Conan the Barbarian (2019) #13 - Full Script (Patreon)

I've told this story in several interviews, but having it archived here is kind of nice as well.

The first chance I had to work on Conan the Barbarian in any official capacity was not as a writer. Back in 2003 one of my earliest published comic credits was recoloring classic Conan the Barbarian issues as part of Dark Horse's Chronicles of Conan trade paperback reprint series. I colored two covers and two issues, earning some extra pay that summer working at the UDON studio. My original plan was to head back to school that Fall and take a post-grad course in 3D Animation, but I ended up staying at the studio instead, changing the course of my creative career.

Ten years later, in 2013, editor Dave Marshall at Dark Horse reached out to ask if I'd be interested in co-writing a Conan-Red Sonja mini-series they were developing with Dynamite Entertainment (who has had the Red Sonja license since 2005), the first time the two classic characters had teamed up in at least 15 years. It was a lot of work, but also a thrill to team up with Gail Simone and Dan Panosian on the project. I thought that would be my only chance to ever write Conan.

Five years after that came Avengers: No Road Home, where Conan made an important appearance, then a 3-part Savage Sword of Conan story (Conan The Gambler, which I posted the scripts for over the past few weeks), and then Conan: Serpent War, which included multiple Robert E. Howard characters and Moon Knight in a wild cross-time adventure.

After all that, an even bigger surprise - In August of 2019 editor Mark Basso offered me the flagship title - Conan the Barbarian. Even though it was an absolute bucket list opportunity, I sat on the offer for a couple days so I could think it over to make sure I still had stories I wanted to tell with the character and also free up time in my writing schedule to take on the monthly book. Obviously I said "yes", I just really needed it all to sink in.

Writing Conan was and still is an incredible honor.

Into the Crucible is the first arc of my Marvel Conan run, a 4-part tale about a lethal contest in a strange foreign land. It's a Hyborian-fueled homage to Deathtrap Dungeon, a fantasy adventure gamebook that blew my mind when I was a kid. I was so proud to be working on the series that I spent most of what I made writing the story to buy the full size original oil painting of the cover you see above illustrated by Erik Gist.

When I wrote this script, I was hopeful this would be the start of a long tenure being a bard for the Barbarian...and it has been, but not in the way I thought.

Here's the full script for part 1 of the story, issue #13. The published issue was illustrated by Roge Antonio, with colors by Israel Silva and lettering by Travis Lanham.

Enjoy!