Tag Archives: Conan

Conan Comes to Titan Comics

Marvel Comics’ publishing rights to Robert E. Howard’s classic Cimmerian Conan have once again expired, as announced back in June, finding a new home at Titan Comics.

The character, made famous in the pages of Weird Tales magazine back in the 1930s, has seen a storied journey as his rights have bounced from one publisher to another. Howard, the father of the “Sword & Sorcery” genre, only wrote Conan for a few short years, completing 21 stories (and starting another 17) beginning in 1932, up until his suicide in 1936 at the age of 30.

Conan 115
Conan the Barbarian #115 (1980), art by John Buscema

Many of his unfinished works were completed by other authors (Wheel of Time‘s Robert Jordan among them) and published after his death. In the decades since Howard’s death, the character has seen numerous iterations but endured his popularity. Perhaps no print version though is more recognized than the one put out by Marvel Comics starting in 1970, written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith to start, and later by John Buscema. The look of Buscema’s Conan, which he drew on and off from 1980 till 1999, is, in my mind, the definitive version of the character.

Savage Avengers #5 (2019)

The comic license for Conan would stay at Marvel for over 30 years before Dark Horse picked it up and started publishing Conan books in 2003. After an extended run with the character, Marvel reacquired the rights in 2018, where they have integrated him into the main continuity pretty heavily, teaming him with a team of Savage Avengers and teaming him up with Dr. Doom and Kang the Conqueror to stop classic Conan villain Kulan Gath.

Upon releasing the rights, Marvel chose to send the character back to his Hyborian Age, giving him a fitting send-off as he sacrifices his place in the present to send the rest of the team home, thus leaving the door open for a possible reunion down the road. But for now, Titan Comics will take the reigns.

As announced by CBR back on Halloween;

CBR can exclusively reveal that Titan Comics, working alongside entertainment studio Heroic Signatures, will be co-publishing a new, ongoing Conan the Barbarian comic book series. Launching in July 2023, the series will see the return of longtime Conan scribe Jim Zub (Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers), and feature the artwork of illustrator Roberto De La Torre (King-Size Conan, Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and colorist José Villarrubia (Promethea, Sweet Tooth). Sharing a first look at De La Torre’s art for the title, Titan promises, “This will kick off a brand-new, exhilarating series of comics of characters from across the Conan and wider Robert E. Howard mythos!”

Those names should be familiar to Conan comic fans. Jim Zub wrote on Marvel’s recent run of Conan the Barbarian, as well as recent work on Red Sonja, Thunderbolts, Murder World, D&D-based stories with Rick & Morty and Stranger Things.

For the art side of things, Roberto De La Torre will pencil the series. I love the look of De La Torre’s Conan, and he seems like a great choice for Titan’s launch. He worked on a lot of the recent Conan stuff at Marvel, including with Zub on Barbarian.

And the colorist will be José Villarrubia, who previously worked on King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel for Dark Horse back in 2012, and more recently on Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher: A Grain of Truth. He also did the original run of Sweet Tooth for Vertigo.

Before the new series in July however, Titan will release the old Roy Thomas stories in Omnibus form, much like Marvel and Dark Horse have done before.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: ORIGINAL COMICS OMNIBUS VOL.1 
Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith
Titan Comics, HC (776 pages) – $125.00
On Sale June: 14, 2023

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN: ORIGINAL COMICS OMNIBUS VOL.1
Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema
Titan Comics HC (968 pages) – $150.00
On Sale June 28, 2023

Guardians of the Galaxy: Does Marvel Have ‘Drax the Destroyer’ Cast?

