Only took 16 years.
“What was that you started telling me the other day about a monkey’s paw or something, Morris?”
“Nothing,” said the soldier, hastily. “Leastways nothing worth hearing.”
“Monkey’s paw?” said Mrs. White, curiously.
“Well, it’s just a bit of what you might call magic, perhaps,” said the sergeant-major, offhandedly.
His three listeners leaned forward eagerly. The visitor absent-mindedly put his empty glass to his lips and then set it down again. His host filled it for him.
“To look at,” said the sergeant-major, fumbling in his pocket, “it’s just an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy.”
He took something out of his pocket and proffered it. Mrs. White drew back with a grimace, but her son, taking it, examined it curiously.
“And what is there special about it?” inquired Mr. White as he took it from his son, and having examined it, placed it upon the table.
“It had a spell put on it by an old fakir,” said the sergeant-major, “a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it.”
- "The Monkey's Paw," W.W. Jacobs
And I am conflicted.
Of course.
But... there is another...
YOU'RE WELCOME STEVE
44 years after the premiere of Conan the Barbarian, maneuvers are underway to finally put the capstone on the trilogy promised since the closing titles:
Fredrik Malmberg, of Conan Properties International (CPI) and producer of King Conan tells TheArnoldFans, "I can confirm we have a deal between CPI, Arnold and Twentieth (Century Fox)." Schwarzenegger also just confirmed that cameras will roll in 2027.
"Next year we are going to do King Conan. So that is a reality now and I am excited about it. For the last ten years I have been saying, 'we should do King Conan and we should get a great script written, get someone who really understands Robert E. Howard, that understands the artwork of Frank Frazetta and to continue on.' I want to have John Milius, the director of Conan 1, to be maybe the producer. So it will be really fantastic."
Sadly, John Milius' health concerns preclude him from an active directing role. Milius was a primary factor in the film's legacy, so if he cannot direct, it is only fitting that he is involved in the production somehow.
Well, there isn't much more I can say on the basic idea of King Conan that I haven't already said back in my original post. But there is a bit more information about the plot:
The Austrian action hero also explains that in his late seventies, he's now the perfect age to play the part of King Conan.
"The movie wouldn't have worked after I did the first Conan because the whole idea of King Conan is that for 40 years he has been king, he is older now. He is no longer in the shape he was from his heyday and now people are trying to take him out. He's the king and he gets a little bit complacent. He's tired of the job and he wants to move on. Look at the movie by Clint Eastwood, The Unforgiven. It will be a lot like that but it will be with extraordinary battles."
I've made a lot of new friends in the many years since I undertook my Robert E. Howard journey, which includes the last decade or so where I'd stepped back from active participation for various reasons. So when a few of them came to me and asked what I thought of the King Conan announcement, it felt a bit like I was a fisherman in the ocean trying do describe the subnautic ecosystem - where to start?
Ultimately, there are three premises at play here, none of which actually contradict one another despite appearances.
1. Film Conan is a distinct character from Howard's Conan
2. Bringing Robert E. Howard's name into a sequel to the 1982 film implicitly ties Howard's Conan to Film Conan
3. The story arc of an older Film Conan being complacent, tired of rule, and wanting to move on is antithetical to Howard's Conan
Now, the notion of Film Conan undergoing a similar transformation to that of King Osric - "once a powerful Northman... but now old and sotted" - is thematically rich, and a comparison to the deconstructionist Western Unforgiven suggests it could be a melancholy and introspective adventure. Unforgiven is all about the brutal reality behind the romance of the Wild West; the horror and explosive ramifications of violence; the haunting realisation and apotheosis of one's Past as an anchor - or a chain - to their Future. In particular, the character of Will Munny - once an outlaw and killer, then a simple repentant farmer who settles down with a wife & children to a pastoral existence, before he is pulled back into the word of gun and blood to save everything he has built - could offer a mirror to an aged Film Conan.
It's an arc that would be very important in further distinguishing the Film Conan as his own person, as it is absolutely antithetical to the character as Robert E. Howard wrote him. The first five years of Conan's reign show a king who retains his vigor, acts decisively, and by the time of The Hour of the Dragon, he has actively engaged with rulership not just as a right won by his sword, as a moral duty that he has taken up for the people who called for him. Just as Howard's Conan would never tolerate being a slave, would never submit to being chained like a dog, and would certainly never pray to Crom, Howard's Conan would never allow himself to become a complacent & tired king who wishes to move on.
