Ravenwulf, Swordsman of Tanar'r

About six years ago, I came up with the idea for a sword & sorcery graphic novel featuring an aging barbarian adventurer, who, having declined a kingdom of his own, had settled in a small mountain village with a simple –but beautiful – woman, to raise a family and put a life of bloodshed and adventure behind him.

Obviously, it's a "what if Conan hadn't become king" set-up, but I hoped to make it slightly more than just another Conan pastiche. I saw it as a High Plains Drifter/Unforgiven type of story transplanted into the S&S genre. My intention was to serialize it online in a format identical to my original Gravedigger and Perils on Planet X strips with an ultimate goal of seeing it in print, and to that end, I began a search for the right collaborator.

Eventually, I came in contact with artist Sergio Cariello, who has gone on to fame and a steady paycheck with Dynamite Comics' Lone Ranger revival. Sergio seemed perfect for the project, and I sent him the script for the first 8-page chapter. He finished half of it before having to step away from the strip in favor of paying work. These are his pages above – click on them for readable sizes.

Well, I haven't done anything with the character or story since, although the story has been safely tucked away in some otherwise unused corner of my cerebellum, slowly gestating. I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately, and I believe that in a few months, I'll sit down and try to write it up in novel form. Now, I've had such ambitions before, and made nothing of them. But, this time, I think I just might....

Of course, I've got a lot of stuff to get out of the way first!