Greg Ruth

Busiek reunites with artist Greg Ruth, whose art "is gorgeous to look at, conveying a different but equally lush vision of Cimmeria" according to The Fourth Rail. This story looks deeper into Conan's earliest adventures. Having crippled a bullying playmate, young Conan's become a solitary figure. Born on the battlefield and destined for greatness, the boy's shown a fierce independence and bravery. The adults don't know what to do with such a formidable child and the other boys are afraid of him. When he discovers an Aquilonian wizard and daughter living in the woods outside his village, Conan is torn between his respect for their rogue existence and his chance to become a real Cimmerian warrior by exposing the foreign spies.

Kurt Busiek teams up with Greg Ruth for another eye-popping tale spotlighting Conan's earliest years. At the age of ten, Conan already finds boyhood too small to contain his manly strength and ambition. But when disease strikes him and his village, he is left weak and unworthy. Determined to regain his self-respect, he journeys alone to the site of one of Cimmeria's bloodiest battles—but little does Conan know that vile men hide in the shadows of this place, waiting to prey upon those so foolish as to awaken the fallen warriors from their uneasy sleep.

Kurt Busiek and Greg Ruth return to Conan with another blood-stirring installment of "Born on the Battlefield," a series of stand-alone stories chronicling Conan's portentous formative years. Spring has come to the hard hills of Cimmeria and life is eventful for Conan--the robust youth earning the affection of more than one young woman. Yet gentle days are not long-lived in this land. A storm comes on the horizon. When it breaks, Conan will discover the consequences of his choices, determining not only his own fate, but that of his entire village--featuring the formative event from Robert E. Howard's account of Conan's youth: the boy vs. the bull!

The rising storm continues to swell in this new chapter of "Born on the Battlefield." As the fist of Aquilonia tightens around Cimmeria's neck, the tribes have laid siege to the fort of Venarium in a desperate bid to protect their homeland from the encroaching empire.

At last, the Battle of Venarium: a tale gorged with blood, death, triumph, loss, glory, and revelation, as Conan reaches the first major turning point in his life before leaving Cimmeria for the world outside and becoming a legend in both.

The legend of Conan begins in the middle of a Cimmerian war-his incredible strength and skill, evidenced in his youth, was always credited to the bloody circumstances of his birth. This special fill-in issue brings Greg Ruth, acclaimed artist of Freaks of the Heartland, into the Conan fold. "Born on the Battlefield," by Busiek and Ruth, will be spread over the next two years of the Conan monthly, in six stand-alone chapters, leading up to the epic Battle at Venarium! Next issue Cary Nord returns with the second major story arc, as Conan discovers the wonders and horrors of the civilized world-with covers by Leinil Francis Yu!