Conan (Dark Horse Comics)

Conan
A double panel from issue #0 - The Legend
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Sword and sorcery
Publication date(s)	November 2003 onwards
No. of issues	217 (including one-shots and mini-series)

Conan, the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, is the protagonist of seven major comic series published by Dark Horse Comics. The first series, titled simply Conan, ran for 50 issues from 2004 to 2008; the second, titled Conan the Cimmerian, began publication in 2008 and lasted 25 issues until 2010; the third series, titled Conan: Road of Kings, started publishing in December 2010 and ended in January 2012 after 12 issues; a fourth series, titled King Conan and which takes place during Conan's time as king, launched in February 2011 and concluded in 2016 with 24 issues; a fifth series, titled Conan the Barbarian, continuing from Road of Kings, lasted 25 issues from February 2012 to March 2014; a sixth series, titled Conan the Avenger, started publishing in April 2014 and ended in April 2016 after 25 issues; a seventh series, titled Conan the Slayer started in July 2016. Dark Horse has also published half a dozen one-shots and almost a dozen mini-series.

Dark Horse is also publishing ongoing series of collections of the original Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan [the Barbarian] and King Conan series in graphic novel format.

Dark Horse Comics began their take on Conan in 2003 with a one-shot prologue, Conan #0: Conan the Legend.

The Conan, Conan the Cimmerian, Conan: Road of Kings and Conan the Barbarian series present a fresh interpretation, incorporating both new material and adaptations of stories by Robert E. Howard, with no other connection to many Marvel Comics series or other post-Howard material. An ongoing dialogue between two characters, the Prince and the Wazir, living in an age centuries in Conan's future, is often used as a framing device for the stories.

Each issue also contains "The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob (True Stories from the Life of Robert E. Howard)" by Jim & Ruth Keegan.

The six main Dark Horse Conan series, Conan, Conan the Cimmerian, Conan: Road of Kings, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Avenger and Conan the Slayer make up a larger ongoing series. This is indicated by numbering on the inner cover of these books with the text, "Number [#] in a series".