championing enhanced pencilling,
plus the digital colouring of Dave Stewart.
More than that, they approached the
character and his world in a more realistic
way. By the ’90s, with impossible muscles
and weapons, a lack of humour, and
constant recourse to violence, Conan had
lost his way. To revive him, Dark Horse
dug down to find the depth his originator
Robert E Howard had given him.
BRIGHT EYES
“Conan is an intelligent character, which
is easy to overlook. I always tried to have
something going on behind his eyes a little
deeper than just angst or rage or lust,” says
Cary. “The first book featured a young
Conan who had just left his homeland, so
in a lot of ways Dave Stewart, the writer
Kurt Busiek, me and Conan were all
growing together. I think Conan learned to
be less rash, that thinking his way out of
trouble was as effective as using his fists.”
Cary Nord’s wonderful art on Dark
Horse’s first Conan series brought a level
of detail and texture that was hard to
sustain month in and month out. Every
so often, an issue drawn by
Greg Ruth was dropped into
the sequence telling more of
Conan’s backstory. “Born on
The Battlefield” is as rich asCary Nord’s work, but feels looser and more
gestural. And it’s pretty bloody, too.
The book was a step away from the
horror comic Freaks of the Heartland,
which Greg had been drawing. “I knew
they wanted a more vividly colourful
palette, which was new for me, and they
wanted a high fantasy, gritty realism,” says
Greg. “I had to do the first issue ofI tried to have something
going on behind his eyes...
something a little deeper
than angst, rage or lust
WANT SOME?
Brian Ching wanted to
show Conan’s “gigantic
mirth,” but he’s never
shy of slaying a foe.BIRTH OF CONAN
Greg Ruth literally
showed the world how
Conan was born on
the battlefield in issue
8 of Conan.ORIGINAL
Above, the original cover
to the graphic novel that
Cary Nord recoloured
(above left).RENDITION
Cary Nord is the most respected of the
Dark Horse Conan artists. Here he’s
recoloured his cover to the graphic
novel The Blood-Stained Crown.Marvel’s magazine-size
Savage Sword of
Conan arrived with a
cover by Boris Vallejo,
and five black-and-
white internal stories
with art by John
Buscema, Barry Smith,
Gil Kane and others.Running alongside
Savage Sword and
Conan the Barbarian,
Marvel introduced
King Conan, written
by Roy Thomas and
drawn by John
Buscema. It ran
until 1989.1974 1980
Marvel tied in
with the Arnold
Schwarzenegger film
Conan the Barbarian
with a two-issue movie
special for new fans.
The cover of the first
issue mimicked the
film’s poster art.1982
© Everett/REX/ShutterstockLegends | The Art of Conan