Random Happenstance

By now you've probably seen the news that Marvel is losing, or at least not renewing, the rights to Conan. Has it only been three years since he returned to the Marvel fold? And perhaps less output than I'd have expected, spread across 25 issues of his regular book, 12 of a sadly not black-and-white magazine sized Savage Sword, a surprising 2099 tie-in, King-Size Conan, and apparently to wrap up with 6 issues of King Conan. Oh, and a couple limited series, Serpent War and Battle for the Serpent Crown, and of course 29 issues of Savage Avengers, an Empyre tie-in, and an annual, and a new series that just came out last week! (Am I forgetting anything? Belit and Valeria both had limited series too.)

I suspected Marvel might lose the rights at some point! Although, there is the possibility that some agreement may be hammered out to keep Conan in Savage Avengers. But if you're an old-time Conan fan, you may remember the ad for the Hyborian War play-by-mail game that was on the back of a ton of Savage Swords. It may have been not unlike Risk, but if I recall the rules correctly (or, I could be thinking of some other game with Conan!) Conan was like a modifier for your armies: a good force with Conan was stronger, an already-strong force was almost unstoppable. If a Conan-backed army lost, usually due to being outnumbered, the army might be destroyed but Conan would survive, and could still prevent an advance? Conan was unkillable, at worst he could be forced to retreat; and if out of space to do so he would be randomly placed elsewhere on the map. Which kind of feels like Conan in comics; since it sounds like "Conan Properties International" is looking to maybe cut out the middleman and produce the comics themselves. (Off the top of my head, TSR tried that back in the day with their AD&D comics; taking the license back from DC. It didn't work out!)

To muddy up the waters some more: did you know in a good chunk of the world, Conan is public domain? Looks like Americans have to wait until 2032, according to this, but it would be somewhat difficult to pick up the character then, since you would only be able to reference the original Robert E. Howard stories and definitely not anything from Marvel, Dark Horse, the movies, the cartoon, the not-REH novels, the video games, the breakfast cereal...okay, Conan cereal sounds awful. Medallion pieces, marshmallow helmets and axes; "Crom doesn't care if you like it!" But that maybe explains today's book! From 2020, the Cimmerian: Red Nails #1, from the story by Robert E. Howard, adapted by Regis Hautiere, art by Olivier Vatine and Didier Cassegrain; reprinting 2018's French Conan le Cimmérien #7 - Les clous rouges.

Red Nails is a classic, and you can read the full novella at Project Gutenberg. The novella is also reprinted in the comic from Ablaze. They're a relatively new company, and I don't know much about them, except they've published eight Cimmerian mini-series based on REH stories, and recently a Belit and Valeria comic--I didn't hear great things about the latter, but I have enjoyed the Cimmerian ones I've read so far. Best guess, the stories were published in album format overseas, but broken up into single issues here. Like many comic companies these days, Ablaze does a ton of variant covers; mostly mash-ups of classic comics with Conan.

I'm mildly surprised I picked up this one, though: 1988's Conan Saga #9 collects and reprints Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith's "Red Nails" adaptation, and it's a classic. The art in Ablaze's version is good, but also distinctly European: the square word balloons! Those are for robots! (Actually, I think Busiek's Conan in Dark Horse comics had square balloons as well?) But while I have a smattering of knowledge about Conan and his comics history, I almost think there's enough material there for a book. On Twitter, Tegan has a throwaway insight while discussing the rights change:

Which is, of course, dead on: I've mentioned before how seemingly everyone in my small hometown read Conan. Often by stealing mine, sure, but...It's easy to sit here and armchair quarterback all this; like everything will be better for Conan fans, the larger comic marketplace, and society as a whole, if only some noble soul could get Savage Sword back on the newsstands and magazine racks. Easier said? Uh, yes: the issue next to me, from 1993, was cover price $2.25. Adjusted for inflation, $2.25 in 1992 is equal to $4.55 in 2022. Crom himself couldn't get a black-and-white comic printed with that price point; let alone a magazine. Even if it was straight reprints it couldn't be done. Could it? Price-point aside, I feel like the market could still be there.  

Another notion floating around Twitter: maybe Disney/Marvel wasn't the best fit for Conan. (I almost linked a tweet to that effect, but looked at the guy's other tweets and, uh, no. No thank you. Glad you dig Conan, but...) Disney almost certainly doesn't need that, and we all agree they own too much stuff as is. The argument is largely that Conan stories need more bloody violence and bare breasts than Marvel would be comfortable with; and I could see that...to a certain point. I paused to re-read a Savage Sword collection, that was suggestive, but far tamer than you would probably think. But still great!

As is all-too-often the case, this boils down to how things were magical and special when I was first reading the book; so obviously it should stay that way forever. There's little point in worrying about Conan; I'm pretty sure he's going to land on his feet. That's a dangerous assumption, I suppose: the license-holders for Tarzan or the Lone Ranger probably thought that gold mine would never go dry. Or, they could decide they have enough material built up they could just reprint it forever and no longer really need to make anything new. But even if Conan never got another comic; well, my collection is nowhere near complete.