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Bettie Page

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Greg Hildebrandt - "Silk Stockings" - 2000 American Beauties Series Art - Original art sold by Heritage Art Gallery October 2024

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Are you a fan of the Conan movies with Arnold?

Hello Anon, thanks for the question! I like to talk (or write) about the things I love. The fist film is a good movie in its own right, but it's Millius story and vision of the character and, not Howard's. I dislike the infatuation with Asian things of the 70s-80s, you know when Conan is taught swordmanship by some Asian and he strikes poses with the sword to show off his muscles, but the more I know about Western swordmanship and see videos of reenactors reliving ancient swordplay, the more I dislike all that stuff that was cool in the 80s, ninjas , samurais, kung fu, and all that, and the more I lament that in Hollywood we don't get proper and realistic sword fights. It's either effete fencing with foils or exaggerated coreography with somersaults. The film is good but not great, the best part is the soundtrack is so good I recalled it and now playing it . Comics are much more faithful to the original movies. I don't really like Arnold, now that I think of it perhaps Dolph Lundgren with dark hair would have been a better Conan. I don't like Arnold much, I don't care about the German accent, as I watch movies dubbed into Spanish, I hardly can understand spoken English as it is. Arnold physique is magnificent, but he's an awful actor, even Stallone with his facial paralysis is better, and has improved with age.

I think the movie was a bad influence on artists like Royo. All his girls have the same face, all his guys look like Arnold. I also dislike the stereotype of Conan as a hulking brute who talks in grunts. Too much muscle, I think. Conan as depicted in the novels would have the body of a olympic gymnast and feline grace. Also I dislike the stereotype of mountain of muscles and no brain. Conan is no intellectual but he's very smart, cunning and articulate. Above all things, Conan is a leader of men, and in a world before the printing press, culture was oral. Story telling, verses , songs. Conan perhaps does not talk much, after all, his stories are action adventures, but Conan does not become king on the strength of his sword arm alone, he does know to talk. After all, the stories of Conan are supposed to be reminiscences in his old age, as he tells his drinking buddies his adventures as he recalls them as the mood suits him., Conan is not only a warlord that knows how to harangue his men, but he also knows how to haggle, cajole and persuade.

There's something of Howard the writer in the character of Conan.

Due to the constraints of media, both in comics and film Conan is always scowling, a tight lipped stoical, which is sad because it deprives him of his humanity. Conan is a sensualist, glutton, drunkard, lascivious, and emotional to both extremes of mirth and melancholy. What sets it apart from a mere hedonist is his ambition and thirst for power. It's not just that he wants power to have riches and enjoy the nice things in life, he resembles the Nietzschean superman in the "will for power". Conan wants to rule, to be obeyed, to conquer. In the end quite by chance he achieves his lifelong dream when he picks the crown of Aquilonia from the gutter, and finally settles down to have a wife and children, but then gets a whole new set of challenges and troubles. One wonders if Conan was a good ruler at all, considering his track record, of being ousted, overthrown, or giving up and leaving in all his positions of power he attains, course being a pirate captain or a bandit chief is more unstable than being king, but Conan t having taken the throne at spear point finds you can't sit on it.

But I digress, as I am wont to do, but hey, you asked!

As for the sequel, "Conan the destroyer" just a B grade adventure movie, without the epic and symbolism of the first one. Best that can be said about the movie was how hot Olivia d'Abo was.

No, I am not a fan of the Conan movie. It's good, but it's not Conan. I suspect that for most of those that hail from the 20th century before the internet, the only Conan was that of the Savage Sword comic. Of course the stories became derivative and repetitive after a dozen tomes, and it depends of the quality of the artist.

As for the original source, the novels.. I think I prefer the comic. Howard was a good storyteller, but the stories are pulp, and the Hyborian age as a fantasy universe is quite lacking and sketchy. They are readable, enjoyable, but not memorable. I think Howard was more suitable for historical novels , but the pulps demanded sword and sorcery so he had to shoehorn in supernatural elements and magic to make them enough of a "weird tale". Like Lovecraft, Howard lived at the wrong time. Decades later, instead of Conan, he would have been a best selling author of a series of novels of a Pictish warrior adventures in the Roman empire.

Probably you are sorry you asked. I wonder if anybody will read this...

