Barbarian Life: A Literary Biography of Conan the Barbarian (Volume Two): 2

The character of Conan the Barbarian created by writer Robert E Howard in the 30's found a wide audience in the 70's due to Marvel Comics licensing of the character. Writer Roy Thomas who succeeded Stan Lee chronicles the creation of the series, the creative and the business acumen needed for the comic to succeed.

Very enjoyable. Roy Thomas offers a fascinating look into the creative process in 1970s Marvel through the lens of his work as the writer (and editor) for Conan the Barbarian, a series that, at the time, was one of Marvel's flagship titles (even to the point that Conan action figures were being sold based on the Marvel version of the character). As a writer who has adapted properties for different media myself, what was most interesting to me was Thomas' explanation of the ways he adapted the stories of Howard (including non-Conan stories) and what creative choices he made. Each issue is treated to its own short chapter; this produces some repetition in the discussion of multi-part stories, but makes the book easy to read in short chunks each day.The book is nicely illustrated with cover art from the issues; it's a shame that a few panels of interior art represenative of the different artists and inkers discussed in the text could not have been included, as a fair chunk of the book is, as might be expected, devoted to discussing what the different artists, chief among them Buscema, brought to the comic.

This volume continues Thomas’ memories of writing and editing issues #52 to #100 of the original Conan the Barbarian comic book with Marvel. These issues came out in the late ‘70s and I have fond memories of picking up each one as it was released. The book is a lot of fun as Thomas reveals some of the behind-the-scenes struggles to create each issue, and some of the thinking behind each adventure. The book’s only flaw is that it’s a bit repetitive - but then, the essays were originally written to be published separately in a European publication, and have been gathered together for this series. Aside from that minor quibble, I enjoyed the book and anxiously await the third volume!

Very nice and we need more of these... not only for Conan but for the other comic book runs of Mr. Thomas. Avengers, Hulk, and Namor would be most welcome, especially!