Broken Frontier

Dark Horse Comics is pleased to announce that after a short stint with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola writing the monthly Conan series, Timothy Truman takes over as the regular writer on the series, as of issue #33. Current Conan writer Kurt Busiek has decided to amicably move on from the title to pursue other ventures after an award-winning run of over two years on the title.

Mignola’s short run on the title came about when editor Scott Allie was seeking out Busiek’s replacement. Mignola suggested a bizarre and haunting adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “The Hall of the Dead”—as well as encouraging Dark Horse to hire Truman as the permanent replacement.

“Truman really has the same sensibilities as Howard,” commented Mignola. “His stuff has that gritty, tough, action-adventure feel, but he also knows the bigger-than-life pulp-era monster stuff that comes from the old-fashioned supernatural literature. You can tell he learned that from reading writers like Howard as opposed to from reading superheroes.”

Busiek agrees. “I’m absolutely thrilled that Dark Horse got Tim Truman for Conan,” said the former Conan scribe. “And I’m not just saying that because I suggested him. I’ve been a fan of Tim’s work since he did Scout, way back in the Pleistocene Era, and I think he’s terrific at rough heroics in a brutal, corrupt, decadent world, which suits Conan beautifully. Heck, if it had been a choice between Tim and me, back when Dark Horse started the series, I’d have picked Tim.”

Cary Nord will continue as the artist for the series. “It was great to work with a writer of Kurt’s caliber”, enthused Nord. “It gave me an amazing opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business. I look forward to working with Tim Truman. I guarantee we’ll keep up the excitement and intensity in the next chapter of Conan’s life.”

“Being asked to write Conan was a real surprise—quite literally, the fulfillment of a childhood dream,” commented Tim Truman. “Conan is one of the very few characters that I’ve ever been fannish about. I’m an unrepentant, unreconstructed Robert E. Howard fanboy and have been since I was twelve years old. Howard’s Conan marked every important character that I’ve ever done—Grimjack, Scout, Hawkman, Jonah Hex.”

Regarding his plans for the series Truman commented, “I want to maintain the level of wonderful literacy and humanity that Kurt Busiek brought to the character and series, while adding my own naturally darker and more intense spin on things. I want to keep the humanity and character interactions, while at the same time injecting even more of Howard’s poetic, dime-novel darkness into the mix. Luckily, we’re entering a phase of Conan’s career, chronologically, where it will fit really well.”

After Mignola’s chilling adaptation of “The Hall of the Dead,” Truman and Nord pick up plot threads laid out by Busiek, Mignola, and Howard himself, building up to one of Howard’s most famous tales, “Rogues in the House.”

Award winning Ex Machina artist Tony Harris will be the exclusive cover artist on the regular monthly beginning January 2006.

Check darkhorse.com and the Conan zone for more information from editor Scott Allie on what’s in store for the Conan books in 2006.