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Long time no posts!
I'm finally finding the motivation to tackle Conan in Russia, but along the way I got sidetracked by a bunch of interesting finds in Bulgaria. Russia...you're just gonna have to wait...again.
Let's dive right in (and in chronological order for the most part) starting with this novel from way back in 1991 from Sofia publisher Orphee (Орфия)...it's none other than Conan the Barbarian, a 156 page compilation of stories by the one and only Robert E. Howard! Sure it's half a century late for Bulgarians, but better late than never.
With a circulation of 44,000 copies and featuring The Frost Giant's Daughter, The People of the Black Circle, and more, it's Conan in his purest form!
That same year, Bulgarians were also treated to a couple of Conan novellas featuring REH pureness, both from Sofia based publisher Galaxy(Плеяда)...
...both of which had a circulation of 15,000 and a page count of 64 according to SFBG. The cover art for these two Galaxy offerings is the work of Bulgarian freelance artist Petar Stanimirov (Петър Станимиров), a.k.a. Peter Stan (website). Peter hasn't done any other Conan artwork that I'm aware of, but based on what I've seen he still appears to be inspired by the cagey Cimmerian...
Altes, Peter Stan
Credits for the interior artwork of these two novellas goes to fellow Bulgarian freelance comic artist Evgeni Yordanov (Евгений Йорданов), and it just so happens that I came across a sample of his work from A Witch Shall Be Born...
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That Conan definitely looks Buscema inspired, only top heavy! NSFW by the way, but you're already looking at it and your mighty leader is standing right behind you!
According to Evgeni's writeup on Lambiek Comiclopedia (right here), he was also responsible for some artwork in Conan the Barbarian for Super Pleada Comics. I couldn't find out anything more about said comic, but odds are that these samples of Evgeni's work are in fact excerpts from that very book...
Here's another sample page from Evgeni that looks a hell of a lot like Conan and was apparently published in Rainbow magazine!
Well that's a start, and if the post title wasn't enough of a clue then let me spell it out for you: stay tuned...there's MUCH more Conan in Bulgaria to come!
The fine print: Credit for the Conan the Bulgarian artwork at the top of the post goes to Chavdar Nikolov (Чавдар Николов).