FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: DARK HORSE’S CONAN THE newspaper STRIPS VOL. 1

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Conan the newspaper Strips

by Robert Greenberger

It ought to surprise no one that pulp writer Robert E. Howard read the funny pages. After all, growing up in Texas back in the 1920s, there really weren’t a lot of home entertainment options. Historians have discovered a 1923 letter from Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, a fantasy writer and close friend, dating back to their attending high school together. The letter included what was described as a crudely-drawn, but funny strip involving a caveman’s attempts to woo his girl, who is playing hard to get.

No doubt he would have been amazed and a bit pleased to see that one of his literary creations grew popular enough to merit his own comic strip. While adventure comic strips were already waning as television’s reach grew during the 1970s, there remained blips of activity, especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s as strips based on popular films and comics were tried out.

Marvel is best known for hitting paydirt with the January 2, 1977 debut of amazing Spider-Man, but how numerous recall their other strips? marvel cut a deal with Iowa’s Register and Tribune Syndicate beginning with Howard the Duck, beginning with Steve Gerber and gene Colan. The comic’s satire didn’t translate to a serialized strip and it vanished August 20, 1978, replaced with Conan the Barbarian on September 4, 1978. A month later, October 30, a strip based on the amazing Hulk, then a popular CBS dramatic series, also arrived.

Roy Thomas and John Buscema, who were the most recognized creative team from the mid-1970s through 1980 brought Howard’s Cimmerian wanderer to the newspapers in a series of adventures that lasted through April 12, 1981. While numerous of the storylines were collected by marvel through the years, there has never been a complete collection until now. Dark horse collects the entire run in Conan the newspaper Strips, a 280-page hardcover collection.

When Thomas bolted to DC in 1979, he was replaced by Doug Moench and artists to follow Buscema included a veritable who’s who of talents from the color comic and black and white savage Sword of Conan magazine: Ernie Chan, Alfredo Alcala, Rudy Nebres, Pablo Marcos, Alan Kupperberg, and Tom Yeates.

“John and I were even asked to do a daily-and-Sunday Conan the Barbarian newspaper comic strip,” Roy wrote in alter Ego #15 (June 2002). “John did a great job on the first several-week storyline, but after that he chose it wasn’t worth his while financially, and Ernie Chan inherited the feature.” Chan came aboard with the October 23 strip.

Roy himself in some cases wanted to others for plotting assistance. He noted in alter Ego #80 (August, 2008) that the strip’s third continuity–from early 1979–“was based on a story written for a Conan recording by Len Wein. A samurai-styled story in 1980 was co-plotted by bill Warren while the subsequent Demon afflict adventure was plotted by Christy Marx. By this point, Alfredo Alcala was drawing the feature and he was followed in the strip’s final months by Nebres, Marcos, Kupperberg, and Yeates.

Jacob Moraine reported in The Comic reader #192 (July, 1981), “Despite the fact that marvel did not own the strip and it was a separate entity from the comic book work produced by Marvel, Roy Thomas was off the strip when he left marvel as a courtesy to Conan Properties.” Moench succeeded Roy and he and Yeates were the creative team when the strip ended. The final Sunday page promised “the beginning of a new adventure–Night Wings” but it was not to be.

In one sense, Thomas and Buscema were on the feature from beginning to end. The Sunday strip was three tiers with the top row developed to be dropped at the discretion of subscribing newspapers. The top tier consisted of six rotating two-panel sets by Thomas and Buscema, featuring the logo and various details on Conan’s history and world.

There were 16 stories including Howard adaptations and variations on comic book tales. The Wein story came from the Power Records Conan comic and record album package. Red Sonja made annual appearances in the strip, beginning with Chan’s first story. In the 1980 adventure, she and Conan fought Kull’s nemesis Thulsa Doom.

Bob would like to thank John Wells from some outstanding research assistance.