Conan (comics)

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This article is about the various comic book series. For other uses, see Conan the Barbarian (disambiguation).

Conan is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s. Howard's Conan appeared as short stories in Weird Tales, a popular magazines of the era. Conan has appeared in comics nearly non-stop since 1970. The comics are arguably, apart from the books, the vehicle that has had the greatest influence on the public mind concerning the character.

Two comic series have been produced with the name "Conan" one from Marvel and one from Dark Horse.

1 Marvel Comics
2 Dark Horse Comics
3 Miscellaneous or parody appearances
4 External links

[edit] Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics introduced a fairly faithful version of Conan in 1970 with Conan the Barbarian, written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith. He was succeeded after several issues by penciller John Buscema, while Thomas continued to write for many years. Later writers included J.M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Michael Fleisher, Doug Moench, Jim Owsley, Alan Zelenetz, Chuck Dixon, and Don Kraar. Although many artists worked on the different Marvel Conan comic-books at one time or the other, only a few apart from Windsor-Smith and Buscema produced more than a handful of stories. The most prolific include Ernie Chan, Alfredo Alcala, Gil Kane, Rafael Kayanan, Mike Docherty, Val Semeiks and Gary Kwapisz.

John Buscema, in a 1994 interview, spoke of being Marvel's first-choice for Conan artist: "I was approached by Roy Thomas with the project to do Conan. He mailed a couple of the paperbacks to me and I read 'em and I loved 'em. I told Roy, 'THIS is what I want, something that I can really sink my teeth into....' [A]t the time, Marvel was owned by Martin Goodman, and he felt that my rate was too high to take a gamble [with] on some new kind of [project]. It wasn't a superhero or anything that had been done before. The closest thing to that would be Tarzan. Anyway, he had no confidence in spending too much money on the book, and that's where Barry Smith came in — [he was] very cheap. I know what he got paid, and I'd be embarrassed to tell you how much it was, because I'd be embarrassed for Marvel."^[1]

Awards

1971 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards

Best Continuing Feature: Conan the Barbarian

1971 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards

Best Writer (Dramatic): Roy Thomas

1973 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards

Best Individual Story (Dramatic): Song of Red Sonja

1974 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards

Best Continuing Feature: Conan the Barbarian

Best Penciller (Dramatic): John Buscema

Superior Achievement by an Individual: Roy Thomas

Core appearances

Conan the Barbarian (1970-1993), 275 issues
Savage Tales (1971-1975), first 5 issues
The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian (1974-1995), 235 issues
Conan the Barbarian Annual (1973-1987), 12 issues
Giant-Size Conan (1974-1975), 5 issues
The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian Annual (1975), 1 issue
Newspaper Strip (1978-19??), ?? strips.
King Conan/Conan the King (1980-1989), 55 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
Conan vs Rune (1995) 1 issue

Marvel Graphic Novels

The Witch Queen of Acheron (Marvel Graphic Novel [MGN] #19, 1985)
Conan the Reaver (MGN #28, 1987)
Conan of the Isles (MGN #42, 1988)
The Skull of Set (MGN #53, 1989)
The Horn of Azoth (MGN #59, 1990)
Conan the Rogue (MGN #69, 1991)
The Ravagers Out of Time (MGN #73, 1992)

Marvel Conan the Barbarian Miniseries

Stalker of the Woods (1997), 3 issues
The Usurper (1997-1998), 3 issues
Lord of the Spiders (1998), 3 issues
River of Blood (1998), 3 issues
Return of Styrm (1998), 3 issues
Scarlet Sword (1998-1999), 3 issues
Death Covered in Gold (1999), 3 issues
Flame and the Fiend (2000), 3 issues

Marvel Universe appearances

Avengers Forever #12 (1998)
Dr. Strange #11 (volume 3, 19??)
Dr. Strange #26 (volume 3, 19??)
Excaliber #47 (19??)
Fantastic Four #411 (19??)
Tomb of Dracula #27 (19??)
Incomplete Death's Head #11 (19??)

Miscellaneous appearances

What If...?, issues 13, 39, 43 and 16 (volume 2)
Conan the Barbarian – Movie Special (1982), 2 issues
Conan the Destroyer – Movie Special (1985), 2 issues
Marvel Age, issues 1, 2, 8 and 13

Reprints

Conan the Barbarian – Special Edition (1983), Red Nails
Conan Saga (1987-1995), 97 issues
Conan Classic (1994-1995), 11 issues
Marvel Treasury Edition, issues 4, 15, 19 and 23
Marvel Super Special, issues 2, 9, 21 and 35
Essential Conan (2000), 1 issue

Footnotes

^ Comic World (UK) #37, March 1995, reprinted in Comic Book Artist #21. Aug. 2002, p.31b �UNIQab8d76b762a2031-HTMLCommentStrip37691aed241e385700000008 Interview conducted Oct. 2, 1994.

[edit] Dark Horse Comics

For more details on this topic, see Conan (Dark Horse comic).

Dark Horse Comics began their take on Conan in 2003. Currently publishing the comic series, written by Kurt Busiek and pencilled by Cary Nord. This series is a fresh interpretation, based solely on the works of Robert E. Howard, with no connection to the large Marvel run. Dark Horse Comics is also publishing digitally re-coloured compilations of the 1970s Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian series in graphic-novel format. By Roy Thomas (writer), Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Ernie Chan (artists) and others.

Awards

2004 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards

Best Single Issue or One-Shot: Conan #0: The Legend

2004 Eagle Awards

Favourite new comicbook: Conan

Core appearances

Conan #0: The Legend (2003)
Conan (2004+), 34+ issues
Conan and the Daughters of Midora (2004), 1 issue
Conan and the Jewels of Gwahlur (2005), 3 issues
Conan and the Demons of Khitai (2005-2006), 4 issues
Conan: Book of Thoth (2006), 4 issues
Conan: Free Comic Book Day Edition (2006), 1 issue
Conan and the Songs of the Dead(2006), 5 issues

Collections

The Chronicles of Conan
- Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories (2003). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 1-8.
- Volume 2: Rogues in the House and Other Stories (2003). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 9-13,16.
- Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories (2003). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 14,15,17-21.
- Volume 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (2004). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 23-26, and Red Nails, originally published in Savage Tales.
- Volume 5: The Shadow in the Tomb and Other Stories (2004). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 27-34.
- Volume 6: The Curse of the Golden Skull and Other Stories (2004). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 35-42.
- Volume 7: The Dweller in the Pool and Other Stories (2005). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 43-51.
- Volume 8: The Tower of Blood and Other Stories (2006). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 60 - 63, 65, 69 - 71.
- Volume 9: Riders of the River-Dragons and Other Stories (2005). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 52-60.
- Volume 10: When Giants Walk the Earth and Other Stories (2006). Reprints Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian, issues 72 - 77, 79-82.
Conan
- Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories (2005). Collects issues 0-6 and fourteen pages from issue 7 of the ongoing series Conan.
- Volume 2: The God In The Bowl And Other Stories (2005). Collecting issues 7, 9-14 of the Dark Horse series.
- Volume 3: The Elephant Tower and Other Stories (2006). Collecting issues 16-17, 19-22 of Dark Horse series.

Creative Teams

Kurt Busiek (writer-2003-2006) & Cary Nord (artist-2003+)
Tim Truman (writer-2006+) & Cary Nord (artist-2003+)

[edit] Miscellaneous or parody appearances

National Lampoon (May 1972)
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! (DC, 1982), issue 7. Written by Roy Thomas.
UHF in a dream sequence titled Conan the Librarian (1989).