The Real Hyborian Age?

Map of Robert E Howard's Hyborian Age, from Titan Comics' Conan The Barbarian

In 1932, Robert E. Howard wrote an essay describing an advanced civilization at the end of the last Ice Age, destroyed by catastrophe and flooding, followed by a final period of glaciation. He called it the Hyborian Age. Today, Graham Hancock argues for essentially the same sequence of events using modern geological evidence. But Howard got there first, drawing on sources that go back over a century.

In this video, I trace the intellectual roots of Howard's fictional prehistory through Ignatius Donnelly, the Theosophical tradition, Charles Hapgood, Jack London, Yogi Ramacharaka and B.G. Tilak, who argued that Vedic myths preserved memories of an Arctic civilization destroyed by glaciation.

Featuring rare first editions from my personal collection including the 1938 LANY first publication of The Hyborian Age, one of fewer than ten known copies.

A fascinating half-hour presentation by Howard scholar and essayist Jeffrey Shanks (his erudite writings appear in every issue of Titan Comics' bestselling Howardverse books).

In this feature, he looks into the early 20th Century (and prior) archaeological, historical and pseudohistorical, mythological, and occult ideas on prehistory and the Atlantis myth that fed into Robert E Howard's fictional setting of the Hyborian Age.

Make Your Pledge For The Latest Issue of The Atlantean

The heroic team-up of writer Randy Zimmerman and artist Russ Leach have launched a new crowdfunding campaign to finance the fourth issue of The Atlantean, an amazing sword-and-sorcery comic based on the works of Robert E Howard.

This particular 50+ page, squarebound issue features an adaptation of The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, which I just happened to have listened to on audiobook at the start of the week.

You can pledge your support for the campaign here, where you will also see several sample pages of gorgeous black and white artwork. You can also purchase back issues and the original graphic novel of The Shadow Kingdom, that started this line.

The campaign has already smashed through its initial target, the pencil artwork is all finished and the comic is currently being edited and inked.

Conan The Librarian

New shorty short box (on right) for my Conan The Barbarian comics

Part of my ambition to get through my massive backlog of unread comics also involves tidying up and organising those that I have read.

I've long wanted to get my Conan The Barbarian comics in one place and so have started with that phase of the operation.

I picked up a new short box (unexpectedly shorter than the short boxes I already owned), labelled it with a sticker I got from Etsy for just this purpose, and began going through the individual issues I had that would now take up residence in the new box.

Barbarian sticker from Etsy

So far, my efforts have focussed on the current Titan/Heroic Signatures-published Conan The Barbarian titles, the event mini-series they've produced, and their Solomon Kane comic books (to keep the Robert E Howard theme going).

I've also filed away some miscellaneous titles like an old Kull comic and a guide to The Hyborian Age that Marvel produced back in the day as part of its Official Handbooks line.

But these were the easy ones to find and sort, as I had most to hand. Now I need to decide if I also include Marvel's most recent run of Conan The Barbarian (which are scattered through piles under the bed and in the office) or even the few stray issues from their original, legendary run.

I don't own many of those issues from the '70s or '80s as I have a decent library of the omnibuses of both Conan The Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan.

This, in turn, reminds me to think about the new iteration of Savage Sword. As a magazine-sized publication it doesn't fit in standard comic book storage containers. However, it does slide nicely onto my shelves, so I'm pretty certain I won't much problem keeping them in order: most already have a home on the shelf next to the omnibus collection.

Conan The Barbarian Hits His Quarter-Century

Painted wraparound cover for by Alex Horley

The blockbuster Conan The Barbarian comic, from Titan and Heroic Signatures, releases its landmark 25th issue this October.

To mark the occasion, this issue will be a 48-page, standalon King Conan adventure from celebrated Conan scribe Jim Zub, fully painted by Alex Horley.

In his weekly newsletter, Zub stated:

"Solicits and preview pages are making the rounds and it’s so nice to be able to show people some of the jaw-dropping work I’ve been staring in awe at since Alex and I started working on this epic back in September of last year.

"This issue is my first King Conan story, it’s a self-contained adventure, and it’s a fist-pumping sword-swinging celebration of our series – past, present, and future."

He added:

"And just as a reminder – Conan the Barbarian will keep going after issue #25! I know a lot of current comic series seem to be getting cancelled or constantly relaunched, but we are going strong and our latest issues have defied typical attrition patterns and are going up in sales.

"There are many more adventures to come as long as readers and retailers keep supporting the series the way they have so far."

Fully-painted preview of interior artwork by Alex Horley

At last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, it was also revealed that the popularity of Patrick Zircher's recent Solomon Kane mini-series means a second series is coming next year; and a new title called Savage Sword: Reforged is being launched, reprinting select stories from the original black and white Marvel run of Savage Sword of Conan but in colour.

A sample of Barry Windsor-Smith's coloured art from The Frost-Giant's Daughter

The first issue of Reforged comes with a choice of covers:

A new podcast, called Legends of Conan, was mentioned; Jim Zub hinted at his four-year plan (with annual 'event' pillars) for Conan The Barbarian, including the arc in issues 26 to 28 which will show how Conan became the king of Aquilonia; and a forthcoming, brand new Kull comic book series was also announced during the busy Heroic Signatures panel.

It's a great time to be a comic book-reading fan of the creations of Robert E Howard!

Art tease from Patrick Zircher's next Solomon Kane miniseries