Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures have earned great praise for their revival of Conan. The current Conan the Barbarian series is viewed by most as a worthy tribute to the legacy of Robert E. Howard. Now, the publisher has restored another of Howard’s most famous fantasy heroes to the comics page.
Conan the Barbarian #10 by Jim Zub and Rob De La Torre picks up where the previous issue left off. Somehow, the Cimmerian has been taken back in time, befriending the Pict chieftain Brule the Spear-Slayer. He joins the warrior in searching for the source of the dark magics that plague his friend, King Kull. As the new issue opens, the reader is treated to one of the strange visions that torments Kull in his sleep.
The first four pages of Conan the Barbarian #10 may be viewed below.
Conan the Barbarian’s Predecessor King Kull Explained
Also known as Kull the Conqueror, King Kull was Conan the Barbarian’s predecessor in more ways than one. Conan’s first story, “The Phoenix on the Sword,” was reworked from a rejected Kull story, “By This Axe I Rule!” Kull was also a hero of the Thurian Age, which preceded the Hyborian Age of Conan in Robert E. Howard’s history.
There are other details which bind the two characters. Conan’s people, the Cimmerians, were said to be descended from Kull’s Atlantean tribe. Some pastiche stories, written after Howard’s death, name Kull as a direct ancestor of Conan. Certainly both heroes are cut from the same cloth, being barbaric warriors who come to rule a more civilized nation.
Despite this common heritage, Conan the Barbarian and King Kull could not be more different as characters. Kull is a more cerebral hero, driven to seek understanding of the weird world around him. Conan, while far from stupid, is content to let sleeping dogs lie and not dig too deep into matters that do not concern him. Conan is also more inclined to indulge his base desires. King Kull, by contrast, seems uninterested in pleasures of the flesh, and is continually questioned about finding a worthy queen throughout his stories.
Conan the Barbarian #10 arrives in comic shops everywhere on April 24, 2024.
