Even though he killed himself in 1936, Robert E. Howard created one of the most enduring characters in fantasy fiction--Conan the Cimmerian, aka Conan the Barbarian. The gruff, rough, and virtually indestructible warrior slew and stole his way through a brutal ancient realm in 20 short stories, published from 1932 to 1936 in the sci-fi magazine Weird Tales.

Since then, Howard's complete works and unpublished Conan stories have been republished in numerous books and adapted into a popular comic series. They have also inspired two films--the classic Conan the Barbarian (1982) and the less-than-classic Conan the Destroyer (1984), both starring Arnold Schwarzenegger--and two much-less-than-classic syndicated television shows, both named Conan: The Adventurer (1992 and 1997-1998, respectively).