History ComicBook / ConanTheBarbarian

During the resurge in popularity Creator/RobertEHoward's [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian most popular character]] enjoyed back in TheSeventies, Creator/MarvelComics was quick to take notice of this, and got the license from Conan Productions. In [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks October 1970]], the very first issue of ''Conan the Barbarian'' hit the shelves, quickly becoming one of Marvel's top-sellers. [[SpinOff Spin-offs]] soon followed, each becoming popular in their own right, with ''The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian'' occasionally overtaking its sister title in sales.

However, what with certain cinematic failures i.e. ''Film/ConanTheDestroyer'' and the ''Film/RedSonja'' movie, Conan's popularity waned. During UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, Conan's main ongoing and ''Savage Sword'' were eventually cancelled after a combined 510 issues, to be replaced with other ongoings [[ShortRunners whose issue numbers barely lasted into double figures]]. Marvel soon gave up on giving SwordAndSorcery's greatest hero his own title, shunting him off into a few miniseries, the last of which was printed in [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000]].

** In TheNineties, some artists like Robert Brown and Barry Crain tended to [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks follow the trends of the time]]...

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulu?: In the second Marvel run, Conan, after being poisoned and killed by an evil witch, meets Crom himself in the afterlife. When Crom reveals that he doesn't care about the world of the living or has any intention to stop the witch, Conan, incensed after spending a lifetime of fighting in and swearing by Crom's name, attacks the god. It goes as well as you'd expect. Crom eventually sends Conan back to the world of the living, but swears that as punishment, Conan is now cursed to live forever and watch everything he holds dear, including his own strength and legend, fade away to nothing. Conan isn't worried.

In 2018, Marvel announced that they had regained the ''Conan'' license from Dark Horse, with tentative plans to reintegrate the character into the MarvelUniverse a year later. Two titles are currently ongoing: ''Conan the Barbarian'' by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar and ''Savage Sword of Conan'' by Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney. There are also three page Conan novellas at the end of every Conan issue. There are also several miniseries, such as ''Age of Conan: Bêlit'' by Tini Howard and Kate Niemczyk, and ''Age of Conan: Valeria'' by Meredith Finch and Aneke. In addition, the ''ComicBook/SavageAvengers'' series (written by Gary Duggan and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.) features Conan as a member of a more violent incarnation of the team, which includes the likes of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Venom}}, ComicBook/{{Elektra}}, ComicBook/ThePunisher and [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Brother Voodoo]]. The character is also central to a miniseries called ''[[ComicBook/ConanSerpentWar Conan: Serpent War]]'' which includes ComicBook/{{Solomon Kane|MarvelComics}}, [[ComicBook/RobertEHowardsDarkAgnes Dark Agnes]] and ComicBook/MoonKnight. He also featured in a later miniseries ''Conan: War for the Serpent's Crown'' where some robberies in Las Vegas leads to an adventure around the world involving various Marvel characters.

** Happened a few times with the MarvelUniverse back when the Conan comic rights were owned by Marvel. In fact, [[TheVerse the Conanverse]] version of the god Set became a major part of the MU's BackStory. Of course, all these team-ups began in [[LetsYouAndHimFight the Mighty Marvel Manner]].

** The Dark Horse publications introduced an interesting premise by telling Conan's stories through a FramingDevice with an [[AudienceSurrogate Arabic prince]] being narrated to by his sinister Vizier who is heavily implied to be Thoth-Amon and occasionally he was given ADayInTheLimelight in a handful of issues highlighting his own troubles such as being hated by his father, who is eager to have him killing. After the first volume was completed, subsequent publications ignored the prince, who would only show up once in a one-shot revolving around [[SympatheticPOV Akivasha from her point-of-view]] and never again beyond this point, leaving any sort of conclusion hanging. In addition, ''Conan the Slayer'' ended with NoEnding.

* TerrifyingTyrannosaur: A tyrannosaur is the centerpiece of Shamash-shum-ukin's collection of time-displaced oddities in "Citadel at the Center of Time". Conan is alarmed by the beast when he first sees it, even though it sits at the bottom of a deep pit where it can do him no harm. When it gets loose at the climax and goes on a rampage through the surrounding town, everyone who sees the tyrannosaur is terrified of it, and even Conan is struck dumb by fear for a moment before he regains his wits and tries to put down the rampaging monster.

