Robert E. Howard's creation the mighty Conan the Barbarian recently hooked up once again with the sprawling monster which is the Marvel Universe, which itself has been absorbed into the maw of the mammoth Walt Disney empire. Who'd have thought that Conan the Barbarian would be a Disney property in any shape, form or fashion.
I don't find any specific mention of King Kull or Solomon Kane, other relatively high-profile creations of Robert E. Howard. I always assumed they traveled together, but in these wacky times with licenses whipsawing across the globe it's not at all a certain thing. IDW once published a Kull series in which they moved him to a modern, even futuristic setting which was seriously dumb. So, I'm guessing the characters are all on their own now, with Kull at IDW, Red Sonja at Dynamite, and Conan having a brief stay at Marvel.
Marvel certainly gets full props for making Conan a successful property in the long term. Roy Thomas and Stan Lee rather stumbled into it after failing to get hold of Lin Carter's Thongor, but what they did with it was amazing. Tapping a novice Barry (Not-Yet-Windsor) Smith to draw was a decision that might've killed the project (probably should have), but they lucked out in that Smith became utterly awesome growing in real time before our eyes issue to issue and month by month. By the time the big gun John Buscema stepped in with gusto, Conan was a powerhouse and would only become more so.
But the energy drained from the series over the long years (especially after Roy left) and it was frankly a good thing for Conan and Kull and the gang when they got over to Dark Horse. Mike Richardson's group really charged up the character again with writers like Kurt Busiek giving us new renditions of classic tales and up and coming artists like Cary Nord bringing a vitality to the character which had been missing for some time. But now that era seems to be over, and I can't say I'm really sad. Marvel had the character back, and it was at minimum interesting to see what they would do with him.
Damn! He joined the Avengers. (Who doesn't at Marvel these days?) When Marvel briefly retrieved the license to Conan, they maximized their acquisition by putting him squarely in the Savage Avengers, yet one more title which as diluted by the classic brand. Conan in the modern world is a fun one-off, but as a regular thing it's a terrible idea. Boo Marvel. And for that reason I guess it's not a bad thing they lost control of him yet again, though I'd have liked to have a few more Epic tomes.
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Conan is now owned by Titan Books who have published a new Conan The Barbarian comic but Titan has also launched a new series of e-books called the "Heroic Legends" series which are short stories involving R.E.H. characters written by modern authors. The first e-book called "Conan - Lord Of The Mount" was available in September followed by "Conan - Black Starlight" in October and "Solomon Kane - The Hound Of God" in November. I've bought all three of the e-books in the series so far and I've enjoyed all of them.
ReplyDeleteTitan is a company I have confidence in. It's good to see the characters created a century ago getting a footing in the new markets.
DeleteI enjoyed the early Dark Horse Conan comics and thought Cary Nord's art was excellent. Marvel didn't seem that interested in having Conan back , either that or they didn't know what to do with him as can be seen by the fact they made him an Avenger of sorts. The Titan Conan has been pretty decent though (one of the few comics I pick up). No one did Conan better that Marvel in the early 1970s though.
ReplyDeleteI concur on Nord. That Dark Horse run was fantastic at the beginning, but as usual the product began to fade as they tried to add other titles. I'm impressed by the Titan comic, but I don't have the strength to follow the monthly. Maybe a trade.
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