Re: [rehfans] Independent article on LOTR movies and Harry Potter

[Wlmcs]

     I also came to REH via the Tolkien boom  (I read the trilogy when I was 12) and before the Lancer series or the Conan comics came out.  I read the Gnome books on Conan at the public library, which I found one day when I was trawling around for books to read.  I was delighted when the latter series of Lancers and Conan came out, but hey, I was 13 or 14 at the time.  My fascination with the Conan comics ended when they stopped adapting REH books (right about when Barry ended his illustrations) and Marvel  began creating new storylines.  As for the Lancer books, I never had a visceral hatred of them or their editors but felt the story completions and expansions by Carter, LSDC and others (e.g., Conan of the Isles) were really well below the standard set by REH.  It was only when I joined this list that I found out that there were "pure" text Conans available and that ! Wandering Star planned to do a set of original works.  But whatever I may think of LOTR (and it certainly plods in places), it fired my imagination for the works of REH and ERB.  The Lancer books, the Conan Comics and any Frazetta art were strictly secondary with me.  I never cared for LSDC as a writer (I think the only book of his I own is the Tritonian Ring, and that may have been influenced by the Frazetta cover art; I never liked his Shea stories) but I  liked the Carter works even though I admit he was a very derivative writer (yes, I liked the Thongor works and some of his solo works like Kellory the Warlock).

Nino Lucio
Miami, Florida
305-536-8850