Author Michael Tierney was a kid living in Pittsburg, Kan., when he first came across the writing of Robert E. Howard.
"There was just so much energy," the ever-smiling, fast-talking, 69-year-old Tierney recalled last month at his home in Maumelle. "He invented his own genre, sword and sorcery ... and he would also mix genres. A lot of those guys were very formulaic, very plodding and boring; those are words you would never use to describe a Robert E. Howard story."
Howard, born in 1906 and a lifelong Texan, is best known for creating the character Conan, the barbarian hero who has turned up in magazines, comics, TV programs and films. Conan first appeared in a series of stories in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1932. Howard also created the character Kull, a precursor to Conan, and wrote Westerns, sci-fi and other stories before committing suicide in 1936 at age 30.
Tierney has compiled the "Robert E. Howard Art Chronology," a massive, comprehensive, four-volume set of books that cover Howard's brief career. Spanning more than 1,600 pages — 360,000 words with more than 7,000 images — the books will be published by Little Rock-based Chenault & Gray. The publication follows a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $95,000 toward production costs, Tierney says, adding that the volumes should be available in four to six weeks and will sell as a set for about $450-$499.
The first volume, "The Pulps: Dawn of the Age of Sword & Sorcery," explores Howard's early days and his determination to start a writing career.
"In the first chapter, I talk about his amateur days," says Tierney, who represents Ward 3, Position 2 on the Maumelle City Council. "A lot of people think that when you're a success as a writer you just got lucky. I wanted to tell readers about all of the hard work he had to do to achieve his fame. He really worked at his craft. He only had about a 10-year period of writing, but he wrote hundreds of thousands of words and was very prolific."
The second volume is titled "The Books: Literature with Sharp Cutting Edges."
"In the first section, I cover books dedicated to his works," Tierney says. "Conan was kind of forgotten about when Howard died, but the Gnome Press was the first to start collecting the Conan stories."
The final two volumes explore the comics made from Howard's stories, which Tierney admits weren't that appealing to him at first.
"I turned my nose up at the comics, and then I ran into Issue 9, drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith. It was an adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story and I thought: 'Wow, this is so much better than I thought it was going to be. I had no idea this was that good.'"
The Howard chronology is made up of the vast trove of Howard works amassed by Tierney who, we should add, is no ordinary collector. In 1982 he opened Collector's Edition Comics in North Little Rock and started The Comic Book Store in Little Rock in 1989. He closed both stores in 2020 and now sells comics through his ebay store.
And this isn't the first time he has taken a deep dive into a writer who he'd been fascinated with and collecting since childhood. In 2018 Tierney's exhaustive "Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 Year Art Chronology" was published by Chenault & Gray and delved into the work of the creator of Tarzan. Like the Howard chronology, it was also four volumes and filled with action-packed artworks as well as Tierney's writing and research.
The Howard books aren't the only thing keeping Tierney busy these days. Cirsova Publications of Little Rock, publisher of Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense, has been publishing installments of Tierney's long-running comic book/novel "Wild Stars." The latest edition of the magazine features "Wild Stars 7: The Gold Exigency" on the cover.
In a review of the story last month, John Gradoville at dmrbooks.com called Tierney a "master of pulp extravagance," adding: "I think this may be my favourite Michael Tierney story. It's tightly plotted, with a kind of fight and run rhythm."
Cirsova is also planning to publish Tierney's book "Sky Dance of Winter Fire," which he describes as "an Arkansas fairy tale" and that includes his digital illustrations.
As for another sprawling chronology, Tierney mentions the possibility of a project on Disney artist Carl Barks.
"I've had people making me offers, but I don't know if anything will happen on that."