A couple of observations from the Conference

[womzilla]

1. While thinking of examples for the "Funny Pages: Or, Why Do You Think They Call Them Comic Books?" panel (which went very well, thanks to everyone on it), I tried to remember if there were science fiction or fantasy elements in Richie Rich. One of the points I most wanted to make is that humor comics were among the most successful comics in American history. Given that, the Harvey line seemed like something I wanted to explore. Sure, there's lots of fantasy--Caspar, Hot Stuff, and Wendy the Good Little Witch, of course, and the borderline surreal Little Dot and Little Lotta--but not so much sf. Then I chanced to remember that Richie had a robot maid, Irona. Of course he had a robot maid. If William Gibson is correct that "The future is here; it's just unevenly distributed", then an obvious corollary is that "The richer you are, the further in the future you are."

2. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about sword and sorcery, and other forms of "heroic fantasy" (Leo Grin's essay did come up several times), and I realized something important about its history: sword and sorcery stories, and the forms of heroic fantasy that build on earlier s&s, owe as much to the western as "high" fantasy owes to the fairy-story or gods-and-monsters mythology. Robert E. Howard was deeply steeped in the western, and the format of the Conan stories, of the wandering loner ambivalent hero/rogue going from town to town, comes straight from them. "Beyond the Black River" (op. cit.) is very much a western, with savage Indians painted blue and renamed Picts, and with St. Louis or Kansas City renamed Aquilonia. Conan even eventually becomes governor king, just like in real life.

(Noticing that Conan stories are re-themed stories that Howard couldn't sell to other pulps is hardly original to me; it's well known that the first Conan story, "The Phoenix and the Sword", is a reworked Kull story published posthumously as "By This Axe.. . I Rule!" Less obvious, to the point that I might never have noticed it myself, is that "The Tower of the Elephant" is a classic gangster caper story; the giveaway, as David Drake pointed out to me, is the accomplice parked outside in a getaway chariot.)

Comments

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

While I wouldn't deny a western influence on REH, I'd guess historical adventure stories of Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, etc. were more important to him.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh certainly there are huge amounts of that--I'd guess that half the Conan stories are some variant of the ur-Lost Race narrative. But it surprises me that I so long thought of the westerns as something separate from the S&S, instead of an integral part of how Howard made stories, and surprised that I'd never notice how much of an imprint that left on the descendant works.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

One of the Richie Rich stories (there are only like four or five) revolves around a new device, either directly related to money or enabled by vast wealth, and explores its consequences for Richie and his friends in Gernsbackian detail.