THONGOR means a lot to me. Not because he helped me to learn to read (which he did. I read most of the novels while still 13 or 14.). Thongor is special to me because without him, I never would have discovered the worlds of SF/F/H, which to my mind, is the only world really worth knowing. I know that's not true for everyone, but it is for me.

When I was kid, almost 10 years old, my brother and I would save up bottle money (just a penny or two a bottle) to collect up 20 cents to buy a comic book. My parents weren't anti-comics, they just didn't feel they should have to pay for them. So, armed with our scrimpings and savings we would go to the local candy store that also sold comics and we'd buy a superhero comic. Marvel's Triple Action was a fav with all its many superfolks.

Something like this!

But there was this one time. My brother, who is older, had to do some yard work or something and I got to go down to the store and pick the comic myself. Only problem was the new Triple Action hadn't come out yet. Kids back then didn't understand the complexities of publishing as they do today. But I wanted to buy a comic! Wonder of wonders, if my eye didn't spot Creatures on the Loose #23. (This must have happened in May of 1973. Some comics bear the month following to when they actually come out. See, I learned.)

There it was!

Well, I went home and boy was my brother ticked. "What did you buy that stupid comic for? There aren't any superheroes in it." That was the last comic we bought together. It was also the last of those original Creatures on the Loose I bought too. Until a few years went by and I got into Robert E. Howard in 1975. Now 12 I was old enough to tell my brother where he could stick his superheroes. I bought Tarzan, Conan, Kull and even found those old copies of Creatures on the Loose. (This was before mylar so they were probably ratty and in a garage sale, but I didn't care.) I love Sword & Sorcery. I love all things monsters and swordsmen and such. It seems trivial but it was probably the earliest time I chose SF/F/H over all the naturalistic choices of parents, the superheroes of my brother and the rest. I was a SF/F/H guy. I remain so today.

Thanks Thongor!

The complete set!

THONGOR LINKS

D&D CHARACTER

LIN CARTER MEMORIAL

ROBERT PRICE'S THONGOR PASTICHES

THE APOSTLE OF LETTERS featuring G. W. Thomas' article on Thongor

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