Bottalk Reviews

A Free Comic Book Day prelude to Battle of the Black Stone: The Staring Sigil. Author avatar, James Allison (The Valley of the Worm, last seen in Zub's Conan: Serpent War), a 1930s pulp writer from Lost Knob aka Cross Plains, Texas who can recall the lives of his heroic past incarnations is startled by an unseen, unwelcome visitor, a phantom monster... possibly the vile Stygian sorcerer Koth-Serapis. Back to the Hyborian Age. We are Beyond the Black River. The new Aquilonian province of Conajohara, Fort Tuscelan on the edge of the Pictish wilderness. Conan and friends are fighting incredibly crazed, almost suicidal Picts. Conan decapitates their giant, he notices that the man mountain is wearing a bone necklace with a pendant fabricated from a fragment of the BLACK STONE incised with a familiar eye symbol. Conan's soul is instantly assaulted by a flashback consisting of the events from past issues (Conan the Barbarian #1-8). Solomon Kane, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, El Borak aka

eBook by Shaun Hamill Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  A prequel to Robert E. Howard's The Tower of the Elephant. Kordava, the capital city of Zingara. Barkeep, Mugido is watching a young Conan who is wearing trousers and a shirt. A bored, cash-strapped Conan is observing the ships floating in the harbour. Zingaran sailor, first mate, Flavio de Palma the Bold from the Fortune’s Dawn enters the watering hole, he offers the barbarian youth a fresh ale, employment and adventure. Sailing ships and the sea are still a mystery to Conan. Flavio is seeking mercenaries to safeguard a valuable cargo that needs to go to Aquilonia (one day Conan will sits upon the throne of Aquilonia). Apparently, the Shirkri River is squirming with pirates Flavio and Conan find the Fortune’s Dawn, a carrack with three masts.  It is Conan's very first time on a ship. Conan meets the crew: Lookout: Marco of the wooden leg Helmsman: Anen of the gold

It is time to go back to the spinner rack to get the 2nd issue of the brand new Conan black-and-white mag!  60 spectacular pages of barbaric savagery printed on newsprint!  Inside this anthology you'll find the following treasures: A fresh new Pin-Up of Conan by Rafael Kayanan A fresh new Pin-Up of Conan by Gerardo Zaffino A fresh new Pin-Up of Solomon Kane by Nick Marinkovich Conan the Barbarian: Leaving the Garden by Jim Zub and Richard Pace Pesach the Plenty's wagons are brimming with goods, including his family, Conan is tagging along. We are in Shem en route to Argos. Pesach's young son mentions giants from The Frost-Giant's Daughter. Conan promises him more tales of his adventures in the future. Conan wants to leave the convoy behind, for the simple reason that he has debts to pay in Argos. Pesach offers Conan Corinthian spirits as an incentive to stay by his side. Pesach wants to sell his rare combustible (pitch derived from plants) in the port city of Messantia.

eBook by Brian D. Anderson  Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Mekahumet, a vermin less city south of the Shemite border, ruled by Boa constrictors and cats.  To pay off his debts, Arnold Schwarzenegger... oops, I mean Conan is now working for the Magistrate Lanitar. Conan is in Jabari Ishman's tavern and is offered poisoned beer. Pregnant pause. This gives birth to a bar brawl. Conan, as per his contract, dispatches every single guild assassin and thief inside the dive... in just minutes. He finds another mug of ale, this time untainted and downs it. The pleased Magistrate gives our Cimmerian another assignment. A super sexy noblewoman guides a concupiscent Conan to a small but superb armoury where he finds wealthy merchant Barathis Akken. The sword of Asgardian warrior Sven Orthan Half-Blood with its nice Northmen runes catches Conan's eye. Yulivaria, a dark sorceress, has kidnaped Barathis Akken's noble wife Gadran

Jim Zub's The Age Unconquered part 2: Far Shores and Fearless Men continues. We are still stuck in the Thurian Age aka the Pre-Cataclysmic Age.  The King of Valusia, Kull is having a vivid nightmare. Friendly large wild cats are asking his young savage self (last seen in Exile of Atlantis) to join the hunt. The lion wants a naked Kull (no leopard-skin loincloth for this dude) to return to his old village of the Sea-Mountain tribe... now debased by a spire made of BLACK STONE. Kull bypasses the spectres of the dead villagers and enters the tapering BLACK STONE structure. Kull sees his future selves and chieftain Brule, the Spear-Slayer in a hall of mirrors (last seen in The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune). Kull ages into a living corpse, but before dying he reaches the BLACK STONE, but it will not yield its secrets. The BLACK STONE self destructs, this kills the Atlantean King, peeling the flesh from his frame. The BLACK STONE tower explodes.  The capital of Valusia, the city of Valusia nic

