The recent Red Sonja reboot (which still is not out on Blu-Ray or DVD) inspired the sword and sorcery themed summer at Swords and Rayguns. Now that summer is over it seems fitting to end it with a look at the other Robert E. Howard characters who have jumped from the pulp magazines to other media. Before we do that, though, it is probably worth mentioning Red Sonja is not actually a Robert E. Howard character! The Red Sonja we know from two big screen adaptations, comics and even television was created by Barry Windsor-Smith and Roy Thomas for Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #23 (February 1973). She was at least partially based on a character name Red Sonya from The Shadow of The Vulture, a Robert E. Howard story published in the January 1934 issue of The Magic Carpet Magazine. Set in the 16th century, features Red Sonya of Rogatino, a pistol shooting Polish-Ukrainian red head with an axe to grind. She has the hair, temperament and a similar name to the more famous comic book swordswoman. Red Sonya of Rogatino, though, is not the “she-devil with a sword.”

Robert E. Howard’s most famous character is, of course, Conan the barbarian. He arguably first appeared in People Of The Dark, which ran in Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror’s June 1932 issue. A story of a man remembering his past lives, a black haired barbarous warrior called Conan is among the previous incarnations. Later that year Weird Tales ran the first official Conan story, The Phoenix on the Sword, (which was a re-work of a rejected Kull story titled By This Axe I Rule!) in December 1932. Conan was a hit and the next month’s issue saw a second Conan tale with four more running by the end of the year. Weird Tales published six Conan stories in 1934, another four in 1935 and one long story spread over three issues in 1936, the year Howard died. The only other magazine to publish a Conan story during Howard’s life was Fantasy Fan in 1934. Later, all Howard’s Conan stories would be published and other authors would complete his unfinished stories, fragments and outlines.

Conan first entered comics with a pair of Spanish language adaptations in the 1950s. The 1950s also saw Gnome Press collecting Howard’s stories into hardcover collections. They published all known works by Howard and a few which had not been previously published. Gnome Press also commissioned a story by Björn Nyberg, the first Conan story written by an author other than Howard. Thanks to a renewed interest in pulp stories in the 1960s Conan’s adventures were released in paperback, first by Lancer/Ace. Conan proved popular enough new stories were added to Howard’s, mainly written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Bantam took over the character in the late 1970s and continued to add new stories. Marvel started publishing Conan comics in 1970 through several titles, including the general barbarian themed anthology series Savage Tales. There was even a newspaper strip in the late 1970s. Tor eventually took over publishing Conan prose and continued to issue new novels, several written by Robert Jordan. On the comics side Dark Horse secured the rights to Conan in 2003 and published comics featuring the barbarian for 15 years. In 2019 Marvel secured the rights to Conan again but Titan picked them up in 2022 and is still publishing Conan comics today. In fact, their latest title Conan: Scourge of the Serpent launched just this past week.

Red Sonja’s comic run began in Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #23 in 1973. As mentioned previously, she was created for the comics as a females counterpart to Conan and proved incredibly popular. Called the she-devil with a sword, she ran for several issues of Marvel Features in 1975 and in 1977 got her own title. It was revived in 1983 for 13 issues and a double issue movie tie-in was released in 1985. Dynamite took over Red Sonja in 2005. They have released several Red Sonja titles and more than one version of the heroine. They continue to publish Red Sonja titles to the present but because they do not have rights to Conan the character has developed her own story universe and mythology quite separate from both Howard’s and Marvel’s barbarian.

Conan of course went from Marvel Comics to the movies with Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984), both starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and a reboot film starring Jason Momoa also titled Conan the Barbarian (2011). The original movies were popular enough to spawn the animated Conan the Adventurer in 1993 produced in partnership between Sunbow and Jetlag Productions. A second season, titled Conan and the Young Warriors, was produced solely by Sunbow Productions, the company which also made GI Joe: A Real American Hero (1983-1986) and Transformers (1984-1987). The Conan movies were also popular enough to inspire a wave of lower budget, and often straight to video, barbarian films. Among them was the theatrically released Red Sonja (1985) starring Brigitte Nielsen and co-written by George Macdonald Fraser, author of the Flashman series of novels. Although not tied to Conan the filmmakers cast both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sandahl Bergman from Conan the Barbarian to attract moviegoers. A new version of Red Sonja starring Matilda Lutz saw an extremely limited two day release in 2025 with an immediate digital release. It is unclear if it was successful enough to earn a sequel.

