Saturday, May 22, 2021

The Hour Of The Dragon At Last!


One of my favorite stories has a very long last been collected under one cover and treated with the respect it deserves. Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian and wrote many short stories and short novelettes featuring the brooding Cimmerian, but he only ever wrote one novel -- The Hour of the Dragon.


The story was published a few times over the decades, but I first came into contact with it and with Conan himself in the pages of Conan the Conqueror. This was Lancer's run of the hero (later reissued by Ace and added to) and they changed the title to fit the pattern established by Lancer with its earlier collections Conan the Freebooter and Conan the Usurper and suchlike. I found a copy in my local library and scuttled home to read it and was swept away by the imagination of REH as he described a bloody king who was ferocious but loyal and above all loved his woman. It was the very atomic structure of heroic adventure in a tiny paperback package.


Soon thereafter Marvel got hold of Conan (after failing to get Thongor of Lemuria for gosh sakes) and turned the comic book industry upside down. Roy Thomas became Conan's shepherd in the new four-color territories and had the heft to see to it that Howard's brawny hero got good service by and large in a regular series as well as a lusty black and white magazine variation.


For a short but glorious period of time Marvel created quarterly "Giant-Size" versions of some of their better selling books and Conan was easily in that category. So what to do? The Hour of the Dragon had arrived and Roy and Gil Kane (his first choice to draw the regular book) began to adapt the longest Conan story ever told.


It's a winding tale of how Conan the King of Aquilonia is plotted against by his enemies both within and without and who work together to raise from the long dead a mystic named  Xaltotun of Python. This lion-faced fiend has his own plans for Conan so doesn't kill him but makes him prisoner and of course he escapes with the help of a harem girl named Zenobia who has loved him from afar. 


His escape is not enough and he must find a jewel called the "Heart of Ahriman" which is seems is the only thing the ancient sorcerer fears. Getting that jewel is not mean task as it slips just between Conan's grasp time and again as he chases it across the Hyborian landscape. 


This saga wound its way through four full "Giant-Size" issues before that little fad faded and the story was left without a venue.


Eventually it took up residence in the black and white magazine The Savage Sword of Conan and John Buscema took over the art chores. Despite the lack of color I was happy to see the story continue.


And then it ended as it must. But the novel established a somewhat different status quo for Conan and his new queen Zenobia and there seemed to be more stories to tell.



Those stories were revealed in two Conan annuals and though not part of the original novel add some luster to its complex doings. Why this tale had never been collected was an absolute mystery to me. At one point it seemed everything with Conan's dour mug on it was getting recolored, revised and reprinted, but not so The Hour of the Dragon. I've ached to have it all under two simple covers and earlier this year it happened at last. If you want to read a hearty Conan tale, one that makes the Cimmerian do more than hack and slash, one that makes him change see this story. It's a honey.

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4 comments:

  1. "The Hour Of The Dragon" was originally intended as a novel for publication exclusively in Great Britain but the British publisher went bust so the story was published in several parts in 'Weird Tales' magazine in the United States in 1935 (the same magazine which published 17 Conan stories between 1932 and 1936).

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    1. The fact it was originally intended for a British market probably accounts for the many similarities to other Conan yarns. Maybe REH assumed any potential reader might not have seen them, or maybe he just trotted out some winning hands.

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  2. While the Thongor stories were not without their lesser derivative charms, I'll be forever grateful that Marvel couldn't get the rights for them & went with Conan instead. Those early Marvel years of Conan were among the best comics of their time, certainly among my favorites, and they hold up beautifully today.

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    1. It was a lucky day indeed when Thongor was kicked back and Conan was allowed to rise to the fore. For me as well, those earliest Conan stories are formative.

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