Post originally by Jon Hancock at 2005-06-29 06:09:43
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The trouble with the whole "Cthulhu Mythos" tag is that it's a pretty nebulous concept. Without a defined framework it is possible to argue that all sorts of different stories fit into Lovecraft's tales of Alien Gods, and since so many later writers exhibit plenty of Lovecraftian influence one can take the Mythos off into a hundred different directions. Read the likes of Karl Edward Wagner's excellent "Kane" stories and you'll see plenty of similar ideas of blasphemous science and ancient threats. H.P. was also, of course, a writer of his time, and many of the concepts he included in his stories were also in the minds of his contemporaries.

That said, the link between Howard and Lovecraft is well known and extensively documented, so in as much as any non-Lovecraft work can be said to be part of a "Cthulhu Mythos" many of Howard's stories certainly can. His contemporary horror was full of unknowable evils and a constant them of his swords and sorcery work is the way civilisations and indeed whole species have degraded from their ancient roots, yet back in the depths of time lurked utterly alien monstrosities wholly inimical to mankind. The parallels with Lovecraft are often very clear, and in many cases entirely deliberate (neither man worked in a vacuum, for all of their relative isolation), so the case for including Conan in the canon, so to speak, is a strong one, and I've always liked that edge of horror in the Conan stories.