Comics featuring Conan the Barbarian and other characters by Robert E. Howard are currently published by Titan Comics, together with entertainment studio Heroic Signatures. Their collaboration to publish comics, graphic novels, and omnibus collections of older Conan comics started in 2023, after Marvel lost the license in 2022. The first ongoing series is Conan the Barbarian which started in August 2023.[1] With crossover events and spin-off mini-series featuring other Robert E. Howard characters, such as Kull of Atlantis or Solomon Kane, they created a shared universe which is sometimes called the Howardverse.[2]
Publications
Conan the Barbarian
The first ongoing series Conan the Barbarian was introduced during Free Comic Book Day 2023 with an in issue that served as a prologue, followed by an ongoing series that started in August 2023. The series is written by Jim Zub, with Rob De La Torre and Doug Braithwaite as artists alternating between story arcs.[3] Danica Brine replaced De La Torre as artist for the fifth story arc.[4]
The Savage Sword of Conan
The Savage Sword of Conan was announced in July 2023 as a limited series, to be published in black-and-white and magazine-sized format. The first issue was released in February 2024 with issues published every two months. Each issue features comics, prose stories, poems, and art pages, starring Conan as well as other characters by Robert E. Howard.[5] Titan Comics initially committed to six issues,[6] but announced at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con that the series would be extended to a second year.[7]
Battle of the Black Stone
Battle of the Black Stone was a cross-over event with other Robert E. Howard characters, which started with a Free Comic Book Day issue in May 2024, written by Jim Zub and art by Jonas Scharf.[8][9] This was followed by a collection of short stories in The Savage Sword of Conan #4 and a mini-series titled Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone published from September to December 2024.[10]
Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring
After positive responses to a serialized Solomon Kane back-up story by Patrick Zircher in the first three issues of The Savage Sword of Conan, Heroic Signatures
greenlit a Solomon Kane mini-series entitled The Serpent Ring, to be written and drawn by Zircher. Publication will start in March 2025[11]