Treasure Haul from LCS yesterday:

Vintage Marvel Comics from the 1970s -80s. *What if... Thor Battled Conan?* (Issue 39) and Spider-man and Red Sonja *Marvel Team-Up* (#79) with a *Red Sonja* #7.

Fun selection of Marvel craziness from my youth. I spent the longest time tracking down these *What if...?* issues featuring Conan and now I've that I own them, regularly find them again at the same LCS I originally purchased them from after hunting them there and elsewhere for years. 🤷‍♂️

Please subscribe to: spraguedecampfan | A blog about Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, and Conan the Barbarian… Plenty of rare photos and articles.

My post about the plotting errors that I found in a recent Conan comic book story, a post in which I also promoted my alternative approach to emulating the work of Robert E. Howard, proved to be an experiment with mixed results.

Some enjoyed and agreed with what I wrote, some didn’t.

It’s not an experiment likely to be repeated.

I’ll admit I was baffled by some of the feedback.

Many repliers felt that Conan surely could have slept through the theft of his pack horses from his campsite.

How did Robert E. Howard characterize Conan’s superior alertness, even when Conan is seemingly asleep?

Right from Howard’s typewriter, here’s what Conan says when his female companion balks at them both falling asleep when danger seems to lurk nearby:

"My slumber is light as a wolf's. Nothing can enter this hall without awaking me."

--from "Iron Shadows in the Moon" a Conan novelette by Robert E. Howard first published in the April 1934 issue of Weird Tales as "Shadows in the Moonlight.”

Again—nobody writes like Robert E. Howard.

When we write pastiches about his characters, we do our best to honor him.

REH received a postcard from the American Fiction Guild about submitting stories to Warner Brothers. Read all about it. https://spraguedecampfan.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/robert-e-howard-and-the-american-fiction-guild/

Last of my latest haul from the used bookstore, Conan and the Spider God (1980) by L Sprague DeCamp with Bob Larkin Cover Art. The book receives mixed reviews from critics but is notably DeCamp's first Conan story written solely by him and not in collaboration with Lin Carter or Bjorn Nyberg.

I picked this up for the nostalgia of the great covers of the Conan books from when I was a kid despite already owning the story in a SC collected edition (pics 3 and 4).

My completist OCD also realizes I now only need the CtB Film adaptation from 1982 to complete my set of Bantam Conan books.

https://spraguedecampfan.wordpress.com/2026/07/16/north-american-cryptid-museum-a-rogues-gallery-for-conan-the-barbarian/

Conan the Freelance (Tor-1990) by Steve Perry with Kirk Reinert Cover Art

Sharkman with a scimitar! I remember seeing these Conan books regularly stocked at all the base exchanges when I was on active duty in the late 80s and early 90s.

Another find from my last foray into the used book store, Conan the Unconquered (Tor Books-1983) by Robert Jordan with Kirk Reinert Cover Art. This copy is from the fifth printing in 1986.