by Julian Solis

To start, tell us a little about the relaunch. Why is now the right time to do it?

It seemed a new way to refocus attention on the book. the Conan title has always been one of Dark Horse's best seller, and remains so. However, there are a lot of titles out there and from time to time you have to wave a flag in the air to draw some attention, especially when you have so many exciting things in the works. For one thing, the book has a more elaborate, powerful look to it, via a new artist, Tomas Giorrelo. As people are seeing in the last four issues of the current Conan title, Tomas' visual realizations of Conan and his era are very dynamic and incredibly detailed-- a great combination of modern comics drive and Frazetta-style classic fantasy illustration.

But the main thing we want to draw attention to is that Conan is entering a new phase of his career, which is in accordance with Robert E. Howard's own outline of his life. REH divided Conan's life into very distinct, chronological periods. Occasional "filler" stories aside, the main arcs in the Conan title told the story of the first phase-- the earliest wanderings of Conan, the post-teen aged thief, fresh from the Cimmerian hills. Conan the Cimmerian moves us into the second phase that Howard's chronicled, when Conan became a mercenary and, later, a pirate. So the new title is a great way of marking that second era in Conan's life, on his long road to kingship.

You've said that the book will be more focused on following Conan as he matures and moves from one adventure to the next and with fewer stand alone stories. Do you have a specific point in his life that you are aiming for or looking forward to reaching?

TT: In the Conan title, readers have seen our youthful hero take some pretty hard knocks, physically and emotionally. He's been betrayed by some people he cared about, and that betrayal lead to the grisly death of his partner, Nestor the Gunderman. Nestor was one of the few true friends Conan has ever made, and REH indicates in Rogues in the House that Nestor's death made an impact on Conan-- so much so that he hunted down and murdered the priest whose schemes had led to Nestor's execution.

In any case, I've been trying to lay some very careful threads that lead to events that come to a climax in the last four issues of the Conan title (#'s 47-50)-- our adaptation of the unfinished Howard tale, Hand of Nergal. I guarantee that for those who've been following the book, issue #50 will be a gut-wrenching read, where all the various threads finally come together. Things happen that make Conan yearn to return home. His first encounter with "civilization" has left a bitter taste in his mouth. He wants to get back home to people whose ways and values he can understand. It's a natural response, I think. He's a mountain boy. Growing up in rural Appalachia, I knew a lot of people who would return home to the hills after venturing into the outside world. It's a thing that kids do. Some venture out again. Some decide to stay. We know that Conan decided to leave Cimmeria again. Why?

Conan the Cimmerian will mainly cover what I suppose one could call the transitional period of Conan's long career-- moving out of his early years as a thief and vagabond and into his early days as a mercenary in the Hyborean lands of Koth and Corinthia. But first, he makes a return to his homeland, the gray, mountainous country of Cimmeria. This is in accordance with information that Conan's creator, Robert E. Howard, left us in a letter he wrote to some fans in the 1930's, just before his death.

This left me with a question: what made him return home? By merely mentioning it as part of Conan's career chronology, REH obviously considered it to be a matter of at least passing significance. Considering that Conan makes the journey right before he turned to a new page in his overall career, I thought it provided an excellent way to do a tale that would dig deeper into the Cimmerian's head.

Doing so also gives us a chance to explore the life of another character who has always intrigued me: that of Conan's grandfather, Connacht. Howard tells us that it was Connacht's tales that inspired Conan to venture outside of Cimmeria. Connacht had also left the hills, years before, and had adventured in the lands to the east and south. However, Connacht when returned to Cimmeria he never left again. This presented a question that I couldn't resist: why did Conan and Connacht arrive at these different decisions? Contrasting the lives of the two men and the exploring possible reasons for the choices they made presented a challenge that I couldn't resist.

The Connacht tales will be told in "flashback" sequences drawn by the great Richard Corben-- one of my favorite artists. The first arc is seven issues long. Issues #1 and #2 feature lengthy Corben sequences, to get things going and set the mood. The Corben sequences in issues #3-7 are shorter-- 6-8 pages each. The Connacht sequences work in tandem with the main storyline. As Conan wanders through Cimmeria, he thinks back on the tales that Connacht told him and draws new lessons from them.

