Did Dark Horse cancel or lose the rights to Conan?

[Mjolnir]

I knew something was up when every month Conan was absent from the solicits, I just knew it!

I'm both really mad and maybe a little excited at the same time. I'm really mad because now 15 years worth of Dark Horse continuity that I bought (every issue plus the side mini series they did and the 8 collection Frazetta Cover Series) won't ever get to be finished. I feels like it's a super waste now in a way. For the Conan rights holders to take it away I feel that they were no longer pleased with what Dark Horse was doing with it. I felt the writing was just fine after Busiek and Tim Truman left but the art definitely took a step down in my opinion after Cary Nord and Tomás Giorello's time was up. Now I feel how Dark Horse Star Wars fans feel in a way after having all those years of continuity no longer count and years of financial investment seem so wasted.

I had a chance to speak to Dark Horse head Mike Richardson about two years ago at a signing here in Portland Oregon, and I asked him about Conan and how long it might take for them to tell his life's story from where it was at the time all the way through his time as King and maybe even pay off that Prince and the Wazir arc and he told me that it would take many years to complete Conan's story and they planned to get through all of it. He was mum on the Prince and the Wazir and didn't want to say too much. But it sounds like Dark Horse didn't want to give this up.

Marvel is a really big name and Marvel probably really sold the rights holders on their ideas for Conan which means top writers and artists. For me and my taste I just hope that Marvel can keep Conan the gritty violent book that Dark Horse had it be over the years. Jason Aaron for writer? Esad Ribic's promo cover hints that they just might. Speaking of Ribic, like with Star Wars, and as I mentioned, Marvel is going to want top talent on the book from writers to artists. I've been wondering what Esad Ribic's next project was going to be after Legacy. BTW, his creator owned book VS from Image begins next month but I feel that even though Image hasn't promoted it as a mini series, I feel that news will come soon after a few issues are out. It was set to come out last fall 2016, but it obviously was delayed and I'm guessing Ribic was working on it while doing his regular Marvel work at the same time. If you Google Image "Esad Ribic Conan", he's drawn many images of Conan and like with his fantastic Thor run, I feel this is right up his alley. Right now he's probably my favorite artist working today. While I love Deodato and love his promo cover, I wouldn't mind him on the book, but I just got spoiled with that Ribic cover. I'm even gitty at the cover artist potential for these. Alex Ross has been doing his cover work for Marvel a lot longer than I thought he would and the thought of his covers on a Conan book would be really exciting. Dark Horse on the other hand took pride on the Conan covers and probably in it's last year of books they were not good at all with a few exceptions.

15 years is a long time and the rights holders gave Dark Horse a heck of a long time to tell their stories and I feel like Dark Horse had just gotten beyond scratching the surface in getting his stories told and maybe that was the problem, they were too slow. I'm hoping Marvel with the better promo and hype machine, and the top talent can hold on to this for longer than Dark Horse did. Because I would love to see Marvel be able to tell Conan's life story and actually get to finish it. But I wonder if they will do what DH did and adapt stories or come up with original content and stories or a mix of both.

As for Dark Horse it seems they are taking hit after hit. And like already mentioned, if the Fox deal with Disney happens, then Marvel may very well be getting the Aliens, Predator, and Avatar rights as well. Though it's hard to picture Marvel publishing Aliens and Predator books.

I have to admit I don't buy a lot of Dark Horse anymore. Right now it's Harrow County and even that will be finishing it's story I think in the next year and then that will be done. Besides it's Hellboy universe of books and some Yojimbo books and maybe Black Hammer, they don't have a whole heck of a lot left. Their creator owned series don't do all that well. I loved Crytpocracy but that was cancelled after 6 issues. They tell 5 and 6 issue mini series and then collect them as TPB's, but they don't really have any successful original on-going series outside of Harrow County again. I'm sure Dark Horse will be fine..... I guess, but they've got to get their act together or they're in real trouble.

2019 seems like a long time to wait, but if they're getting top talent, this will give them a big lead to get some issues in the can and keep this thing on a high quality monthly schedule.

[MRP]

I knew something was up when every month Conan was absent from the solicits, I just knew it!

I'm both really mad and maybe a little excited at the same time. I'm really mad because now 15 years worth of Dark Horse continuity that I bought (every issue plus the side mini series they did and the 8 collection Frazetta Cover Series) won't ever get to be finished. I feels like it's a super waste now in a way. For the Conan rights holders to take it away I feel that they were no longer pleased with what Dark Horse was doing with it. I felt the writing was just fine after Busiek and Tim Truman left but the art definitely took a step down in my opinion after Cary Nord and Tomás Giorello's time was up. Now I feel how Dark Horse Star Wars fans feel in a way after having all those years of continuity no longer count and years of financial investment seem so wasted. ...

Howard himself always thought of the Conan stories as tales told around a campfire, yarns to thrill and excite that may or may not be consistent or true. He was fine with fans trying to piece it together to form a coherent whole if they could, but he never saw it as such in the way fans do even though he was flattered they wanted to do so and commented on their efforts. So that's how I have always approached Conan, as tales told to thrill and entertain without necessarily being an overall structure to them or without a definitive beginning middle and end. He was a heroic character who was reaver, warrior, pirate, raider and even king, and the stories told that in whatever order Howard chose to tell them, without a need to fill in all the gaps or tie up all the strands into neat little bows, and none of the stories were poorer for it. The thrill was in experiencing the stories themselves not in the parts untold. If it was good enough for the guy who created the character, it's good enough for me. If we get some good ripping Conan yarns out of this, I'm content. And there were some good ripping Conan yarns done by Dark Horse (especially the Busiek/Nord stuff which is perhaps my favorite iteration of Conan in Comic form), but now someone else is telling the tales, so be it.

-M

[Shadowras]

Does dark horse still have the rights to the eerie characters? There's a character called Dax the warrior who can be a good replacement for Conan .

[Cel]

For the Conan rights holders to take it away I feel that they were no longer pleased with what Dark Horse was doing with it.

It may have just been a matter of money. Usually licensed properties start moving around when renewal time for the rights comes. Marvel may have outbid Dark Horse for Conan.

[MajorHoy]

It may have just been a matter of money. Usually licensed properties start moving around when renewal time for the rights comes. Marvel may have outbid Dark Horse for Conan.

And Dark Horse may have also had to weigh how much money they were making off of the license vs. how much more they would have had to pay to renew the license.

[Knockagh]

Does anything me know of dark horse can continue to publish their Conan books that they wrote while they held the license? Or do they have to stop producing any Conan related material even books they have produced in-house.
I’ve been collecting the life chronology volumes and I’ve noticed they are no longer available at most outlets.

[MRP]

Does anything me know of dark horse can continue to publish their Conan books that they wrote while they held the license? Or do they have to stop producing any Conan related material even books they have produced in-house.
I’ve been collecting the life chronology volumes and I’ve noticed they are no longer available at most outlets.

Marvel will get the publishing rights to the Dark Horse produced material (an omnibus is already planned of the Busiek run I believe) just as they got the rights to the Dark Horse produced Star Wars material when they got the Star Wars license license. It's no different than Dark Horse getting the publishing rights to the Marvel produced Conan material when they got the Conan license years ago. It doesn't matter who produces the material, it is all licensed by Conan properties and the publishing rights go to whomever currently holds the license.

-M

[Deathstroke]

The Dark Horse Omnibus Volume 6 and 7 of the their Conan stuff is due out soon. The sixth volume is scheduled for this coming week and I think #7 is due out in a couple of months.