Posted in: Comics | Tagged: conan, Esad Ribic, jason aaron, mahmud asrar, marvel

Hither Came Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar to Bring Us Marvel's Conan the Barbarian #1

Published Fri, 24 Aug 2018 11:06:42 -0500

Last updated Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:39:55 -0500

Marvel has finally revealed the details on the return of Conan the Barbarian to Marvel Comics. Conan The Barbarian #1 will launch with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth in January from the creative team of writer Jason Aaron, artist Mahmud Asrar, colorist Matt Wilson, and cover artist Esad Ribic.

For Aaron, whose beard might cause him to be mistaken for an actual barbarian, it's the ultimate dream job.

I've literally been preparing for this job since I was 13 and discovered my first Robert E. Howard Conan paperback in a used bookstore in my little hometown of Jasper, Alabama. I devoured every Howard book I could find after that, and I've been making up Conan stories in my head ever since. Now I finally get to do that for real, alongside the amazing Mahmud Asrar. So this opportunity means an awful lot to me, and I'm cherishing every blood-splattered, spider-haunted second of it.

Aaron continued in a press release on Marvel.com:

The big initial arc we're doing in this new series is very much done in reverence to Robert E. Howard and those original stories. One of the things that initially pulled me into the character was the fact that with each story, Howard jumped to a different point in Conan's life, where he was in a different setting, interacting with different characters and living a very different life. I loved the grand and epic scope of Conan's overall journey, and so for this new series, instead of picking just one period from Conan's life and doing stories set only within that, our opening 12-issue arc will thread together many different periods and aspects of Conan's journey, from Cimmeria to Aquilonia and beyond. That's why this story is called 'The Life and Death of Conan.'

And Asrar added:

Epic tales of fantasy about one tough and mean warrior. Conan is the epitome of an indomitable barbarian and that has fascinated me as a kid growing up reading his stories. What made me stay for the ride was the amazing art on the Conan books throughout the years. So many great artists to name but I can't tell you how influential John Buscema and his Conan art was for me. It was the first artist I knew the name of as a kid and started intentionally seeking out," says Asrar. "Now, years later, I get the chance to draw the book myself and do it with the amazing Jason Aaron. I couldn't be happier to tell epic new tales of the Cimmerian—to continue the legacy that will hopefully make a mark on readers, just like the original comics did for me.

Conan the Barbarian #1 hits stores in January 2019.