Conan the Barbarian (comic)

Conan the Barbarian
The cover to Conan the Barbarian #1 (October 1970), by Barry Smith and John Verpoorten.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	October 1970 – December 1993
Number of issues	275 and 12 Annuals
Main character(s)	Conan
Creative team
Writer(s)	Roy Thomas, et al.
Penciller(s)	Barry Smith, John Buscema, et al.
Editor(s)	Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, et al.

Conan the Barbarian was a comics title starring the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, published by American company Marvel Comics. It debuted with a first issue cover-dated October 1970 and ran for 275 issues until 1993. A significant commercial success, the title launched a sword-and-sorcery vogue in American 1970s comics.

Conan the Barbarian ran for 275 issues (cover dated October 1970–December 1993). The book had a single writer, Roy Thomas, on issues #1-115 (October 1970–October 1980) and then #240-275 (January 1991–December 1993). It was also the signature work of artist Barry Smith, who pencilled most issues between #1 and #24. Artist John Buscema pencilled the vast bulk of issues #25–190. Interim writers included J. M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Michael Fleisher, Doug Moench, Jim Owsley, Alan Zelenetz, Chuck Dixon, and Don Kraar.

Thomas, Marvel's associate editor at the time, had obtained the licensed property from the estate of its creator, Robert E. Howard, after finding Conan chief among readers' requests for literary properties to be adapted to comics, which also included the pulp magazine character Doc Savage, the Lord of the Rings oeuvre of writer J. R. R. Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Elaborating in 2010, he said,