Other than Robert E Howard himself, only Roy Thomas captured the true essence of Conan.

Very good, and helpful. Have just been buying the 70’s paperbacks - for the Frazetta artwork, as they hold much nostalgic feeling for my youth, and can’t help but see F.F.’s paintings as part of the ‘real deal’, as you say. No other visualisations capture that arcane undercurrent, for me - ‘tho I appreciate the text itself is corrupted.

Great job! As a young reader, I was quickly able to discern the difference of writing styles between REH and everyone else. I do appreciate the attempts of the other authors to “fill in the gaps” of the chronology; however, NO ONE can write Conan like REH.

I had to order in The Complete Chronicles Of Conan ($65 Australian) through a book shop as I couldn't find a single copy in any store at the time. Its lack of presence in local book shops is kind of odd as H.P. Lovecraft is everywhere.

I had the de Camp series. I enjoyed them at the time. Now, I won't touch them. Pure Howard for me these days.

Overall, I think L. Sprague DeCamp did more good than bad. He actually took the character's tales and put them into a chronological order (Howard wrote them randomly). Thus, we were able to follow Conan's life from about 19 years old until 70 or so. I enjoyed the fact that he converted some REH stories into Conan tales because Howard only wrote about19 stories or so. The stories by DeCamp and Carter were not bad ones either. DeCamp seemed to be a bit possessive, and passionate about the REHestate/ library, but at the same time, strangely disrespectful. But he did spread the good word of Conan in the 60s and 70s. THE DEL REY EDITIONS CONTAIN SOME GREAT TOP NOTCH ART / ILLUSTRATIONS ALSO!! Go and get 'em!

The precursors to the Marvel comics were a really in depth series of novels and compilations of short stories published by Lancer and beginning with "Conan the Adventurer" collection of short stories which came out in the early 60's. (I know this because that was my first introduction not only to Conan but also to Frank Frazetta's who painted the cover of the paperback collection. I was 13 years old...now I'm 74.) It had four of the Howard short stories. It was followed by "Conan the Usurper" another collection of Howard stories and included "The Phoenix on the Sword" (which was a reworked Kull story.) In all there were 12 Lancer publications with full novels and collections of original Howard stories and pastiches based on surviving Howard outlines and notes, principally written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Frazetta's cover art dominated most of these publications although some were done by Boris Vallejo. Ironically the last painting done by Frazetta for Lancer's Conan series, "Conan of Aquilonia" was sent to the Lancer offices in 1978 but Frazetta never got paid. Lancer went bankrupt and the original Frazetta painting was stolen from the Lancer offices and has never been recovered. It would probably be worth millions today...one of Frazetta's paintings, "Dark Kingdom" done for Karl Edward Wagner's "Dark Crusade" novel sold for over six million dollars, edging out his previously highest value painting "Egyptian Queen" done in 1969 which sold for 5.4 million dollars in 2019.

I remember back in the 1990s, before the internet bookstores carried stacks of the paperbacks. People would keep them in a front jacket pocket and read them.

Sprague and Lin carter compared to other writers are good compared to someone like Leonard Carpenter. Its not that the other writers do not fully capture Conan but at times they add their own little addition that make the character feel alien. Credit to all writers however who have through the years helped flesh out Conan.

REH interchanged characters all the time. I was one of those kids in the early 70s discovered comic than REH.

This Conan series led me to Robert E Howard, Casca series and The Destroyer series. Had listened to SSGT Sadler's records for years as my dad served with him. Supposedly, I met him, sat in his lap while stealing sips from dad's 🍺.

New Conan fan and was confused by all the editions on Amazon and this was the perfect video! Definitely got a new subscriber!

Those Del Rey editions were how I first read Conan back in high school. I still have them, and they are indeed wonderful, so there's no need for me to have that Gollancz edition, but it's so damn beautiful that I'm almost tempted to buy it. XD

I started with the Le Sprague de Camp series back in the 60s, and spread out to the Kull series, Brak Morn and others. I also read Wagner and Robert Jordan and Solomon Kane.

One of the pivotal moments of my life was coming upon the Lancer Books' "Conan the Adventurer" with its Frazetta cover in the spinning book rack at my local convenience store when I was in my early teens.

I’m glad I’ve got the right ones. The Del Rey are definitely.the ones to have. I love all the extras in them too.

I was lucky enough to get the chronicles at a second hand store for $4 aus. Feeling very lucky at the moment. Thank you for your review. Reading at the moment

"back when it still rained in California" I got a good chuckle from that one. I love the video, love Conan. This was super interesting.

That's the one I got the black cover complete takes its awesome 👍 the complete chronicles of Conan.

Hello, very helpful vid, your enthusiasm is infectious. Just ordered the Complete Chronicles to start my Conan journey. I read the Conan, Hulk, Avengers comics as a kid here in the U.K back in the 70s. I also picked up a fantasy book about the Frazetta artworks today. When i was 14 all my comic collection was obliterated in a flood, i was heartbroken and never bought a comic again and switched my passions to vinyl. You have inspired an old timer to start reading Conan again. I am getting the same buzz i used to get waiting for my comics to be delivered every Saturday morning. All the best from England U.K.