Posted by Cimmerian on 2/8/2006, 3:40 pm The press release from Paradox reads: Paradox Entertainment announced today that the company has acquired all rights to the library of author Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan and over 800 other literary pieces. Paradox Entertainment has owned Howard’s Conan since 2002 and the new addition of the entire library gathers all of Howard’s writings under one company. “We have been negotiating this transaction for a year and we are confident of its tremendous value. I don’t think it’s possible to overestimate the magnitude of this purchase,” said Peter Sederowsky, Chairman of the Board at Paradox Entertainment AB. “Robert E. Howard is undoubtedly one of the greatest fantasy authors of the 20th century, with an enormous list of works. It is mind-boggling that only four movies have been made based on his writings. Through this purchase we are securing an extensive production slate through long-term partnership in all areas of entertainment and media. We are already considering many projects and are excited for the future,” said Fredrik Malmberg, Head of Licensing & Creative Affairs at Paradox Entertainment Inc. in Los Angeles. Robert E. Howard was one of the greatest authors of his time and is considered the creator of the genre ”Sword & Sorcery”, perhaps most known through the character Conan. Despite his short literary career – Howard died at the mere age of 30, after only 12 years as a productive author – he wrote over 800 stories and poems. Howard’s breakthrough came when being published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the 1930s. His stories take us to such different surroundings as ancient Atlantis, the North African desert during WW1, hidden opium dens in dark alleys of the Big City, and northern Britain during the invasion of the Roman Legions. Over the years, many authors have been inspired by Howard’s stories, and have praised his literary legacy, among them H. P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, and Stephen King, who said about Howard: ”In his best work, Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks. Stories such as ‘People of the Black Circle’ glow with the fierce and eldritch light of his frenzied intensity.” As for how this impacts the Howard properties most relevant to comic fans, namely, Dark Horse’s Conan and Dynamite Entertainment’s Red Sonja series, the short version is, it doesn’t. While this deal will simplify things, the world of REH licensed properties is still slightly complicated, with all of the creator’s characters not sharing one “universe” that can be owned or licensed. In regards to Conan, Dark Horse licenses the character from Conan Properties International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paradox. CPI controls not only Conan, but all associated characters from the Hyborian world. Except Red Sonja. As explained previously, Red Sonja is controlled by the Red Sonja Corporation, a wholly separate company, distinct from the REH Estate, Paradox, and CPI. Reportedly (and to make just a fewmore lines cross), Red Sonja Corp currently has the rights to the Thulsa Doom character (originally a Kull nemesis, who then appeared in the first Conan film), which it has, in turn, licensed to Dynamite for use in Red Sonja comics. The ownership lines became fuzzy between 2000-2003, during which time Stan Lee Media bought the rights to Conan (late 2000) when it purchased CPI, promising to make, among other things, a film at Warner Bros., and “webisodes” of the barbarian’s adventures. Stan Lee Media of course, went under in a storm of controversy and alleged wrongdoing in December of 2000. In 2002, Paradox bought into the Conan property, but by that point, the Howard Estate had spun off the Red Sonja rights into their own company, the Red Sonja Corporation. The REH Estate kept the rights to all the other Howard properties. As noted above though, Paradox does on the rights to Red Sonya, while the Red Sonja Corporation retains the rights to Red Sonja. The difference of course, being in the spelling of the last name. “Red Sonya,” which Paradox now owns, is the original Howard version, a female pirate who was not a contemporary of Conan. “Red Sonja” is the character derived from Howard’s works by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in 1973. “Sonja” is the character who previously appeared in Marvel’s Conan comics and her own miniseries, while “Sonya” is known perhaps best to Howard aficionados. The move by Paradox, with their stated aim of seeking to further exploit the characters in, among other media, comics, is notable, as it can be assumed that the process to developing more REH properties for comics may be a little more streamlined. Before their launches, both Conan and Sonja were on the rubbish heap of comics, their viability questionable at best. But as both Dark Horse and Dynamite have shown with their respective series (Red Sonja currently outsells Conan in months that Sonja ships), there is still a demand for Howard’s characters in the market, when treated with care and respect by both publishers and creators. Link: article in NEWSARAMA
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According to a report in Variety, Swedish based Paradox Entertainment, which already owns the literary rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan, has purchased the remainder of the rights to the REH library from the late writer’s estate, amounting to 800 or more properties. As the report relates, Paradox now controls Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane and Red Sonya, and, again, according to Variety “hopes to license its new literary properties for film, TV, videogames, comics, toys and other areas.”
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