As I’ve been documenting on Instagram, my search to replace the Conan the Barbarian books I read in my youth, has reached the third in the series, Conan the Freebooter.
Here they are in all their (so far) glory.
There seem to have been two versions of Conan of Cimmeria, one with a black top and the author details in white. That doesn’t look good in the middle of the three. So I’m ignoring it.
All three cover paintings are by Frank Frazetta. The first two are, in my opinion, superb. The third here, not so good. Looks a bit more of a knock-off. The gorilla’s hand holding Conan’s leg, for instance, looks very weak. Though the poor thing has had his right arm removed by Conan’s sword, so it’s maybe justifiable. I’ll have to see if they used him for number four.
As far as I can see, this is the reading order (from left to right) – I definitely remember that Conan of Cimmeria was number two – but the numbers on the back give a different to the running order I’m following.
The condition of the paperbacks I’ve got so far, is pretty good, given that they’re around 35 years old. Still, as one of the original ‘pulp fiction’ writers, a Robert E. Howard book should look like it’s been around the block a few times, shouldn’t it?
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