Conan The Barbarian #21 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 21, July 2025

Consisting of a number of nods to Robert E. Howard’s original short stories, such as "The Vale of Lost Women" and even arguably "Shadows in Zamboula", there is undeniably plenty within Jim Zub’s narrative for Issue Twenty One of “Conan The Barbarian” which should rather please any Hyborian heroes reading it. However, such is the fleetingly fast nature of this comic’s pacing, that few readers will actually be able to dwell upon the references before being faced with yet another in a disconcerting carousel of set-pieces; “Test your food carefully and do not drink any of the wine. Something about this feels strange…”

To begin with, this twenty-two page periodical’s opener absolutely races through a turbulent period of the titular character’s travels with a nameless band of mercenaries, and only appears to stop for a brief moment of respite to plug the Canadian author’s previously published Kull the Conqueror team-up tale, before dutifully leaping on to the Cimmerian’s battles alongside a tribe of Bamula warriors. Admittedly, this frantic flashback sequence, powerfully pencilled by “Ferocious” Fernando Dagnino, rather succinctly conveys the leading cast to an enigmatic town “near the border between Kush and Stygia", where this latest yarns starts. But such is the rocket-like momentum of the storytelling that it continues to carry the audience straight on through a suspiciously low-priced public house, a lively love-scene, and into a nervy nocturnal excursion across the mysterious municipal’s rooftops, before anyone knows what's happening.

Sadly such a whirlwind tour of this “oasis” also requires a few contrivances to occur, so as to force Conan into the very slave pit he finds during his aforementioned recce. Perhaps one of the biggest of these ploys is that the Cimmerian originally discovers the buried cell containing all the unfortunates drugged by the townspeople to be completely unprotected. Yet when the black-haired barbarian repeatedly attempts to break out for himself - by climbing up its walls, the Tripwire Award-winning writer stymies his escape with a number of “grinning guards” who knock him back to the ground. 

By far this comic's most unconvincingly manufactured moment though, is surely the titular character's crucial capture, when he unwisely decides to single-handedly storm straight into a tight-spaced tavern which is wall-to-wall with treacherous residents. This downfall is as swift as it was avoidable, and resultantly will cause many a bibliophile to feel it was only penned to allow Belit's former bodyguard to be climatically dragged before the feet of Thoth-Amon Just before this book runs out of panels.

Writer: Jim Zub, Artist: Fernando Dagnino, and Color Artist: Diego Rodriguez