A mysterious curse lingers, following Conan as he attempts to return to his homeland, and a great darkness looms ahead in the doomed city of Yaralet. This latest collection in Dark Horse's smart, innovative Conan series finds the cunning Cimmerian chased by both unfinished business from his past and a strange novice magician who seeks to deliver a dire warning to the wandering barbarian. A great evil from Conan's past moves ever closer while unfathomable terrors awaken and come into view. Conan is, of course, eager to meet both head on!
A mysterious curse lingers, following Conan as he attempts to return to his homeland, and a great darkness looms ahead in the doomed city of Yaralet. This latest collection in Dark Horse's smart, innovative Conan series finds the cunning Cimmerian chased by both unfinished business from his past and a strange novice magician who seeks to deliver a dire warning to the wandering barbarian. A great evil moves ever closer while unfathomable terrors awaken and come into view. Conan is, of course, eager to meet both head on! * "[Truman] knows Conan. He knows how the barbarian speaks. He knows how he acts. He knows how he swings his blade and thinks at the same time. Conan has been written as little more than mindless eye candy . . . [but] never by Truman. He has love and respect for the character and this comes through in every issue he scribes." -Broken Frontier
In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. From his fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s most enduring heroes. Yet while Conan is indisputably Howard’s greatest creation, it was in his earlier sequence of tales featuring Kull, a fearless warrior with the brooding intellect of a philosopher, that Howard began to develop the distinctive themes, and the richly evocative blend of history and mythology, that would distinguish his later tales of the Hyborian Age. Much more than simply the prototype for Conan, Kull is a fascinating character in his own right: an exile from fabled Atlantis who wins the crown of Valusia, only to find it as much a burden as a prize. This groundbreaking collection, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Justin Sweet, gathers together all Howard’s stories featuring Kull, from Kull’ s first published appearance, in “The Shadow Kingdom,” to “Kings of the Night,” Howard’ s last tale featuring the cerebral swordsman. The stories are presented just as Howard wrote them, with all subsequent editorial emendations removed. Also included are previously unpublished stories, drafts, and fragments, plus extensive notes on the texts, an introduction by Howard authority Steve Tompkins, and an essay by noted editor Patrice Louinet. Praise for Kull “Robert E. Howard had a gritty, vibrant style–broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life.”—David Gemmell “Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.”—Stephen King “Howard was a true storyteller–one of the first, and certainly among the best, you’ll find in heroic fantasy. If you’ve never read him before, you’ re in for a real treat.”—Charles de Lint “For stark, living fear . . . what other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?”—H. P. Lovecraft
Conan volume 7: Cimmeria marks a transitional period in young Conan's life, as he spurns civilization -- with its turncoats and legal trappings -- and returns to the beloved, brutal country of Cimmeria, where he was born and raised. The dangers found in the snowy mountain passes of his barbaric homeland are a welcome change from the mind games and treachery Conan encountered in the cities of the East, but there are unfortunate lessons in treachery to be learned here, too. When a tentative truce with the Aesir is threatened by the actions of Caollan, the first woman Conan ever loved, Conan again finds himself at the heart of a larger conflict that will test not only his physical strength and cunning mind -- but his passionate heart as well. * "(Truman) goes back to the same historical and mythical source material Howard must have used and mines it to expand on what Howard already did. Now that's the way to put your stamp on a Howard tale. As a result, this reeks of Robert E. Howard influence. There is blood and there is fire . . . there is death and despair and indomitable will. Basically, everything you could want from a Conan story." --ComicsBulletin.com * The hardcover version is a direct market exclusive of the trade-paperback collection, printed to initial orders only!
The intense psychological portrait of a hitman—the anti-Jason Bourne—as he stalks his prey from Boston to LA. He wants you to know him, maybe even admire him, but only for his excellence in his craft. Perhaps he was even born for it. "A natural killer," his mentor—a middleman named Vespucci—said he was. He proved it with his first professional hit: a Fifth Circuit Court judge in Boston, executed with a sheet of Saran Wrap in the stairwell of her own courthouse. He's proved his merit often, usually with a Glock semiautomatic, but he's improvised too, with his bare hands, the heel of a shoe, knives, even a sewing machine. He is the consummate assassin, at the top of his form, immune to the psychological strains of his chosen profession. He is what the Russians call a Silver Bear. He calls himself Columbus. It's the name Vespucci gave him, ten years ago, when he discovered a dark, new world of fences, clients, marks, jobs, jack. Not that his real name meant much to him anyway. He never knew his father or his mother, a prostitute who became dangerously involved back in the seventies with an earnest young congressman named Abe Mann, then a rising star in the Democratic Party. The magnetic Abe Mann has since become the Speaker of the House. He is currently running for the Democratic nomination in an exhausting presidential campaign, weaving his way across the country. Columbus is not far behind. But as he pieces together his past and prepares the seamless assassination of his mark, the criminal underworld he has always ruled begins unraveling violently around him.
