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Post by cromagnonman on Dec 1, 2019 21:16:53 GMT
Have got a query which I fervently hope the collective wisdom and resources of the Vault can help me to solve. In the dying days of the long running Sphere Conan series, around 1989/90 or so, the publisher attempted to arrest flagging sales by repackaging all the books in covers commissioned from the Spanish artist Blas Gallego. Because these new covers only ended up appearing on the one print they are far less common than the earlier prints which utilized the old Frazetta covers recycled from the Lancer editions. The query I have relates to whether CONAN OF AQUILONIA was ever issued with a new Gallego cover. He certainly painted one for it. But around this time Sphere was taken over by MacMillan Maxwell Pergamon who perfunctorily terminated the series. I've found the attached scan of a promo cover [all credit to the original poster] but try as I might can find no evidence whatsoever of a physical copy of the book. Does anyone out there possess one or is able to confirm that it exists? Any definitive answer one way or the other would be very much appreciated. The question is driving me nuts.  |
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Post by severance on Dec 1, 2019 22:21:49 GMT
A collection of four novelettes from L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter? By Crom, you're a braver man than me! Sorry, I can't help with this one.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 2, 2019 9:38:46 GMT
I never saw this edition anywhere.
I have only the Ace edition from 1977 with a Vallejo cover, the first edition. And the Sphere, where they put a Frazetta on it.
This one was announced in 1972, in the introduction of the issue of Fantastic where the first part was published. Here it was advertised as volume 11 of 12. But Lancer went under, still producing a reprint labeled as 12. As the series was supposedly such a success, I always wondered that DeCamp wanted to end this with 12.
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 2, 2019 20:53:55 GMT
According to ISFDB it was not published.
I find Frazetta the only acceptable portraitist of Conan.
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 5, 2019 15:46:12 GMT
Frazetta captured Conan's soul, the bright sparkle in his eyes, and his warlike muscles. Nearly perfectly, only missing some of Conan's tall litheness. Boris painted podgy studio bodybuilders, who drink coffee and chat with the artist in-between sittings; they are useless for thieving, fighting, and war. Others made studied observations of Conan's cultural and racial features, but still lacked his inner explosive energy.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 5, 2019 17:54:00 GMT
Frazetta captured Conan's soul, the bright sparkle in his eyes, and his warlike muscles. Nearly perfectly, only missing some of Conan's tall litheness. Boris painted podgy studio bodybuilders, who drink coffee and chat with the artist in-between sittings; they are useless for thieving, fighting, and war. Others made studied observations of Conan's cultural and racial features, but still lacked his inner explosive energy. This is a good description. Frazetta is about energy. If it is Conan or his other work which was used by Warren comics, his characters are larger than life. A powerful dream of a fantasy. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 5, 2019 18:10:45 GMT
I find Frazetta the only acceptable portraitist of Conan. I'll always envision Conan as John Buscema drew him for Marvel's Conan the Barbarian. |
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 5, 2019 20:01:12 GMT
I'll always envision Conan as John Buscema drew him for Marvel's Conan the Barbarian. Yea, I must say, [John Buscema] is even better than Frazetta in some ways. And he got Conan's size right. I guess I saw a few of those comics as a kid, but didn't actively read them. I like his hair, the wide face, the eyes, and stretching tallness. Frazetta has a refined realism, that immediately delivers pure energy. But in the overall essence of character, perhaps Buscema wins out after all. Wally Wood tried his hand at Conan. But Wood had so much humour in him, that he couldn't help but (unwillingly) make Conan humorous too. |
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