Video version. Excuse me, there were a lot of reservations in the video.
Introduction
Last time, our narrative broke off with the death of Robert Irvin Howard in 1936.
But, unfortunately, this is not far from the only event that I remember 36 years.
At the beginning of spring, Germany, in which the infamous NSDAP came to power, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, transferred troops to the Rhine demilitarized zone, which grossly violates the conditions of the Versailles agreement. The whole world froze in the foreboding of a great war.
And, as we all know, after 3 years the second world begins. For a long time, for the States, the main theater of military operations was Pacific, where the navy and aviation of Japan and the USA clashed.
Naturally, the so -called "war of the rear" went on and, the so -called.
American science fiction of the mid -20th century.
In the Philadelphia Research Laboratory, on the development of methods for combating aircraft icing, including many other employees, three men are working: a graduate of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Robert Heinline, chemist Isaac Azimov and engineer SPRAG de Campa. In addition to work, all three are also united by the fact that they are novice, but already curious fantasy writers. Naturally, against the backdrop of common interests, writers have friendly relations that remain after the end of the war.
From left to right: Spraye de Camp, Isaac Azimov, Robert Heinline. During service in the Navy at the Research Laboratory of the Philadelphia Naval shipyard,
Later, Azimov and de Camp were part of the same literary society-Trap Door Spiders, and also engaged in scientific and educational activities until the end of their life.
But back to the end of the 40s. So, the most terrible war in the history of mankind has ended. But the consequences of these terrible events will be felt for a long time for future generations.
The bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, concentration camps, where, relying on scientific theories, people massively destroyed their own kind, detachment experiments 731. Humanity saw the reverse side of progress.
Yes, and before that there were those who were afraid of uncontrollably rapid development of technology, for example, Luddita in England, Victor Hugo, Tolkien and, of course, Robert Howard. But until the second half of the 20th century, the fear of scientific and technological progress was not a mass phenomenon.
Of course, such changes in public mood could not but affect art, and, in particular, in science fiction. Somewhere since the mid-50s, more and more authors have been leaving the works that describe the image of a bright future, towards gloomy anti-utopia. One of the bright representatives of this genre is considered to be already mentioned Heinlin and Azimov.
But there was another way. Many science fiction writers, disappointed in the present and are afraid to look into the future, turned their eyes to the past. The first surge in the popularity of fantasy is. The States reprints the “Lord of the Rings” and, this time, the book receives a recognition of a wide range of readers, and not just a small handful of enthusiasted by the English medieval epic. Fantasy works of authors such as Ursula Le Guin and Robert Zhelyazes are popular. And, of course, there is an interest in Robert Howard with his cycle about Konan.
Conan Spraye de Campa
Spraye de Camp, being a long -standing fan of works about the Cimmerian, takes the end of many Howard drafts, including some works that have nothing to do with the Haiborian era, where the main characters are replaced
Further, de Camp begins to write independent works about Konan-Kimmerian, sometimes co-authored with Lin Carter or Bier Nedberg. In total, about three dozen works about Barbara from Kimmeri, who continued to be published until the very beginning of the 80s, came out of the pen of de Campa.
And here, let me make a small lyrical digression. Everything that will be said further is my subjective opinion, but I cannot speak out.
Yes, I understand that Spraye de Camp did a lot for science fiction and fantasy, journalism, and, perhaps, it was thanks to him that the cycle about Konan-Warvar was not forgotten in the second half of the 20th century, besides, as the author he knew how to write really interesting stories and possessed a good syllable.
But, personally for my taste, works about Konan from de Campa, they are not even close to the Howard. And the point here is that, in my opinion, as the author he could not catch the very essence of Konan, to understand, sorry for the expression, the “philosophy” of this character.
In particular, in the story “Black Tears”, Konan manages to defeat the ancient evil for only one reason – “This is said in the prophecy”. And, in my opinion, this interpretation does not suit this character at all.
Spraye de Camp often describes how the Higher Forces help Konan, his fate itself is connected with the fate of Aquilonia, and he comes out the winner from many welding, only by the fact that it was predicted.
That, in my opinion, does not correspond to the vision of this character by Robert Howard. Yes, and his gods, it happened, helped Konan, but only due to the fact that he himself earned this right with his past actions.
But most often, Konan managed to leave the winner from various dangerous situations only thanks to his personal qualities – an unprecedented courage and steel will.
If you allow, personally, I always liked https://bcgame-casino.co.uk/ the works in which the greatness of the human spirit is extolled (sorry for the high -part), and not those stories where the hero is a hero only thanks to some purpose.
