Conan [Monolith Boardgame] - KS over and funded

[Driscoles]

nice miniature but a little bit too muscular !
Conan isnt Arni Warzenbecker and Steve Buscemi got it also wrong although the paintings and comics are cool.
Anyway....please allow me my nagging. I `ll probably buy the game anyway just to have it in my collection.
Cheers
Björn

[Cubs]

Well one of the things about Conan is that he never encounters a human who is stronger than him, although there are a few who are taller and bigger. He is also extremely fit, athletic and blessed with a great deal of endurance.

How does that translate into physique? It's a knotty one fer shewer and I'm glad I'm not the sculptor left with that dilemma. I do think too much imagery concentrates on turning the 'barbarians' into veiny balloon animals, but then it's also a tradition that is hard to break.

Being literally 'muscle bound' is not about being stronger and certainly not about being fitter or more agile. But then if a Conan model comes out without the muscles, what sort of reception will it receive?

I suspect this will be a case of not being able to please everyone. I'm sure they'll be great models and it will be a successful game.

[Eithriall]

These are official sulpt projects :

Bêlit from the "Queen of the Black Coast" story.
Sculpted by Yannick Hennebo
Art by Adrian Smith


Shevatas from the "Black Colossus" story.
Scuplted by Stéphane Simon
Art by Adrian Smith

[Cubs]

As miniatures those are beautiful, but that's a very bulky looking Shevatas. He's meant to be fair small of build and wiry, not a ripped up strongman.

[Eithriall]

I agree, perhaps with abdominal muscles too prominent. But the sculpt has been made according to the artwork of Adrian Smith where Shevatas seems a bit muscular too.

[Dr. Zombie]

This looks promising. I'll follow this with interest.

[Cubs]

I agree, perhaps with abdominal muscles too prominent. But the sculpt has been made according to the artwork of Adrian Smith where Shevatas seems a bit muscular too :

Ah well, there we go. I guess this is the bit where compromises must be made between authenticity to the original stories and a broad appeal. If people like the models and the game, that's the main thing.

[Elbows]

Thanks to this thread I purchased a three book set of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.  It's a piece missing from my fantasy bookshelf. (which is rather thin...).

[Cubs]

I hope this doesn't upset, but 'The Complete Conan' is available on Kindle for 77p.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Conan-Robert-E-Howard-ebook/dp/B00HBVESRW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1402829999&sr=1-1&keywords=complete+conan

[Elbows]

Yeah I got the full printed set for around $15...all of the electronic versions seem to have mediocre reviews.  That's awfully tempting though since I have a kindle.

[beefcake]

I hope this doesn't upset, but 'The Complete Conan' is available on Kindle for 77p.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Conan-Robert-E-Howard-ebook/dp/B00HBVESRW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1402829999&sr=1-1&keywords=complete+conan

Thank you thank you thank you!

[Michka]

I fear to say this, but I love the Conan comic book series. I know liking the old Marvel comics is uncool in these enlightened times, but consider how cool a miniatures game based on those original Barry Windsor Smith and John Buscema images would be. It's not like Roy Thomas was completely ignoring the original store is. Hell, most of the early stuff was adaptations of the original stories. They were toned down and changed to appeal to the 1970's comic reader, but the core is still there. I never saw the comic book Conan as a huge guy. It was that Arnold guy that made everyone think he was supposed to be a muscle bound oaf that changed the public image.

Actually, the first movie isn't totally off the mark. It could have been far worse. (OK, Conan the Destroyer was far worse, by I digress.) It's all a matter of perspective. Consider how much worse a Conan movie would have been if done by the Hercules and Xena guys. Conan gets into a fight with picts, and the only weapons on hand are throwing fish. Thank goodness for his good natured, if slightly cowardly side-kick Truckulus. Cue the slide-whistle.

[nic-e]

Well one of the things about Conan is that he never encounters a human who is stronger than him, although there are a few who are taller and bigger. He is also extremely fit, athletic and blessed with a great deal of endurance.

How does that translate into physique? It's a knotty one fer shewer and I'm glad I'm not the sculptor left with that dilemma. I do think too much imagery concentrates on turning the 'barbarians' into veiny balloon animals, but then it's also a tradition that is hard to break.

Being literally 'muscle bound' is not about being stronger and certainly not about being fitter or more agile. But then if a Conan model comes out without the muscles, what sort of reception will it receive?

I suspect this will be a case of not being able to please everyone. I'm sure they'll be great models and it will be a successful game.

I always find it hard to believe that even a very musclebound chap from ancient times would be the shinning bronze statue we see in gym's today.
I imagine they're guts would be flabbier, given the practical need for warmth (especially if you only wear a ur thong as conan seems inclined in this miniature) and their muscle would be more wiry.i imagine concan looking a bit like a leather pilllowcase stuffed with treebark.

Having said that, these are very nice sculpts and i will no doubt want some :p

[Eithriall]

For those who don't know Conan The Cimmerian (i mean who have not read Robert E. Howard...because if you only know the comics or the movies, so you don't really know about The Cimmerian)

Here are (in my opinion) the best novels you must read :
(presented in chronological order of writing)

- The Frost-Giant's Daughter
- The Tower of the elephant
- The Scarlet Citadel
- Queen of the Black Coast
- Black Colossus
- The People of the Black Circle
- The Hour of the Dragon
- A Witch Shall be Born
- Beyond the Black River
- The Black Stranger
- Red Nails

My all time favorites : Beyond the Black River, Red Nails and Queen of The Black Coast.

These novels don't need to be read in a particular order because they are not connected with each others.
Source: "As for Conan's eventual fate - frankly I can't predict it. In writing these yarns I've always felt less as creating them than as if I were simply chronicling his adventures as he told them to me. That's why they skip about so much, without following a regular order. The average adventurer, telling tales of a wild life at random, seldom follows any ordered plan, but narrates episodes widely separated by space and years, as they occur to him." Robert E. Howard, Letter to P.S. Miller, March 10, 1936.

Others Conan novels present less interest because they were written in a more commercial way.  Robert E. Howard, who at the time was writing for a wide selection of magazines (in many different literary genres), needed to sell novels to live.

PS : I only talks about Roberts E. Howard's original novels and not about rewrites or pastiches made after his death when some less scrupulous people have smell the commercial potential of Conan's character.

[Justizius]

I like the first miniatures and will follow the project with interst. 

As I have to confess, that I am a big fan of Howards books, the comic books, the movies and nearly everything
about the famous barbarian.