The earliest appearance of a Robert E. Howard character named Conan was that of a black-haired barbarian with heroic attributes in the 1931 short story "People of the Dark".

In October 1931, he submitted the short story "People of the Dark" to Clayton Publications' new magazine, Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror (June 1932).

"People of the Dark" is a story about the remembrance of "past lives", and in its first-person narrative, the protagonist describes one of his previous incarnations: Conan is a black-haired barbarian hero who swears by a deity called Crom.

[3][4] According to some scholars, reading Thomas Bulfinch inspired Howard to "coalesce into a coherent whole his literary aspirations and the strong physical, autobiographical elements underlying the creation of Conan".

Howard also wrote "The Scarlet Citadel" and "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", inspired by the Greek myth of Daphne,[citation needed] and submitted both stories to Weird Tales magazine.

Editor Farnsworth Wright subsequently prompted Howard to write an 8,000-word essay for personal use detailing "the Hyborian Age", the fictional setting for Conan.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the copyright holders permitted Howard's stories to go out of print entirely as the public demand for sword & sorcery dwindled, but continued to release the occasional new Conan novel by other authors such as Leonard Carpenter, Roland Green, and Harry Turtledove.

In 2003, another British publisher, Wandering Star Books,[6] made an effort both to restore Howard's original manuscripts and to provide a more scholarly and historical view of the Conan stories.

[9] After its demise, he was struck by wanderlust and began the adventures chronicled by Howard, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches, and beautiful princesses.

In his forties, he seized the crown from the tyrannical king of Aquilonia, the most powerful kingdom of the Hyborian Age, having strangled the previous ruler on the steps of his own throne.

In "Jewels of Gwahlur", he has to make a split-second decision whether to save the dancing girl Muriela or the chest of priceless gems which he spent months in search of.

In "The Black Stranger", Conan saves the exile Zingaran Lady Belesa at considerable risk to himself, giving her as a parting gift his fortune in gems big enough to have a comfortable and wealthy life in Zingara, while asking for no favors in return.

Reviewer Jennifer Bard also noted[12] that when Conan is in a pirate crew or a robber gang led by another male, his tendency is to subvert and undermine the leader's authority, and eventually supplant (and often, kill) him (e.g. "Pool of the Black One", "A Witch Shall be Born", "Shadows in the Moonlight").

In a letter to P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark in 1936, only three months before Howard's death, Conan is described as standing 6 ft/183 cm and weighing 180 pounds (82 kg) when he takes part in an attack on Venarium at only 15 years old, though being far from fully grown.

Conan himself says in "Beyond the Black River" that he had "not yet seen 15 snows" at the Battle of Venarium: "At Vanarium he was already a formidable antagonist, though only fifteen, He stood six feet tall [1.83 m] and weighed 180 pounds [82 kg], though he lacked much of having his full growth."

Although Conan is muscular, Howard frequently compares his agility and way of moving to that of a panther (see, for instance, "Jewels of Gwahlur", "Beyond the Black River", or "Rogues in the House").

During his reign as king of Aquilonia, Conan was[excessive quote] [...] a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs.

In his fictional historical essay "The Hyborian Age", Howard describes how the people of Atlantis—the land where his character King Kull originated—had to move east after a great cataclysm changed the face of the world and sank their island, settling where Ireland and Scotland would eventually be located.

For example, in "Jewels of Gwahlur" Howard states: "In his roaming about the world the giant adventurer had picked up a wide smattering of knowledge, particularly including the speaking and reading of many alien tongues.

Another noticeable trait is his sense of humor, largely absent in the comics and movies, but very much a part of Howard's original vision of the character (particularly apparent in "Xuthal of the Dusk", also known as "The Slithering Shadow".)

Some of his hardest victories have come from fighting single opponents of inhuman strength: one such as Thak, an ape-like humanoid from "Rogues in the House", or the strangler Baal-Pteor in "Shadows in Zamboula".

[15] Additionally, many of the Conan stories by Howard, de Camp, and Carter used geographical place names from Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborean Cycle.

The Gnome edition also issued the first Conan story written by an author other than Howard—the final volume published, which is by Björn Nyberg and revised by de Camp.

Later writers included J. M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Michael Fleisher, Doug Moench, Jim Owsley, Alan Zelenetz, Chuck Dixon and Don Kraar.

Dark Horse's third series, Conan: Road of Kings, began in December 2010 by Roy Thomas (writer) and Mike Hawthorne (artist) and ran for twelve issues.

In 2022, it was revealed that Titan Publishing Group had acquired the rights from Heroic Signatures to make Conan comics, with a new ongoing series set to release in May 2023.

In February 2015, another British company, Modiphius Entertainment, acquired the license, announcing plans to put out a new Conan role-playing game in August of that year.

In August 2018, Conan Properties International LLC won by default a suit against Spanish sculptor Ricardo Jove Sanchez after he failed to appear at court in the United States.

Jove had started a crowdfunding campaign that raised around €3000 on Kickstarter, with the intent of selling barbarian figurines to online customers, including those in the United States.

[32] In 2024, British author and Eisner Award winner John Allison started to publish a Conan serial online, with a tongue-in-cheek narrative heavily intermingled with characters from his own works.