eBook by John C. Hocking Dedicated to Roy Thomas (Conan comic book writer and editor) Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  A sequel to CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS! Yes, the fan favourite Conan pastiche from 1995. With their Little Shop of Horrors adventure with the wizard, Ethram-Fal now in the rear view mirror, the emerald lotus addicted long legged sorceress Lady Zelandra of Akkharia desires to return home, to do so Conan and friends have to cross the River Styx from Stygia to Shem. Seeking a boat, our heroes arrive at the village of Quenah, but it's a ghost town. They sleep in an abandoned tavern, thinking of searching the docks the next day. Two living corpses appear! One steals the sorceress's last stash of eldritch drug (the crushed seeds of a deadly, addictive lotus plant that enhances her magical powers and that she is tapering off over time to be free of it) while the other zombie is just a distraction brandishing

eBook by Stephen Graham Jones Cover by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Herdsman Jen Ro's French kissing cow rouses our blood caked Cimmerian from his slumber. Conan remembers being part of Shen-ga's raiding party, something must have turned sour on the battlefield because he realizes that he is now lost in the mountains. Conan collapses back to sleep in cowpats.  Conan finally awakens surrounded by cattle, and with Jen Ro's water, he washes the blood of battle from his body and loincloth. Jen Ro, a black lotus addict, cuts a steak from his narcotized cow's flank and miraculously heals the new wound with a mixture of glowing purple moss and black lotus. Jen Ro starts cooking the meat, but the starving Cimmerian can't wait and consumes it rare. Conan asks for more, Jen Ro goes to another drugged cow and brings more meat and wine.  Jen Ro mentions Trinnecerl, a village where he usually sells his purple glowing horned bovines. But

eBook by Steven L. Shrewsbury Cover by Gary Gianni (that Raven helmet is pretty fly! Brân means Raven) Illustrations by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  The past... We are witnessing the last great battle of Bran Mak Morn. Picts and Romans are fighting. Bran Mak Morn, of the blood of Brule the Spear-slayer (the friend of King Kull of Valusia who reigned thousands of years ago before Atlantis sank) kills a Decurion (a Roman cavalry officer). Alaric and Bran's son Gallam are also there. Old Scottish priest Father Rogan stirs Dr. Elijah Blackthorn from his vision/reading. Dr. B, a psychometric archaeologist with the Miskatonic Institute of Technology awakens in an ancient Scottish Episcopal church, the Rosslyn Chapel. Dr. B spots Purple sashes of Advent (violet is the colour of royalty) anticipating the arrival of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Dr. B has a special talent, artifacts talk to him, he only has to touch them and their secrets

Jim Zub's The Age Unconquered part 1: Suffer Not the King of Wonders, starts here. Conan stabbed himself in the chest and died on the way back to his home planet? The End? Nope! Not the end. Conan gets The Terminator treatment and gets sent back in time by unknown mystical forces to the Thurian Age (The Age of Atlantis), the epoch of Atlantean King Kull of Valusia and his buddy Brule, the Spear-Slayer, a Pict of the Borni tribe. We see Brule once again piercing the loathsome Black Stone statue with his blessed spear from way back in issue #4. Lighting from heaven's grasp strikes the spear and the obelisk shatters. Time traveler Conan still alive with his clothes, horned helmet and Brule's sword, emerges from the destroyed Black Stone sculpture, you know, like in Ghostbusters with the charred Terror Dogs. Brule's Pictish warriors suggest killing the slime covered barbarian from the future. The Spear-Slayer stops them. A confused Conan does not remember Brule (from previo

eBook by Violet Castro Cover by Jenny Frison Illustrations by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  A storm is battering Bêlit's ship the Tigress, crewmates are flying overboard. First mate Seneka, an expert tracker, is trying to protect Bêlit from the storm, They've been together for five years. The Tigress stops moving suddenly, they have hit land, an island. Hassan starts assessing the damage. Bêlit hits the beach, removes her boots and devours a fallen blood fruit from a nearby tree.  Hassan needs to work on the mast and to cut down trees to repair the Tigress's belly. Seneka, Mithras and Zeke will gather fruit, coconuts and make a fire. Nora will fish. They eat under the clouds that are obscuring the stars and preventing them from knowing their position. They start exploring the island in teams. Zeke and Mithras into the jungle. Nora and Homer to the left. Horus and Ajani to the right. The teen Mithras returns to tell Bêlit that N

This is not a black lotus induced dream. What you're seeing on the spinner rack is real! It's a brand new bimonthly Conan black-and-white magazine!  Yup! 80 spectacular pages of barbaric savagery printed on newsprint!  Inside this anthology you'll find plenty of treasures: A Personal Introduction by Roy Thomas Map of the Hyborian Age by Francesca Baerald A fresh new Pin-Up of Conan by Rob De La Torre A fresh new Pin-Up of Bêlit by Rebeca SubversiveGirl Puebla A fresh new Pin-Up of Solomon Kane by Howard Chaykin Pin-Up of the variant cover by Gerardo Zaffino with Robert E. Howard's poem: The Road of Kings  Pin-Up of the cover by Joe Jusko Solomon Kane, an essay by archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks Conan & The Dragon Horde by John Arcudi & Max Von Fafner Max is killing it on the art! