Gin-Wulf

Maybe the Conan we all enjoy has become a dated character. To, us that is really a nonissue. We like the Conan character and whether the stories conform to current fashion is of no concern. It is a concern to those who produce comic books however and has to be. Brian Wood is trying to write his stories for an audience with a contemporary sensibility. That isn't me.. My taste in fiction is resolutely old fashioned. But has the gap in time between REH's fiction and the present day become too great for us to expect faithfulness to the source material? Are we basically demanding that Dark Horse produce dated comics?

 

I have to disagree: what makes Conan endure as a character from my point of view is the things which make him beyond a character of his time, not the relics of it.  The Conan character I love is the one which shows pity on a monstrous, elephant-headed inhuman being and promises not to harm him - is such a concept as mercy and empathy dated?  The Conan character I love is the one who makes it royal decree that men should not face persecution or marginalisation for their religious beliefs - is that dated?  Sure, there's a lot in Conan informed by racial theories of the day, but Conan is also a man who will fight side-by-side by men of any race, who will emancipate a crew of slaves and promise them freedom - that's certainly not something that dates him to the early 20th century.

 

And yet through it all, he is utterly unpretentious and untouched by the artifices of today.  There's a famous quote which I can't immediately recall, something along the lines of "the life of the average person saw less change between the year 9 and 1909, than between 1909 and 1999."  So much of life has changed in the 20th century as to be virtually unrecognizable for the majority of humanity born at its beginning and at its end.  That's the problem with Wood's Conan: the very idea of a 21st Century barbarian is anathema to the very concept of the barbarian itself.

 

Will it stand the test of time?  Who knows.  But I find more similarities between characters Howard created and those created by a millennia's worth of authors, than I do between Wood and Howard.  In terms of temperament, personality, and spirit, Howard's Conan is kin to Ursus, Ab, Matho, Beowulf, Enkidu, while also having some modern sensibilities to distinguish him from his predecessors.  Can the same be said of Wood's?

 

That's the crucial difference to me.  No, this doesn't make Conan dated: it makes him timeless.

very well said.

i dont think any one is "dogging" woods for him thinking conan is a complex character i am up set that he has no grasp of the character at all, and seems he didnt even understand QOTBC is suppose to be on the high seas, not everywhere but.

nor does he seem to care to get a feel of the character the way the creator made him. and from his interviews , it sounds like he has no respect for any other conan writer.

if woods is to arrogant to take reh to heart then we have no chance of him looking at other comic writers for ideas

i also would have been less up in arms had this been done in a totally original arc, but putting this rubbish in QOTBC is beyond forgiving at least for me, i drew my line in sand and will avoid anything woods touches.

we shall continue to "complain" and state how much we hate this series , over and over and over if need be. i know i for sure want DH to know and not forget that they made a bad choice i dont want them to think " well they let it go and excepted it , lets try this now" and keep getting more crap.

if this was never intended to be QOTBC then why the hell do this in QOTBC? that makes no sense at all , lets just steal the title and characters and do some other half assed twilight  story??

that is part of what is so infuriating about this carp.

this didnt "need to be done" and if it did why not with a filler arc like it should have been done , not by lifting the title QOTBC and the name Belti and toss them in a story that doesnt fit the title.

agree that the fur lioncloth does look not to right in HOTD . other than that i do really like this cover.