Conan the Barbarian has packed his bags and is leaving his original comic home once again at the end of 2022. Marvel’s last original Conan story will wrap up in July with Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar’s King Conan #6.
Bleeding Cool initially broke the news of the split and Heroic Signatures CEO Fred Malmberg confirmed to ComicBook.com that the rumors were true, stating that “We had a wonderful run with Marvel Comics but ultimately they have decided not to extend their license beyond this year. Conan has more than 50 years of comic book publishing. We took the decision to pick up the baton ourselves, not only for Conan but all the other wonderful characters and IP that we control. The publishing program will commence next year but exact details are not final yet.”
Heroic Signatures is the custodian for all of the Robert E. Howard properties, including Kull the Conqueror and Solomon Kane, which also received new collections under Marvel’s short-lived license.
Marvel will retain the Conan license until the end of 2022, with a number of collected editions still on the way such as Marvel’s sixth volume in the Conan the Barbarian Epic Collection, Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volumes 8-10, and Conan the King: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus.
Marvel took back the license from Dark Horse Comics in 2019 and quickly began producing new Conan stories and mining their back catalogue for all that it was worth, even placing the Cimmerian in the Savage Avengers (which will most likely make any future collections of that series impossible due to his inclusion in the group).
With a new Savage Avengers title launching this week, it would appear that the series will also end before the new year. Malmberg all but confirmed this fact, saying that “We enjoy a great relationship with Marvel and hope to do cross overs and that Conan will appear now and then in Savage Avengers but nothing is planned as of this moment.”
Stay tuned to Conskipper for more news about Heroic Signatures future publishing plans.