“There’s never been any character I’ve enjoyed writing more than Conan the Cimmerian.” —Comics legend, Roy Thomas, 2018

I’ve been a fan—and student of the career—of Roy Thomas since I was barely out of kindergarten. As I discuss in the essay to be published in Rogue Blades’ forthcoming Robert E. Howard Changed My Life, Roy Thomas brought me to REH and, ultimately, to whatever minor feats I’ve achieved in Howard fandom and litcrit. I considered it an honor to meet and converse with Mr. Thomas several times during the course of Howard Days 2006. I was planning on meeting Roy again at Howard Days 2020, but Corona-chan cruelly dashed those dreams into the dust. Perhaps next year…

Thus and so, Roy Thomas turning eighty years old today is a cause for celebration and gratitude. In anticipation of this occasion, I finally knuckled down and bought both "Barbarian Life" volumes by Mr. Thomas from Pulp Hero Press, as I'd been meaning to do since they were first published. Sure, the redoubtable Charles R. Rutledge had already reviewed Volume One for this very blog quite awhile back, but Roy's account of how he brought Conan to Marvel and then to the heights of comics success is almost biblical in its depths. Cool stuff that even I didn't know jumps out from almost every page. So, on with the review...

To begin with, Barbarian Life: Volume One covers all of the issues of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian from #1 to #51, along with all the dramatic twists and turns that led up to that first issue getting published. There is an intro by Roy Thomas and then RT devotes one chapter to each issue. Those chapters are crammed with inside info that Roy merely hinted at in various other essays for Marvel and Dark Horse.

As RT reveals in Chapter One, the first moves toward publishing a Marvel Conan comic started in 1969 while he was still associate editor at Marvel and Stan Lee was still the editor-in-chief. Letters from Marvel customers had been clamoring for the House of Ideas to adapt ERB's John Carter and Tarzan, Doc Savage, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...and Conan. That list demonstrates how the explosion of interest in pulp heroes like Tarzan and Doc Savage--along with the runaway success of LotR--had created the perfect storm for Conan to stride up the glittering stairs to Glory.

Since Stan Lee liked the sound of "Thongor" versus "Conan", Lin Carter's agent was approached first to see about Marvel chronicling the four-color adventures of the Valkarian. In an epic miscalculation, Lin's agent tried to stall for more money.

Roy, on his own, decided to contact Glenn Lord, the literary executor of REH's estate. The two worked out a deal for two hundred dollars an issue--fifty dollars more than Marvel's parsimonious publisher, Martin Goodman, had approved. RT decided to wing it and make it up from his own wages if need be. Roy believed in Conan and REH. He put his own ass on the line to get Conan the Barbarian published.

Glenn Lord had been approached by the mighty Gil Kane--a Conan fan from way back--to get Conan stories published in one of Kane's indie comics ventures in the late '60s. Gil couldn't come up with the money. Meanwhile, Glenn Lord had tried to get Warren Publications to adapt Conan stories and was rebuffed. Lots of "what ifs" right there...

Marvel's publisher, Martin Goodman, told Roy and Stan that Conan the Barbarian would have to make do with a second-tier artist, thus eliminating both John Buscema and Gil Kane as possibilities. RT and Stan agreed that Barry Smith--"Barry Windsor-Smith" in a few short years--was the man for the job. Apparently, Roy also considered Bernie Wrightson, but Stan wasn't nearly as keen on that idea.

There were various hassles with Barry getting a green card, but things fell into place...for the time being. Smith's art saw an almost geometric progression in quality from CtB #1 up through #15. Conan the Barbarian won several comics industry awards during that period. Then, Barry decided he was leaving the comic.

Roy scrambled to find another artist. Gil Kane was brought on---the comic was selling well by that point and could now afford him--and then Barry decided to come back...and then Barry decided to leave...again. For good.

John Buscema then became the artist on what was Marvel's surprise bestselling comic. Nobody in 1970 had expected this. Conan the Barbarian would go on to challenge--and sometimes outsell--Marvel superhero stalwarts like Spidey and the Hulk for the duration of the 1970s. Roy Thomas and John Buscema would remain the steady creative team--with occasional interruptions--until CtB #115.

Stan Lee, an early booster of Smith, was troubled by what Barry's permanent departure might mean. Stan asked Roy how he saw the future of CtB. RT answered without hesitation:

"I think we'll win fewer awards and sell more comic books."

Lest any BWS fans—of which I'm one--think that Roy was taking crazy pills at that moment, know, o reader, that Gil Kane's issues sold more than Barry's. Smith's approach was just a bit too artsy for most comics fans of the time, as opposed to the more classic Hal Foster-Joe Kubert stylings of John Buscema. Dollars don't lie and Buscema was the artist to launch the Cimmerian into comics (sales) Valhalla.

At that point in time, Lancer Books was bankrupt and Ace Books had yet to get the license to publish Conan. Conan the Barbarian was the sole venue giving Conan to the masses. Millions of issues of CtB were sold during that period and CtB would continue to sell in huge numbers into the '80s. Roy Thomas was a big, big part of that.

Just one facet of the enjoyment I got out of reading this book was seeing how Roy brought on various prose authors to pen tales of the Cimmerian. Authors like Michael Moorcock, Jim Cawthorn, Gardner F. Fox, John Jakes and Mike Resnick. In the case of Moorcock and Cawthorn--along with Roy and Barry tossing in their pazoors--I think something truly classic was created.

Roy was handed/volunteered for an incredibly daunting task: publishing a monthly comic devoted to the adventures of Conan the Cimmerian. He had a good background to tackle it, being a lifelong fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs--and other pulp authors--and a devoted student of history. However, he had almost none of the resources in regard to Howard or the Hyborian Age that we now take for granted. Despite that, he crafted tales of the Cimmerian that can stand beside any of those penned by later comics scribes or the more "respectable" tales told by Conan's prose pasticheurs.

Happy eightieth birthday, Roy. You did good.