I've showed off some design pages from the upcoming new edition of The Wizard's Tale, coming in late January from IDW. But now that it's all done and off to press, I figured I'd show off some of the interior pages—newly lettered, remastered, color-corrected by artist David Wenzel—in all their lush, painterly glory.

So here's the first eight pages. Click on each page for a closer view.

To be continued!

Just for good measure, here's the cover...

That's The Wizard's Tale, by me and David T. Wenzel. Reissued this January in a handsome new edition from the good folks at IDW. A bigger book, on better paper, relettered (and rescripted here and there) with completely remastered art color-corrected by Dave to ensure the best fidelity to his originals, a new book design by Comicraft's Senior Design Wizard John Roshell—and even a new three-page epilogue to the story, by me and Dave. And an updated, improved recipe for Sunshine Cake, to boot! Looks great, doesn't it? Ask for it by name, at comics stores, bookstores or (if you don't have local options) your favorite online retailer.

A reader writes in: "I am currently a student at the Joe Kubert School in New Jersey. I will be graduating in May of 2010, when I hope to start my career as a sequential artist. Right now I'm working on sample pages for some established characters. I would love to do some Conan pages, but I haven't had any luck finding scripts online. I'm a fan of your work on the Dark Horse series, and I was wondering if it would it be possible to get a script from you for one of your issues?"

Sure, why not? Rather than e-mail one, though I'm putting it up here on the website, where any artists who want to use it for drawing practice—or writers who want a script example, or reader who just wants to read a comics script for the hell of it—can have access to it. I was particularly proud of this issue; I think it's paced well, has a lot of excitement and charm, and it sets up the sting at the end without foreshadowing it 'til the last minute, so Conan comes off looking smarter than anyone would predict.

Download the script here: Conan 9 script

This is the first short story I ever sold. It originally appeared in 1991, in Newer York, an anthology of SF stories about New York City, edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

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