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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8936219" data-attributes="member: 11760">About two-thirds of the way through this Conan compilation, and I already have Thoughts.First off, anyone who disparages Roy Thomas' run on Marvel Comics' Conan run (which I've heard sneered at over the years) is out of their mind. A lot of the stuff that's now seen as iconic and a key part of the Conan stories appear to be course-corrections by Thomas, who had the benefit of being able to see all the completed stories before the comics were released. For instance, Belit dies halfway through the adventure she appears in. She's a great character who obviously shouldn't be summarily killed off! So, instead, Thomas ... didn't kill her off. So we got to see Belit over and over again in the comics including, I believe, subsequent publishers giving her comic books all of her own.Other than the threatened rape at the end of the Frost Giant's Daughter, the misogyny is of the "Willie Scott won't stop screaming in Temple of Doom" kind, which is irritating, but a lot less problematic.What is problematic is Howard's thoughts on Black people. First off, he continually calls Black people "the Blacks" everywhere they appear, which no other ethnicity or skin color gets: They're in a separate category. And even when he clearly thinks he's praising them, his writing about Black people falls into the worst stereotypes, talking about them being physically more capable of any non-Blacks other than Conan (honestly, there are times where it sounds like REH has a giant crush on his own character), but morally and intellectually weaker overall, although there are individuals where he shows them the equal or better of the non-Blacks (again, other than Conan). He also shows them to be extremely likely to slide into the sway of evil powers or be transformed into bestial figures by magic, whereas non-Black characters are more likely to just be killed by magical threats, rather than be corrupted by it.He also repeatedly uses whiteness as a symbol of nobility or sexual desirability. A lost Stygian princess is identifiable as a member of the nobility because she's paler skinned than other Stygians. When Conan desires a woman, we hear about how dainty and pale she is.Obviously, he's a lot better than his correspondent, H. P. Lovecraft, was during much of his life, but it's striking how hung up Howard is on race. And again, this is a place where the comic book adaptations have improved on the source material, with heroic badass Black characters appearing in the Marvel books, which first came out during the Blacksploitation era, when Marvel Comics was extremely keen to court Black audiences.Finally, while some of the stories are absolute bangers -- The God in the Bowl is a justly well-remembered classic -- the stories I don't recognize the names of are usually less-remembered for a reason.I'm enjoying this book, but it makes me want to pick up a collection of the early Conan and Red Sonja comics before I continue with the next two collections of the original REH stories, just to compare.</blockquote>

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