27th September 2003, pencil, 19.5x29.5cm

Robert E Howard's legendary hero lives on... 

Following the events of "Shadows in the Dark" by L Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter from Conan the Swordsman , and then Conan the Renegade by Leonard Carpenter...

"... Conan's pride will not let him be 'Mr Queen' to any woman, no matter how beautiful or ardent.  After a time, Conan slips away to revisit his Cimmerian homeland and avenge himself on his old enemies, the Hyperboreans.

"Conan is now nearly thirty.  His blood brothers among the Cimmerians and Æsir have won wives and sired sons, some of them as old and almost as big as Conan had been when he first ventured into the rat-infested slums of Zamora.  His experiences as a corsair and a mercenary have stirred the spirit of battle and plunder too strongly in his blood for him to follow their example.  When traders bring word of new wars in the South, Conan rides back to the Hyborian Kingdoms.

"A rebel prince of Koth is fighting to overthrow Strabonus, penurious king of that far-stretched nation, and Conan finds himself in the princeling's army.  Unfortunately, the prince makes peace with his king, and his mercenary force becomes unemployed.  Its members, Conan among them, form an outlaw band, the Free Companions, who harry the borders of Koth, Zamora, and Turan impartially.  They finally gravitate to the steppes west of the Sea of Vilayet, where they join the ruffian horde known as kozaki .

"Conan soon fights his way to the leadership of this lawless crew and ravages the western borders of the Turanian empire, until his old employee, King Yildiz, adopts a policy of mass retaliation.  A force under Shah Amurath lures the kozaki deep into Turanian territory and cuts them down in a bloody battle by the river Ilbars..."

An illustration from the period of time outlined above, continued in the story "Shadows in the Moonlight" by Robert E Howard, in Conan the Freebooter.