Jim Zub

Conan the Barbarian (2023) #9: Full Script

Added 2025-05-01 12:00:12 +0000 UTC

With Conan the Barbarian #9 we begin the third story arc of our big Conan the Barbarian relaunch and, without trying to sound too dramatic, really needed to prove that the new series could go the distance. Rob De La Torre is back as our line artist, bringing that incredible classic look, I just had to create a stirring epic worthy of his skills, payoff plot lines we'd set up in the first two arcs and, ideally, show that we could have a lot more story to tell if sales were sustainable.

Needless to say, the pressure was on, but it felt good to really cut loose and show what we could do as we sent our Cimmerian hurtling to the ancient past of the Thurian Age.

Since Rob works plot-style, I wrote an overview of the key action on each page, let him illustrate it and then came back in with the lettering script to match his page art. since you've all been so patient around new updates, this post also includes the rough letter positioning guide I sent to our letterer Richard Starkings to give him a sense of where I was envisioning the lettering based on the script.

If you want to see how it all came together in the final with lettering and kick ass colors, make sure you pick up Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered. I'm incredibly proud of how it all turned out.

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BEYOND FLESH. BEYOND DEATH. BEYOND TIME.

Conan has traveled far and seen much in his legendary journeys, but nothing he has experienced thus far can prepare him for a quest to lands beyond to answer dark riddles of the past.

Unexpected allies await, fierce enemies loom, and the strange power of the Black Stone stirs in the age unconquered!