As I write this, I'm on a plane coming back from Wizard World Texas. Jeff Macey, part of our Marketing department's road team, is in the seat in front of me, and just reminded me that after doing the convention all weekend, talking to retailers, premiering the Hellboy movie trailer with director Guillermo del Toro and creator Mike Mignola, going bleary-eyed over the portfolios of aspiring cartoonists, and watching Stormtroopers patrol the halls, I now owe him a Horsepower column.

  At the show we gave away a couple thousand copies of Conan #0 (apologies to those of you who had to shell out the quarter, but Texas was home to Conan creator Robert E. Howard, so we had to step up to the plate). The preview book has gone over really well, from the huge initial orders to the word of mouth from diehard Howard fans and mainstream comics fans alike. Seems like just a few weeks ago I was having lunch around the corner from the DC offices in New York with Mark Bernardin from Entertainment Weekly, and realized from his reaction to the preview copy ("It feels like historians unearthed a vibrant, bloody tapestry") that we really had made the right choices, and were on our way to a hit. It seems like everyone agrees that Cary Nord, Dave Stewart, Richard Starkings, and Kurt Busiek--who signed a few hundred copies of the giveaway this weekend at the show-have crafted a bold new take on a tried and true character.

In the next few months, we'll be getting our Conan monthly up and running, with the addition of cover artist Joe Linsner, as well as Tom Yeates, to help Cary out on pencils. In issue two, we present our first adaptation of a genuine Howard short story, "The Frost Giant's Daughter." Kurt finished the issue three script at the show, and I read it before writing this. Kurt's not wasting time repeating himself in these first few issues. He's already taking readers into the most bizarre world of Hyperborea. You'll also be seeing more of Conan in the press, with a bonus Linsner cover on this spring's Wizard Edge magazine. We're continuing to make the right choices with some stellar side projects coming down the road. Mike Oeming, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jose Ladronn, Richard Isanove , and Mark Texeira are on board, and I've been talking to Frank Cho, Phil Noto, Kev Walker, and Bruce Timm about how they might be coming to the party.

Hope you all decide to join us.

Scott Allie