For example, you can bring Gats from the Berserk, who, in spite of any difficulties and without looking at what enemy stood in his way, from flesh and blood or supernatural creature, will only grit his teeth and continue to cut his way with a sword, even if all heavenly forces collapse on him.
The first comics about Konan.
Let’s go back to North America the second half of the XX century. But we will go this time not in the USA, but to Mexico. It was here that Konan-Warvar first appeared in comics called La Reina de La Costa Negra, on the pages of Cuentos de Abuelito magazine. In the first issues, the story “Queen of the Black Coast” was adapted, then Mexican authors began to release their own stories about Konan. Comics were published in the period from 1952 to 1958. And later reprinted in the second half of the 60s.
Moreover, the main character of the comic book series was not Conan himself, but Belit-Koroleva Piratov, and apparently, the story was greatly changed for the Mexican audience.
Unfortunately, whether the Mexican Conan was licensed or the freedom -loving fellow countrymen Pancho Vili and Joaquin Muri decided to simply ignore copyright, I could not. But something suggests that the second option is more likely.
In the States, the first comic book about Konana-Warvar is released only in 1970.
Roy Thomas, who, since 1965, held the position of assistant editor at the Marvel Comics publishing house, talked about the start of work on the comic book series about Konan as follows: “At that time, people sent many letters with a request to transfer certain characters from books to comics pages. But most often four options surfaced. Most of the requests came to Konan from the Robert Howard Cycle, the rest were Tarzan, John Carter and Tolkien characters from the Lord of the Rings. In the end, we managed to get the rights to everyone except Tolkien. "
Comics historians note that the launch of a series about Konan-Warvar was, at that time, a rather risky event. As a character, Conan did not enter the Universe of Marvel (so far), moreover, he did not possess any superpowers.
Nevertheless, a series about the Kimmerian became one of the most successful in the history of the Marvel publishing house, and the artist Barry Smith, who worked on the very first issues, received a premium from the Academy of Comics-Arts, as the best new talent, in the same 1970s.
I consider it necessary to immediately make a reservation, I personally are not a big fan of comics, especially the superhero, and a little familiar with the type of creativity, and it is worth remembering this during the entire further story.
I must admit, before getting acquainted with the comic embodiments of the Konan-Warvar, I was afraid that from this character they would make someone like a good-natured simpleton in caricature armor, struggling with ridiculous villains, like a king of spices (google, Betman really had such an enemy).
But fortunately, a series about Konan began to go out into the so -called bronze age of comics, when the authors begin to affect more adult topics in their works, such as drug use, alcoholism, sexual violence. So Conan in the comics of Marvel of the 70s, this is all the same old, “kind” Conan, loving wine, women, robbery and not disdaining bloody reprisals against enemies.
Although, there is another point of view according to which it was the release of the series about Konan that opened the way to such topics in comics. After all, the beginning of the Bronze Age dates back to 1970, when, in fact, the first issue of Konana-Varvara, in fact, was released, the former work in this genre with “non-child” scenes. And only after it, the authors of other comics began to raise adult topics and in series dedicated to superheroes. For example, in 1971 the issue of Spider-Man was released, in which one of the characters suffered from drug addiction. So, in a sense, it is precisely the authors of the comic book about Konan that we owe for such a phenomenon as an adult direction in this type of art, possibly, including the genre of film comics. That is, probably, if not for Conan, then there would have been neither a “city of sins” or “Joker” now.
But, I personally, I still believe that although Konan-Warvar had a significant impact on comics (it should not be forgotten that I said that I was far from an expert on this issue), but still to think that one works can radically change the industry as a whole, I consider it not quite appropriate. Nevertheless, any art develops under the influence of external factors, and the authors, being in the same socio-political and cultural conditions, sooner or later begin to come to certain similar thoughts. “Konan”, which is ironic, was only lucky to be the first of those who dared to such a bold step. If you remember, then in the first issue, I said that the fate of the book Conan is very similar to the fate of the adaptations of the adventures of this character. In the same way as the brave barbarian himself, who was always the first to rush into the thick of the battle and led the rest, comics about this character, in the Cock, did something similar. However, we will return to this thought, someday in the future.
Meanwhile, comics about the brave Cimmerian are gaining popularity and the publishing house Marvel begins the release of the series about other characters of Robert Howard, such as Kull and Red -haired Sonya.And on the latter, it will stop in more detail.
Red -haired Sonya
Red -haired Sonya first appeared on the pages of comics in 1975, as a secondary character of the series about Konan, later receiving her own. The Woman-Woman, who has repeatedly fought with Konan, masterfully owning a sword and other types of cold weapons, a thunderstorm of the Girkaniye steppes, and also … This character has nothing to do with Sonya Robert Howard, while since 2007, officially, by court decision.
