Those who are familiar with the previously published versions of the stories presented here in Spicy Adventures are in for a surprise in this volume. For if Howard's agent, Otis Kline - and us - thought that Howard's stories were perhaps too tame for publisher Armer, it turned out, upon examination of the surviving carbons and drafts, that it was in fact exactly the opposite: all of the stories had been heavily censored when first published in Spicy Adventures (and thus in the 1983 edition.) In typical fashion, Howard had gone further than the guidelines imposed, stretching the boundaries as much as possible, probably because he understood what his readers wanted. This was nothing new.

All of the Howard stories and portions thereof contained in Spicy Adventures come from Howard's original typescripts, manuscripts, and carbons. Virtually all of them were scanned from the Glenn Lord collection, now at the University of Texas, Austin; the Robert E. Howard collection at Texas A&M University; or the typescript collection at Cross Plains Library.

CHANGES FROM THE 1ST EDITION: In this Ultimate Edition, previously edited versions of "The Girl on the Hell Ship," "Ship in Mutiny," and "Daughters of Feud" have been restored to typescript. Five "new" earliest-known drafts have been added: "Desert Blood," "Dragon of Kao Tsu," "Murderer's Grog," "Guns of Khartoum," and "Daughters of Feud." We have also replaced the previous "early" drafts of "The Girl on the Hell Ship" and "Ship in Mutiny" with their earliest known drafts.