Hi Vincent -- Conan

[Faraer]

Vincent,

I've had time to digest Road of Kings, and I think it's a great piece of work, though the adventure hooks could be stronger, I'd have liked the name lists to have been included, and I don't much like the illustrations.

You haven't posted much to the Mongoose board recently, but we're having a discussion of the Hyborian Age timeline there which you might want to drop in on.

I notice that you recommended Robert Yaple's "Kingdoms and Caravans" in Savage Sword of Conan #5. Are there any other such articles in comics I should track down if I'm interested in that one? I just read de Camp's "Hyborian Technology" piece in The Blade of Conan, complete with its absurd comments on golden gongs and magnetic tables. Do you agree with his comment that "Bridge building, however, appears to be nonexistent"?

 

[InzeladunMaster]

Faraer,

I am glad you liked The Road of Kings. I think you will find the adventure hooks in Across the Thunder River, Shadizar and Aquilonia to be better (I hopefully get better the more I write). Leaving out the name tables wasn't my decision, of course. The name tables I wrote are showing up in Signs and Portents, however, which is nice, and I think they left in the Pict names I wrote for Across the Thunder River.

Here are some of the other articles I used for The Road of Kings:

Blosser, Fred, Satan's Swordbearers, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 54, July 1980

Blosser, Fred, The Kozaks Ride, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 59, December 1980

Blosser, Fred, The Tribes From Time's Abyss, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 33, September 1978

Blosser, Fred, When the Little People Strike, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 13, July 1976

Falconer, Lee A Gazetteer of the Hyborian World of Conan Including the World of Kull and Ethnogeographical Dictionary, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 30, June 1978 (Part 1); No. 31, July 1978 (Part 2); No. 33, Sept. 1978 (Part 3); No. 35, Nov. 1978 (Part 4); No. 36, Dec. 1978 (Part 5); No. 38, March 1979 (Part 6); No. 39, April 1979 (Part 7); No. 40, May 1979 (Part 8); No. 42, July 1979 (Part 9)

Neal, Jim, Chains and Fetters: A Study of Slavery in the Hyborian Age, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 45, Oct. 1979 (Part 1) and Vol. 1, No. 49, Feb. 1980 (Part 2)

Saunders, Charles R., To Kush and Beyond: The Black Kingdoms of the Hyborian Age, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 56, September 1980

Yaple, Robert L. Acheron: A Revisionary Theory, Giant-Size Conan the Barbarian. Vol. 1, No. 1, September 1974

Yaple, Robert L. Kingdoms and Caravans: A Look at Trade Routes in the Hyborian Age, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 5, April 1975

Yaple, Robert L. Gods of the Hyborian Age, Part One: The Homes of the Gods, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 6, June. 1975, Published by Marvel Comics Group.

Yaple, Robert L. Crom and Mitra: Gods to Swear By, Part II of 'The Gods of the Hyborian Age', The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 7, Aug. 1975

Yaple, Robert L. The Elder Gods, Part III of 'The Gods of the Hyborian Age', The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 8, Oct. 1975

Yaple, Robert L. Part IV of 'The Gods of the Hyborian Age', Demi-Gods and Demons, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 9, Dec. 1975

Yaple, Robert L. Sea Hawks, Maritime Trade and Piracy in the High Hyborian Age, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Vol. 1, No. 22, Sept. 1977

Zelenetz, Alan, The Official Handbook of the Conan Universe, Published by Marvel Comics

As for bridges... I don't recall a single instance of Conan crossing a bridge in the Howard stories, although there are plenty of bridges in the Marvel Conan comics. Of course, Howard didn't bother us with all sorts of travel details either (unlike Robert Jordan, who seems determined to describe each and every step of a journey in his books), so it could just be a matter of Howard deeming bridges to be of no consequence. It should be noted that Conan does cross a fair number of fords.

 

[Faraer]

OK, I have some Savage Sword issues to track down. Haven't got my copy of Across the Thunder River yet. Just two of your names articles have appeared in Signs & Portents (Aquilonia in #11, Argos and Cimmeria in #12), right?

And I have another thread on mongoose.com you might have thoughts about.