Comics artist and writer Patrick Zircher grew up enjoying the pulp hero stories of Robert E. Howard, and has recently been writing and illustrating adventures from the early years of Solomon Kane. The collected edition of “Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring” is available from Titan Comics on November 4, 2025.
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1) You have been reading Robert E. Howard since your youth… What do those stories and those heroes mean to you?
They’re fantasies of the highest order. Not just another world and atmosphere but a set of emotions the reader wishes they were in possession of. Howard’s heroes, whether Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, El Borak, Dark Agnes, Bran Mak Morn, or others, are strong, stoic, confident, clever. They can handle anything. Kids can feel powerless. Adults can too. The kind of escapism Howard’s stories provide is very appealing.
2) Whose stories were your favourite?
It’s undeniable that Howard mastered the, well, Howardian hero with Conan. He’s more relaxed and confident when writing the Cimmerian. The Conan stories I most love: Beyond the Black River, The Tower of the Elephant, and Queen of the Black Coast. Among the Solomon Kane stories The Moon of Skulls and The Hills of the Dead are favorites. This is a younger Howard but these stories are echoed in what he does later with Conan. Howard’s life was tragically short and I would love to have seen him write more Kane in later years. All of his characters and stories have great moments and are intriguing. They’re potential for future stories is evident.
3) Was writing a story for a pulp hero different for you from writing other established comics characters?
While there isn’t an extreme difference (comic book heroes are similar to pulp heroes), I think there is more freedom. Fewer boundaries. No shying away from strong language, or the effects of violence, or the nudity in lovemaking. That feels natural and honest. There’s also more emphasis on the world around the characters. Attention to costumes, props, and surroundings that are sometimes taken for granted in a modern setting.
4) Were you a fan of Solomon Kane before writing this series? How did you approach writing Solomon’s words and thoughts?
Absolutely. I requested an opportunity to work on Solomon Kane. He’s always stood out to me among Howard’s characters. The equivalent of Batman being a darker and more elusive hero, or Dr. Strange as more mysterious and macabre. There’s a horror or supernatural element. Kane looks like a character from the Salem Witch trials. As far as the approach to writing him in comics, I thought a lot about what works in comics, where to bridge that with the original stories. He’s very aloof in the originals. Stern. I feel I had to give the readers some access to his personality. So there’s some internal monologue. Boxed narration that occasionally reveals his thoughts. And while some of the King Jamesian speech, the thees and thous, is there, it’s tempered. Used sparingly.
5) Was The Serpent Ring always going to be the story that introduced Titan Comics readers to this younger Solomon Kane?
In all practicality, yes. There were a few days when I was jotting down ideas, everything from the undead on frozen Baltic lakes, to tiger-lairs in the jungle temples of Java, but they were notes, images, not stories yet. Then Matt, my editor at the time, mentioned something they were doing with the Serpent Ring of Thoth-Amon in Conan. I was mulling over a story about Kane’s first adventure in Africa and that made the bells ring and the lights flash. A springboard for the story.
6) Was there a particular inspiration for the art style and character design for this series? It seems to imply more intense action and makes the story pacing appear to move faster.
Thank you. Whenever the art speaks and implies more, I’m happy to hear that. I don’t know. There really isn’t a Solomon Kane that looks like ours. I mean, the clothes yes, we’re paying attention to Howard’s descriptions, but in style this is a fresh Kane. I guess I could say European comics are an influence. I wanted that kind of detail, clarity, and background to be present in the story. Barry Windsor Smith is an art hero of mine. To some extent, I wanted some latter-era Smith effect. A touch of romanticism. Detail. Color. When making the book we’re struck by the visual contrast of his Puritan garb and the sun-drenched worlds Kane is moving through. It’s similar to the contrast of Jesuit priests to native Africa, South America, and Mexico. That’s a magic comics have, visualization that really brings home what the character is like, moving through his world.
7) Can we talk about those pirates? The ones we meet in this story feel like they need their own series battling the British privateers. Were they based on any particular real-life pirates we’d know about?
Ha! That’s the power of costuming. I did a lot of research for this series– the pleasure of a 16th century setting. There is an incredible amount of information and detail available. Like I’ve been given the most thought-out fantasy world imaginable to work with. English, Napolese, Aragonian, Portuguese, Venetian, Kongolese designs in one story and a host of others in the next.
8) If you could, what other pulp era hero would you also want to write and draw?
Howard stories alone are dream fuel. I could do a Solomon Kane series every year, for ten years, and be very happy with that. But I love Conan and Kull too. I would very much like to bring Almuric to comics. It’s Howard’s (and possibly a ghost writer as well) ode to John Carter of Mars, sword and planet pulp scifi. Howard has an obscure character, The Sonora Kid, I’d like to write a story about. I live in Tucson, in the Sonoran desert, and would love to ‘deep dive’ on that. And there’s terrific potential in El Borak, the Texas gunfighter who adventures in the Near East. Scimitars, six-guns, and lost temples of gold.
Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring
One of Robert E. Howard’s iconic heroes returns with furious vengeance in his own solo comic series.
The mighty Solomon Kane hunts for the Serpent Ring in this spectacular adventure fans of Howard and supernatural historical fiction are sure to love!
Solomon Kane, along with a mismatched group of companions including: an old scholar, his beautiful daughter, a disgraced Knight of Malta, an Italian rogue, and an African guide, search for the lost Serpent Ring of Thoth-Amon in the valley of the Serpent Men.
Legend says that the ring grants great power, and each of the treasure hunters, bar Kane himself, begin to be seduced and corrupted by the promise of that power.
But the ring is guarded by a sorceress, the Serpent Men, and the snake god itself, Yiggseth.
The ‘Sword of Vengeance’ slashes into his own new series, SOLOMON KANE: THE SERPENT RING! Kane battles from the Barbary Coast; across Southern Europe, to the canals of Venice, as a band of rogues forms around him in their quest for the fabled Serpent Ring of Set! It’s the much-anticipated return of Solomon Kane from Patrick Zircher (Superman, Iron Man, Savage Avengers, Moon Knight!)
Collects Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1-4
Publisher: Titan Comics
Publication date: November 4, 2025
Print length: 112 pages
ISBN-10: 1787746429
ISBN-13: 978-1787746428
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