By Crom, it’s Cimmerian September! (And all my REH essays, too)

Monday, September 1, 2025 Bob Byrne Comments 0 Comment

The seriously talented Jim Zub jumped on board last year

It’s Cimmerian September! Youtuber extraordinaire Michael K. Vaughn coined the term, in which he spends the month talking about my second favorite writer, Robert E. Howard (John D. MacDonald still holds the top spot). He’s going beyond Conan this year, and is starting out with my favorite Howard character, El Borak!

A month celebrating REH is the best thing I can think of. John Bullard of the Robert E. Howard Foundation invited me to join a panel with Michael, John Hocking, Mark Finn, Patrice Louinet, and my Hither Came Conan cohort, Jason Waltz. We recorded two long-winded but fun sessions, and I’ll share those links here when they’re online this month.

I mentioned here that I read the issues 1 through 115 of the Conan the Barbarian comic from Marvel. And with each issue, I read the accompanying chapter from Roy Thomas’ terrific three memoir series. I enjoyed it and will blog more about those comics.

I have also been reading some Savage Sword of Conan issues from the Marvel Omnibuses. And I am enjoying them in a different way. The black and white graphics are very different from the CtB color ones. I’m finding the adaptations of the REH stories are pretty faithful. I just finished up “The Treasure of Tranicos,” which was L. Sprague de Camp’s rewrite of Howard’s unpublished story, “The Black Stranger.”

“The Black Stranger” is in my Conan Top Five, and I enjoy de Camp’s version quite a bit. The Savage Sword version is a good read, covering two issues. The first one also has an informative history on the story, by Fred Blosser.

There are some original pastiches in Savage Sword, and they can get ‘creative.’ But I’ve found the original REH stories to be translated rather faithfully. I imagine I’ll do a few posts on those, as well.

For Cimmerian September, here’s every one of my Robert E. Howard essays – almost three dozen of them. And you know there are plenty more coming.

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.

MISC MUSINGS RELATED TO REH & HIS WORKS

CONAN – Reviews & Pastiches

CONAN – Comics & Misc. Essays

CONAN – Hither Came Conan

CONAN – Gaming