Fear not Cimmerian fans, even though the current Dark Horse Conan series is ending with issue #50, the company will be brining the warrior back when it relaunches as Conan the Cimmerian in May 2008.
Conan #50 will be a double-sized issue that ends the three issue tale chronicling the end of Conan’s time as a theif adapted from The Hand of Nergal by Robert E. Howard.
So, what can you expect from the new series?
Aside from the title, Conan the Cimmerian opens the second major chapter of Conan’s life, as he changes from thief and rogue to mercenary and pirate. Timothy Truman explains, “REH divided Conan’s life into distinct ‘career’ phases: first as a youthful thief and wanderer, then mercenary, to pirate, to border raider, scout, and finally king. During his thief era, he’s less experienced—a daring, larcenous, wide-eyed lad from a mountain tribe who goes adventuring in the “civilized” world beyond his own. Later, he starts showing the scars of experience. He gets wiser, tougher, and more confident. His attire changes, as well. He dresses more elaborately and he buys and scavanges clothing and gear that reflects different countries that he’s traveled to.”
The company promises the new series will be more cohesive with series continuity, said Editor Matt Dryer. “With Conan, there have been a lot of opportunities to work with all sorts of really brilliant artists—folks like Eric Powell, John Severin, Bruce Timm, and Rafael Kayanan. But that got away from us. There just got to be too many stand-alone issues, and they were disrupting the continuity of the main story. That won’t be the case on Cimmerian. We’re refocusing on the main story and committing ourselves to an ongoing cohesive structure.”
Conan the Cimmerian will be written by Timothy Truman and pencilled by Tomas Giorello, with cover art by Cary Nord.
