After twenty-five issues of wandering through the Hyborian Age, Conan the Barbarian returns this November with an arc that promises a tantalizing look at Conan’s ascendance to kingdom. 

“The Conquering Crown” promises three issues of some of the most pivotal storytelling in the character’s legendary history. 

We sat down with editor Chris Butera to discuss why Issues #26-28 represent not just another adventure, but THE moment fans have been waiting decades to see properly told.

The Mercenary Who Doesn’t Want the Crown Takes It Anyway

“Conan cares nothing for these royal rumors and petty politics.”

That single line from the solicitation copy might be the most delicious irony in sword-and-sorcery history, and Heroic Signatures knew they had to do something with it. 

Series editor Chris Butera knows readers have been burning with curiosity since issue #25’s anniversary special revealed King Conan in all his regal glory. “Heroic hadn’t done a King Conan story in the monthly comic,” he explains. “Coming off the back of our first official one with #25, the question of ‘how did we get here with Conan on the throne’ kept coming up.” But rather than stretch this tale across a year of issues, Butera and writer Jim Zub chose radical compression, keeping his legendary ascendance locked to 3 issues. 

This economy of storytelling mirrors Howard’s own approach: drop readers into the action, trust their intelligence, deliver maximum impact. After twenty-five issues building mythology and momentum, everything strips down to its brutal essence. The result? A perfect entry point requiring zero homework for newcomers drawn by Bisley and De La Torre’s variant covers, while simultaneously delivering the story devoted fans have craved since page one.

Conan’s mercenary company – the Westermarck Wolves – ride to war thinking they’re fighting for Aquilonian gold. 

Their captain’s about to accidentally conquer civilization itself simply by refusing to concede before madness. But King Numedides of Aquilonia isn’t mad. 

He’s something far worse.

Mad King Numedides vs. The Mercenary

King Numedides is much more than another despot glutting himself on Aquilonia’s wealth. 

“Numedides believes he’s in contact with ‘The Woeful Eye,’ that it speaks to him, and that he’s receiving power and visions of the future from it,” Chris Butera reveals. Corruption on a cosmic scale makes this king both dangerously unpredictable and potentially empowered by eldritch sorcery. Against such madness, only someone completely outside the system could prevail.

That outsider rides with the Westermarck Wolves when Zingara’s invasion draws them into Aquilonia’s service. This Conan bears little resemblance to the bare-chested reaver of youth, for armor has replaced loincloth and tactical acumen has tempered rage. “He’s definitely wiser,” Butera notes. “The mind of a tactician/general is at the fore now, and he’s seen enough of the world to know when to speak up, and when to let other men talk themselves into an early grave.”

Yet wisdom doesn’t mean playing along with courtly games. When surrounded by sycophants and power-brokers, every scene crackles with tension: will the barbarian maintain composure, or will steel answer silk-tongued insults? Butera and writer Jim Zub understand that political intrigue only becomes thrilling when filtered through someone like Conan’s perspective: “It’s all about the tension in the scene… the audience knowing how things can go horribly wrong if Conan turns to his typical barbarous ways.”

The genius lies in how Conan navigates nobility. He “doesn’t so much as outmaneuver the nobles but blows past the song and dance of diplomacy when Numedides declares war,” as Butera explains. Where others calculate advantage, Conan simply states truth. Where courtiers cower, he stands unbowed. That honesty transforms from liability to revolutionary catalyst across three explosive issues. 

Issues that begin with a simple military victory…

Three Issues to Forge a King

Issue #26 erupts with Aquilonia bleeding. 

While Numedides descends deeper into madness, Zingara strikes at Poitain’s borders, vultures sensing weakness. The Westermarck Wolves answer the call.

Victory comes swiftly under Conan’s command, earning him the title “Hero of Poitain.” But heroes make useful tools for mad kings. Numedides sees opportunity: a barbarian-general to wield like a blade. That calculating gaze from the throne room becomes the first link in a chain of events neither man can stop.

Issue #27 brings Conan to Tarantia. The Mad King parades his new “bauble” before the court, whispering of the “Woeful Eye now awake” with such conviction that Conan recognizes both insanity and something darker. What happens when an unstoppable force meets unmovable madness? Butera promises “tension” that will leave readers breathless, as choices made in the throne room echo across an empire.

Issue #28 delivers the crown, but “of course… we know how this ends,” Butera teases. Howard told us decades ago. Yet those final panels promise a mystifying revelation about this legendary ascension. 

The crown changes hands, but at what cost?

“It’s an entire war campaign done in 3 issues!” Butera emphasized earlier, and that economy serves the story perfectly. No padding, no wheel-spinning: just destiny arriving with the weight of a broadsword. 

The fragments Howard scattered across four different stories finally coalesce into one definitive narrative.

Why This Arc Matters to Conan Fans

Howard scattered breadcrumbs across four stories: “Phoenix on the Sword,” “Scarlet Citadel,” “Hour of the Dragon,” and the “Wolves Beyond the Border” fragment. Each contained glimpses of Conan’s ascension, but never the full feast. Jim Zub gathered these fragments with scholarly dedication, drawing inspiration from various Hyborian Age scholars, including Dale Rippke’s extensive research, to ensure every detail rings true. “I made sure everything in there connects to ‘The Conquering Crown,'” he confirms, “even if events don’t play out in as straightforward a fashion as readers might expect.”

That unexpected approach serves Howard’s deepest theme: the barbarian outsider as civilization’s only honest savior. Aquilonia suffers through high taxes, war, and strife under Numedides until this foreign mercenary speaks truth where nobles whisper lies. The Cimmerian becomes their unlikely catalyst for revolution precisely because he doesn’t want the crown. Howard always knew that barbarism’s vitality could refresh civilization’s decay, and here that philosophy transforms from subtext to revolutionary action.

Fernando Dagnino captures this transformation across every panel. His battlefield compositions haunt Butera months later, particularly page 19 of issue #26, where “corpses and detritus from the battlefield” become architectural elements of the panelwork itself. Yet the artistic triumph extends beyond violence; watch how Dagnino evolves Conan visually from armored sellsword to reluctant monarch, tracking internal change through external details.

Zub layers the narrative with rewards for every reader level. Veterans will spot Baron Brocas of Conawaga, that obscure Westermarck frontier province from “The Black Stranger,” alongside dozens of similar deep cuts. Ancient evils resurface through careful symbolism, connecting to storylines that span the entire series. Meanwhile, newcomers experience a complete, satisfying epic that requires zero prior knowledge. 

Both audiences, regardless, witness history.

“Conan taking the crown fundamentally changes himself and the Hyborian Age as a whole,” Butera promises, yet stagnation isn’t a concern. Like Howard himself, Zub treats Conan’s life as a vast canvas–young thief, wandering mercenary, weary king–each era informing the others. Rather than end Conan’s wandering, this arc enriches every adventure that follows.

That’s why we think you’ll agree: the next edition can’t arrive soon enough.