Fifty years.
That’s how long it took for an eight-year-old Italian boy who discovered Conan through John Buscema’s thunderous pencils to fulfill his destiny: painting the first-ever fully painted Conan comic interior.
Our friends at Forbidden Planet Camden just dropped an exclusive deep-dive with legendary painter Alex Horley about his monumental work on Conan the Barbarian #25, and by Crom, it’s a tale worth telling.
The Deal with the Devil
When Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures approached Horley about painting 34 pages of sequential Conan art, the artist knew exactly what he was walking into. “I knew I was going to be in trouble,” he admits.
One page per week. No second takes. No time for doubt. This was Horley’s blood debt to his childhood self, paid in full with oils and determination.
But how does an artist approach such a monumental task?
Where Frazetta’s Shadow Falls
The answer lies in Horley’s artistic DNA. The interview reveals how he discovered Frazetta’s “The Destroyer” at twelve and immediately bought brushes and paints, having “no clue what I was going to do.”
Yet while Frazetta painted his dreams, Horley’s Conan has always been pure Buscema: dynamic, kinetic, alive with violent motion. This dual influence shaped his approach to the anniversary issue: no photo references.
Instead, he relied on pure imagination channeled through traditional oils while metal thunders in his headphones.
This was art as combat, every brushstroke a sword strike.
And that combat philosophy drives every page of issue #25.
The Anniversary Issue That Changes Everything
Jim Zub’s script for Issue #25 gave Horley the perfect battlefield.
What amounts to a journey through the barbarian’s most iconic moments allowed Horley to “cross off his bucket list” with splash pages, double-spreads, and homages to the masters who came before.
King Conan reflecting on his violent past. Revisiting legendary battles. All rendered in paint that captures both the savage reality of the Hyborian Age.
Read the Full Saga
The complete interview with Alex Horley, including his thoughts on traditional vs. digital art, his work with Blizzard and Magic: The Gathering, and which Conan soundtrack fueled his painting sessions, awaits at Forbidden Planet’s blog.
Lo Terry
In his effort to help Heroic Signatures tell legendary stories, Lo Terry does a lot. Sometimes, that means spearheading an innovative, AI-driven tavern adventure. In others it means writing words in the voice of a mischievous merchant for people to chuckle at. It's a fun time.