The original Sonya on the pages of books appeared only once, in the story “The shadow of the vulture” (for some reason, translated as “Valgara’s Shadow”). In the book source, this heroine also appears to the reader as a female warrior, but she is only a Cossack from Rogatin, that in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, apparently, by an artillery (sorry for feminitations). The action of the “shadow of the vulture” occurs during a siege of Suleiman I magnificent Vienna, in the fall of 1529. According to the fictional biography, Sonya is the sister of Roksolana herself, the concubines, and later the wife of the Sultan of Suleiman I, but at the same time he hates both the ruler of the Ottoman Empire and his wife, despite the family ties.
In the story, Sonya appears on the side of the defenders of Vienna. The red -haired Cossack masterfully owns a saber, shoots from pistols without a miss, and also skillfully treats artillery guns. In the course of the action, Sonya from Rogatin has repeatedly saves life to the main character of the story, the nonsense knight Gottfried von Kalmbash.
In general, in the “shadow of the vulture”, Howard develops, set by him in the series about Konan, the tendency to introduce strong female characters, which was extremely uncharacteristic of American literature of the 30s. Unfortunately, at that time historical prose was not very popular, and therefore further development blows the main characters and did not receive. But still now I advise you to get acquainted with this story, especially if you are a fan of cool battal scenes, such as Helmova Padi, then this is exactly the case when there is nothing superfluous in the work.
As a character of comics, red -haired Sonya first appears in a 23 issue of a series about Konan, where the plot of the “shadow of the vulture” was moved to the Haiborian era, and the biography of Sonya was greatly changed.
In 2007, the company owning the rights to characters in Robert Howard filed a lawsuit against comic book publishers about Red Sonya. By a court decision, the rights to the character remained with the publishers, only with one reservation. Now, these were two completely different Sonya, even with different names, that is, there is a Howard Sonya from Rogatin, whose name is written as Sonya, through Y and the comic Sonja, through J.
In general, the situation with the rights to the characters of Robert Howard is quite complicated and confusing. But back to this issue a little later, but for now I propose to talk about Conan again.
The success of comics about Konan follows in 1974 in the Savage Sword of Conan series, more gloomy and cruel. But the character, still acted within the framework of his own universe.
Sunset of popularity
And then the 80s came, the bronze age of comics came to the end. Many authors either began to experiment with the genre, such as the famous Frank Miller, or tried in other ways to overcome the crisis of ideas.
And we all know about what Marvel likes to do in order to return popularity to certain characters. This, of course, is superhero "cabbage", multi -sized and other ways of cooperation.
And it would seem that Conan, who is not part of the "superhero" Universe of Marvel, was to avoid such a fate. But, as they say, there would be a desire, but there is always a way.
For the first time, Conan-Warvar appears on the pages of comics outside the framework of the Haiborian era, in the series “What if if. ", In issue No. 13, for February 1979. And in the first volume, the authors still do not allow themselves to increase the degree of madness to those values that will be later. With the help of magic, Konana throws into the states, the 70s of the XX century, where, at first, he is lost, faced with hippies, police, cosplayers and cars, which, however, as always does not prevent him from charming another pretty girl. In general, this is a rather light and funny story that reminds the famous "aliens" with Jean Renault and Christian Klovie.
It is worth saying that “What if. »Is not the canon of the Marvel universe, in this series alternative options for the development of the superhero universe were presented, for example, Gwen Staisi survived after meeting with Goblin, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) became the president of the United States. But with the release of each new part of the series, the plot became more strange, and, of course, it also affected Konan.
And if the clash of such characters as Conan-Warvar and Thor does not look too inappropriate, then the Cimmerian begins to wear at all times, eras and geographical locations. For example, he begins to cross the road to Captain America, then Wolverine, and at some point he is offered membership in the Avengers, or a story in which Conan, having fallen into the epicenter of disassembling the X-Men, accidentally contributes to the end of the world. But, my favorite is the plot in which Conan, dressed as a pimp, with a leopard on a leash, makes an organized crime group from the inhabitants of a swing.
And if, suddenly, you decided that the authors of the comics about Konan could not come up with anything more stubbornly, then in 2019 a comic book called “Conan 2099” began to appear, where the Haibory Barbara throws the future. According to the plot, Conan fights with a kind of sorcerer, getting out of lotions, like a laser sword and helmet of Judge Dreda, and in the end the spaceship also steals.
But we ran too much forward, back in the 80s. As a separate series, comics about Konan-Warvara cease to be published in the 81st, and then he begins to appear as a secondary character in stories about other heroes Marvel. And in 2000, the publishing house completely stopped the release of any works about Konan.
