Roy Thomas on Conan and Dogs

In 1934, “The Magic Carpet Magazine” published "The Shadow of the Vulture" by Robert E. Howard.  This historical story was set in the early 16^th Century, and concerned events such as the Battle of Mohacs and the Siege of Vienna.  Principle characters included the real life Suleiman the Magnificent, and a character born of Howard’s imagination: a fierce, red-haired, female warrior named Sonya.

In 1973, Marvel Comics writer Roy Thomas adapted the story for Issue 23 of his recently birthed series, “Conan The Barbarian.”  In Thomas’ version, Conan is pursued by Prince Yezdigerd, and aided by a fierce female warrior called Red Sonja. 

Four issues later, the editors published a reader's letter, in which he complained he was “getting dog-gone tired of the doggerel.”  He stated that Roy Thomas’ version of “The Shadow of the Vulture” uses the term dog “14 times in 22 pages.”  Conan calls an officer a dog, who in turn calls his own men dogs.”  Red Sonja joins in, calling “her own men and the Turanians dogs.”  Eventually, Conan even calls a dog--you guessed it—a dog. 

According to the editors, “Roy…feels he overdid the canine bit only slightly, since Robert E. Howard made that Conan’s favorite epithet for people of whom he was inordinately un-fond…and one of the loudest, most clangorous cries of Conanophiles the world over is for us to be true to the spirit and text of the great REH.”

I won't quibble with the first statement (at least not right now), but let's consider the second half of Roy Thomas' claim.  He’s converting a 16^th Century Historical into a Fantasy set in the Hyborian Age (in excess of 10,000 B.C.)  He’s taking a story from a world in which magic doesn’t exist, and transferring it into one that does.  He’s changing characters and situations for his own purposes, in order to create a new story.  Thomas isn't mashing together stories and concepts from different sources, such as Jane Austen and Zombies.  Nevertheless, this seems akin to a comic book writer taking a Tarzan story, transferring it into the characters and world of John Carter of Mars, and claiming he is trying to stay true to the spirit and text of the great Edgar Rice Burroughs! 

I love what Roy Thomas did with his Conan comics, and I love how he made Red Sonya an ongoing character.  I have to wonder if some of the long-running success of Conan in comic books is because, in those early issues, Roy Thomas drew inspiration from Robert E. Howard stories.  Still, in this matter, I think Roy Thomas was being a real sly dog.  

Obviously--unlike Conan--I'm using the term to refer to someone of whom I am “inordinately” fond.

Dragon Dave