Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine. After first appearing in pulp magazines, the character has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer), television programmes (animated and live action), video games, and role-playing games.
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". Before Howard's death he wrote 21 stories starring the barbarian. Over the years, many other writers have written works featuring Conan.
