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He knows what Conan the Barbarian is going to do. Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk, too.

Ask Roy Thomas about these super heroes. He shares their past and some of their future, too.

"Semi-retired'' and living in Calhoun County these days, Thomas stays in touch with a career that made him the word man and editor behind the artists who create the comic book images.

He was the editor who came up with the idea for the Wolverine character in X-Men.

Red Sonja, the female Conan, was his creation.

He's written the script for Spiderman, Fabulous Four and the Incredible Hulk.

Yet Conan is Thomas' real hero. He resurrected the character after the creator died in 1936, writing the Conan script throughout the 1970s.

He consulted on both Conan movies, with this name among the credits in the sequel. He has written for films, including comic book adaptations of the films "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."

"I can't compete with anybody real important,'' Thomas says even as he spins a story about lunch with George Lucas when Lucas told him he had this idea for a movie called "Star Wars.''

And then there's his magazine.

In what he calls "semi-retirement,'' Thomas stays in touch with his super heroes by producing a magazine, Alter Ego, that deals in the history of comics from the late 1930s through the 1970s.

Today's comics are different, he told Orangeburg Rotarians recently. They appeal more to adults than children, with adult-sized prices for the books. Besides, children are so involved with video games that comics have taken a back seat.

Thomas echoes the sentiments as expressed to retired T&D writer Joyce W. Milkie in 1995: "I try to develop heroes in my writing and have them do the right thing. The way things are now -- I can't tell the heroes from the villains! But I do believe the comics are turning into video games and I'm hoping the trend gets reversed.''

Thomas, a 61-year-old Missouri native and former high school English teacher, moved from Los Angeles to Calhoun County in the 1980s. He and his wife came here after his daughter, Alice, and her husband Dan Peck, retired Hughes Aircraft manager, established themselves here

After his four-year career as an English teacher in Missouri, Thomas said he began writing articles for magazines, then got a chance to go to work for Marvel Comics in New York. His job was editor-in-chief. He began writing scripts for comic strips and has been at it ever since, even from what might be described as an exotic farm in Calhoun County.

The Thomases have had or have cattle, rabbits, ducks, potbellied pigs, cats, ducks, guinea pigs and even some llamas.

The perfect place to decide the next move for Spiders, Wolverines and Hulks.

T&D Editor Lee Harter can be reached by e-mail at lharter@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5520.

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