** ''Literature/BlackColossus''. Adapted by [[ComicBook/{{Cossacks}} Vincent Brugeas and Ronan Toulhoat.]]

* PteroSoarer: The monstrous pterosaur featured in "At the Mountain of the Moon-God" is highly inaccurate, even by the standards of a story written in the 1970s. Apart from being scaly, bipedal, and having teeth, it is BornAsAnAdult after incubating in an egg for thousands of years and can fly while grasping a fully-grown human in each hand. The narrative acknowledges that last inaccuracy and brushes it off in the same panel:
-->''In a'' later ''age, learned men will say that what happens next is'' impossible -- ''that such monsters did all their gripping with their'' nether ''limbs. Yet across a chasm of'' millions of years -- ''who is there that can truly'' know? ''Suffice it to say -- Khossus and Vateesa are'' grasped, ''and that'' firmly!

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Issue 24# "The Song of Red Sonja" is absolutely ''dripping'' with this and Roy Thomas has confirmed all of it was intentional via WordOfGod in his ''Barbarian Life'' books. Phallic imagery is repleat through the book to represent Conan's sexual frustration, Conan gets an erection that disturbs the water during a bath scene, and he makes multiple references to ADateWithRosiePalms that Roy was certain the Comic Books Code Authority would catch (but didn't).

[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conan_comic.png]]

* KingOfTheDinosaurs: A Tyrannosaurus rex is the centerpiece of Shamash-shum-ukin's collection of anachronistic oddities. It gets loose and goes on a rampage at the story's climax.

In 2018, Marvel announced that they had regained the ''Conan'' license from Dark Horse, with tentative plans to reintegrate the character into the MarvelUniverse a year later. Two titles are currently ongoing: ''Conan the Barbarian'' by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar and ''Savage Sword of Conan'' by Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney. There are also three page Conan novellas at the end of every Conan issue. There are also several miniseries, such as ''Age of Conan: Bêlit'' by Tini Howard and Kate Niemczyk, and ''Age of Conan: Valeria'' by Meredith Finch and Aneke. In addition, the ''ComicBook/SavageAvengers'' series (written by Gary Duggan and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.) features Conan as a member of a more violent incarnation of the team, which includes the likes of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Venom}}, ComicBook/{{Elektra}}, ComicBook/ThePunisher and [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Brother Voodoo]]. The character is also central to a miniseries called ''[[ComicBook/ConanSerpentWar Conan: Serpent War]]'' which includes Literature/SolomonKane, [[ComicBook/RobertEHowardsDarkAgnes Dark Agnes]] and ComicBook/MoonKnight. He also featured in a later miniseries ''Conan: War for the Serpent's Crown'' where some robberies in Las Vegas leads to an adventure around the world involving various Marvel characters.

** Happened twice with ''Conan the King''. In its first issue (after being retitled from ''King Conan'') the writers decided to have everyone think Prince Conn was dead, and to have him WanderingTheEarth in his own back-up. It was a very good story arc, showing Conan as a man who makes mistakes and having him deal with the consequences of those actions. However, ArcFatigue and CerebusSyndrome set in, so after eight issues Conn [[TheBusCameBack returned]], and the story shifted to Conan dealing with several kingdoms uniting against him and [[TheWorfEffect killing his entire legion of]] [[PraetorianGuard Black Dragons]], with many of the previous subplots being either [[KillEmAll killed off]] or [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse left unresolved]]. Then, with #50, all of '''those''' subplots were pushed aside so the last six issues could tie up all of the unresolved plot threads from the previous story arc. To add insult to injury, the ending of #55 was completely at odds with the end of the second story arc, [[KudzuPlot which was about to deal with Conan fending off yet another tyrant bent on taking over his kingdom]], effectively making the last four years worth of stories one big ShaggyDogStory.

In 2018, Marvel announced that they had regained the ''Conan'' license from Dark Horse, with tentative plans to reintegrate the character into the MarvelUniverse a year later. Two titles are currently ongoing: ''Conan the Barbarian'' by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar and ''Savage Sword of Conan'' by Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney. There are also three page Conan novellas at the end of every Conan issue. There are also several miniseries, such as ''Age of Conan: Bêlit'' by Tini Howard and Kate Niemczyk, and ''Age of Conan: Valeria'' by Meredith Finch and Aneke. In addition, the ''ComicBook/SavageAvengers'' series (written by Gary Duggan and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.) features Conan as a member of a more violent incarnation of the team, which includes the likes of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Venom}}, ComicBook/{{Elektra}}, ComicBook/ThePunisher and [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Brother Voodoo]]. The character is also central to a miniseries called ''Conan: Serpent War'' which includes Literature/SolomonKane, [[ComicBook/RobertEHowardsDarkAgnes Dark Agnes]] and ComicBook/MoonKnight. He also featured in a later miniseries ''Conan: War for the Serpent's Crown'' where some robberies in Las Vegas leads to an adventure around the world involving various Marvel characters.

