First I think is the stature of Conan within its genre. Conan is as important/influential/trendsetting to the sword & sorcery genre as Superman is to superhero stories (not my words, that's a paraphrase of Jim Zub). Howard's Conan stories defined what sword and sorcery is the way Superman defined what superhero stories were.

When something is that iconic and foundational to an entre genre, it becomes timeless. That's not to say there's not a lot of bad Conan stories out there, there are, just as there are a lot of bad Superman stories out there. But because it is so foundational, it can endure those bad stories without eroding the essential appeal of the character and genre.

It also makes it strong enough to be able to handle multiple interpretations of the character, both good and bad. Arnold's Conan in the movies is a very different interpretation of the character, and was very successful. And for a time that influenced perceptions and presentations of the character, and yet the core of the Howard stories survived, endured, and eventually reasserted/reestablished itself as the core of the character that was influencing what came after. The Conan cartoon was also a very different interpretation, yet the core persisted. The de Camp/Carter Conan was an interpretation that was dominant for a long time, yet eventually the Howard core reasserted and reestablished itself.

Why? Because it was foundational to the genre it created for a reason. It was the template, and as many generations of copies that occur, the original will always persist, especially when copies of copies of copies degrade the essence of it, you always go back to the original.

Just as it is impossible to do superheroes without accounting for Superman (whether you are emulating it or consciously rejecting it to go against type, you are still accounting for it), it is impossible to do sword & sorcery (or any pulpy fantasy really) without accounting for Conan. And that is at the core of its timelessness.

-M

I remember seeing this old 80s flick called 'The Sword and the Sorcerer' and even then, when I was 4 feet tall, I kept pointing at the telly and saying it's a Conan wannabe.

I seem to recall a few Conan-style movies in the 80s. One was Deathstalker. There was another, but I can’t remember what it was called. I remember the movie poster: a guy, possibly wearing bear fur (or big cat fur) holding a pickaxe atop a cliff. I remember the movie poster and the film being good (quite a few movies had better posters than plots, but this one had both).

There was also a recent book I haven't checked out yet on many such movies and related genres called Cinema of Swords...



by Lawrence Ellsworth.

I've requested it through interlibrary loan just recently and am waiting for it to arrive.
-M

Or the Harryhausen estate was easier (or cheaper) to license image and likeness rights from than some of the others, or wanted to include Harryhausen as part of the marketing appeal. There's a thousand possible reasons why, but it's likely a publisher decision or art director/designer decision, not an authorial one.

-M

I don’t have access to Tubi, but there is a free streaming service here called Plex. I just checked, and there are some of the films you mentioned on there. I’m also pleased to hear about a Deathstalker comic.

I do agree that The Beastmaster had enough that was unique to stand on its own.

tarkintino, it’s not exactly the same, but I once read about someone who’d ordered a model of Universal’s Wolf Man - but ended up with Hammer’s Werewolf. Or maybe it was the other way around!

Did sword and sorcery movies go into “hibernation” in the 90s? Other than Beastmaster sequels, I can’t remember many, although I can remember some stuff occurring on TV; perhaps producers felt TV was the better medium for it at that time. I don’t know.