Giant Slayer Games

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[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

It has been a long time since I've done a giveaway on here, so its time to change that.

On Dec 1st, so hopefully you'll receive it before Christmas I'll be giving away this gaming bundle

Read the entire thread for details
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[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@thefactualprep Agreed. They should also be reading Conan.

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Neckbeardia

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Neckbeardia The overhead press really should be part of this conversation

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Neckbeardia

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@retrocvnty

[PaddysParlorGames @PaddyohCakes]

Almost finished!!!

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@A_DungeonDelver It's amazing that all of these "not always evil" evil races just so happen to subscribe to modern western values. More so when you consider that basic things like women's rights and not murdering gays aren't even universally accepted among humans

[The damndest bastard you ever met #BuyingBhakashal @DamndestBastard]

Quote Tweeting this so I have a chance to edit any spelling errors later...

Here, and elsewhere, I've noted that Frank Frazetta is chiefly responsible for making Conan popular again, in the 60s. But yes, 1/2 the time his work didn't fit the story he was painting. [calm down and read on]

Frank is undoubtedly the source of what would become Conan's "supersuit" in the comics, namely: fur underwear with bare legs/chest.

He also added earrings to Conan's outfit, something Howard not only never had Conan wear but even explicitly states in one tale that Conan made a stark contrast to men who did have earrings and nose rings.

Frank also lengthened Conan's hair.

To be fair to Frank, however, he did paint Conan wearing mail on one (awesome) occasion out of 8 and without earrings on more than one.

And, as Conan got older, his physique grew to resemble Frank's paintings far more than in his youth.

One must also note that Frank cannot be held responsible for de Camp's incorrect placement of Howard's tales in Conan's life.

De Camp placed Frost Giant's daughter nearly 1/2 way through his career, well after Conan would have reached his full growth, not when he was barely 16; the age Howard stated he was in the Miller letter. Howard wrote FGD as Conan's first adventure outside of Cimmeria; travelling north after the battle of Vanerium (where he was only 15 and lacking much of his full growth) Conan adventured with the Aesir against the Vanir and the Hyperboreans for "about a year".

But back to the article itself. I find it fair and accurate in some regards and unfair and downright weird in others.

For example, Frank absolutely did choose to paint his characters with less, rather than more clothes.

But I disagree with the thesis that portraying a fit, strong beautiful physique is equivalent to a character being stupid, or dishonourable.

Those are modern moral leaps impossible to impose on prehistoric or alien cultures. They smack of buttoned-up Victorian moral judgements or dumb-jock/airhead stereotypes from the 80s. Moral panics, be they from the religious right or the post-modern left both reek of far too much #Civilization. That was, in fact, Howard's meta-theme!

In ancient Greece, physical beauty didn't = stupid, nor did nudity = immorality.

And yes, it is irrefutable that Frazetta's style was "sex, blood, and horror" but it sold like hotcakes. Blame the people buying them I guess.

The article asserts that marketing the stories that way has ruined them, somehow, but the truth is the exact opposite.

They weren't flying off the shelf in the 50s when Gnome Press published Howard's work with edits, addendums and pastiches by De Camp, Carter and Nyberg.

Yet virtually the same stories, reorganized into a chronology, sold like gangbusters as paperbacks in the 60s from Lancer.

Frank's covers made all the difference.

I assert that without Frank, Conan would still be unknown to 90% of the people who read the stories in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And their kids. And their kid's kids.

There would have been no films. Karl Edward Wagner would not have been able to get the unedited tales published in the mid-70s. D&D might not have even existed without the Conan novels feeding a hunger for new S&S that Moorcock and Leiber capitalized on to reach a wider audience.

As for the article's assertion that no one read them, that they just bought them for the sexy covers, that's ridiculous.

What exactly did they use them for besides reading? They weren't a status symbol. They certainly weren't large enough to be framed and hung in the den. Only 2 of the 8 Conan covers even have women on them, and one is pretty damned blurry! Is the article suggesting some mass-homoerotic buying-hysteria occurred?

To conclude a thread that's already rambled for too long, yes Howard would probably bust Frank in the mouth for some of the things he did to Conan, but after they got it out of their system, I'm pretty sure they'd have been friends.

But something tells me 2-gun Bob wouldn't have used his fists on de Camp for what he did to Conan.

For my part, it's de Camp and the authors who followed him in novels, comics, and onscreen, working from de Camp's edits and assuming they were genuine, who are chiefly responsible for ruining Conan and making him "just a stupid barbarian".

Frank's departures are few and minor by comparison.

And as it regards John Cater or Deja Thoris; I never thought they were stupid or sluts, either.

Because I read the stories.

Because they were (still) for sale when I learned they existed.

@SaraFrazetta
@frazettagirls
@FredMalmberg

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Crossface02 Lime*

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Crossface02 Like sparkling water like liquid death or bubbly worked good for me

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@ChaosChief9 I hate this timeline

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@A_DungeonDelver

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Kneon

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@Kneon @A_DungeonDelver It's the players more than the character

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@DMJeffChronicle Kind of, it's a good introduction to OSR style gameplay though

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

@PaddyohCakes

[Giant Slayer Games @GiantSlayerRPGs]

Merry Christmas

[Lordmatteus @Lordmatteus2312]

https://t.co/AI9H5OTuhl