The Conscience of the Cimmerian
Despite the time between their writing, the three King Conan stories are remarkable for showing subtle, but impactful, developments of Conan's character not just as a person, but as a ruler. From "The Phoenix on the Sword" to "The Scarlet Citadel" and ending with "The Hour of the Dragon," Conan's kingship is defined not with mounting weariness or frustration, but strengthening engagement. It is easy to get the wrong impression, because the very first story suggests a "weariness" which has been misinterpreted, even by pastiche writers:
"Prospero, these matters of statecraft weary me as all the fighting I have done never did... I wish I might ride with you to Nemedia… It seems ages since I had a horse between my knees, but Publius says that affairs in the city require my presence. Curse him!"
It's important to consider exactly what is happening in this passage. His right-hand man, Prospero, has been invited to King Numa's court (the invitation itself a part of Ascalante's plot to isolate Conan in his royal chambers). Conan has to stay put, and attend to administration of the kingdom. This isn't Conan tired of being a king - this is Conan frustrated that he isn't doing his job, because of Publius (and, we later find out, Ascalante's machinations).
In "The Scarlet Citadel", we find Conan effectively producing a concise rationale for his reign, one that is less simple than because a wandering barbarian fancied himself a crown:
"I found Aquilonia in the grip of a pig like you - one who traced his genealogy for a thousand years. The land was torn with the wars of the barons, and the people cried out under oppression and taxation. Today no Aquilonian noble dares maltreat the humblest of my subjects, and the taxes of the people are lighter than anywhere else in the world."
Conan defines his legitimacy not just through his martial strength, but with the consent of his people, a stark contrast to the hereditary kings & queens who "sit on satin and guzzle win the people sweat for" - rulers who care little for the people they rule. Complacency leads to neglect, which leads to disconnection, which leads to oppression. A King Conan who does this would be betraying the very mission statement he so fiercely articulated in the Palace of Khorshemish.
By "The Hour of the Dragon," Conan is (by Howard's reckoning) four or five years into his reign, after taking the throne at the age of forty. And here, we see the test of his kingship, as he finds the pull of his earlier days amidst the fires and ash of a screaming Zingara - but, even at his lowest, when he believes his people have forgotten him:
The southern horizon was fringed with flame by night, and in the day straggling pillars of smoke drifted upward; in the cities and plains to the south men were dying, thrones were toppling and castles going up in flames. Conan felt the old tug of the professional fighting-man, to turn his horse and plunge into the fighting, the pillaging and the looting as in the days of old. Why should he toil to regain the rule of a people which had already forgotten him? – why chase a will-o’-the-wisp, why pursue a crown that was lost for ever? Why should he not seek forgetfulness, lose himself in the red tides of war and rapine that had engulfed him so often before? Could he not, indeed, carve out another kingdom for himself? The world was entering an age of iron, an age of war and imperialistic ambition; some strong man might well rise above the ruins of nations as a supreme conqueror. Why should it not be himself? So his familiar devil whispered in his ear, and the phantoms of his lawless and bloody past crowded upon him. But he did not turn aside; he rode onward, following a quest that grew dimmer and dimmer as he advanced, until sometimes it seemed that he pursued a dream that never was.
Why did he ride onward? Why did he not turn aside? Because of what he said to his seneschal, his confidant, and his friend:
“Then let us unite Zingara with Poitain,” argued Trocero. “Half a dozen princes strive against each other, and the country is torn asunder by civil wars. We will conquer it, province by province, and add it to your dominions. Then with the aid of the Zingarans we will conquer Argos and Ophir. We will build an empire – ”
Again Conan shook his head. “Let others dream imperial dreams. I but wish to hold what is mine. I have no desire to rule an empire welded together by blood and fire. It’s one thing to seize a throne with the aid of its subjects and rule them with their consent. It’s another to subjugate a foreign realm and rule it by fear. I don’t wish to be another Valerius. No, Trocero, I’ll rule all Aquilonia and no more, or I’ll rule nothing.”