Conan, once a wandering thief, tries his luck as a professional warrior, joining Amalric's mercenary forces to live as a rank-and-file soldier. However, something much more than luck will lead Conan on a collision course with the strongest, strangest army he's ever faced! Princess Yasmela-the city of Khoraja's remaining sovereign-has been haunted by terrifying apparitions of the wizard Natohk, and when Natohk threatens to bring his demonic hordes to Khoraja, Yasmela prays to the god Mitra for help. Mitra actually responds and tells her to place the fate of her entire kingdom into the hands of the first man she meets out in the city streets-and that man is a drunk, hesitant barbarian! Conan may turn out to be Khoraja's best hope for survival, but his distrust of the soft upper classes and their disdain for his common station may derail any possibility of working together to halt Natohk's bid for world domination. * Collects Conan the Cimmerian #8-#13.
Conan volume 7: Cimmeria marks a transitional period in young Conan's life, as he spurns civilization — with its turncoats and legal trappings — and returns to the beloved, brutal country of Cimmeria, where he was born and raised. The dangers found in the snowy mountain passes of his barbaric homeland are a welcome change from the mind games and treachery Conan encountered in the cities of the East, but there are unfortunate lessons in treachery to be learned here, too. When a tentative truce with the Aesir is threatened by the actions of Caollan, the first woman Conan ever loved, Conan again finds himself at the heart of a larger conflict that will test not only his physical strength and cunning mind — but his passionate heart as well. * "(Truman) goes back to the same historical and mythical source material Howard must have used and mines it to expand on what Howard already did. Now that's the way to put your stamp on a Howard tale. As a result, this reeks of Robert E. Howard influence. There is blood and there is fire... there is death and despair and indomitable will. Basically, everything you could want from a Conan story." —ComicsBulletin.com * The hardcover version is a direct market exclusive of the trade-paperback collection, printed to initial orders only!
Legendary artist Joe Kubert's very first sequential Conan work and illustrations by Cary Nord, Justin Sweet, and Joseph Michael Linsner highlight this latest collection of stories from Dark Horse's ongoing Conan the Cimmerian comic -- book series. In his short career as a mercenary, young Conan has impressed both Princess Yasmela and military leader Lord Amalric, but an ambitious rogue prince arrives in Khoraja and blindsides Conan out of the comfortable, courtly situation he's found himself in. Not only is Conan's love affair with Yasmela going south, but rebel Prince Julion immediately challenges Conan's headstrong impulses and military plans, causing a rift between the battered but proud forces of Khoraja and Amalric's army of colorful mercs.
The Cimmerian finds himself ensnared in the dark intrigues of a city-state where the powerful will stoop to any depths to keep what they have stolen. When a young, idealistic noble offers Conan a ticket to freedom in exchange for a favor, Conan leaps at the opportunity-and into a labyrinth where he must fight to keep not only his word, but his very life. A favorite of fans and critics alike, the seminal Conan story "Rogues in the House" first appeared in Weird Tales. Now, writer Timothy Truman and artist Cary Nord bring you the tale of the Red Priest, as you've never seen it before. * "Dark Horse continues to do justice to Howard's work while enhancing it quite nicely." – ComicsBulletin.com * Collects Conan #37, 38, 41-44.
Know, O Prince, that in an age undreamed of, shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian; black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet . . . Conan: The Hall of the Dead concludes writer Kurt Busiek's (JLA/Avengers, Astro City) critically acclaimed run, paving the way for new writer Tim Truman (Conan and the Songs of the Dead) and featuring a story by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola! Eisner award-nominated artist Cary Nord (Daredevil), and Eisner award-winning color artist Dave Stewart (Ultimate Fantastic Four, DC: The New Frontier) continue their groundbreaking run on Dark Horse's best-selling Conan series with three of the best writers in comics today. * Collects Conan #24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34
