In From Pen to Sword, National Review writer John Miller celebrates 100 years of Conan:
Since 2003, Del Rey has issued definitive texts on each of these heroes, based on Howard’s own manuscripts rather than the edited and bowdlerized versions that have appeared elsewhere. Three of these collections contain everything Howard ever wrote on Conan, including previously unpublished story fragments. With October’s release of Kull: Exile of Atlantis, the sixth in the series, Del Rey says it has put out more than 200,000 of these books.A small industry of armchair scholars has made it possible. “We’ve gone pro,” says Leo Grin, the editor of a journal and blog called “The Cimmerian.” Yet they’ve also had to battle for respectability. “The comics and the movies have brought in fans, but they’ve also been an albatross,” says Rusty Burke, an editor of the Del Rey books. “We’re maybe 10 or 20 years behind H.P. Lovecraft.”
Last year, Lovecraft, another 1930s pulp writer, slithered his way into the literary canon when the Library of America issued a definitive book of his influential horror fiction. Howard is not nearly as cerebral as Lovecraft, but Lovecraft never seized the Zeitgeist with a character like Conan.
The albatross may grow heavier before it grows lighter: Dark Horse Comics calls Conan one of its best-selling titles, Funcom will launch a highly anticipated online game next year, and Warner Bros. reportedly wants to make a new flick. All of this will expand Howard’s growing fan base.
One thing seems certain: After Arnold Schwarzenegger and the rest of us are long gone, Conan will still be wandering, sword in hand and ready to excite ever more readers.