This short film of Conan the Barbarian is an excellent fan portrayal of the titular character.

This short film by user MugenMancer that was posted on YouTube is an excellent fan portrayal of Conan the Barbarian. For one, Conan looks like Conan should. In the books he was never supposed to be a clone of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jason Momoa got a bit closer to the actual look of Conan, but the movie in which he starred was terrible. This short captured the panicked and frenetic feel of the Hyborian age better than any of the movies have done with their lofty budgets and paid script writers.

I've only read a few Conan stories, as they are mostly difficult to find these days despite the popularity of the character. And they are (for the most part) short stories as opposed to novels which I tend to gravitate toward in order to sink my teeth into them. So, if you're not really a short story kind of person, getting a little slice of the life of a barbarian here and there, it's probably not something you'd enjoy.

A short story in the world of Conan doesn't have the breadth to explain anything. You just are told that Conan wants a thing, that it might (for example) be in a structure with a weird name like "The Tower of the Elephant," and then you are off and running as he infiltrates said tower and overcomes traps as well as dark sorceries in order to acquire a fabled jewel or something similar. This short below is pretty much the same thing. Conan is running from some orcs that look like they live in a temple to some dark god. And he ends up killing them all. That pretty much sums up what Conan is.

It would be interesting to see a series developed around Conan (as opposed to a movie). There wouldn't need to be a lot of dialogue, and the main character could travel around a savage world stealing things from ancient temples and killing monsters. Also, I want to give a well-deserved clap in this post for MugenMancer. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to animate something this good all by yourself. I bet it was really difficult to do.