Conan: The Barbarian Free Comic Book Day May 2025 - Titan Comics

CONAN: THE BARBARIAN FREE COMIC BOOK DAY MAY 2025

Largely ‘locked on’ to a seventeen-year-old Conan’s unsuccessful attempt to burgle Aztrias Petanius’ manor in Nemedia, there initially appears to be plenty of engrossing narrative within this ‘Free Comic Book Day’ publication to keep even the most die-hard of Robert E. Howard fans thoroughly enthralled. Indeed, despite the aspiring thief’s poor choice of prey, and the Cimmerian’s unwillingness to actually splatter anyone’s brains during his confrontation with a pair of veteran guards, this periodical’s sixteen-page plot still contains a solid mixture of suspense, action and even glib humour; “Apparently the most appropriate punishment is letting your pitiful life carry on, worm.”

Unfortunately for some readers though, once this neatly-penned precursor to the 1952 short story “The God In The Bowl” concludes, the rest of Jim Zub’s script disappointingly transforms into a choppily-paced advertisement for the Canadian author’s upcoming "epic Conan event”, and rather ungracefully attempts to tie the titular character’s earliest adventures in with those of Brule the Spear-Slayer, Professor John Kirowan and Thoth-Amon. Of course, providing just such an appetiser is precisely the point behind this particular prelude to "Titan Comics" latest four-issue mini-series. However, it’s so clunkily crowbarred onto the end of this book's central yarn that it arguably appears a little too desperate in its desire to attract pre-orders.

In addition, the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Award-winner’s apparent obsession with the Hyborian Age's most powerful Stygian sorcerer being behind practically every one of the barbarian's misfortunes may well strike any bibliophiles already familiar with the writer's backlog of numerous Conan tales as being rather unimaginative – especially as the duo never actually meet face-to-face in any of the original novellas. Yet here is Zub (once again) trying to not only intrinsically link the two together, but also suggest that the snake-fixated warlock is dubiously connected throughout time and space to some of the father of sword and sorcery’s other creations too.

Probably this book’s biggest asset can therefore be found inside the layouts of artist Ivan Gil, who adds both the grandeur and grimness some bibliophiles may well expect to see whilst visiting the “night-swept streets” of Nemedia’s second largest city. In fact, the illustrator’s incredible ability to pencil a pair of snarling, ill-tempered soldiers in one panel, and then sketch them fearfully back-peddling away from the black-haired, heavily-muscled rogue before them in the next, is truly breath-taking.

Writer: Jim Zub, Artist: Ivan Gil, and Color Artist: Jao Canola