Cimmerian September: Exceeding Expectations

As I mentioned when I began this series of posts, I’m nowhere near a Conan expert. Heck, I only have a few months of reading under my belt, but I do understand how intimidating jumping into a new character can be. That is why I wanted to do my little part to share how easy it truly was to start reading and enjoying these stories.

I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with this character or it’s unique setting, but I did. For years, I’ve huffed and puffed about complicated timelines, retconning, and my desire for short, simple stories. Conan really was an answer to my frustrations and what I love about it is the more I read, the more I want to explore more stories and different methods of Conan storytelling.

In my final post for the month, I thought I’d bust a few myths that I had prior to learning about Conan and talk about what else I’ve enjoyed about this fandom. So, let’s dig in.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan really isn’t all that like the Conan from the stories

I just assumed Conan was a bodybuilder, who was maybe a bit of a dumb brute thanks to my exposure with the films (and some of the artwork), but he’s far from it. The character is a bit slender (pantherlike is often used to describe Conan) and I guess you’d say he looks and acts a bit more like Jason Momoa’s character from the 2011 Conan the Barbarian film than the Schwarzenegger films.

You wouldn’t necessarily say he’s a good guy, because at time he does kill innocents, I guess he’s morally neutral and that is part of the appeal of the character. He’s an excellent climber, a tremendous fighter, and can be quite cunning. As the stories progress, and you see Conan get more and more experience in the civilized world you can see the growth and maturity of his character, which is refreshing and interesting considering these were essentially a bunch of short stories.

The stories really are better than the other media

I mentioned I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Conan movies (although the soundtrack rocks and they have some charming moments), but the actual stories and comics are way superior to the movies and the lesser discussed media. In the 90’s, there was Conan the Adventurer cartoon (1992), which from my understanding was an enjoyable kid friendly cartoon, but “kid-friendly” doesn’t really line-up with the Conan you see in the books and comics.

And even lesser enjoyed adaptation is Conan the Adventurer (1997), the live action TV show. This show starred a bodybuilder friend of Arnold Schwarz egger and two-time Mr. Universe Ralf Moeller, and was essentially a knock-off of Xena or Hercules, two very popular shows at the time.

Sadly, the show wasn’t nearly as interesting, and of course, Conan is portrayed in a kid-friendly way similar to the cartoon. Conan is a rated R property, or at a minimum a hard PG-13.

There have been multiple video games released over the years, including an MMORPG called Conan: Age of Exiles and Conan Exiles, an open world survival game. I’ve dabbled with a few of these games and the only one that has impressed me at all was the 2007 Conan video game. It’s a knockoff of God of War (playing it actual made me crave playing God of War so I replayed God of War and then bought Ragnarok), but the gameplay and design is quite dated in 2024.

It’s available on Xbox Series X and isn’t a terrible game, it’s just not a great one either. For a property so deep in lore, I really expected there to be a better video game option out there. I am interested in checking out the real time strategy game Conan: Unconquered.

A new and interesting source for Conan information is the Conan YouTube Channel

I’m not a huge YouTube fan. I’d much rather read any day than watch a video, but with that being said, the new Conan the Barbarian YouTube channel is not too shabby. They’ve been focusing on creating content for new fans and helping folks ease into the Hyborian Age. I appreciate that, and I think it’s smart for them to cash in on this bump in popularity thanks to the success of the new Titan Comics line.

The fans are great

Fandoms tend to be toxic. I discovered over the past few years, if I enjoy something, it’s better not to research it online and instead to just enjoy it until I don’t. No one hates wrestling more than wrestling fans. Same goes for Star Wars fans, NASCAR fans, Star Trek fans, the list goes on and on. You can’t please everyone, and that toxicity just oozes out from behind keyboards.

With that being said, from my experience over the past few months, the sword and sorcery/Conan fans are amazing. I’m sure there are some bad apples, but I haven’t run across them yet. These guys are supportive, always there to help out new fans, and always supporting self-publishing authors who write Clonans or Conan Clones. Of course, the fan size is significantly smaller than say Star Wars, and maybe that is what accounts for the kindness that seems to exist, but for a bunch of guys and gals reading about a muscle toned barbarian who can punch people in the face and kill them, while hanging out with naked women, these are some great folks. I can’t say enough about the Conan community, especially over at r/ConanTheBarbarian which has been a wealth of knowledge in discovering more about Conan.