Lots Of People Suddenly Have Plans For Conan The Barbarian

Over the weekend, coming out of Lake Comic Comic Art Festival in Italy, Bleeding Cool broke the news breaking out of Lake Como Comic Art Festival, that Marvel Comics would no longer have the Conan The Barbarian license for comics. As the license was reverting back to its original owners, Cabinet Entertainment, who plan to publish their own titles. But we also mentioned that the Conan stories written by Robert E Howard were in the public domain in Europe since 2006. Something it seems that some people had not known. And now do.

John Allison of Giant Days as well as Bad Machinery, By Night, Steeple and Wicked Things, tweeted “Just found out that Conan the Barbarian is out of copyright in Europe, so look forward to some very exciting projects coming soon. I don’t know how I’m going to do Conan vs Giant Days but I’m sure I can work it out” adding “I’ve not read a lot of (any) Conan comics but I’ve seen the film with Arnie and there was a lot of talk of “the woman child”, perhaps this could refer to Charlotte. Charlotte will repeatedly bring up his sole directing credit (a baffling remake of Christmas In Connecticut)”

Jamie McKelvie suggested “Maybe he arrives expecting actually giants he has to defeat, and his expectations are confounded, and so humour arises from the situation.” John doubled down “I hope i can rely on you for a variant cover or a DJ set at the launch party (it will be on a Conan-themed boat)” to Jamie’s reply “Count me in!”

Joseph S. Farrar of the Bump horror comics anthology tweeted “I can confirm that I’ll be writing the new Conan comics… …because he’s public domain here and nobody can stop me.”

That’s a fair point. Might companies publishing just for the European market resist introducing Conan The Barbarian into anything and everything? We also reported that the CEO of Cabinet Entertainment, Fredrik Malmberg had posted on Twitter “What’s your dream team for a Conan comic – must list writer, colorist, artist. GO!” with some fun responses. But after we posted out article. former Bleeding Cool writer Frazer Brown replied, saying  “CONAN Written and illustrated by @LiamRSharp” Job done.” Tom Muller added “Seconded” with Liam Sharp himself adding “One day! :-)”

That day must come, Liam, that day must come! Heading back to the UK today, hopefully I will discover more about what’s going on, on my return to Blighty.