Nope, nothing to do with with the wimpy talk-show host who's been in the news far too much lately -- this Conan is a barbarian of Schwarzeneggerian proportions! An anonymous visitor pleaded for a few issues of Marvel Super Special (including one of the Conan books), so I figured I'd oblige.... but not without the obligatory backstory!
Sorry, this isn't the share....
The character of Conan the Barbarian was created by Robert E. Howard, who published a series of 17 stories between 1932-36 in issues of "
Weird Tales." The pulp fiction hero proved to have longevity, first resurfacing in novels in the 1950s and '60s. In 1970, Conan made the first of many medium transitions, becoming an illustrated character in Marvel Comics' popular "
Conan the Barbarian" series. The comic series continued until the mid-90s, spawning several spin-off titles (most notably the darker "
The Savage Sword of Conan") and even a newspaper comic strip, before Marvel inexplicably dropped the character. Dark Horse Comics later secured the rights to Conan, running a new series from 2003-2008 as well as a handful of one-shot books.
By the late '70s, the character began to make another medium transition, this time to the silver screen. As evidence in 1977's Marvel Super Special #2 proves, a little-known bodybuilding actor named Arnold Schwarzenegger was slated to star as the title character pretty much from the getgo. Schwarzenegger had already portrayed Hercules in a (ridiculously campy) 1970 film, so this casting was rather obvious... though I don't think anyone could've foreseen that Schwarzenegger's life would ultimately come to mirror that of the fictional character (poor boy from the slums who rises to fame and then does a 180, devoting his life to the good of man). The film version of Conan took several years to get to the screen, providing the now-Governator the opportunity to appear as the bumbling would-be hero in the cartoonish live-action Western "
The Villain" and to portray Mickey Hargitay (Mariska's father) opposite Loni Anderson in the bio-pic movie of the week "
The Jayne Mansfield Story."
"
Conan the Barbarian" finally hit the silver screen in 1982. It was a hit, partially responsible for Schwarzenegger becoming a household name, and was unsurprisingly followed by the watered-down sequel "
Conan the Destroyer" in 1984, which co-starred freaky, mannish Jamaican model/pop singer Grace Jones. But the sequel was probably watered down for good reason: to be accessible to children who were swooning over a
very similar character...
In 1981, Mattel released a line of action figures called "
The Masters of the Universe." Following the strange trend of cartoon tie-ins in the early '80s ("
The Care Bears," "
The Get-Along Gang," "
Shirt Tales," "
Strawberry Shortcake," etc.), the characters would soon find themselves gracing television screens, much to the delight of hoards of adoring fans. "
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" debuted in syndication in 1983 and continued to air on American TV until at least 1990 (I'm fairly certain USA's "
Cartoon Express" was still airing it as late as 1995), spawning its own campy live-action film (with Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella and Courtney Cox) in 1987. Throughout the '70s, parents groups had browbeaten TV executives to clean up violence in cartoons, and "
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" is mostly responsible for ushering in a new era (though Filmation had previously tried to resurrect cartoon violence with their ambitious 1979 "
Flash Gordon" series, which underwent hefty network meddling).
One could
easily argue that He-Man is a knock-off of Conan, and it doesn't help Mattel's case that they hired some of Marvel's Conan comic artists to provide art for He-Man packaging. Of course, I don't recall Conan ever being quite as sexually ambiguous as He-Man is (with his bleached pageboy haircut, pink shirts, furry underpants that'd have PETA up in arms today, sculpted abs like no straight man has ever possessed and his close personal friends Ram-Man and Fisto)... though it's weird how people have a preoccupation with the sexuality of
not only celebrities but also fictional characters.
Conan himself would later get animated, starring in the weekday syndicated "
Conan the Adventurer" from 1992-93, and the weekly spin-off "
Conan and the Young Warriors" from 1994-95. By the mid-'90s the syndicated live-action shows "
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "
Xena: Warrior Princess" had become wildly popular, so it seemed a natural progression for Conan to make another TV transition. Ralf Moeller donned a loincloth in 1997 and starred as the character for 22 weeks. Unfortunately, popularity of those syndicated action shows was just beginning to wane and they opted not to make the live-action "
Conan the Adventurer" true to the continuity established in previous incarnations of the stories.
About a month before the live-action series, Conan got one more screen outing...
sort of. A script was written for the third Conan film titled "
Conan the Conqueror" (technically it would have been the
fourth Conan film, though "
Red Sonja" is a whole other story requiring a post all its own) but Schwarzenegger was disinterested in reprising the role. With the success of the "
Hercules" series, it seemed like a no-brainer when Kevin Sorbo landed the role. However, Sorbo was reluctant to step into a role originated by another actor (as if he were
the first Hercules!) so the script underwent rewrites and Conan became Kull, another barbarian also created by Robert E. Howard who made his first appearance in "
Weird Tales" in 1929. Unlike the heroic Conan, the character of Kull was originally written as more of a savage, so this strange repackaging didn't bode well with fans of Howard's writings, the screenwriter denounced the film due to studio meddling... and the rest of the moviegoing public basically ignored "
Kull the Conqueror" altogether.
You just can't keep a good character down (particularly in this era of neverending movie remakes), so it's hardly surprising that Conan's slated to make his triumphant return to the silver screen in 2011. This time, Jason Momoa ("
Baywatch," "
Stargate: Atlantis") is set to portray the legendary warrior. Of course now that I think of it, this is a dude from two cheeseball TV shows in a film from the director of remakes of "
Friday the 13th" and "
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" that was originally announced to be out in 2009, so I'm not really sure how "
triumphant" this forthcoming return's gonna be. But they're trying to get Mickey Roarke to play Conan's father, so I suppose that's something... I can't definitively say
what though.
Now that I've prattled on with the abridged history of Conan, time for the shares! Although they tried to be trendy, frequently adapting new films (the bulk of which turned out to be horrendous but beloved flops), the line of oversized Marvel Super Special comics just never caught on. So it's not surprising that they returned to stories of their popular Conan character for an issue every few years (two of which were adaptations of the films). So below are the four Marvel Super Special Conan issues, which I snagged from a torrent a few years ago. I've also included a share of my own, a coverstory about the '82 film (actually, the article focuses more on its director, John Milius) from the May 1982 issue of "
American Film."
Marvel Super Special #2
The Savage Sword of Conan
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Marvel Super Special #9
The Savage Sword of Conan
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Marvel Super Special #21
Conan the Barbarian (Movie Adaptation)
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Marvel Super Special #35
Conan the Destroyer (Movie Adaptation)
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American Film
Conan the Barbarian Coverstory - May 1982
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And for no other reason than just cuz, here's a comparison of two pages of Marvel Comics Super Special #2 and the original black and white artwork by John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala:
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