Comments on: Top Five Robert E. Howard Characters

By: cst

cst — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:36:15 +0000

Agree almost totally with this (I would rank Brak above Conan; although the Conan stories contain some of Howard’s best writing, Conan himself isn’t as interesting a character to me as the others). Good to see some love for El Borak, who seems to get snubbed by fans simply because there’s no fantasy element in his stories). I think Howard’s best VILLIAN is undoubtedly Kathulos (aka “Skull-Face”)…

By: David Dishington

David Dishington — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:15:33 +0000

Well,i’ve never read El Borak,Kull, or Red Sonya,but you forgot Turlogh Dubh O’Brian stories(The dark man and The God’s of Bal-Sagoth.

By: Eric Henry

Eric Henry — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:30:58 +0000

Red Sonya (with a y) was a character in the short story ‘Shadow of the Vulture’ set during the Siege of Vienna in the Renaissance (not the Middle Ages).

Roy Thomas, wanting another female character for the Marvel comic series, adapted ‘Shadow of the Vulture’, moving its setting to the Hyperborean Age and changing the spelling of the heroine’s name to Sonja to make it seem more exotic. Supposedly Roy picked Sonya because the other major women in Conan’s life, Belit and Valeria, were a brunette and a blonde respectively.

Most of Sonja’s backstory is entirely Roy’s invention, however.

By: Sable Hope

Sable Hope — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:48:40 +0000

Hey, cool! thanks Rgl! :)

By: rgl

rgl — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:57:14 +0000

Red Sonia (IIRC) was a character in a story set in the middle ages that was adapted to Hyborean age for Marvel’s Conan.

The 70s’ Kull comics had above average writing for the period and great Severin (and later Ploog art). The latter part had more than adequate, though seeming, art and writing that irritated me.

rgl

By: Sable Hope

Sable Hope — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:39:13 +0000

is it true that Red sonja isnt a real [as in book] character & was created as an extra for the old conan comics? Not that I’m complaining, the bronze bikini thing has always amused me.
[None of my old magazine sized ones survived the last flood. I am very sad :(]

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:05:35 +0000

Sarah,

I had totally forgotten about that Red Nails adaptation they were supposed to be making. I was really looking forward to it at the time.

But now I’ll probably be wondering why Conan sounds like Hellboy…

By: Mag

Mag — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:13:40 +0000

I was surprised at how much I liked reading the Solomon Kane stories. Since your opinion of Kane matches mine, your taste is obviously impeccable, so I’ll have to check out some of the other non-Conan stories soon.

By: Eric Henry

Eric Henry — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:46:49 +0000

I have to agree with you. Solomon Kane is definitely Howard’s greatest creation.

However, I think I would placed Dark Agnes de Chastillon somewhere on that list.

By: Greg G

Greg G — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:44:28 +0000

The upcoming Solomon Kane film worries me. They allegedly want to tell the story of how he “became” Solomon Kane. Unnecessary!