"Robert Howard's Other Creations" Topic

When I think of pulp authors, the two people who come to mind first are H.P.Lovecraft and Robert Howard. Lovecraft can hardly be separated from his creation of the Cthulhu mythos as he wrote very little that wasn't connected (or, at least, wasn't eventually connected by others).

Robert Howard will probably always be known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, and unfortunately for him most people will probably always think of the movie version and not his much more nuanced literary creation.

But unlike Lovecraft, Howard's real legacy was mostly forgotten for decades as his many other creations were overshadowed by Conan -- even to the extent of having their own stories rewritten as Conan tales! In recent years there has been an effort by various publisher to resurrect these characters, many of whom have passed into the public domain.

The puritan Solomon Kane, the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, King Kull of Atlantis, or boxing champion Steve Costigan, all worthy characters who starred in interesting stories.

Who is your favorite? Other than Conan!

Cormac mac Art of course!!!!!

If anything this was REH's "historical" Conan I think. I still have all my 1970s printings.

Really like the Soloman Kane stories

Bran Mak Morn and Kull, but also I like REH's horror tales inspired by HPL.

solomon kane

Solomon Kane is definitely a man apart from the rest of his heroes.

Breckinridge Elkins.

How could we forget Breckinridge with his trusty old cap'n'ball!!

You don't think of Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber….. ?

Was it Bran Mak Morn or Cormac mac Art who met a shoggoth in the basement of a temple guarded by satyrs (goat spawn !) ? One of Two Gun Bob's finest stories.

Don't fully agree with the original premise – Lovecraft produced plenty of non-mythos stories, a lot of his stuff is heavily influenced by his twin idols – Poe and Dunsany. And of course as a corrosponding friend of Howard he encouraged Howard (along with all other writer friends) to use elements of the Mythos as well.

On the back of the first surge of Conan mania (late 60's early 70's when the paperbacks with the iconic frazzetta covers appeared) there was a whole sale reissue of Howards other characters (mostly by ACE books IIRC), so I'm not sure they are that neglected. Both Cormac and Brak (and Kull too I think) got additional stories added to their series, usually by authors who were also turning out Conan pastiches. If only Conan sold then the publishers would not have commissioned these other series.

I like Kull and Kane (attornies at law) as being most distinct from Conan. Less keen on the western/contemporary stories.

Solomon Kane for me.

Cormac mac Art

Solomon Kane is #1 puritan !!!

I still think of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his characters Tarzan and John Carter when I think Pulp followed by Doc Savage.

I also like the El Borak stories which are some of Howard's best.

Francis Xavier Gordon – El Borak, the Swift.

I love Conan, Kull, Kane, Bran – but for some reason when I was a kid reading Howard back in the 70s, it was Gordon that really clicked with me.

I quite enjoy the Bran Mac Morn stories. I like that they are set in 'our' world, rather than Hyborea, and the Romans make great villains.

Always been a fan of Kane, followed by Kull. Must be a 'K' thing

Francis Xavier Gordon – El Borak, the Swift.

They just did a reprint of all the stories. Seen it at B&N.

Cormac Fitzgeoffrey

I must brood on the matter.

Then we will go to a savage temple and make sacrifices.

And then we will redden our swords and get our mighty thews all sweaty.

After that, I will brood on the matter some more.

You could try talking it over with someone

(always works for Elric "I've enjoyed our chat, but my sword demands your soul, sorry. I will feel bad about it later though !")

>>Cormac Fitzgeoffrey<<

I found that I like Howard's historical adventure stories that were originally published in two of the hardest to find Pulp magazines, "Golden Fleece" and "Oriental Stories". There were several different characters that i've forgotten the names of. I do recall that many of these stories had to do with The Crusades and some of them were among the bloodiest and most violent of REH's stories.

I think I'm going to pick this one up as my old paperback copy of "The Sowers of the Thunder" is falling apart:

link

Another REH character of note is "Black Turlogh O'Brien". I only know of two stories, but "The Dark Man" should be fairly well known as it was re-printed in an early anthology titled "The Dark Man and Others".

>>Bran Mak Morn<<

When Bran crawled down into that tunnel in "Worms of the Earth" it made me feel so claustrophobic that I was actually uncomfortable reading it. LOL

"Still he knew that he was sinking deeper and deeper into the very guts of the earth; how far below the surface he was, he dared not contemplate".

"If They he sought came suddenly upon him, how could he fight in that narrow shaft?"

Good stuff!

SOWERS OF THUNDER was my favorite of the old Zebra reprint books.

>>SOWERS OF THUNDER was my favorite of the old Zebra reprint books.<<

Yup. It's good, and a surprise for me when I first discovered that REH was so prolific in Pulp magazines.

In an earlier post I said that I might pick up the "Gates of the Empire" collection and linked to it, but I just discovered this collection which has all of the same stories and four more! …and at less than half the price!

link

There's a collection of REH cthulhu mythos stories that I enjoyed, mainly because they were very different from HPL's. Much more action oriented as to be expected.

Black Cavalier,
I think those are the horror stories I'm thinking of. The same collection was reissued within the last few years or so. Good stuff

Costigan- a man who's head is always getting him in trouble, and whose fist are gettin' him out.

Weren't the Costigan stories first person? If they were, I really enjoyed those, too. He did one or two first person "boxer" stories that had some comedic elements that were fun.

I'm also a big fan of his westerns.

Okay, I guess it's fair to say I'm just a big fan of Bob Howard.

Mexican jack, you made coke come out of my nose… awesome. Thews is one of those words that just doesn't get used enough these days. Plus the brooding.

I vote for Kane. Builder of Xanadu I think, owns a few newspapers.

Gottfried von Kalmbach.

>>I vote for Kane. Builder of Xanadu I think, owns a few newspapers.<<

Enjoys sledding too!

For me Solomon Kane is the most memorable character after Conan. Some of the most memorable moments do come from Bran Mak Morn stories though.

Recently Del Rey Books has been releasing a "Fully Illustrated Robert E. Howard Library". These are in oversize paperback editions with new commissioned illustrations and new forwards by writers influenced by Howard's work. They seem to be trying to be as thorough and complete as possible -- the Conan collections include unfinished stories and variant manuscripts, and the stories are taken from the closest to original manuscript they can find and Howard's idiosyncratic grammar and spelling are repeated faithfully, not even to fix mis-spellings Howard himself changed later in his career. I've been picking most of them up as they are released; I just started the El Borak collection containing all his Afghanistan tales.

Here's a Howard link on Amazon: link

Solomon Kane, followed by Black Agnes.

Breckinridge Elkins, of course. I really thought REH wrote a great Western.

After that, I preferred the El Borak and Solomon Kane stories.

Oddly enough, one I never got around to reading was the original Red Sonja story (which was set in the 16th Century, if I recall correctly).

@mmitchell: You've never read Shadow of the Vulture?

Correct that sir!

link

I agree with Galbraithe, Red Sonya of Rogatino is better than Red Sonya