CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8 (2023)
TITAN COMICS/Heroic Signatures
STORY: Jim Zub
ART: Doug Braithwaite
COLORS: Diego Rodriguez
LETTERS: Richard Starkings of Comicraft
EDITOR: Chris Butera
COVER: Ashleigh Izienicki
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Patch Zircher; Greg Broadmore
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (March 2024)
Suggested for mature readers
“Thrice Marked for Death!” Part IV: “Sacrifice”
Conan the Cimmerian was born in the pulp fiction of Robert E. Howard (REH), first appearing in the magazine, Weird Tales (1932). In 1970, Marvel Comics brought Conan to the world of comic books via the title, Conan the Barbarian. With only a few pauses, Conan comic books have been published for the better part of five decades.
Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures are the new producers of Conan comic books, and they launched a new Conan the Barbarian series in 2023. The current story arc is written by Jim Zub; drawn by Doug Braithwaite; colored by Diego Rodriguez; and lettered by Richard Starkings. Entitled “Thrice Marked for Death!,” the arc finds Conan taking up with a thieves guild known as “The Gloryhounds,” and the target of their latest act of larceny is a fine-cut, dark stone that only Conan realizes is dangerous.
Conan the Barbarian #8 (“Sacrifice”) opens with Conan alone, wandering the streets, and possessed. Only recently, he ran with the thieves guild known as the “Gloryhounds.” They wanted to steal an artifact known as “Tarim's Touch,” but only Conan recognized it as a shard of the cursed “Black Stone,” which he'd once broken with a Pict Blade. Now, all the Gloryhounds are dead, their violent deaths caused by the spirits within Tarim's Touch.
Now, it's Conan's turn. All the spirits of the shard are inside him, and they want him to find the blade he once used against the stone. Because he'd sold it, Conan must now go on a rampage through darkened Shadizar in order to find it. When he finds it, will that bring him peace and freedom or more trouble and damnation?
THE LOWDOWN: Titan Comics has been providing me with PDF copies of their publications for review for several years now. Conan the Barbarian #8 is one of them.
Writer Jim Zub spends the narrative of his script for issue #8 working himself and the story into a corner. “Thrice Marked for Death!” must come to an end, but it doesn't seem that Zub will come up with an end that makes sense in the context of the situations in which he has placed Conan. But, of course, Zub does it. He saves the day and sends Conan on a new adventure, with the kind of tremendous surprise I would never expect.
Artist Doug Braithwaite continues to summon the ghosts of Conan's greatest comic book artist, John Buscema, with strong storytelling. Issue #8 is a sound and fury signifying a storm of trouble for Conan, with powerful, brutal and violent action that boggles the mind even of a longtime Conan reader like myself. The art shines brilliantly under Diego Rodriguez's remarkable colors. All the while, Richard Starking's lettering maintains a soundtrack of doom.
People looking for good comic books should be reading Titan Comics' Conan the Barbarian. This is the real Conan deal, and dear readers, I think you will enjoy this as much as I keep enjoying it.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Conan comic books will want to try Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures' Conan the Barbarian.
[This comic book includes the essay, “Robert E. Howard and His Ages Undreamed Of,” by Jeffrey Shanks. Although labeled as “Part Six,” it is also the eighth installment.]
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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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