2023: The Year of Conan

Robert E. Howard’s Conan has been around since 1932. One hundred years later, the barbarian is even more relevant than he was during Howard’s lifetime. He’s enjoyed a tremendous revival in comics and books in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024. I thought I’d take a moment to look back on all things Conan that have graced bookshelves in the past year.

On the tail end of 2022, Titan Books published the first novel in a new series of Conan books, Blood of the Serpent, written by S.M. Stirling. That story takes place shortly before the events of Robert E. Howard’s beloved Red Nails novella. It was a pretty good way to get the ball rolling and made me eager to see what the publisher had in store for future books. You can read the Audiobook Showcase I did on it over here.

Fast forward ten months or so to late October and we saw the re-release of the classic 1982 novelization of the Conan The Barbarian film which put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map back in the day. The novel was penned by legendary pulp writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, two of the best Conan scribes of that era. You can find my Audiobook Showcase on it right here. Both of those Conan novels were published in print, eBook, and as audiobooks on Audible.

Perhaps what was the most exciting Conan-related event of 2023 was the new monthly comic book series from Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures. Kicking off on Free Comic Book Day back in May, this phenomenal Conan series is done in the spirit of the classic Marvel comic books from the ‘70s and ‘80s while injecting new blood into our favourite barbarian. Writer Jim Zub and artist Robert De La Torre delivered a spectacular first story arc and have whetted our appetites to see what they’re concocting for 2024. You can check out what the fuss is about over at Titan Comics’ Website.

For fans of the medium that got Conan his start, the short story format, we got you covered as well. Started this past September and ongoing until September 2024, The Heroic Legends Series features today’s best authors taking a crack at writing stories set in Robert E. Howard’s universe including Conan, Solomon Kane, Belit, Bran Mak Morn, and El Borak. Every month, a new short story is on sale exclusively on Kindle at a bargain price. So far, the four stories that saw the light of day in 2023 were all amazing. Visit Amazon to start reading now!

As you can see, Conan experienced a stellar rebirth in 2023 and it’s only the beginning! I’ll have more news on upcoming Conan projects for 2024 in my forthcoming Sword & Sorcery Roundup article around the third week of January, so be on the lookout for that. Until then, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and a fantastic 2024 in great health and filled with Conan adventures of all kinds!