My top ten favorite Robert E. Howard monsters appear here chronologically because I can’t bring myself to pick a number one favorite. It was hard enough to thin down the list to only ten. (And by some clever cheating I actually picked twelve.) Big surprise, they are all from Weird Tales. I have not included any of the edited or pastiched critters here. We’ll do them next time. Only all-Howard monsters today.
Wolf Man
“Wolfshead” (Weird Tales, April 1926) gave the world the first wolf man. Before Howard and later the movie The Werewolf of London (1935), lycanthropes turned into a full wolf. Howard’s idea of a ghostly form that covered and changed its victim was much cooler. Hollywood did it because it was cheap and easy.
Serpent Men
“The Shadow Kingdom” (Weird Tales, August 1929) gave us the shapeshifting snakes in Kull’s new kingdom. These ancient beings are part of H. P. Lovecraft’s official Cthulhu Mythos. Howard would water them down over time for “The Worms of the Earth” (Weird Tales, November 1932) and other stories.
Zombies
“The Hills of the Dead” (Weird Tales, August 1930) has Solomon Kane taking on an army of dead Africans. Howard would use the idea in a completely different way in “Pigeons From Hell” (Weird Tales, May 1938), Howard’s most effective horror tale.
The Toad Servitor of the Great Old Ones
“The Black Stone” (Weird Tales, November 1931) is another Mythos tale that has one of the creepier squidgies. It won’t be his last.
Harpies
“Wings in the Night” (Weird Tales, July 1932) features this great finale where Solomon Kane takes on the entire harpy flock. This story is more than a little of the inspiration of the opening of the movie, Van Helsing (2004).
Satha
“The Scarlet Citadel” (Weird Tales, January 1933) was the first appearance of the giant snake that would appear as an animatronic in the first Conan film. Satha appears again in “The Valley of the Worm” (More on that story later).
Yag Kosha
“The Tower of the Elephant” (Weird Tales, March 1933) features some cool monsters such as the giant spider that I have left off this list. Like the Frost Giants, they are classic but basically just big versions of ordinary things. Yag Kosha, the elephantine alien, is much cooler.
Thog
“The Slithering Shadow” (Weird Tales, September 1933) comes from a story that has been reviled as the worst of the Conan tales, with its girl-whipping-girls silliness. That aside, I still found the idea of a Mythos squidgy going around eating hopheads fascinating.
The Worm
“The Valley of the Worm” (Weird Tales, February 1934) features a number of strange creatures such as Satha, the giant snake, the weird hairy being that calls up the worm, and of course, the gigantic worm itself.
The Winged Ape
“Queen of the Black Coast” (Weird Tales, May 1934) is a favorite of mine. The villain, the winged ape that is a survival from the depths of time, makes a worthy opponent. That it can call a pack of were-hyenas to its aid is nothing short of fantastic. Howard loved his apes and used a non-winged one in “Rogues in the House” (Weird Tales, January 1934) which tragically was stupid in the second Conan movie.
Conclusion
I am sure I left out one of your favorites: the baboon-headed demon, the frost giants or any number of others. Howard was great at writing fight scenes, including those with monsters in them. He set the pattern for any number of heroic fantasy tales and their beasties. He knew to use them sparingly and at the climax. Watching my son play World of Warcraft, I was struck by how routine the fighting of monsters becomes, even the boss fights. Not sure what Howard would have thought of that. I can remember back in the late 1970s-early 1980s wishing for a video game that looked as real as one of those Howard fight scenes. Now we have it and I guess the dream didn’t turn out to be what I wanted at all. Careful what you wish for…