Both Richard and Tomas are doing amazing work. They really bring the Hyborian era alive, in a very fresh way.

Do you have a specific period for which you are commited to the book or are you on it for the long run? Could we maybe see you a few years down the line wrapping up Conan the Cimmerian #50 to launch Conan the King #1 a few months later?

Oh, no, it wouldn't come that quickly. Conan's overall saga would take years to tell. In addition to the "official", finished Conan stories that I try to pick up on those suggestions and use them as linking threads between the tales, and use them as the basis of new tales. In most cases, any "original" stories that I write will be directly related to events that Howard might mention in some obscure paragraphs buried within larger Conan tales, or questions that might arise when, in accordance with the chronology we're using, we try to bridge one of Howard's original stories with the next. Even though Howard wrote the original tales "out of order", time-line wise, he seems to have had a pretty precise overview of his character's life. Still, there are a few contradictions here and there that have to be worked out. It's a pretty daunting task, but also a lot of fun. Frankly, I find it pretty similar to the research I did for the real-life historical books I did, Wilderness (the fourth printing of which is available through Timothy's website, http://www.timothytruman.com) and Straight Up to See the Sky.

As far as my own commitment goes, I'll like to be around for as long as Dark Horse will have me. They seem to be quite pleased with what I've been doing, and now that we have Tomas Giorello on board as our regular artist we'll be moving full speed ahead, balls to the blade.

We know Richard Corben's classic work, and have gotten a taste of Giorello's work in the current Conan title. Besides the issue of the Rogues in the House arc that Tomas did, readers really see him unleashed in Conan 47-50. Is your approach to working with him different than working with Cary Nord or Paul Lee?

Quite. Though each of them are really fine adventure artists, it's hard to think of four artists whose work methods and techniques are so dissimilar. I loved working with all of them, though.

To be quite honest, I inherited poor Cary when he was at the end of his tether. He'd spent about three years on the book and was getting the itch to move on to something else. Though I love his incredible drawing abilities, Cary's lateness really made things incredibly difficult at times. We'd just get a story going and then would have to interrupt it, which effected the narrative drive that I wanted to establish. God bless him, though-- he was on the book for a long time and he'd put a lot of sweat into the pages that he did. There are panels in the final issue of the Rogues in the House that are among the best drawings that I've ever seen anyone do, anywhere.

Paul Lee's a really illustrator, and I really hope to work with him again. A total pro. His work was less prosaic than Cary's, but it had a realistic, almost cinematic edge to it. When I'd write for him I'd have to keep his penchant for realism in mind, and in the scripts I'd be a little more detailed when describing the more fantasy-oriented stuff that I wanted thrown in there.

I've completed all the plots for the Corben sections of the new title and have dialoged three. At the time he started the sequences, Richard needed the script for the first installment rather quickly and so I just did it "plot" style (or"Marvel-style", as it's sometimes called: plot first, artist draws from plot, then the writer writes captions and dialog to the finished art.) Since Corben is such a sterling, experienced storyteller, we felt real comfortable doing it that way. Cary, Paul and Tomas are a bit less experienced, so the editors always like me to do complete finished scripts for them, like movie scripts. However, I really like working "plot" method. It's a more playful way of working together and it gives the artist more of a chance to add more of their own personality into the overall storytelling and composition.

As or Tomas Giorello, while he'd done some comics work before, but he's done far more work as an illustrator. So, at least for now, I give him pretty detailed full scripts-- descriptions of "camera" angles, special effects and such that I might leave to the imagination of someone who'd been doing comics for years. However, the boy is catching on quick! He makes these huge leaps with every scene he draws. His art for #48 and #49 were miles ahead of the work he did for #47. Right now, I'm waiting anxiously to see what he's cooking up for the series closer, the double-sized issue #50.

(A bit of side-trivia: It's weird, but with Conan 47-50 and the Conan the Cimmerian #0 16-page special, readers are seeing his most recent work. For reasons that are far more complicated than readers would want me to get into, the two sequences he did for Conan the Cimmerian #1 and #2 are actually earlier work, done at a time when the Corben sequences were being prepared for the regular Conan title.)

