Conan in the Czech Republic and Slovakia! Part 1!

Conan is very popular in these two countries (the former Czechoslovakia), so I’m betting that their split in 1993 had nothing to do with the famous Cimmerian.  Our good friend Marek sent us links and pictures related to this Czech material long ago, but there was just so much to cover that I’ve been putting it off…until now! 

I’ve decided to tackle this by publisher, and in no particular order…part one will cover Conan books published by Viking in Prague, Czech Republic and to get things rolling, the Viking reprints of Conan stories by American authors alongside a U.S. equivalent book cover!

Sean A. Moore - Conan and The Grim Grey God (Tor Books - 1996)
(Conan a Bílý Bůh Běsů - 1999)

Sean A. Moore - Conan and the Shaman's Curse (Tor Books - 1996)
(Conan a Šamanova Kletba - 1998)

John C. Hocking - Conan and the Emerald Lotus (Tor Books, 1995)
(Conan A Smaragdový Lotos - 2000)

Leonard Carpenter - Conan the Gladiator (Tor Books - 1995)
(Conan, Gladiátor - 1998)

Robert Jordan – Conan the Unconquered (Tor Books - 1983)
(Conan, Nepokořený - 1999)

Leonard Carpenter – Conan, Lord of the Black River (Tor Books - 1996)
(Conan, Vládce Černé Řeky - 2000)

Steve Perry – Conan the Freelance (Tor Books - 1990)
(Conan, Potulný Bojovník - 1998)

And now for the rest from Viking…according to my research all of these were written by Czech authors! I also took a shot at the English translations of the book titles, but don’t quote me on those (hence the question marks)…

Václav Vágenknecht - Conan, Krvavá Ostří (2005)

“Conan, Bloody Sword”?

Václav Vágenknecht/A. R. Oldman – Conan, Setovy šachy / Léčka (2002)

“Set's Game / Trap”?

Note: Christina Stile is also credited with the second (A. R. Oldman) story in this publication, and apparently both are pseudonyms.

Dakh Hunter (pseudonym of Jana Moravcova)

Conan a Brány Času (2001)
“Conan and the Gates of Time”?

Eric Lanser (pseudonym) - Conan a Černý Labyrint (2001)

“Conan and the Dark Labyrinth”?

Paul O. Courtier (pseudonym of Otomar Dvořák)

Conan a Dědictví Atlantidy (2001)

“Conan and the Legacy of Atlantis”?

Conan a Tajemství Mořských Dáblů (2002)

“Conan and the Secret Sea Devils”?

Leon Da Costa (pseudonym) - Conan a Slepá Bohyně (2003)

“Conan and the Blind Goddess”?

Mike Philip (pseudonym) - Conan na Ostrově Ledu (2003)

“Conan on the Island of Ice”?

Whew! Mega-post! But I’m not quite done yet…still want to mention the person responsible for all these fantastic covers - I’ve verified this for most of these books, but have little doubt that they are all the work of Czech artist Alois Křesala (his website here, sample from his website below)!

And to wrap things up, a few faces to go with some of the names mentioned above...

Left to right: Václav Vágenknecht, Jana Moravcova,
Otomar Dvořák, Alois Křesala.

A big shout out to Marek for the info, may Mitra bless you with a thousand sexy wives and ten thousand beautiful, healthy children…you sir, are a Conan scholar and a gentleman!  OK, it’s a wrap. Part 2 is coming soon!