Conan the Barbarian

See also: Conan

Conan Cimmérien is a character of fiction created by Robert E. Howard in 1932, and whose stories were initially published during the Années 1930 in the pulp Weird Tales. It is with these accounts (and those of Kull, the barbarian king, three years before), that Howard gave rise to the modern form of what is called the heroic-fantasy.

The adventures of Conan proceed in a mythical past, created by Howard, called the “Âge hyborien”. This universe is inspired by the readings of Howard, in particular the mythological accounts as told by the American author Thomas Bulfinch. The age hyborien is between the fall of the Atlantis and the rise of old civilizations which one knows (Sumer, the ancient Egypt, the ancient Greece, etc).

Conan is a barbarian originating in Cimmérie, a lugubrious region that Howard bound to historical Cimmérie, but its Cimmériéns were the ancestors of Irish Gaëls. The news of Conan, with the number of a score, is colourful, a scientist mixes accounts epic, historical, on which are grafted lovecraftiennes influences. Howard said of Conan that it was an adventurer, and that he wrote the stories of Conan as an adventurer would tell them: in the most total disorder. Several of these accounts became the traditional ones in the kind, among which: " the Tower of Eléphant" , " the Queen of the Noire" Coast; , " the Rouges" Nails; or even " Beyond the Noire" River;. If several stories of Conan are light and pleasant to read, the best accounts of the cycle are impressed of a rather major pessimism, Howard being persuaded of the futility of civilization, human company dedicated to the decline and the destruction, a thesis which it develops in " Beyond the Noire" River; and " The Rouges" Nails;.

Howard gave up the character of Conan in 1935, and was to die the following year. The character fell little by little into the lapse of memory until Lyon Sprague de Camp seizes and monopolizes it, declaring joint author of the series of share his pastiches and the order arbitrary, and nondesired by Howard, that it imposed on the series. He rewrote moreover in-depth some of the texts of Howard.

With pastiches which exceeded soon of number the original accounts of Howard, the series became unfortunately a parody of what it was under the feather of Howard, Conan being transformed into a kind of illiterate barbarian to the muscles of superman surrounded by heroins as stupid as stripped…

This situation will perdura until the end of the twentieth century, until finally the texts of Howard are published without the modifications made by Camp It are thus appeared in England, in the USA, and started to appear in France on October 31st, 2007.

Conan was adapted in Cartoon, in Film S and concerned of role in GURPS.

Universe of Conan the barbarian

History

Chronology of the imaginary world of Conan the barbarian

  • pre-cataclysmic Prehistory, time to which lived Kull, king d' Atlantis

  • Cataclysme absorbing " Atlantis and quoted the étincelantes"
  • Old hyborien, time of Conan the cimmérien
  • Great invasion picte
  • Old " contemporain" , time of Bran Mak Morn and the Roman Empire

Works composing the universe of fiction

Novels and news

The majority of the adventures of Conan were initially published in French following the diffusion of the first feature-length film. But if the texts of origin putting in scene the character of Conan were not that signed news Robert E. Howard for the magazine Weird Tales, Conan the barbarian also knew more late adaptations, in the form of novels or of news signed by other authors. The " will be quoted; travail" of Lyon Sprague de Camp and of Flax Casing, both persons in charge of an edition in eight volumes of the adventures of Conan (containing news of their feather) and " classement" chronological of the news. It should be noted that the quality of works of the continuators was at the very least unequal, and that it was sometimes difficult to know where Howard stopped and where that of its " started; collaborators posthumes" as they liked to be called.

- List of the stories of Conan by chronology of the adventures.

New French edition of the work of Robert E. Howard

The accounts of Conan written by Robert E. Howard - and him only - are in the course of edition in France, with the editions Bragelonne, débarassées of slags of Camp and Co. The first volume is appeared on October 31st, 2007; volumes 2 and 3 which will supplement the cycle are planned for April and November 2008 respectively. This integral is placed under the direction of the French Patrice Louinet, who had already directed this edition for the Anglo-Saxon field.

CONAN the CIMMERIEN, volume 1 (1932-1933) :

  • Cimmérie
  • Phoenix on the Sword
  • the Girl of the Giant of Freezing
  • God in the Sarcophagus
  • the Tower of the Elephant
  • the Scarlet Citadel
  • the Queen of the Black Coast
  • the Black Colossus
  • Dreams of Iron in Lunar Clearness
  • Xuthal Twilight the
  • the Basin of the Black Man
  • the House with the Three Gangsters
  • the Valley of the Lost Women
  • Bronze Devil
  • No-claims bonus: Phoenix on the Sword (version rejected by Weird Bruise)/Document without title (list of names and country)/Notes on Various People of the Hyborien Age/the Age Hyborien/Synopsis without title/the Scarlet Citadel (Synopsis)/the Black Colossus (Synopsis)/unfinished Histoire, without title/Synopsis without title/unfinished Histoire, without title/Cartes of the World Hyborien

Preceding editions

Until the publication of the original writings of Robert E. Howard on Conan at Bragelonne, the adventures of Cimmérien appeared in France in volumes containing the pastiches, additions and modifications of the writers Lyon Sprague de Camp and Lin Casing, and in an chronological order of the accounts which is specific to these two authors:

As it was the case for the Anglo-Saxon editions, these volumes were published, at the time of their republication at I have Lu, with covers illustrated by Frank Frazetta, whose seizing paintings representing the character of Conan remained famous.

The following titles were written after the death of Robert E. Howard by other authors.

