Marvel Comics introduced a fairly faithful 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. The highly successful Conan the Barbarian series spawned the more adult, black and white « The Savage Sword of Conan » magazine in 1974, by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala. « The Savage Sword of Conan » soon became one of the most popular comic book series in the 1970s and is now considered a cult classic.

The Marvel Comics' 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 Comics' artists and writers.