<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Conan (also called Conan the Barbarian or Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional warrior character created by Robert E. Howard. By creating Conan and other characters, Howard is said to have single-handedly created a sub-genre of Fantasy known as "Sword and sorcery" stories.

Robert E. Howard created his Conan character in a series of pulp magazine short stories taking place in an ancient time he called the Hyborian Era. Conan was a young hardened warrior who came south from barbaric Cimmeria, attracted to civilization. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs and other authors of his time, Howard envisioned a world of the "noble savage" where a warrior's code and morality is seen as superior to the corruption and hypocrisy of civilized men. Conan would have a series of adventures, told in colorful poetic prose, pitting his determination and fighting skills against wizards, magic, and all manner of monstrous beings and corrupt priests and politicians.

Exceptionally skilled at close combat (unarmed and hand-held weapons especially), agile as a panther, well-muscled but not huge, and with an indomitable determination, Conan is the archetypal barbarian in fantasy. His incredible abilities and morals that were a product of his barbaric upbringing made him a giant among softer civilized men. This background was used as an explanation for Conan's incredible skills. It was said, for example, that Cimmerians were "born with a sword in their hand" and they "learn to climb before they learn to walk".

Howard built Conan's world with a care reminiscent of how J.R.R. Tolkien built Middle Earth, with customs, culture, religions, and geography. Unlike Tolkien's fantasy works, Howard's "Sword and Sorcery" stories had a strong (though not explicit) theme of adult violence and sex. Conan's life was laid out by Howard in these stories, including an episodes of Conan as a thief, soldier, pirate, and his eventual kinghood of the powerful nation of Aquilonia.

Many authors since Howard have written prose pastiches of the character, filling in the missing gaps in Howard's Conan stories. The character inspired several comic book series beginning in the 1970s. The success of the initial series Conan the Barbarian published by Marvel Comics, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Smith, John Buscema, and others, led to two big screen movies. The mighty-thewed barbarian was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982) and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984).

An excellent Conan comic book series is currently being published by Dark Horse Comics.

A new Conan movie is planned for 2009.

External Links

• Official site