Episode 29: The Tower of the Elephant

Just to mix things up a bit we have decided to take a look at the original The Tower of the Elephant story by Robert E. Howard and two, count 'em two, comic adaptations of the same story.  The first Conan comic Dave ever came to love is  The Savage Sword of Conan, and it contained the beautifully illustrated Alfredo Alcala, John Buscema and Roy Thomas version that we review here.  And we compare it to the Dark Horse Comics version of said Conan story by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord.  Now there is something a bit different for our show; a comic book and book comparison.  We hope you enjoy the discussion and digressions!

Music kindly provided by Erdenstern. 
Readings by Rick Hollander and Daryl McDaniel.

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Episode 28: Conan the Destroyer

Dave's copy of Conan the Destroyer

The second Conan movie, Conan the Destroyer is our topic this evening.  We compare and contrast it to the original Robert E Howard stories, as well as the first DeLaurentiis / Schwarzenneger film.  Roger Ebert said "The first Conan movie, "Conan the Barbarian", was a dark and gloomy fantasy about the shadows of prehistory. This second film is sillier, funnier, and more entertaining. It doesn't take place before the dawn of time, but instead in that shadowy period of movie history occupied by queens and monsters, swords and castles, warriors and fools"  He shows a good understanding of the differences,  although we think he was a bit kinder to the film than we are. Join Dave, Jeff and Mike as we slice into Conan the Destroyer. Lot's of laughs and barbaric appreciation.

We will do the Tower of the Elephant next time.  We pushed it back a show. 

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Episode 27: Conan: The Scarlet Citadel and Queen of the Black Coast

As promised many shows ago we return to the Robert E. Howard's Conan Tales. We slice into The Scarlet Citadel, a tale of high adventure, (oh, that's a cliche). It's the story of Conan's capture on the battlefield, imprisonment in a Citadel (Scarlet of course) his subsequent escape and return to his kingdom. Yes, there is a whole lot packed into this short story. The second story Queen of the Black Coast follows Conan on his pirating and jungle adventures with the fascinating pirate Queen Belit. Sit back and join Dave, Jeff and Mike as we discuss said stories. Readings by Aaron and David Kleinschmidt
Music provided with kind permission from Erdenstern.

Next up will be the film Conan the Destroyer followed by the promised Tower of the Elephant (book and comic versions)

 
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Episode 26: Ready Player One (Book and Film)

In an attempt to be more current and contemporary we review another recent film and book.  READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline.  The book was published in 2011 it takes place in a dystopian society where people spend a lot of time in virtual reality, in order to avoid the real run-down world.  The book is Cline's first published novel.  Steven Spielberg takes the material in a slightly different direction as he brings it to the big screen.  We compare the two on the show today.

Up next Robt. E Howard THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT, QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST, and/or THE SCARLET CITADEL......and the film CONAN THE DESTROYER.

Music provided courtesy of Erdenstern
Readings by Aaron Kleinschmidt

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Episode 25:Murder on the Orient Express (Book and Film)

Agatha Christie is the top selling author of all time. Her work was inspired  by Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and she invented the Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot, who went on to become her most popular character. She had served in WWI as a nurse and had a famous disappearance that is still a mystery to this day.  The film was released in late 2017 and caused us to try our first mystery story for this podcast, in an effort to be timely.  Obviously that did not work out so well as you can see with this late posting.  Life gets in the way sometime.  Isn't strange how wherever Poirot goes, someone suffers a tragic death......hmmmm.  Join Dave, Mike and Jeff for the discussion.

UP NEXT....READY PLAYER ONE!  Book and film.
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