conan the barbarian

Dedicated fan, influential creator, esteemed editor, respected historian; the legendary Roy Thomas, born November 22, 1940, has assembled one of the comics medium's most diverse and wide-ranging resumes over the course of his six-decade-plus career. From helping to establish the groundwork for organized comic fandom in the early '60s, to his much-loved stints writing many of Marvel and DC's best-beloved characters, to his modern-day work as editor and author of numerous reference works, he's long been one of the most knowledgeable and passionate voices in the industry.

Born on May 25, 1949, Barry Windsor-Smith brought a delicate beauty to even the most violent comics, and visually defined Conan the Barbarian for a generation. A Londoner by birth, Windsor-Smith got his start drawing pin-ups for British reprints of Marvel Comics. In 1968, at the age of 19, he flew to New York to meet with Stan Lee about getting real work for Marvel. At the time, he was drawing in a faux-Jack Kirby style, which was exactly what Marvel was looking for in a fill-in artist. This led to issues here and there of Avengers, Daredevil, and X-Men, among other books.

Q: Chris, what Conan comic is best in life? -- @chudleycannons A: Folks, I am going to be 100% real with you for a second here: I love Conan the Barbarian. It's in my blood -- long before I was born, Conan was my parents' favorite comic, and while I wouldn't really call my mom and dad "geeks" in the traditional sense, they were definitely people who were really stoked about buying Marvel Magazines with Frank Frazetta art on the cover so they could read about dudes in loincloths chopping each other up with broadswords. These were, I remind you, the people who raised me, which probably explains a lot. But while I might've been hardwired into loving the character, I didn't really get into reading it myself until I was an adult, and I can tell you that as far as I'm concerned, there is a clear, no-contest winner as far as the best Conan story. It's not even close. It's the one where Conan gets into a fistfight with a gorilla that thinks it's a wizard.

Most creators would probably consider a con to be successful if they had one big project announced. This weekend at NYCC, Fred Van Lente, who's already had a big year with G.I. Joe, Brain Boy and Archer & Armstrong, managed to land himself two. Not only will he be part of Dynamite's Gold Key relaunch as the writer of Magnus: Robot Fighter, he'll also be taking over Dark Horse's Conan the Barb

The latest relaunches of Conan The Barbarian and Red Sonja -- published by Dark Horse and Dynamite, respectively --have revitalized both franchises. Writer Brian Wood's work on Conan has been well-received, and the announcement of Gail Simone writing a new Red Sonja ongoing brought a level of attention and excitement to the character that had not been seen in some time. And though the two series

Out tomorrow is Batman #16, the penultimate chapter to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's "Death of the Family" storyline, featuring Batman going up against the Joker in what is already guaranteed to go down as one of the more popular Joker stories in recent memory, if not ever...

Fans of Becky Cloonan (like us) are in for an uncommon treat this week, as the artist's work can be seen in two new issues of two publishers' most high profile releases. For Dark Horse Comics, Cloonan rejoins writer Brian Wood for a new issue of Conan The Barbarian, based on the classic character created by Robert E...

Brian Wood's scripting the latest relaunch of Robert E. Howard's Conan character, this time in a series called Conan the Barbarian. The DMZ and The Massive writer is using Howard's short story "Queen of the Black Coast" as a springboard for new stories featuring the barbarian...

Following lauded artistic turns from Becky Cloonan and James Harren, Dark Horse's Conan the Barbarian series will welcome Vasilis Lolos for issue #8 of the Brian Wood-scripted series based on Robert E. Howard's classic fantasy icon. Best known for his work on Northlanders, Pixu and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires, Lolos brings his own distinct version of the graphic, high contrast

It's going to be a lovely July, when Dark Horse beautifies new comics racks with illustrations by such auspicious artists as Peter Bagge (Reset #4), Massimo Carnevale (Conan the Barbarian #6), Gilbert Hernandez (Fatima: The Blood Spinners #2), Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), and J...