Meanwhile, after the animated run Conan jumped into syndicated live action. This was, no doubt, at least partially due to the popularity of Hercules the Legendary Journeys (1995-1999). The live action show was, somewhat confusingly, also titled  Conan the Adventurer. Starring 6 foot 6 inch body builder Rolf Möller as Conan, the series portrayed Conan not as a thief and mercenary but as the hero picked by Crom to free the oppressed and thwart the ambitions of the wizard Hassan Zul. Hampered by cast changes and a low budget, the show only ran for a single season in 1997 although it did introduce Red Sonja, as portrayed by Baywatch alum Angelica Bridges, in a single episode late in the run.

Conan the Adventurer was not the first time Howard’s properties were adapted to television. His short story Pigeons From Hell formed the basis of a 1961 episode of the anthology series Thriller. Other than this one episode and the various Conan series, though, other Howard characters have not made it to television. Two others did make it to the silver screen.

Kull had actually preceded Conan in publication, debuting in The Shadow Kingdom (Weird Tales, August 1929) and returning to the magazine in September of the same year. Kull found his way to comics appearing in Conan titles starting in 1971 and occasionally headlining his own titles, such as 1973’s Kull and the Barbarians. (Quick side note: Kull is in no way related to DC’s King Kull, a monsterish foe of Captain Marvel dating back to his Fawcett Comic days). Dark Horse published Kull comics starting in 2006, also re-publishing Marvel’s Kull stories. IDW briefly ran a Kull title in 2017 and Arrow Comics ran a Kull adaptation in 2024 but Titan Comics now has the rights to the character with a series planned in 2027. A single movie, Kull the Conqueror with Kevin Sorbo and Tia Carrere was released in 1997. Although obviously not quite the big budget blockbuster Conan the Barbarian was, it is a fairly well made movie arguably on par with Conan the Destroyer and definitely better than the average post-Conan inspired barbarian film.

There have been several attempts to produce another Conan film, including an effort to the late 1980s which reportedly eventually became the basis of Kull the Conqueror and a film which would see the mantle of the barbarian being passed from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Dwayne Johnson. There was also an effort by Universal to create a new television series, possibly for a streaming service such as Amazon Prime. All of these projects, though, are currently no longer in development. 

Although Robert E. Howard published a wide range of pieces, including poetry, westerns and boxing stories, he is best known for his sword and sorcery adventures. In addition to Conan and Kull he authored several stories about Pict warrior Bran Mack Morn, Irish rogue Black Turlogh and crusader Cormac Fitzgeoffrey. Set around the turn of the 18th century, the adventures of Solomon Kane (who first appeared in the August 1928 edition of Weird Tales) may or may not be considered sword and sorcery. Although a master swordsman, Kane is living in a world of firearms and usually carries at least two flintlock pistols (which he is not afraid to use). The devout, and surprisingly bloodthirsty, Puritan Solomon Kane wanders the world hunting evil, with many of his stories set in Africa. One or two tales do not include supernatural elements although most do. Still, Solomon Kane moves through a world much more familiar to readers than heroes such as Conan and Kull.

Solomon Kane first entered comics in Marvel’s Monsters Unleashed #1 (August 1973). He frequently ran as a back story in Conan-centered comics and magazines, although he did once meet Dracula in a Marvel comic and had his own six issue comic in the mid-1980s. Dark Horse briefly produced Solomon Kane comics between 2008 and 2010 but the rights to the character were acquired by Titan in 2022, who also publish Conan and Kull stories. Solomon Kane was brought to the big screen in a self-titled movie starring James Purefoy 2009. It was intended to be the first of a trilogy but a relatively poor reception and overall loss of money at the box office kept other films from being produced.

Although there are no other television or film productions featuring Robert E. Howard’s characters there is one other Robert E. Howard film. Vincent D’Onofrio portrayed Robert E. Howard opposite Renée Zellweger in the 1996 film The Whole Wide World. Telling story of the failed romance between Howard and school teacher Novalyne Price (Ellis) prior to Howard’s suicide in 1936. It was based on Novalyne Price Ellis’s memoir The One Who Walked Alone.