Conan The Barbarian #22 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 22, August 2025

Whilst many a novelist has attempted to ‘flesh out’ Conan’s career as they see it since Robert E. Howard’s tragically early demise in June 1936, few have arguably tackled the 'cause' with as much gusto as Jim Zub does in this particular twenty-two page sequel to the short story "The Vale of Lost Women". Indeed, the Canadian author appears disconcertingly meticulous in frustratingly bogging down the Cimmerian’s travels to a specific gladiatorial arena inside the Stygian City of Kheshatta for at least a couple months, as the bronze-skinned warrior bests some of Thoth-Amon’s most formidable fighters single-handedly; “I asked Athyr-Bast to buy you from the slave market weeks ago. But she kept delaying, saying you couldn’t be found.”

To make matters worse though, the Animex Honorary Award-winner does so by suggesting that this ongoing series’ subjugated titular character can simply shrug off all manner of debilitating physical injuries that would certainly kill a lesser mortal. Such unconvincing recoveries disappointingly smacks of a writer being desperate for ideas as to how to make this “Titan Comics” incarnation of Howard’s creation stand out, and are as implausible as the barbarian being skewered by “a knife as long as his arm” one minute, and then incredulously making love to a sorceress in the next.

Likewise, the powers that be behind this book’s narrative would also suggest that Conan would willingly endure week and week of senseless slaughter, including him massacring his former comrades-in-arms from the Black Kingdom, simply to then literally sit atop a stone pedestal like a prize jewel. Admittedly, Zub states that the Cimmerian is simply biding his time for the right moment to escape. Yet when that opportunity arises, the pit-fighter is unremarkably just stood in the presence of his Serpent-worshipping ‘mistress’ – something which he must have done countless times before..?

Much more convincing than this periodical’s penmanship however, are Fernando Dagnino’s amazing layouts, which seem to take the very best of both Sal Buscema and Alan Davis’ styles, and mix them in with a few set-pieces strongly influenced by the art direction of John Milius’ 1982 motion picture “Conan the Barbarian”. Of particular note has to be this comic’s carousel of panels showing the results of Athyr-Bast’s heavily-muscled slave after he receives “weapon training from one of the finest instructors in Stygia”, as well as his sullen, cross-legged ‘look’ whilst sat atop the aforementioned plinth.

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" #22 by Dan Panosian