SEASON TWO: THE ROAD OF QUEENS

Hile, adventurers! Here we stand, with a new path before us!

Season Two of The Cromcast will cover many of the heroic women of Robert E. Howard. Will you join us on this adventure? If so, tighten your belt, adjust your cutlass, and be of stout heart! The stories we'll cover are as follows....

Helen Tavrel, Swashbuckling Pirate of the Caribbean!
The Isle of Pirate's Doom

Dark Agnes de Chastillon, the French Heroine that Meets Out Death with a Sword!
The Sword Woman
Blades for France

Red Sonya, the Sword and Pistol-Wielding Princess!
The Shadow of the Vulture

Beyond that, we'll return to some discussion of our favorite Heroines of the Conan Stories. We'll also cover the Red Sonja character that is so well-known from comics and film, and we'll of course have some talk regarding Novalyne Price Ellis! Will you join us?

Episode 25: Our Year With Conan




Art by Boris Valleho

This is it! This week we reflect on our year spent reading the original Conan the Barbarian stories, and what we've learned about Robert E. Howard. These stories are full of passion, action, and adventure! But there is much more to them! If you look closely, you can see fragments of a man's life, his philosophy and outlook, his sense of humor, and yes, perhaps even some of his faults. They are interesting, well written, pulse-pounding adventures that laid the groundwork for the heroic fantasy genre, shades of which can still be seen in the works of modern fantasy authors. It has been so much fun to discover and discuss these stories with you all over the past year, and we greatly look forward to more conversations about the pulp fantasy, horror, and fighting stories of Robert E. Howard as we roll on down the road.

Spend a bit of time reflecting, whenever you read this. Think about Robert E. Howard. When did you discover him? What do his works mean to you? Let us know what you think of Conan. What does this character mean to you? Did we overlook something? We know we left some of the original but unpublished stories behind, but someday we'll revisit those. After a year with Conan, we're ready for some other REH material! Are there stories you're excited for us cover? Let us know!

For now, we leave Conan to his reaving, and depart The Road of Kings to travel for a while along a different path. Season Two of The Cromcast will focus on the heroines of Robert E. Howard's stories. We will post the Road of Queens very soon, and let you know what stories we'll be covering. For next time, the assignment is an exciting pirate story "The Isle of Pirates' Doom", featuring Helen Tavrel, which you can read for free on WikiSource.

Helen Tavrel - Artist unknown

See you on down the road!

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
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Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Ending Theme: Anvil of Crom arranged by Victor de Andres. Found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DYpJkV9Mls

Episode 24: Conan the Barbarian [1982] (Or, Thorgrim is Beside Himself With Grief)

Welcome back, Children of Doom! The purging is at last at hand! Day of Doom is here! It's time at last to talk about the film that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's film career, Conan the Barbarian! You can pick it up on Amazon, if you don't already have it!

It even has an iconic poster!

In addition to Schwarzenegger, this film stars James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom, Sandahl Bergman as Valeria, Gerry Lopez as Subotai, Mako as the nameless wizard, and features a brief appearance by Max Von Sydow as King Osric.

This film has a legendary score by Basil Poledouris! You know that Anvil of Crom is in your head right now! It's absolutely incredible, and we can't imagine this film without it. Here's a link to a playlist on YouTube, Conan the Symphony, featuring the Andalucian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mr. Poledouris himself! It's awesome background music, play it and see your productivity increase three-fold!

Check out our friend El Goro's podcast Talk Without Rhythm! He has an extensive archive of interesting film discussions with his co-host The Cancer Man. You might want to start with Episode 187, a look at Solomon Kane (2009) and Conan the Barbarian (2011). Tell him The Cromcast sent you!

This is it, folks. We stand before Crom and must answer The Riddle of Steel. But all is not lost! Next time, it's a Cromcast Retrospective - Our Year with Conan! After that, we will be gearing up for Season 2 of The Cromcast, which will spotlight The Heroic Women of Robert E. Howard. Helen Tavrel, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, and Red Sonya of Rogatino will take center stage as we explore the representation of women in sword and sorcery. It'll be interesting! We hope you continue adventuring with us on into 2014. It'll surely be an age undreamed of...

We'll see you next time, By Crom!

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!
Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Episode 23: Red Nails (Or,"A Gang War in T-Town")

Artist unknown

"The city looked very far away across the plain, farther than it had looked from the crag. Valeria's heart hammered until she felt as if it would strangle her. At every step she expected to hear the crashing of the bushes and see another colossal nightmare bearing down upon them. But nothing disturbed the silence of the thickets.

With the first mile between them and the woods, Valeria breathed more easily. Her buoyant self-confidence began to thaw out again. The sun had set and darkness was gathering over the plain, lightened a little by the stars that made stunted ghosts out of the cactus growths.

“No cattle, no plowed fields,” muttered Conan. “How do these people live?”

“Perhaps the cattle are in pens for the night,” suggested Valeria, “and the fields and grazing-pastures are on the other side of the city.”

“Maybe,” he grunted. “I didn't see any from the crag, though.”

The moon came up behind the city, etching walls and towers blackly in the yellow glow. Valeria shivered. Black against the moon the strange city had a somber, sinister look..."

Our tale this week is Red Nails, the last of the original Conan stories written by Robert E. Howard (Read it on Project Gutenberg). It features Valeria, who is easily one of the most interesting secondary characters that we've encountered in a Conan story so far!

Evidently, there was an animated adaptation of this movie that was cancelled at some point during development. We found some test animation on YouTube for you to check out, along with a wallpaper depicting character designs for the film. It seems that they were serious about producing a quality, gritty adaptation of the source material. What do you think?

 

 

 

This is a bittersweet moment, as we have nearly reached the end of the Road of Kings! Don't worry, we're going to keep on bringing you The Cromcast! Listen for our announcement for Season 2 toward the end of this episode!

Our next episode will cover the film "Conan the Barbarian" from 1982. In the next couple of weeks, pop in your copy of the movie, pop some popcorn, immerse yourself in that epic Basil Poledouris score, and settle in for a movie night. Then, join us for a discussion of the film! Let us know what you think of it!

While you're waiting for that episode to drop, be sure to check out Far Fetched Fables and the other District of Wonders podcasts!

We'll see you next time, By Crom!
 

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)

You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!
Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Episode 22: The Hour of the Dragon (Part 2)

This week, we finish our discussion of the only Conan novel written by Robert E. Howard, "The Hour of the Dragon." (Read it on Project Gutenberg!)

Cover to the Lancer edition, by Frank Frazetta

When last we left our hero Conan, he was searching for The Heart of Ahriman, the metaphorical heart of his kingdom. This episode picks up with Conan's pursuit of this ancient and powerful magical artifact. Meanwhile, Xaltotun the Ancient is showing his true ambitions - the full resurrection of ancient Acheron! This story culminates in an exciting battle that you won't want to miss! Let us know what you think of the story!

Only one more stop along the Road of Kings - Red Nails! (Read it on Project Gutenberg!)

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Microsode 01 - The Cromcast vs ComiXology and DRM (A Short Discussion)

Hello, Cromrades! While we were preparing the Red Nails discussion last night, we sort of went off on a tangent about ComiXology, DRM, and online "virtual" media. Read a bit more about the acquisition of ComiXology by Amazon at PC Magazine and at Engadget.

What do you think? Does this move make you angry? Happy? Are you indifferent? Let us know! Email, tweet, or call us! (859-429-2766). Do you read comics on a mobile device? Do you use Steam to purchase games? Why or why not?

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0