Conan is remarkable, as the core of his character is unchanged by circumstance - but how he adapts to circumstances is always informed by new experiences. In "The Phoenix on the Sword," Conan deals with an assault on his rule in a surprise assassination attempt at the dead of night, where he had no choice but to slay his would-be usurpers. He ends the threat to his crown by ensuring every member of the conspiracy is dead - in the cases of Volmana, Gromel, and Rinaldo, by his own hand. In "The Scarlet Citadel," he casts Arpello from his lofty position (150 feet, to be exact), and deals with the treacherous Strabonus in honourable combat, on the field of battle, neatly beheading the serpents in the light of day. But by "The Hour of the Dragon," Conan does not slay Tarascus, despite the part he played in so much death & destruction. Conan takes Tarascus as ransom - a common practise among feudal kingdoms, and much more merciful than the fate Conan normally reserves for those who wrong him. In "The Phoenix on the Sword," Conan is still a barbarian learning to become a king. By "The Hour of the Dragon," the barbarian king had truly arrived, with all the responsibility and weight such a figure entails.
Thus, the Fidelity Paradox. In order for King Conan to succeed, it cannot be an adaptation of Howard's character - much less and adaptation of one of Howard's stories - for the simple reason that trying to merge the two will simply diminish both. This dramatic arc for Konahn (a name I once used in jest, but now I'm recontextualising as a tribute to his distinctive pronunciation - Konahn is the Film Character, Conan pronounced the Irish way is the Original Character) is poignant, and cyclical, and would be perfectly fitting for the character that captivated cinemagoers since 1982.
Howard fans who yearn for an adaptation closer to the source material will just have to wait their turn a bit longer.
... Or will we?
The Naked Primal Principles of Life
I started with the movie. I was a teen, and especially the first 30 minutes really affected me. Like, yeah, this is some amazing storytelling, right? There's a feeling and an energy to it. I've been trying to duplicate that feeling. I bought a Conan book - I'd never read the stories =- and then once I started reading it, I'm like, "Oh my God, there's so much more to Conan than what the movie was." These short stories were incredible. I read all the short stories, and then I realized, these are perfect for animation, that idea of, we just drop in and these horrible things happen, and you love the character and your journey with the character. Stuff like that, like Heavy Metal - the stuff that was adult and comic book-y.
- Genndy Tartakovsky, Interview with Thrillist
The other big Conan media news came to me from out of nowhere. Yes, it appears Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of such shows as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, Primal, and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, amongst many others, is fulfilling a lifelong dream in adapting Conan - Robert E. Howard's Conan - to animated life.
Longtime Blog Readers will know I'm a fan of Aaron Springer's Korgoth of Barbaria, which he directed. And, though I've shamefully never even mentioned it on the Blog, anyone with even a passing knowledge would know what I think of Primal.
Primal is the story of a caveman named Spear and a dinosaur named Fang who are friends. They go on adventures together, fighting other cavemen and other dinosaurs, as well as giant apes, fire demons, troglodytes, giant spiders, winged horrors, prehistoric Norsemen, proto-Egyptians, dark sorcery, and basically anything 8-year-old Aly would want to throw into a Primeval Fantasy World. You can easily see the pulp influences, from the obvious Lost World genre elements we see in Verne, Conan Doyle, Burroughs, Merritt, and of course Howard, to the aesthetics informed from Harryhausen to Brunner to Frazetta. It is... excellent.
And the names of our protagonists - Spear and Fang? Aye... There's no way that's a coincidence.
Yes, obviously the show about the caveman and the dinosaur is heavily influenced by the pulp science fiction and fantasy of the '70s and '80s, particularly serialized adventure stories like Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and illustrated magazines like Heavy Metal, whose bite-sized glimpses into fantastical worlds Tartakovsky feels are a perfect fit for animated storytelling.
- Genndy Tartakovsky, th (the same) Interview with Thrillist
But not only is Genndy Tartakovsky, quite possibly the only creator in the modern visual media industry who could possibly "get" Howard, going to make an animated series based on Conan... it's based on one of his greatest stories of all.
The story Genndy selected to anchor the first season isn’t one of Conan’s action showcases. It is arguably the most emotionally demanding story Robert E. Howard ever wrote about the character – Queen of the Black Coast – and the one that reveals more about who Conan actually is than any other single work in the canon...
...Then a dark sorcery threatens to destroy everything, and a battle-hardened Conan defies gods, fate, and even death to save her. It makes sense why: no woman had even been his match, and then one was. With this, the great mirth and the great melancholy that the Nemedian chronicles attribute to King Conan is easily understood as the very measure of what Bêlit means to him, and so of course Conan will not accept losing her.
...
And it is here - along with the first image we see of the project - that I must ponder the Fidelity Paradox yet again.
Questions of Reality and Illusion
"Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."
- Conan, "Queen of the Black Coast," Robert E. Howard
That's Conan.
... Isn't it?
