One of the first things I noticed, on the first page of "Conan the Barbarian" Vol. 1 Issue #116, was a line beneath the story
credits. It read “Note on Conan
Chronology: This special story takes place between Conan #12 & 13. Relax and
enjoy!” I wondered at this, as comic
book stories usually follow one another in sequential order. But then I shrugged, and continued on with “Crawler
in the Mist!” figuring the staff had decided to throw in an occasional
out-of-sequence story. I hadn’t read any
of those early comics, but my interest was piqued by the note, as I knew that Marvel’s
early “Conan the Barbarian” comics drew heavily on Robert E. Howard’s original
stories.
Fans of historically important people often read all the
biographical information they can get their hands on, then wonder what the
person did between recorded events.
Early Christians attempted to fill the gaps in the canonical gospels
with stories about Jesus’ early years.
Perhaps the ultimate compliment a fan can pay an author is to attempt a
timeline for their favorite fictional character. Steven Brust’s character of Vlad Taltos
certainly inspires such devotion. Robert
E. Howard’s Conan is another.
Howard wrote a score of Conan stories, and one novel, over a
four-year period. (Sadly, the last four
years of his too-short life). In my
youth, I became aware of the character through the twelve paperback books
edited by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. The two men structured the series as one long, sweeping narrative of
Conan’s life, so I assumed Howard had written his stories sequentially as
well. In fact, what I hadn’t realized
was that the first Conan story Howard wrote, “The Phoenix on the Sword,” took
place late in the character’s life, after he had become king of Aquilonia. This is one of the reasons why Patrice
Louinet served as editor for The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. By presenting the stories in the order Howard
wrote them, he felt he could show fans how Howard saw the character, and how
his concept of Conan evolved with each subsequent story.
Intriguingly, the first attempt to construct a chronology of
Conan’s life seems to have begun during Howard’s life. According to Wikipedia, Howard reviewed it in
draft form in 1936 (the year of his death), and gave it his provisional
blessing. P. Schuyler Miller and John D.
Clark published it two years later, in fanzine “The Hyborian Age.” L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter used this as
a basis for structuring their twelve book series, updating the chronology to
encompass the stories they added to the Conan canon. Since then, others (including celebrated Wheel
of Time series author Robert Jordan, who wrote several Conan novels during his
also too-short life) have contributed their own Conan chronologies. This process will likely continue, as more
stories and novels are written about this simple barbarian with whom fans seem
eternally fascinated.
As I’m always interested in learning more about the stories
I read, as well as the people who wrote them, I did a little research on “Conan
The Barbarian” Vol. 1 Issue #116.
Apparently, Len Wein’s story was originally created for Power Records, a
division of Peter Pan Records. Power
Records produced a series of “Book and Record” sets, combining one or more
comic book adventures with a 45 RPM 7-inch record. Children could read the comic book, or listen
to the story, or do both simultaneously, giving them an audio-visual experience
for $1.49 (roughly 4-5 times the price of a single comic book). Power Records published “The Crawler in the
Mists!” in 1976. Four years later, after
a slight alteration to the title, additional artwork, and changes in
exposition, dialogue, and coloring, Marvel republished it in Issue #116.
Literary canons and character timelines don’t necessarily
include comic book adventures, but I’m glad Marvel republished “Crawler in the
Mist!” Like so many one-off stories and
missing adventures, I’d never have known it existed, had it been left outside
Marvel’s chronology of Conan’s life. And
now you can read it too, and even listen to it, by following the link
below. In the words of the mighty Marvel,
“Relax and enjoy!”
Dragon Dave
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