What are some Robert E. Howard adaptations that we will see in the new series?

As described above, the first arc, "Cimmeria" is mainly an original tale inspired by Robert E. Howard's poem of the same title, and information that REH gave us in letters.

After that, we move apace through the chronology that we've been relying on (inspired by the one developed by Conan scholar Dale Rippke). The order of the next three Howard adaptations would be "Shadows in the Moonlight", followed by "Black Colossus" and "Queen of the Black Coast" . In between, there will be short prequel episodes, to set up the tales, expand on various hints that Howard might imply and show Conan transitioning to the locations of the tales.

Your love for Conan, even before writing the book, is well documented. How is your approach different when it comes to the process of writing him as opposed to writing characters that may be nothing more than just a job?

Well, to be honest, I've seldom done work that's been "just a job." I've been lucky enough to be able to regulate my career so that I basically do special projects or long term projects that really, really interest me. I've turned down a lot of offers over the years simply because I didn't think I could get into the material.

Writing the Conan books is different only because the Howard stories were among my earliest, most important influences. So I approach the work with a special reverence and hope to get it right. I pretend that Howard himself is being given the adaptations for his approval.

It obvious that different characters appeal to different audiences around the world. Superman and Batman, for example, are huge in America whereas Asterix, Tin Tin or The Metabaron are huge in Europe. Conan seems to have successfully reached out to a global audience and endured in people's minds for the past 75 years. Why do you think it is that makes this character so enduring and appealing?

You know, I get asked that question a whole lot.

My stock answer is that Conan is the alpha dog. Everyone wants to be the alpha dog. Conan shows the way.

Other than that, I must admit that looking for answer to that very question is one of the most interesting things about working on the book. Discovering it would be like finding the Philosophers Stone of adventure writing.

Other than working on Conan, you recently went back to one of your most famous characters - Grimjack - along with John Ostrander, the original writer of the book. How would you describe that experience?

It's been great-- first with the Grimjack: Killer Instinct miniseries and graphic novel from IDW and now as an online comic and eventual graphic novel for Comixmix. Grimjack: The Manx Cat (To see all episodes of The Manx Cat for free, go to: http://www.comicmix.com/title/grimjack-the-manx-cat/ ). Working with John-- and drawing Grimjack-- is ways great. I'm particularly excited about some episodes that are coming up, featuring some characters that John and I have been talking about for the last few years, St. John of Knives and his partner, St. Dryden-- the Goblyns. They are two renegade priests of a religion called the Church of Ephemeral Salvation who lived in an earlier era of Grimjack's multi-dimensional stomping grounds, Cynosure. Or perhaps "incarnation" is a better word than "era", given the nature of Cynosure. Anyway, they are demon-hunters-- enemies of monsters, vampires, killers and kings.

Apart from your work in comics, you have also had a side project for a while: Odin the Wanderer. Based on Nordic myths and as a book that will appeal to both children and adults, it sounds like a very interesting and unusual piece of work. How is that project progressing?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about it lately. Sort of itching to get back to it. I haven't been able to work on it for a while, given my workload on Grimjack and Conan. However, after I finish Grimjack I hope to take a break and get back into it. I might develop Odin as a graphic novel rather than as an illustrated prose story. Or something that's a combination of both.

Between Grimjack and Conan, I'm sort of reaching a blood 'n' guts saturation point of late. It would be great to kick back and do something that's a little different-- and Odin is certainly different. So, unless something comes up that I just can't refuse, I'll either be doing Odin or something with a humorous angle to it. I love doing adventure material-- it's certainly what I've built my career on. However, Odin would give me a chance to explore some full color techniques I developed for book and CD illustration, as well as some some storytelling and compositional possibilities that have been on my mind for the last few years.

I've also been thinking about doing a wild humor piece, science fiction stuff but really broadly drawn. I've been wanting to work with my son, Ben, who is a great writer, so he might be writing something for me.

We'll see what happens. First, I have to finish the Grimjack episodes.