Editing Conan the Barbarian (section)

==Influences==
Howard frequently corresponded with [[H.P. Lovecraft]], and the two would sometimes insert references or elements of each others' settings in their works. Later editors reworked many of the original Conan stories by Howard, thus diluting this connection. Nevertheless, many of Howard's unedited Conan stories are arguably part of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. Additionally, many of the Conan stories by Howard, de Camp and Carter used geographical place names from [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s Hyperborean Cycle.

The Conan stories are informed by the popular interest of the time in ideas on evolution and Social Darwinism. Are some peoples destined to rule over others? Are our physical and mental characteristics the result of our experiences or are they the result of our inheritance from our ancestors? Is human civilization a natural or an unnatural development? As Conan remarks in one story: "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." — "The Tower of the Elephant", Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales, March 1933." (translation: barbarians avoid acting like dicks to each other the way civilized folk do, since barbarians all carry giant axes around.) (cfr [[Robert_Heinlein|"An armed society is a polite society"]])

Additionally, fans such as comic book artist Mark Schultz have concluded that Conan was an idealized alter ego for Howard. Unlike the modern, stereotypical view of a brainless barbarian, Howard originally created Conan as a thoughtful figure, although primarily a man of action rather than a man of deep thought or brooding. A closer alter ego for Howard, often depicted as a melancholic man who often battled with depression, much like Howard himself (Howard eventually committed suicide) is King [[Kull]], Conan's original forebear (cf "By This Axe, I Rule" and " The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune ". "Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content. — "Queen of the Black Coast", Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales, May 1934."  After he died, Lovecraft even explicitly drew the connection in an obituary he wrote for his friend.

The rights for the character are currently held by a litigant more vexatious than [[Games Workshop]]. You'd think that's an exaggeration, but Conan O'Brien had to pay them off ''to use his real name that he was given at birth'' in a show title without fear of a trademark suit. Another result was that ''Detective Conan'', named for Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle, had to be released as ''Cased Closed'' in the west to avoid their wrath.