Pulp legend Robert. E. Howard is most famous as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. However, he created a number of beloved characters in his brief career, many of whom have also been adapted for comics and film. Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures will honor this legacy with a new series teaming the barbarian with Howard’s other creations.
Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone will be written by Jim Zub. The artwork will be provided by Jonas Scharf, most famous for his work on Dark X-Men and Basilisk. The story will build upon Zub’s recent work in the monthly Conan comic and an upcoming story in Savage Sword of Conan #4.
The current Titan Comics series has found the Cimmerian contending with a mysterious Black Stone. Born of eldritch powers, the Black Stone has raised the dead and corrupted the living. In the most recent story arc, it sent the barbarian back in time to the days of another Howard creation, King Kull. This story acts as a prelude to the barbarian’s journeys in Battle of the Black Stone.
Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone a tribute to Robert E. Howard
Zub credits the influence of Howard’s entire oeuvre upon his Conan comics. “The mysteries and powers of the Black Stone are one of the pillars I put into my original proposal for the series.” Zub also credits the concept of the Black Stone to Robert E. Howard.
“Black Stone is a mysterious material that showed up in multiple Robert E. Howard prose stories,” Zub explains. “We are using it to link not just Conan’s Hyborian age to Kull’s Thurian age, but other points in time and characters from those eras as well.”
These other characters include the Puritan monster hunter Solomon Kane, and the 16th century French swordswoman Dark Agnes. Both characters have featured in their own comic book adaptations, and Solomon Kane had his own film in 2009. However, Battle of the Black Stone will also feature more obscure Howard creations, like the gunslinger El Borak and supernatural investigator John Kirowan.
Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone #1 arrives in comic shops everywhere on September 4, 2024.
