If one should ask a devoted Conan aficionado how he or she would best visualize the Cimmerian
swordsman, I believe that in most cases, the answer would be the image of Conan created by Frank
Frazetta and, to a lesser degree by Ken Kelly and Roy Krenkel. Furthermore Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni
and Gregory Manchess also need to be added to the list of recent Conan illustrative interpreters.
Nevertheless, the king of fantasy paintings has prevailed and particularly Frazetta’s painting for the
Lancer paperback Conan the Adventurer (Lancer 1967) has been hailed as the definitive visualization of
Conan. Thus, generations of Conan fans have been conditioned to believe that the Frazetta image is the
most emblematic, although it may be quite different from what Robert E. Howard had in mind, and
somewhat distant from a realistic image of the Cimmerian.
Blasphemy! Heresy! Intolerable! To the stake with the heretic! I can already hear the shouts of the true
believers and the demand for punishment equal to the degree of transgression. But before we arrange
for an auto-da-fé (at least in the pages of the apa press papers), I would like the opportunity to defend my
opposition to the Frazetta image and my suggestion for a more realistic image of Conan.
In his correspondence to Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard once wrote that the character of Conan
was an amalgamation of real-life personages he had known, including prize-fighters, gunmen (that one is
questionable - how many real gunmen rode the range in the early 1900s?), bootleggers, oil field bullies,
gamblers, and honest workers; all of them reasonably ordinary people. People like you and I.
Howard briefly describes Conan as “... a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive
corded neck and heavily muscled limbs... His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that
smoldered as if with some inner fire. His dark, scarred, almost sinister face was that of a fighting man. His
slightest movement spoke of steel-spring muscles knit to a keen brain ... He moved with a cat-like speed
... his square-cut black mane was confined by a silver cloth band.”
Would this description fit the Frazetta image of Conan? Yes and no. The picture of the Cimmerian on
Conan the Adventurer is that of a body builder, not a warrior from the dim and distant past. As we know,
Conan hailed from Cimmeria, a cloudy, windy and somber land, where rain and darkness was more
common than sunshine. The people were most likely still living primarily in a hunter-gather state, with
few excesses.
They were tall and strong with dark hair and blue or grey eyes. Life was hard in Cimmeria. Food was not
always easy to come by. Hunting the hill country and the Eiglophian Mountains on their northern border,
the Cimmerians had become especially adept at mountain climbing, a particularly strenuous undertaking.
Taking all this into consideration, the physique of the men of Cimmeria was probably more like that of an
athlete, strong, agile, supple and with a body mass index well in proportion to their height. In order to
develop the kind of body seen on Conan the Adventurer and similar illustrations, 6 to 8 hours of Conan’s
day would have been taken up with body building and the intake of a fairly high calorie, protein-rich diet.
Neither would have been readily available to a subsistence member of a Cimmerian hunter-gatherer
tribe. The occasional sword fight and a low-calorie diet would neither have produced the exercise or
nutrition necessary.
While Robert E. Howard was still alive, he could see the illustrations published with his stories, and
although he may not have been in agreement with the portrayal of Conan, there was probably little he
could do about it. I’ll be the first to admit that some of the early Weird Tales illustrations, particularly
Hugh Rankin’s leave a bit to be desired, but some of the later depictions were actually quite well done
(The Hour of the Dragon, “Red Nails”).
From a realistic point of view, it is questionable if the Cimmerian, often living off the land or on fairly
meager fare, would be able to maintain the caloric intake that his body would require (in the Frazetta
model). That kind of super-muscled body would require a high amount of energy and metabolism to
function, which means that the energy needed to be replaced frequently.
Dehydration was also a constant hazard. At the same time, the body training must be maintained on a
daily basis. We have seen enough examples of bodybuilders who let themselves go. Last but not least,
the long hair which apparently all associate with Conan, is the wrong hairstyle for the warrior profession,
and needs to be square-cut and shorter, lest it shall provide a convenient handhold for an enemy during
hand-to-hand combat, or blind our hero by falling down in the eyes. It would also be a nest for lice and
other vermin, which would be a constant source of irritation and distraction.
In the series of Conan tales, there are many feats done by the Cimmerian, which would have been
quite difficult for a man with the weight, bulk and body mass of Frazetta’s creation, but would have been
possible by a man with a lighter, stronger, more supple and more agile physique. This is not speculation
but facts. In the mid-1960s, I attended a number of military training programs, among others the U.S. Army
Ranger Training course. Here it quickly became apparent that it was the large bodied, heavily muscled
individuals who did not make the final cut.
They were packing too much weight in muscles and could not replace the lost energy quickly enough,
they dehydrated quickly and needed more water to maintain their metabolism. They also tired more easily
on long patrols and needed more time to recover. Load carrying capacity was also a problem, if a soldier
was carrying too much body (muscle) weight. On a personal note, I was 26 years at the time, 6'2", weighed
152 pounds and completed the course without any difficulties.
Considering the last three visual interpreters of Conan, Schultz, Gianni and Manchess, they have all
done a remarkable job in their own manner and rendering of the Cimmerian. I might not care for every
picture by all three artists, but all things considered, I believe that they have created a more realistic
setting for the Conan tales than the Lancer paintings by Frazetta. In the years to come, I also believe that
in most cases, it is the illustrations of Schultz, Gianni and Manchess that we will return to for the best and
most realistic, visual interpretation of the Cimmerian swordsman and his environment.
Perhaps we need to rethink our visual image of Conan. Enjoy the Frazetta paintings as the fantasy
they are, but let the newer artists be the definitive illustrators of Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales. If this
cannot be, then let the auto-da-fé commence and have the flames devour the heretics!
Copyright 2007 by Damon C. Sasser
REH: Two-Gun Raconteur
The Definitive Howard Journal
The Definitive Howard Journal
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