Conan the Barbarian is a comics book title starring the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, published by the American company Marvel Comics. It debuted with a first issue cover-dated October 1970 and ran for 275 issues until 1993. A commercial success, the title launched a sword-and-sorcery vogue in American 1970s comics. He was often partnered with Red Sonja.
Marvel Comics reacquired the publishing rights in 2018 and started a new run of Conan the Barbarian in January 2019, at first with the creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Mahmud A. Asrar. This run ended in November 2021 after 25 issues, when Titan Comics acquired the license to publish Conan comic books in 2022.
Contents
Publication history
Conan the Barbarian ran for 275 issues (cover dated October 1970–December 1993). The book had a single writer, Roy Thomas, on issues #1–115 (October 1970–October 1980) and then #240–275 (January 1991–December 1993). It was also the signature work of artist Barry Smith, who pencilled most issues between #1 and #24. Artist John Buscema pencilled the vast bulk of issues #25–190. Interim writers included J. M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Michael Fleisher, Doug Moench, Jim Owsley, Alan Zelenetz, Chuck Dixon, and Don Kraar.
Thomas, Marvel's associate editor at the time, had obtained the licensed property from the estate of its creator, Robert E. Howard, after finding Conan chief among readers' requests for literary properties to be adapted to comics, which also included the pulp magazine character Doc Savage, The Lord of the Rings oeuvre of writer J. R. R. Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Elaborating in 2010, he said,
I put together a memo for publisher Martin Goodman saying why we should [license a character]. ... I hadn't read a lot of Howard, I bought a couple of the books for the Frazetta covers but I'd never really read them. When Goodman gave us permission to license a character, we figured we couldn't afford Conan..... By that time, there'd been about half-a-decade of Conan coming out in Lancer paperbacks, so we figured no sense going after that, there was no way we were going to get it. I knew Lin Carter slightly, who had authored a character called Thongor, who was half Conan and half John Carter of Mars.... Lin was great, but his agent kept wanting us to offer more money than the $150 per issue that Martin Goodman had magnanimously said we could pay for rights.
Thomas said another reason for pursuing Thongor was that Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee "liked that name the most. . . . I soon got stalled by Lin Carter's agent on Thongor . . . and I got a sudden impulse to go after Conan. Later, following on the success of the Conan series, Lin Carter allowed Marvel to publish a Thongor comic, which appeared as a miniseries in Creatures on the Loose."
After reading and enjoying the paperback Conan of Cimmeria, Thomas contacted Glen Lord, literary agent for the Howard estate, and "I said we can't offer much money but it might increase Conan's audience and so forth, what do you think? I didn't have much elasticity, but I was so embarrassed by the $150 that I upped it to $200 without thinking. So that when Glen agreed ... I decided I'd have to write the first issue or so, so that if Goodman objected I could knock a couple pages off my rate to even things out."
Annuals and Giant-Size series
Twelve issues of Conan Annual were published from 1973 to 1987. Giant-Size Conan was a series of 68 page giants which ran for five issues from September 1974 to 1975.
Awards
Academy of Comic Book Arts Shazam Awards
1970
Best New Talent: Barry Smith
1971
Best Continuing Feature: Conan the Barbarian
Best Writer (Dramatic): Roy Thomas
1973
Best Individual Story (Dramatic): Song of Red Sonja from Conan the Barbarian #24 by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith
1974
Best Continuing Feature: Conan the Barbarian
Best Penciller (Dramatic): John Buscema
Superior Achievement by an Individual: Roy Thomas
Collected editions
Essential Marvel
Essential Conan collects Conan the Barbarian #1–25, 530 pages, July 2000, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-0785107514
Chronicles of Conan
Dark Horse Comics published the Chronicles of Conan series, which comprises 34 volumes released between 2003 and 2017. The chronicles are a digitally-recolored collection of the complete original 275-issue run of the Marvel Comics' title.
Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories (2003) – collects issues 1–8.
Volume 2: Rogues In the House and Other Stories (2003) – collects issues 9–13, 16.
Volume 3: The Monster of the Monoliths and Other Stories (2003) – collects issues 14–15, 17–21 (also by Gil Kane).
Volume 4: The Song of Red Sonja and Other Stories (2004) – collects issues 23–26 and Red Nails, originally published in Savage Tales 2 & 3
Volume 5: The Shadow In the Tomb and Other Stories (2004) – collects issues 27–34.
Volume 6: The Curse of the Golden Skull and Other Stories (2004) – collects issues 35–42
Volume 7: The Dweller In the Pool and Other Stories (2005) – collects issues 43–51.
Volume 8: Brothers of the Blade and Other Stories (2005) – collects issues 52–59
Volume 9: Riders of the River-Dragons and Other Stories (2006) – collects issues 60–63, 65, 69–71
Volume 10: When Giants Walk the Earth and Other Stories (2006) – collects issues 72–77, 79–81
Volume 11: The Dance of the Skull and Other Stories (2007) – collects issues 82–86, 88–90
The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives
Volume 1 collects Conan the Barbarian #1–11, 200 pages, February 2010, Dark Horse Comics, ISBN 978-1595824417
Volume 2 collects Conan the Barbarian #12–16 and #19–24, 288 pages, May 2010, Dark Horse Comics, ISBN 978-1595825063
Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus
Source:
Volume 1 collects Conan the Barbarian #1–26 plus additional material, 776 pages, January 2019, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302915124
Volume 2 collects Conan the Barbarian #27–51 plus additional material, 856 pages, August 2019, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302915148
Volume 3 collects Conan the Barbarian #52–83 plus additional material, 832 pages, January 2020, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302917838
Volume 4 collects Conan the Barbarian #84–115 plus additional material, 848 pages, October 2020, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302917890
Volume 5 collects Conan the Barbarian #116–149 plus additional material, 1048 pages, March 2021, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302926564
Volume 6 collects Conan the Barbarian #150–171 plus additional material, 672 pages, November 2021, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302926588
Volume 7 collects Conan the Barbarian #172–194 plus additional material, 680 pages, January 2022, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302934323
Volume 8 collects Conan the Barbarian #195–213 plus additional material, 624 pages, June 2022, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302934347
Volume 9 collects Conan the Barbarian #214–240 plus additional material, 704 pages, October 2022, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302947255
Volume 10 collects Conan the Barbarian #241–275 plus additional material, 944 pages, December 2022, Marvel Comics, ISBN 978-1302947279