Six years before, there was a Superman in the sky, and seven years before, there was a Batman fighting crime in the dark streets of Gotham City, Robert E. Howard created Conan The Barbarian in 1932. Conan was a Cimmeria of “The Hyborian Age.” An era after the fall of Atlantis and before the recorded histories of any ancient civilizations; an era where anything could happen, from Dragons burning villages, wizards destroying Kings, and chivalric men like Conan having the habit of saving damsels in distress from evil snake sorcerers.
Not only is it the 90th anniversary of Conan the character, created by writer Robert E. Howard for the pulp magazine Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, but the 40th anniversary of the 1982 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by John Milius (The man who wrote the infamous Dirty Harry line: “‘Do you I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”), as well as a screenplay was co-written by Oliver Stone. It’s a film that propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger to A-list stardom as an actor before his appearance in James Cameron’s The Terminator(1984). It is also the 11th anniversary of the reboot starring Jason Momoa, which wasn’t critically received as well as the 1982 film. There are talks that there may be a sequel set 30 years after the 1984 movie Conan The Destroyer, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing an elder Conan, and its story will be inspired by Clint Eastwood’s western film Unforgiven. But unfortunately, the film has been in development hell for years after the reboot’s financial failure.
Fortunately, Conan The Barbarian’s Legacy lives on in the comic book world. Conan’s stories in comic book form have been around since the 1950s, and earlier this year, it was announced Titan Publishing Group had acquired the comic book rights from Heroic Signatures. Titan will be publishing a new ongoing series which will be released in May 2023. Comic book writer Jim Zub, who has written many Conan comics for other publishing companies, shared art created by Rob de la Torre during the Comic-con panel. Here it is below:
Matt Murray (editor of Heroic Signatures) and Steve Saffel (editor of Titan Books) also attended the Comic-con panel to not only speak of the future of the comic book series of Conan The Barbarian but the franchise’s future in other mediums. Titan Books will be publishing Conan: Blood of the Serpent by New York Times best-selling author S.M. Stirling in October of this year. The novel is available for pre-order.
Matt Murray and Steve Saffel stated that there is talk of developing a television series for Netflix, but nothing has gone forward any further. No matter what, after 90 years of existing in the fantasy genre, Conan’s legacy will go on, for the greatest Barbarian to ever be written will never give up the fight.
