Comics
Graphic barbarism

The success of the extended chronicles of Conan led inevitably to comic-book adaptations. Some of these were based directly on Robert E. Howard’s original Conan tales; some were derived from his non-Conan stories; others were wholly original.

Conan the Barbarian

In October 1970 Marvel Comics began Conan the Barbarian, a four-colour comic drawn by Barry Smith (now better known as Barry Windsor Smith) with stories scripted by Roy Thomas.

Of particular interest are issues #14 and #15 which featured a guest appearance by Elric of Melniboné, in a story plotted by Michael Moorcock and Jim Cawthorne.

In #24, Thomas and Smith introduced one of the best-known S&S heroines, Red Sonja, based on Red Sonya of Rogatino in Howard’s short story “The Shadow of the Vulture” (The Magic Carpet Magazine, January 1934), which Thomas rewrote as a Conan story.

Smith drew Conan for two years, with a brief haitus (issues #17 & #18) which were pencilled by Gil Kane. Smith was replaced after issues #24 by John Buscema and later Ernie Chua (real name Ernie Chan). The Smith issues were reprinted in the late 1980s (and see below).

The Chronicles of Conan

Dark Horse Comics (and Titan Books in the UK) are publishing the original Conan stories in a series of trade paperbacks that feature completely remastered colour and text corrections.

Unless noted, Volumes 1 to 4 are by By Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith and Volume 5 onwards are by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.

The Savage Sword of Conan

Conan’s popularity led to a black & white companion magazine called The Savage Sword of Conan.

King Conan

Another comic series – King Conan/Conan the King (1984-1989) – featured tales of Conan’s years as King of Aquilonia.

Other Marvel Comics comics

• Savage Tales (1971–1975), first 5 issues
• Giant-Size Conan (1974–1975), 5 issues
• Handbook of the Conan Universe (1985), 1 issue
• Conan the Adventurer (1994–1995), 14 issues
• Conan (1995–1996), 11 issues
• Conan the Savage (1995–1996), 10 issues

Dark Horse’s Conan and other titles

Dark Horse has published two major comic series: The first, entitled simply Conan ran for 50 issues from 2004 to 2008; the second, entitled Conan the Cimmerian, began publication in 2008. Dark Horse has also published a few one-shots and several mini-series.

Conan

Conan was written by Kurt Busiek (Marvels, Astro City), with Timothy Truman taking over in 2006, and illustrated by Cary Nord. Several guest artists also contributed, with Tomás Giorello taking on Nord’s mantle near the end of the run.

Several other artists contributed cover art, including Joseph Michael Linsner, Leinil Francis Yu and Tony Harris.

All but a few of the stories were later re-published in collections. The main story arc was published in five volumes, and essentially follows follows The Dark Storm Conan Chronology  by Dale Rippke, filling in the gaps between Howard’s stories. An irregular story arc covering Conan’s birth and childhood up to the battle of Venarium was published as “Volume 0”, and a handful of non-arc stories were published in a separate collection.

Conan the Cimmerian

Conan the Cimmerian continues the story arc begun in Conan, with the creative team of Timothy Truman and Tomás Giorello, with Richard Corben (issues #1-#7).

Side projects

Dark Horse published a one-shot special, Conan and the Daughters of Midora, in 2004. It was written by Jimmy Palmiotti, with art (incl. cover) by Mark Texeira. The story was set years later than the events in the ongoing series.

Dark Horse also published a number of mini-series in parallel with the ongoing series ―