With Conan the Cimmerian #22 in stores this week, we thought we'd checkin with Dark Horse Comics Editor Philip Simon to get his take on Conan's success both past and present and what the future holds for everyone's favorite barbarian. Read on:
We just sent Conan the Cimmerian #22 off to its printer—freshly colored, lettered, and perfumed with the latest in Hyborian harem scents—so we only have THREE issues left in our Conan the Cimmerian run. That’s right—only three issues left, then our series ends with Cimmerian #25.
I’ve been holding off on mentioning anything here or in our lively Cimmerian letters columns, as official announcements had to be made online and at various conventions by our Marketing Wizards—but don’t fret, loyal readers, as the Cimmerian storytelling team of Timothy Truman, Tomás Giorello, José Villarrubia, and Richard Starkings will continue telling Conan tales. We’re going to move ahead in Conan’s chronology, though, to stories set at a much later time in the beloved barbarian’s life, after he’s crowned himself king of Aquilonia. As soon as their work on the current ongoing run is done, Truman, Giorello, and Villarrubia will be working on a four-issue miniseries adaptation of the original Howard “Scarlet Citadel” yarn, which features King Conan.
While Timothy Truman has already drawn an older Conan in Conan and the Songs of the Dead (written by Joe R. Lansdale with art by Truman and colors by Dave Stewart), this will be new territory for Tomás Giorello. Concerning his own interpretation of an older Conan, Truman has written, “I’ve known a few boxers and back-alley scrappers in my time and most of them have had broken noses and scarred chins. I wanted Conan’s face to show the marks of years of warfare and brawling.” Giorello has drawn the modern monthly adventures of a young Conan for over three years, and we look forward to seeing how he switches gears and ages everyone’s favorite usurper.
Darick Robertson (Conan: The Weight of the Crown, The Boys, Transmetropolitan) will be our cover artist for the four-issue King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel mini-series, which will debut in early 2011. A shift to this mini-series format will allow us to jump ahead in Conan’s rich saga and deliver Robert E. Howard story adaptations that aren’t encumbered by a continuing monthly timeline.
When Conan the Cimmerian ends, new monthly editor Dave Land will take the reigns—and Conan: Road of Kings will pick up as a monthly series right where we leave things off in Cimmerian #25. In case you haven’t heard the big news, longtime Conan the Barbarian scribe Roy Thomas will be returning to the character that he’s already spent many years with and knows so well. Roy will be writing our new monthly Conan: Road of Kings series with interior art by Mike Hawthorne. Assistant editor Patrick Thorpe will be working with both Dave and I, helping to ensure that all of the Howard “connective tissue” stays in place and that we all stay true to the source material and to the story threads that have been running through Dark Horse’s Conan series since 2004.
But things aren’t over yet!! In our remaining issues of Conan the Cimmerian we’ll continue to run fresh Adventures of Two-Gun Bob strips from Jim and Ruth Keegan and more fan letters and pinups—and we have a monster of an adaptation to conclude, as Tomás goes crazy on character and creature designs and island details in the current Iron Shadows on the Moon arc. Keep on killin’ us, Tomás!
—Philip R. Simon
Philip Simon has been an editor for Dark Horse Comics for ten years. He originally hails from Louisiana and brings in cake every Mardi Gras, thus making him my all-time favorite Dark Horse Employee.