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Adventure Aug 1965

Roger Kastel

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See For Men Nov 1962

George Gross

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Stag Sep 1955

William Kuntsler

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Man's Action Mar 1964

John Duillo

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Underwater welding - Harvey Dunn

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Fists Of Iron Round 2 - Thomas Gianni cover art for a R.E. Howard novel featuring  Sailor Steve Costigan

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Moby Dick - Jerry LoFaro

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1959 11 Curse of the Spanish Treasure - Ramon Valdes - Argosy

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Pup Art (XLIV) - Sea Adventure

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1982 Love with a Perfect Stranger - paperback cover - Robert Maguire

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1950 1218 on the 'Ten' - Jim Jordan

NORTH MEETS SOUTH when two historic rail-mates, the “1218” and the “Tenn” bridge, form a striking partnership of classic train regalia, as depicted by Chattanooga’s own train artist, Jim Jordan.The “1218” steam engine (Class A 2-6-6-4) was built in the Norfolk & Western Roanoke Shops in 1943 during World War II at a cost of $163,872.00. After 16 years of service life pulling fast freight in the Ohio and West Virginia region, the “1218” was retired at Crewe, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, the engine was scheduled to be cut up for scrap. But fortunately, after several exchanges of ownership, the “1218” journeyed instead to the Roanoke Transportation Museum in 1970. Five years later the engine’s trek continued to the Steam Shops of Southern Railway in Birmingham, Alabama, where it was completely rehabilitated.On March 26, 1987, the “1218” hit the rails again as the biggest member of Norfolk Southern steam fleet. It is currently running scenic tourist excursions throughout much of the Southeast.

THE TEN

Once only a primitive Civil War crossing over the Tennessee River, a double track bridge with vertical lift was designed and constructed by the American Bridge Company in 1911, just north of the city of Chattanooga. Commonly called the “Ten” by railroaders, the bridge’s total length is 1800;, stands 170' from normal water level, and has a unique “open in” draw span of 310' in length which raises vertically using large counter weights and cables.This artist’s love of trains compelled him to use this particular scene of the “1218” crossing the “Ten” which is situated just below the TVA-Chickamauga Dam in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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1939 NewYork Central, 20th century Limited - Schugg

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1930 Queen of the South - Jim Jordan

Southern Railway’s green and gold PS-4’s, “First Ladies of the Pacific,” were created in the classic tradition of standard railroading between the 1920s and the 1930s. SR’s then President Fairfax Harrison was vacationing in England in 1925 and admired the brilliantly styled designs of green with gold leaf trimming on the London and North Eastern engines. He set about immediately on his return to use a similar color scheme on these new engines. The appearance of the PS-4’s on the AGS lines (Alabama Great Southern) in the south drew great crowds and netted the SR overwhelmingly favorable publicity. The beautifully decked out Queen and Crescent engine – 6689 made her first run in May, 1929 from Cincinnati through Chattanooga, Birmingham, Meridian, and on into New Orleans. Being the typical passenger locomotive she was equipped with all of the Southern’s needs – the ability to pull up to 14 cars with a top speed of 80 miles an hour, and 80,000 miles between overhauls.

The decade between 1928 – 1938 saw the first lady PS-4′ in their glorious, most fashionable years, racing up and down the lines from Washington to New Orleans. But by the early 1940’s with the inevitable competition of diesel power, the “Ladies of the Pacific” were seeing their reign o’er the rails coming to a close. Yet shortly, the PS-4’s were about to make one last comeback. Ironically, it took a world war to extend their reign of glory. The “Queen” and others were called upon for the unprecedented passenger train miles needed for troop movement. Heavy travel made it imperative that steam – the old faithful mode of transport – be kept working to the limits of its availability.

FURNACES

The Sloss Furnaces were built in the 1880’s in Birmingham – the chief center for coal and iron in the southeastern United States. For some ninety years, Sloss was an operating industrial site. Closed in 1971 – unable to comply with pollution standards – it became a National Historic Landmark where concerts at Birmingham are coordinating archaeological and preservation work on site. Volunteers are needed to keep the machinery and grounds in top condition for future generations.

Paralleling the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, the Sloss’ silhouette looms silently, yet oddly majestic in the Birmingham sky – just another reminder of an era quietly passing, like the stately ladies of steam.

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Train crossing