The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies. I finally made good on that intention and ordered a sample copy. I picked up Volume 5, No. 2 August 2010. I chose this issue knowing that there was a Roy Thomas interview, which was the main attraction for me.

The issue itself is just shy of 50 pages and features two articles: the aforementioned interview with Roy Thomas and an article that briefly looks at one of my favorite nostalgic items, fanzines; particularly, Fantasy Crossroads. Both features were entertaining and worth the price.

The Dark Man was started in 1990 by Rusty Burke (a name I am familiar with from several other Howard related sources). With the help of Necronomicon Press, Mr. Burke released the first issue. The particular issue in discussion here served as the 20th anniversary.

The cover art is by Bo Hampton and is from a portfolio of sample art he sent to Dark Horse Comics when they were looking for artists for their Solomon Kane comics.

This posting turned out longer than I anticipated, so will be done in two parts. In the first part, I will look at the Roy Thomas interview.

"The Man Who Helped Conan: An Interview with Roy Thomas", by Jeffery Kahan. The interview itself was a phone interview and tape recorded. I will cherry pick a few highlights that I enjoyed (JK = Jeffery Kahan, RT = Roy Thomas, comments in Bold are mine):

JK: Where did [the interest in Conan as a comic book character] spring from?

RT: It was really thrust upon me by the Marvel readership...we started getting a lot of letters...suggesting various things Marvel ought to buy the rights to...Marvel didn't generally license characters in those days...

Thomas goes on to say that Marvel mostly made up their own characters. This was before franchising was common. Conan, and all licensed properties, could have been ignored and Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith could have easily just made up their own barbarian character. If that had happened, things could have gone very differently for Conan.

RT: So we ended up having permission...to go after a Sword and Sorcery character...We figured Conan was probably out of our reach...[Stan Lee] preferred names like Kull and this other name I told him about, Thongor, which was Lin Carter's character...So we first went after Thongor. Lin Carter liked the idea of his characters being made into comics...but his agent did not like the $150 an issue that [Martin] Goodman had authorized me to offer for it.


Wow, Lin Carter really should have had a different agent. Just think, if his agent had accepted the offer, we could right now be Thongor-maniacs instead of Conan-maniacs! On a side note, Thongor did appear in Marvel comics, in Creatures on the Loose #22 (1973).


JK: Your collaboration with Barry Windsor-Smith remains a bit of a mystery. In his official online biography, he states that he drew the pictures and then added some dialogue in the borders and that you then added filler.

I love that word "filler" as stated by Mr. Kahan. It infers that Thomas didn't do much of anything and that Windsor-Smith did it all.

RT: I'm not saying that Barry is totally wrong. He tends to exaggerate--as we all tend to do, I suppose--his part of things, I assume quite sincerely, but he is still wrong.


 Thomas goes on to politely refute Windsor-Smith, and does so without "calling him out"; however, some of my favorite Conan comics are the Thomas/Windsor-Smith collaborations. I like most of the Thomas issues with artists other than BWS, but those with him remain my favorites and are, in my opinion, superior to most other Conan collaborations. I wonder just how much was due to BWS and not RT?  Thomas also points out, and I'm paraphrasing here, that memory is a tricky thing; therefore, Windsor-Smith might actually believe that he was the driving force behind Marvel's Conan the Barbarian. Mr. Thomas is exactly right. Memory is tricky and often events are different than how we remember them. With that in mind, how accurate is the memory of Roy Thomas?


Mr. Kahan asks him about a the various What If? appearances of Conan (vs. Captain America, vs. Wolverine, etc.). Thomas states that he was under constant pressure, mostly from Stan Lee, to bring in other characters from the Marvel Universe. At one point:


RT: [because] the book was doing poorly...we basically were told by Stan [Lee] that we were going to have  to bring Thor in....It made more sense than a lot of characters...Barry and I toyed with the idea of Thor having a little more primitive version of his costume. The thing is, right about that time, the sales suddenly took a bounce...[and] Stan stopped the push to get us to use Thor.

The Conan fan in me is glad that Thomas worked hard to isolate my favorite barbarian from the rest of the Marvel U, What If? appearances aside (which I enjoy), it's hard to marvel at Conan's strength when he is going toe-to-toe with the Hulk. I think bringing in Thor would have killed the comic (it was done, years later in an issue of What If?). To bring in Thor would have essentially changed the comic Conan the Barbarian  to Thor and the Barbarian. It may or may not, have put a serious dent in the popularity of Conan as a franchise; however, the Marvel Fan-Boy within really wants to know if Barry Windsor-Smith did any preliminary sketches of Thor wearing "a little more primitive version of his costume" possibly doing battle alongside Conan? If so, I'd love to see/own them.


Skipping ahead, Roy Thomas starts speaking of other actors considered for the role of Conan in 1982's Conan the Barbarian: Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone and Michael York. 


I end with that, and a request. Could someone with art skills better than my own submit a rendition of A) Charles Bronson as Conan, B) Stallone as same and the one I really want, C) Michael York as my favorite barbarian. Please?

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