  • Conan the barbarian : novel of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing according to a scenario of John Milius and Oliver Stone ( Conan the Barbarian - 1981 and 1982 for the French edition)

  • Conan the destructor : novel of Robert Jordan ( Conan the Destroyer - 1984 and 1984 for the French edition)
  • Conan the avenger : novel of Björn Nyberg in collaboration with Lyon Sprague de Camp ( Conan the Avenger - 1955 and 1968 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the aquilonien : collection of news of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing ( Conan off Aquilonia - 1977 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the explorer : novel of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing ( Conan off the Isles - 1968 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the buccaneer : novel of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing ( Conan the Buccaneer - 1971 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the dispenser of justice : novel of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing ( Conan and the Spider - 1980 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the brigand or Conan and the sword of Skelos : novel of Andrew J. Offutt ( Conan, the Sword off Skelos - 1979 for the original edition; 1983 and 1995 for the French editions)
  • Conan the sabror : collection of news of Lyon Sprague de Camp, Flax Casing and Björn Nyberg ( Conan the Swordsman - 1978 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan the liberator : novel of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Flax Casing ( Conan the Liberator - 1967 and 1979 for the original edition; 1983 for the French edition)
  • Conan untameable the : novel of Steve Perry ( Conan the Indomitable - 1985 for the original edition; 1994 for the French edition)
  • Conan the valorous : novel of John Maddox Roberts ( Conan the Valorous - 1985 for the original edition; 1995 for the French edition)
  • Conan triumphing it : novel of Robert Jordan ( Conan the Triumphant - 1983 for the original edition; 1996 for the French edition)
  • Conan the rebel : novel of Poul Anderson ( Conan the Rebel - 1980 for the original edition; 1982 for the French edition)
  • etc

Films

The starting project of films on Conan had as an ambition to make a long series (the made-to-order of the James Bond). Success having been relative, and following the financial problems of the producer Dino De Laurentiis, it there have only one following Conan the Barbarian ( Conan the Destructor ), but the idea of a third film is not completely buried. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the principal interpreter of two films. Because of the election then the re-election of Schwarzenegger at the post of governor of California, the project would be reorientated finally towards a cartoon film entitled for the moment: " Conan Red Nails" and which as its name seems to indicate it would be a resumption of a news of Howard with in particular the voices of Ron Perlman (the Name of the Rose, Stalingrad, Hellboy), Clancy Brown (Highlander, Starship Troopers) or Mark Hamill (Star Wars). Adaptation of several news of Howard, written by John Milius in collaboration with Oliver Stone; music of Basil Poledouris second Conan, less serious and nevertheless epic.

Two other films inspired by the news of Howard are connected with films of Conan:

  • 1985 : Kalidor ( Red Sonja ) of Richard Fleischer with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

  • 1997: Kull ( Kull the Conqueror ) of John Nicolella with Kevin Sorbo.

Cartoon

Conan was the subject of several adaptations as a cartoon at Marvel Comics then at Dark Horse Comics. In France the American series were published with the editions Lug under painted covers of Jean Frisano and in the editions Arédit Artima. The first French publication were in small the formats" démon". Data base black and white reserve to the adults…

detailed Article: Conan the barbarian (comics)

Roleplays

As a fundamental work of medieval-fantastic, Conan the barbarian strongly influenced the roleplays. But three plays were devoted specifically to Hyborie:

  • Conan Roleplaying Range : published by TSR in 1985, of David Cook.
  • GURPS Conan : published by Steve Jackson Ranges in 1989, of Curtis Mr. Scott - Translated into French in 1994 (editor Siroz).
  • Conan OGL : published by Mongoose Publishing in 2004 - Corrected and republished in " Atlantean Edition" - Version " pocket" in 2005.

Televised series

Cartoon

  • 1992 : Conan the Adventurer : Series of animation, rather intended for the children, recalling the life of Conan and diffused on M6.

Telefilm

  • 1998 : Conan: The Adventurer of Martin Denning and Mark Roper. A telefilm by the actors of the series of 1997.

Video games

Parodies

Terry Pratchett parodied Conan with its characters of the Disc-world Cohen the Barbarian and Hrun the Barbarian. Many parodies made of Conan a librarian, logically renamed “Conan the Librarian”.

A production of films amateurs (PSYCHOLOGICAL CORPORATION) to then taken again the concept of the barbarian cimmérien violent one and destructor, naming them " Conan III". Short-measurings of approximately 15 minutes each one, they somewhat recall the adventures of Conan according to films where winks to other large films or ways of thinking are added there.

The French author Pierre Pelot also devoted to him a parodic cycle of the name of Konnar and Compagnie . This one puts in scene the adventures of Gilbert Boring the and is composed of five volumes to date;

  1. Konnar Boring the , published in 1981 in two numbers of the review Fiction and republished in 1990 at black River. (ISBN 2-265-04418-0)
  2. On the track of rollmops , black River, 1991. (ISBN 2-265-04440-7)
  3. Rollmops dream , black River, 1991. (ISBN 2-265-04443-1)
  4. Gilbert the Boring one: The return , black River, 1991. (ISBN 2-265-04472-5)
  5. Ultimate adventures in cheating territories , black River, 1991. (ISBN 2-265-04549-7)

This cycle was republished in a volume known as Konnar the Boring one, the integral collection with the editions Bragelonne in 2006. (ISBN 2-35294-002-8)

Others

  • “Jerk the boring one” is a famous Contrepèterie.

External bonds

  • http://www.conan.com/: Official site

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