Roy Thomas is the Guest of Honor at Howard Days this year. That makes his second round as GoH, with his first being during the REH Centennial in 2006…an honor that few others can claim. Roy deserves it. He fought to bring Robert E. Howard’s Conan to Marvel Comics. The resulting Conan the Barbarian became one of the best-selling comics in Marvel’s stable throughout the 1970s. It and The Savage Sword of Conan—also spearheaded by Roy—brought REH and Conan to new levels of pop culture recognition which exceeded that seen even by the Lancer Conans. My plan was to discuss all of those things with Roy this weekend, but vehicular travails prevented that.

I got to thank Roy for everything he'd done when I met him at Howard Days 2006. He brought me to Conan and REH with Conan the Barbarian #37, which I discuss in Robert E. Howard Changed My Life from Rogue Blades. Beyond what he did for me on a personal level, Roy Thomas did so much to get Howard and that 'Weird Tales vibe' out there during the 1970s.

First off, for those unaware of it, Roy--especially when he was editor-in-chief at Marvel from about 1972 to 1977--did a lot to work Howardian (and Lovecraftian) stuff into Marvel's 'mainstream' continuity. That's how 'Shuma-Gorath', originally just a name in 'The Curse of the Golden Skull', ended up as the 'boss' villain in that Doctor Strange movie a few years ago. There were various other things Thomas slipped in during his tenure that I won't go into now. Just in general, the entire Marvel line never had a more Howardian/pulp feel than when Thomas was in the driver's seat.

However, what I want to look at today is something Roy created for Marvel before Conan the Barbarian #1 was ever published. Here's the backstory:

In 1968, Stan Lee wrote a Sub-Mariner tale for Tales to Astonish #101. In it was an item created by Lee called 'The Helmet of Power'. This artifact was discovered in Antarctica in a city of 'the Ancients' by a man named Paul Destine. The helm enhanced any mental powers possessed by the wearer. Destine ended up fighting the Sub-Mariner but escaped.

By late 1968, the Sub-Mariner had his own comic--now written by Roy Thomas--and Destine returned as a foe, still wearing the Helmet of Power. Destine died and the Sub-Mariner took the helm back to his undersea city of Atlantis. There it was revealed that the somewhat lame-looking helm was actually the Serpent Crown encased in a protective covering. Freed from that casing, the (much more stylish) Crown's powers were much-increased and it also took malevolent control of the mind of the wearer. This is revealed in Sub-Mariner #9, which had a publication date of January, 1969.

In issue #9, it is revealed that the crown was taken to Antarctica by green-scaled 'Lemurians', an aquatic humanoid race found in the Pacific. The Lemurians are the 'Ancients' referred to by Stan Lee.

Here is a description of the powers of the Crown, courtesy of Wikipedia:

"Those powers [of the Serpent Crown] confer on the helmet's wearer various abilities. These abilities can include superhuman strength, the power to read and control the minds of others, the power to levitate oneself and/or other persons and objects, the ability to cast illusions, the power to project destructive bolts of mystical energy and even the mental ability to manipulate matter and energy."

So, a wildly-powerful, mind-controlling ophidian crown/helmet, created ages ago by green-scaled humanoids...which artifact debuted in January of 1969.

Conan the Buccaneer, authored by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp, made its dismal debut in May of 1971. The McGuffin in that novel is...a wildly-powerful, mind-controlling ophidian crown/helmet, created ages ago by green-scaled humanoids.

Here is what the Lovecraft Fandom wiki has to say about the Cobra Crown:

"The Cobra Crown was created by the Serpent Men of Valusia, who eventually hid it under the temple of Tsathoggua, one of the Great Old Ones. It would eventually be found during the time of Conan (...)

With the Cobra Crown, one can rule the minds of thousands, from animals (e.g. a snake or lion) to human beings. The crown warns the user of those who plan to ambush or assassinate him, resulting that no one threatening the wearer can come within a catapult shot. To access the power of the crown, the individual needs to be in direct contact with the crown."

So, two and a half years after Roy Thomas unleashed the Serpent Crown upon the Marvel Universe--it's been used far and wide in Marvel Comics ever since--an artifact with a highly similar name, backstory and powers shows up in Conan the Buccaneer. What are the odds that this is pure coincidence?

To lower the odds even further, we know that Lin Carter worked on the '67 Spider-Man animated show. The Marvel Fandom wiki calls him "a major script writer for the Spider-Man 1967 TV series". In addition, Robert M. Price has informed me that, yes, Carter was a fan of comics in the '60s and of Marvel Comics in particular.

I actually knew about the Serpent Crown first by way of the Avengers comic and other plotlines from Marvel in the '70s. I didn't slog through Conan the Buccaneer until the '80s. However--not knowing the origins of the Serpent Crown--I always assumed it was a (more stylish) knock-off of the Carter/de Camp artifact. The publication dates certainly turn that idea on its head.

In closing, it certainly looks to me that Lin Carter, who has always been assumed to be the main author on 'Buccaneer', cribbed very heavily from Roy Thomas to come up with his 'Cobra Crown'. Thus, Roy Thomas was influencing the Lancer Conans before he ever typed one word for the Conan the Barbarian comic series, which debuted in 1970.

I would've liked to have discussed this, along with Roy's overall Howardian/pulpish influence at Marvel, on a panel at Howard Days this year, but fate ordained otherwise.