Lord Samper's Library

‘Cimmerian September’ has got me over another ‘reading slump’; I’m really excited to see what I can read this month as far as ‘Conan’ tales go. The plan is to write about at least a couple of Howard’s original tales but I’ve also been having fun just looking through my bookshelves to see which books I’d forgotten that I owned. Any excuse for a ‘bookshelf browse’ and a re-read ;o) All of which led me to Conan’s team-up with one Elric of Melnibone… Conan first met Elric back in #14 ( A Sword Called Stormbringer ) of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ back in 1972. It was a short-lived team-up, concluding in #15 ( The Green Empress of Melnibone ) and then they both went on their merry (well, ‘doom-laden’ in the case of Elric) ways. Moorcock, and James Cawthorn, supplied the plot; Roy Thomas and Barry Smith adapted it. I first came across the story in the early 2000s, working in a psychiatric hospital where one of the patients had an extensive collection of Moorcock books. It took me a little while lon...

Page Count: 20 Pages I didn’t realize this until the other but September isn’t just the month of my birthday… Nope. Presumably for alliterative purposes (but also to celebrate great stories), September is also the month where fans celebrate ‘Cimmerian September’ by either reading Howard’s original tales or the pastiche novels and comics that continue the tales of that most famous barbarian. Or both, you don’t have to read one or the other ;o) I thought I’d get involved this year so you can absolutely expect to see a little more Conan here before the month is out. L.Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter helped keep Conan’s tales alive, either by completing some of Howard’s unfinished tales or by filling in gaps, in the timeline, with stories entirely their own. Again, I’m no scholar of Robert E. Howard but his name is next to the title so I’m assuming that ‘The Bloodstained God’ was taken on and completed by De Camp. I found this tale in an old copy of ‘Conan of Cimmeria’; I’m not sure where e...