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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 3, 2017 13:22:29 GMT -5
I meant to get into that a little. We bag on the writers for messing this stuff up, but it's a big part of the editors job to make sure they get these details right. Larry Hama was the editor for volume 3; I think he might have been editing all the Conan books at the time, and from what I recall, he didn't seem to care much about continuity in any of them. That is very true. The lack of continuity during those years was a big bother to me as a reader, but it didn't seem to affect the magazine's popularity. If the letter pages are any indication, many of the readers had been drawn in by the movies and wanted blood, guts and action... they didn't seem to care about these characters in terms of further development; their being wanderers all the time seemed to fit the bill. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Apr 3, 2017 13:24:52 GMT -5
I meant to get into that a little. We bag on the writers for messing this stuff up, but it's a big part of the editors job to make sure they get these details right. Larry Hama was the editor for volume 3; I think he might have been editing all the Conan books at the time, and from what I recall, he didn't seem to care much about continuity in any of them. That is very true. The lack of continuity during those years was a big bother to me as a reader, but it didn't seem to affect the magazine's popularity. If the letter pages are any indication, many of the readers had been drawn in by the movies and wanted blood, guts and action... they didn't seem to care about these characters in terms of further development; their being wanderers all the time seemed to fit the bill. An interesting paradox is that, for both Conan and Sonja, priority #1 seemed to be maintaining continuity as a means of creating a high quality work that rewarded longtime readers, and priority #2 was getting and aligning with a high profile movie, which inevitably resulted in annihilating continuity in order to better match the film general audiences knew and to not alienate new readers coming in after seeing the film. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 3, 2017 13:41:20 GMT -5
That is very true. The lack of continuity during those years was a big bother to me as a reader, but it didn't seem to affect the magazine's popularity. If the letter pages are any indication, many of the readers had been drawn in by the movies and wanted blood, guts and action... they didn't seem to care about these characters in terms of further development; their being wanderers all the time seemed to fit the bill. An interesting paradox is that, for both Conan and Sonja, priority #1 seemed to be maintaining continuity as a means of creating a high quality work that rewarded longtime readers, and priority #2 was getting and aligning with a high profile movie, which inevitably resulted in annihilating continuity in order to better match the film general audiences knew and to not alienate new readers coming in after seeing the film. I agree, I agree... and it's something we see again today with comic-books and movies, although the films are of better quality than Red Sonja or Conan the destroyer. It's frustrating that in the case of Conan or Sonja, it wasn't that difficult not to mess up continuity. It's as if the producers wanted the name and not much else, as has happened with so many other classic properties. "Oh, Prendergast, let's do a Tarzan movie! Tarzan is great!" "Good idea, Featherstone! What should it be about?" "Well, you know... Tarzan. He's an ape-man, right? So he should be able to turn into a monkey". "Can we put a robot arm on him?" "By all means, and he could have a robot parrot with him; a robot parrot who would perch on his shoulder and say "arrrrrrrh". "We'll make millions". |
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Post by The Captain on Apr 5, 2017 19:03:06 GMT -5
Listened to this on the road yesterday. I really enjoyed the discussion of the post-first solo series Red Sonja books, as I wasn't aware what a mess they made of the character at that point.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 24, 2017 16:47:13 GMT -5
Here is the excerpt from Karl Edward Wagner' the road of kings that makes fun of Red Sonja's garb:
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 20:59:47 GMT -5