Yes, it's a highly stylised interpretation - that's Tartakovsky's style. It isn't for everyone. It wasn't even for me, when I first started out: I found it too angular and exaggerated. But I grew to absolutely love it, from Star Wars: Clone Wars onward. But insofar as there is a definitive "look" for Conan, it bears all the most important hallmarks - the "dark scarred face" the features with "more than a suggestion of the sinister," the "low broad forehead," the "heavy black brows," square-cut "black tousled mane," the eyes of "blue bale-fire," the earrings...
Wait... earrings?
Now, obviously, earrings have been a part of Conan's look since at least the master Frank Frazetta depicted him in the iconic painting for Conan the Adventurer. Frazetta was always quite self-deprecating about how "his" Conan was "completely different" from Howard's description, but I don't think he gives himself nearly enough credit. The main "crimes" against Howard which Frazetta commits are easily and handily remedied by acknowledging the changes' thematic suitability for Conan's character. The necklace, for example: Conan is never described wearing a necklace with a bird's skull (or a stylised wheel, or a red jewel for that matter). So as a purely literal depiction of Howard's Conan, it is clearly an embellishment. But as a thematic illustration of Conan, designed to convey the savagery and barbaric nature of Conan in a way that would otherwise be conveyed with Howard's words? I think it's excellent.
It's a similar story with the earrings. Conan is never described wearing earrings in any of the original stories (of course, he's never described as never wearing earrings either, but that's a semantic point). So why did Frazetta give him earrings? There are a multitude of reasons for his choice, all anchored in themes and ideas that would resonate deeply with Howard's creation. In antiquity, warriors wore earrings: Sumerians, Persians, Scythians, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, even Greeks and Romans. Thanks to the likes of N.C. Wyeth, pirates have been associated with earrings in recent times, even if the practise was not exclusive to privateering. But it is among the warriors one most closely associates with barbarians - Africans, Aztecs, Native Americans, Celts, Norsemen, Slavs, Scythians - that one sees the strongest through-line for a Cimmerian to wear earrings. As with the savage necklace, and complementing the lack of upper clothing & armour, the earrings mark Conan as of that same breed of warrior, distinct from the orderly soldier or the chaotic brute.
Frazetta's depiction of Conan was so influential, it was carried on to help provide a "consolidated Conan" visual paradigm. Illustrators for later books and comics then followed Frazetta's lead - most evidently in depicting him clad only in a loincloth, but also in his choice of jewelry. This, then, loops us to the other side of the Fidelity Paradox: do we accept that the "definitive" image of Conan is, indeed, the Frazetta one? I've extolled the brilliance and talent of Frazetta many times on the blog. I even took a class at the Scottish School of Classical Art to paint in his style (to, perhaps, modest success, at least in imitation). Yet Frazetta's interpretation is but one of the original, the font from which all adaptations flow.
There is always a danger with characters like Conan, where sprawling contradictory reimaginings take hold, to the point where it can sometimes feel less like Conan, and more like "Conan the Conan." The recent Masters of the Universe film suffered from this: it not only drew from the famous Filmation series, but the comics, newspaper strips, the 1987 film, even the original pre-production concept art, a veritable hamper of easter eggs from all across He-Man media. And in the process, it became less of "a He-Man film," than it was "a film about He-Man." At what point does Conan eclipse Howard? Some would say it's already happened. And yet, his work is still in print, and his name is always pre-eminent. That wasn't always the case.
On the other hand, there's no universe where it can possibly be worse than this.
Do I worry that something similar will happen with Genndy Tartakovsky's Conan? Of course. There's always a worry niggling in the back of my head like a Zamorian spider that there'll be some ham-fisted reference to a Wheel of Pain, a familiar sword in the foreground, or - heaven forfend - a shield with a bird on it. But Conan, and Howard, are in a much better place now. The original text is out there. We're seeing more and more Conan media. And, finally, we have someone who is both a genuine fan, and who seems to know what they're doing.
So, I'm tentatively excited. There is certainly so much you can do to adapt & expand "Queen of the Black Coast," using the story itself as bookends to the season. I embarked on a series on just that subject, in the hopes that Brian Wood had similar ideas in his adaptation for Dark Horse (he... clearly didn't.) Maybe someone will send over all four parts to Mr Tartakovsky, should he need any ideas. But even if he doesn't...
Best of luck, Mr Tartakovsky. You have a hell of a job on your hands. But if anyone can do it, you can!
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