In 2018, Marvel announced that they had regained the ''Conan'' license from Dark Horse, with tentative plans to reintegrate the character into the MarvelUniverse a year later. Two titles are currently ongoing: ''Conan the Barbarian'' by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar and ''Savage Sword of Conan'' by Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney. There are also three page Conan novellas at the end of every Conan issue. There are also several miniseries, such as ''Age of Conan: Bêlit'' by Tini Howard and Kate Niemczyk, and ''Age of Conan: Valeria'' by Meredith Finch and Aneke. In addition, the ''ComicBook/SavageAvengers'' series (written by Gary Duggan and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.) features Conan as a member of a more violent incarnation of the team, which includes the likes of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Venom}}, ComicBook/{{Elektra}}, ComicBook/ThePunisher and [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Brother Voodoo]]. The character is also central to a miniseries called ''Conan: Serpent War'' which includes Literature/SolomonKane, Dark Agnes and ComicBook/MoonKnight. He also featured in a later miniseries ''Conan: War for the Serpent's Crown'' where some robberies in Las Vegas leads to an adventure around the world involving various Marvel characters.

* WholePlotReference: ''Conan the Barbarian''' #23 (i.e. Red Sonja's debut) is essentially a adaptation of Robert E. Howard's short story ''Literature/TheShadowOfTheVulture'', an historical work set during the TheCavalierYears where a Christian knight called Gottfried is pursued by an Crimean Tatar (the titular Vulture) in service to the Ottoman caliph [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Suleyman the Magnificent]] for an perceived slight, and he is rescued by an red-haired swashbuckler known as Red Sonya of Rogatino. In this issue, Conan replaces Gottfried, Sonya becomes Sonja and Suleyman is turned into Yezdigerd. The setting is also updated from Vienna to Makkalet.

** ''Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast''. Adapted by [[ComicBook/Sillage Jean-David Morvan]] and Pierre Alary.
** ''Literature/BlackColossus''. Adapted by [[ComicBook/Cossacks Vincent Brugeas and Ronan Toulhoat.]]

In 2018, the [[FrancoBelgianComics French publisher Glénat]] started their own adaptation of Howard's stories as ''Conan le Cimmérien.'' The idea behind the collection is to give French authors a chance to tackle Conan, with each story having their own illustrators. Ablaze Publishing started publishing this collection in English in 2019.

In 2018, the [[FrancoBelgianComicBooks French publisher Glénat]] started their own adaptation of Howard's stories as ''Conan le Cimmérien.'' The idea behind the collection is to give French authors a chance to tackle Conan, with each story having their own illustrators. Ablaze Publishing started publishing this collection in English in 2019.

** ''Literature/Queen of the Black Coast''. Adapted by [[ComicBook/Sillage Jean-David Morvan]] and Pierre Alary.

** In ''Conan the Avenger'' an early story involves a fake wizard who dresses and introduces himself exactly like DoctorStrange.

* FightDracula: In a one issue of ''The Savage Sword of Conan'', Solomon Kane slays Dracula in a continuation to a story from ''Comicbook/DraculaLives''.

* JustFriends: Conan and Comicbook/RedSonja. During the times they've adventured together it's become clear that Conan is attracted to Red Sonja. Red Sonja, on the other hand, does not feel the same way about Conan.

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Though the main character frequently takes pleasure in brutal revenge, this trope pops up when [[MadeASlave Conan's ally Zula]] slays his former master. After Conan asks him how it felt, Zula responds that it simply felt hollow. Interestingly, Comicbook/RedSonja also mentions this trope during this conversation when she says she was unable to slay the man [[RapeAsBackstory who ravished her]] after he had been badly tortured.

** ''Conan'' (2004-2008). 51 issues.
** ''Conan the Cimmerian'' (2008-2010). 26 issues.

** ''Conan''(2004-2008). 51 issues.
** ''Conan the Cimmerian (2008-2010). 26 issues

* CrossOver: Happened a few times with the MarvelUniverse back when the Conan comic rights were owned by Marvel. In fact, [[TheVerse the Conanverse]] version of the god Set became a major part of the MU's BackStory. Of course, all these team-ups began in [[LetsYouAndHimFight the Mighty Marvel Manner]].
** There '''was''' a Conan/[[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] crossover in Marvel's Conan #14-15. [[http://www.comicvine.com/conan-the-barbarian-the-coming-of-elric-or-a-sword-calledstormbringer/37-12050/ No, really]]. This story would receive a sequel in ''Savage Sword'' #189 -- licensing issues, however, would force the writers to write around Elric, referring to him instead as "The Albino", although weirdly his foe Prince Gaynor the Damned is not only referred to by name, but appears in the story's climax for a brief battle with Conan.