An interesting paradox is that, for both Conan and Sonja, priority #1 seemed to be maintaining continuity as a means of creating a high quality work that rewarded longtime readers, and priority #2 was getting and aligning with a high profile movie, which inevitably resulted in annihilating continuity in order to better match the film general audiences knew and to not alienate new readers coming in after seeing the film. I agree, I agree... and it's something we see again today with comic-books and movies, although the films are of better quality than Red Sonja or Conan the destroyer. It's frustrating that in the case of Conan or Sonja, it wasn't that difficult not to mess up continuity. It's as if the producers wanted the name and not much else, as has happened with so many other classic properties. "Oh, Prendergast, let's do a Tarzan movie! Tarzan is great!" "Good idea, Featherstone! What should it be about?" "Well, you know... Tarzan. He's an ape-man, right? So he should be able to turn into a monkey". "Can we put a robot arm on him?" "By all means, and he could have a robot parrot with him; a robot parrot who would perch on his shoulder and say "arrrrrrrh". "We'll make millions". Sadly, I might watch that movie.... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 21:00:44 GMT -5
Here is the excerpt from Karl Edward Wagner' the road of kings that makes fun of Red Sonja's garb: Of all the Conan pastiches out there, that Wagner book is probably my favorite. -M |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2017 20:22:10 GMT -5
Here is the excerpt from Karl Edward Wagner' the road of kings that makes fun of Red Sonja's garb: Of all the Conan pastiches out there, that Wagner book is probably my favorite. -M He's certainly one of the better writers to try and do a Conan pastiche, but in my opinion he made the character way too noble and selfless. As I recall, Conan refused either the Zingaran crown or a very important position of power at the end of the adventure, on the grounds that he was morally upset by how things had turned out in the end. The Cimmerian I know would have grabbed the money and the power and drowned his sorrows in a lot of wine and merrymaking! I didn't much care for the Spritually enlightened New Age Picts from the tale. They seemed out of placxe. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2017 20:30:02 GMT -5
Of all the Conan pastiches out there, that Wagner book is probably my favorite. -M He's certainly one of the better writers to try and do a Conan pastiche, but in my opinion he made the character way too noble and selfless. As I recall, Conan refused either the Zingaran crown or a very important position of power at the end of the adventure, on the grounds that he was morally upset by how things had turned out in the end. The Cimmerian I know would have grabbed the money and the power and drowned his sorrows in a lot of wine and merrymaking! I didn't much care for the Spritually enlightened New Age Picts from the tale. They seemed out of placxe. I'll take your word for it, I was in high school the last time I read it (I tend to avoid rereading the pastiches as I know now that I have read all the original Howard material my fond memories of them as part of my discovering Conan experience will likely be tainted). I just remember liking that one better than the others (though I liked Conan and the Spider-God too for some reason) and I could never get into the later pastiches by Robert Jordan, Roland Green and others of that era. I like Wagner's horrror work and Kaine books quite a bit though, so that may play into my fond memories of his Conan pastiche. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2017 20:31:28 GMT -5
Along those lines, I have been tracking down the Red Sonja series of novels from the mid-80s, and now have 4 of the 6, but am almost afraid to reread them for the same reasons. I enjoyed them in high school, but I am not sure I will now.
-M
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 23, 2017 21:13:21 GMT -5
The TOR pastiches counted a lot of generic adventures. They would have peovided good material for SSoC adaptations, I think, but none ever reached the point where I would consider them canonical. (Heck, none of the pastiches do that... although a few conanized Crusader tales do, like Hawks over Shem.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 24, 2017 14:46:11 GMT -5
The TOR pastiches counted a lot of generic adventures. They would have peovided good material for SSoC adaptations, I think, but none ever reached the point where I would consider them canonical. (Heck, none of the pastiches do that... although a few conanized Crusader tales do, like Hawks over Shem. I'd nominate Shadow of the Vulture, too. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 24, 2017 15:53:24 GMT -5
The TOR pastiches counted a lot of generic adventures. They would have peovided good material for SSoC adaptations, I think, but none ever reached the point where I would consider them canonical. (Heck, none of the pastiches do that... although a few conanized Crusader tales do, like Hawks over Shem. I'd nominate Shadow of the Vulture, too. Absolutely!!! The original and its adaptation by Thomas are both first rate classics!!! |
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 24, 2017 16:12:51 GMT -5
I'd nominate Shadow of the Vulture, too. Absolutely!!! The original and its adaptation by Thomas are both first rate classics!!! I love them both, too! |
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Feb 8, 2018 23:17:22 GMT -5
This just hit 100 downloads!
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