Conan Goes Medieval in New Concept Art

Is this concept art for the upcoming Conan movie? ConanMovieBlog seems to think so. The upcoming film, which has a tentative release date of 2011 is a reboot of the popular comic book character “Conan the Barbarian” created by author Robert E. Howard in the 1930s.

Alex Tornberg was a concept artist for Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer at Funcom. Two character pictures at his portfolio have a distinctly familiar look to them. The two pictures bear the watermark “CONAN™ and © 2010 Conan Properties International LLC”–not, say, Age of Conan™, which is watermarked in other images–and so it could be construed that this is concept art not for the game, but for the film.

The first picture, “Conan the Panther,” has a few touchstones of the current look for the character: what might be the waistband of the red skirt/kilt can be seen in the bottom, as well as the belt supporting it. The necklace is a bit different from the design Momoa’s sporting, but such elements go through many permutations by different artists before a final look is decided upon, so that isn’t too surprising. Conan’s stance and posture are rather surprisingly similar to that of the most recently released publicity still, if in a mirror image.

The second picture, “Conan Ambush,” is more interesting, as it shows not yet another image of the titular character, but of other characters in the film. Judging by the gloomy, glum colours and the barbaric accouterments of the figures, I’d wager this is an image of Cimmerians. The central figure may be Conan–in another nod to cross-media artistic homogeny, he is wearing a livery collar very similar to the one the king sports in Age of Conan–but given how much older the
character depicted appears to be, I’d suggest this might be Corin, with the ambush in question being Khalar Zym’s. There’s a definite air of Vladimir Kulich in that image (I wonder if he was ever in talks for the job of Conan’s dad?)

This guy's work is amazing. The colors so good, I thought the first one was a photograph.

The upcoming film stars Jason Momoa (Stargate Atlantis) as Conan, Stephen Lang (Avatar), Rose McGowan Machete, Red Sonja) and Ron Perlman (Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires, The Hobbit: Part 2). The synopsis is "the tale of Conan the Cimmerian and his adventures across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village."

Author website: Alex Tornberg