Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard was first adapted into comics in 1952 in Mexico. Marvel Comics began publishing Conan comics with the series Conan the Barbarian in 1970. Dark Horse Comics published Conan from 2003 to 2018, when the rights were reacquired by Marvel Comics. Marvel published Conan comics until 2022, and Titan Comics took over the license from Heroic Signatures to begin publishing its own series. La reina de la Costa Negra The first comic book adaptation of a Howard Conan story was the feature La reina de la Costa Negra (taken from the original Conan story, "Queen of the Black Coast") in the miniature-size Mexican anthology title Cuentos de Abuelito #8 (1952) published by Corporacion Editorial Mexicana, SA. The series features the main characters, Conan and Bêlit, though Conan is depicted as blond rather than black-haired. Issues 8 through 12 adapted the original Howard story, while subsequent issues featured original material. The feature ran in nearly every issue of Cuentos de Abuelito up through number 61. A digest-sized standalone series, La reina de la Costa Negra, was published by Ediciones Mexicanas Asocidas in 1958–1959 which lasted for at least eleven issues. In 1965–66 Ediciones Joma published a standard-size La reina de la Costa Negra comic that ran for at least 53 issues. Marvel Comics Marvel Comics introduced a version of Conan in 1970 with Conan the Barbarian, written by Roy Thomas with art initially by Barry Windsor-Smith, then John Buscema and Ernie Chan (aka Ernie Chua). The successful Conan the Barbarian series spawned the more adult, black-and-white Savage Sword of Conan in 1974, by Thomas, Buscema, and Alfredo Alcala. Savage Sword of Conan soon became one of the most popular comic series in the 1970s. The Marvel Conan stories were also adapted as a newspaper comic strip which appeared daily and Sunday from September 4, 1978, to April 12, 1981. Originally written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by John Buscema, the strip was continued by several different Marvel artists and writers. Other Marvel Conan titles over the years include Savage Tales (1971–1975, issues 1–5 only), Giant-Size Conan (1974–1975), King Conan/Conan the King (1980–1989), Conan the Adventurer (1994–1995), Conan (1995–1996), and Conan the Savage (1995–1996). After the 2019 return of Conan to Marvel titles included Conan: Serpent War (2019–2020 miniseries), Conan: Battle for the Serpent Crown (2020 miniseries), alongside the reappearance of Conan the Barbarian (2019-present) and