Dark Horse
In 2003, the rights to a character from Marvel were bought by another publisher, Dark Horse Comics, known for their free views on the entire comic book industry as a whole, the authors of the “horse” could more often afford the images of bloody battles or an undisguised “nude” than competitors focusing, primarily on a younger reader. Such works as “300”, “City of Sins”, “Hellboy”, “Mask” (the original comic book was much more crazy and bloody than the 1994 adaptation in which it was decided to “cut sharp corners”) came out of the pen of artists and screenwriters, this publishing house
Dark Horse published comics about Konan from 2004 to 2008. The stories about the Cimmerian again returned to the brutality and cynicity of the works of Howard (and without a pimps)
But, personally, I was more interested in not the main plot, but small one-page stories that went as an application to each issue, called “The Adventures of Bob or two of the Guns (truthful stories from the life of Robert Howard)” ”. These are short sketches of various episodes from Howard’s biography, not to say that they have some exciting plot, rather short thoughts about everything, where the creator of Konan-Varvara appears as a kind of good-natured male guy.
And again Marvel
But in 2019, Marvel again redeems the rights to Konan. The publishing house overpasses its old comics about the Cimmerian, and also launches new series, already mentioned above, Conan 2099 and Wild Avengers about the team of motley superheroes, which includes Wolverine, Punisher, Electra, Venom and, of course, Conan-Warvarian. Funny, but some covers of “wild avengers” recall the fictional series “indestructible” from Fallout, which parades a modern tendency on superhero carpets, in this regard, it seems even more fun that the fourth part of the Fallouta came out 4 years before the first release of “Wild Avengers”.
But even given all the ambiguous decisions of the publisher regarding the character of Konan, this is no longer scared, but the fact that Marvel to which in 2019 switched the rights to a given hero was no longer the same marvel that had previously owned them. The fact is that ten years before, the publishing house was bought by Disney’s company, that is, in a sense, Conan-Warvar now belongs to the greedy mouse, and, if you recall some other examples, you can fear that this will not lead to anything good.
And since the conversation came to the rights to the characters of Robert Howard, then, as promised earlier, we will dwell on this topic in more detail.
Yes, this moment exists, at least three horseman-vvara. There is, if it is allowed to be called so, the Marvel-Disnevsky Conan, who over time is more and more moved away from the old, Howard Konan, the rights to which, at the moment, belong to Paradox Entertainment, the very one whose department was previously known for its global strategies.
At the moment, Paradox Entertainment is engaged in the release of licenses and courts with Marvel. In general, the copyrights of Howard characters are a constant subject of disputes between two companies.
And one more Conan
Conan from Marvel, Conan Robert Howard (now belongs to Paradox), and Conan which is a public treasure (in Europe).
However, I did not accidentally mention that there are at least three horsemen. And the third can be safely called European Konan. In France, the publisher Glenat produces both processed, in the format of comics, the old works of Howard about Conan Le Barbare, and new ones, composed by other authors. In Italy, comics about Conan Il Barbaro are published by Weird Book. And the Spanish publisher DQcomics prints the stories of the compositions of his own authors, whose hero is Conan de Cimmeria.
Also, do not forget about the Norwegian company Funcom, which has been publishing games for more than ten years, the action of which is unfolding in the Konan universe.
And how did it happen that so many different companies were able to acquire character rights, the disputes around which at least ten years have been underway in his homeland? The thing is that no one has acquired any rights. In Europe, the characters of Robert Howard are a public treasure, starting in 1986, respectively, the rights to them cannot belong to any individual individual or legal entity.
Apparently, the Russian publishing house of the North-West also referred to the same law, when in the early 90s various works of Russian authors about Konan, although it took the chance to show that at that time the leadership of the publisher could not hear about such copyrights as copyright, and if it heard, it could not betray the significance of similar “trifles” to such trifles. In fact, all the books produced under the auspices of the northwest were ordinary fan fiction, maybe among them there were diamonds, but he meets all the many volumes about Konan, which for several years have been published about two hundred, frankly, there is no particular desire.
Meanwhile, in the homeland of Konan, in the States, various works about the Cimmerian still continued to come out. By the way, the last book of the authorship of de Campa, entitled “Steel and Snake”, was published in 1982 and was an adaptation of the film “Conan”, released in the same gasting
The last work of Spraye de Campa about Konan was the fiction of the film "Conan-Warvar" 1982. Our novel is known under the name "Steel and Snake"
And then, finally, we got to the cult film with Schwarzenegger, and as I would not like to start the story about this picture, I will have to postpone it for the next time, because this topic is too extensive in order to start it now.