The excitement behind the casting of the Guardians of the Galaxy film just keeps escalating. With the recent news that Chris Pratt  is joining the movie as the leader of the Guardians, we have been given even more exciting news with the release on Nerd Reactor that the new Conan and Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa has screen tested for the role of ‘Drax the Destroyer’. This is a role that has some stiff competition with the likes of Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice adverts) and Dave Bautista (former wrestler and villain in The Man with the Iron Fists) are also gunning for the role.

guardians of the galaxy drax-casting

For people unfamiliar with the character here is a brief recap: Arthur Douglas started life as a human and family man, until Thanos killed his family. His spirit was then taken and placed into a new and more powerful body with only one goal in mind, to kill the creature that destroyed his life (for a more detailed description click here).

Recent news from Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter via tweets has indicated that although he has screen tested, he has not been offered the role. Borys comment:

borys

Then even more news was revealed again via twitter, but this time from El Mayimbe saying.

twitter

So where does that leave us? Well no further forward I am afraid. We still do not know who is going to be cast in this role, but we do know that no one has the role so far. Views seem mixed on Momoa wanting the role and the amount he wants for it. My personal view (which is based only on his appearances in Conan and Game of Thrones) is that, although he looks the part physically, I am not sure if he has enough acting experience to be asking for this amount of  money. I have not seen his role in Bullet in the Head, but I know it did not perform as well at the Box Office as expected (a fate that Conan also suffered from).

guardians galaxy jason momoa

With pretty much every Marvel produced product having had a successful Box Office run, we can assume that this movie should be no different, and could be the next step in Momoa’s film career. I would hate to think that he was shooting himself in the foot over this.

What do you Grizzly Bomb readers think? Please comment below or on Facebook about how you feel about this situation.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Arnold Schwarzenegger

With the Governator’s recent biography release, I thought it was high time we take a look at some of the things Arnold has been involved in, that may have gone under the radar of most casual fans. Let’s see how many of these you knew already.

Continue reading 10 Things You Might Not Know About Arnold Schwarzenegger

What Is Best In Life? ‘The Legend of Conan’ Starring Arnold Scwarzenegger!

Conan the Cimmerian has been a long standing character of fiction, dating back to 1932. Created by Robert E. Howard, Conan began crushing his enemies in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, and soon branched across all media with books, comics, cartoons, TV series, and movies. In 1982, we were presented with probably the most well-known and loved rendition of the character.

Conan the Barbarian featured Arnold Scwarzenegger in the title role, and pretty much started his ridiculously powerful action movie career. Not only is Conan the Barbarian a fine example of the character, it gave most of us our first taste of the legend to be known as Ah-nuld. He returned in the sequel, Conan the Destroyer, which is probably the best Conan movie ever made (unfortunately you can’t hear my sarcasm). We saw another rendition more recently with Jason Momoa taking over the title role. It was okay, but it certainly wasn’t Ah-nuld.

Continue reading What Is Best In Life? ‘The Legend of Conan’ Starring Arnold Scwarzenegger!

Conan the Barbarian vs. the Party Crasher: New Posters Hit The Net

Captain America isn’t the only one releasing new character posters. The new Conan movie is also jumping into the game. And while we didn’t originally get excited about the casting of Jason Momoa as Schwarzenegger’s replacement, his role as ‘Khal Drogo’ in A Game of Thrones has done more than enough to change our minds. What has our staff most excited however is the presence of the Party Crasher, who will be  pitting his own awesomeness against Conan’s as his nemesis ‘Khalar Zym’.

The studio has released 5 character posters, each an exclusive to a different website. Sadly, Grizzly Bomb was not included in the prestigious 5. First Showing has the best of the posters – Mr. Zym…

The next coolest of the posters was awarded to Pop Wrap (Really?) and that is the one that features Rose McGowan as Marique…


My 3rd favorite, is the one awarded to MTV’s Splashpage, and that’s of the big guy himself.


Next is Conan’s dad, who by definition has to be a badass – Coming Soon‘s Ron Perlman as Corin. Perlman is one handsome SOB isn’t he…

And finally, the somewhat genaric Jo Blo contribution – Rachel Nichols as Tamara.


And of course, the OFFICIAL Movie Poster…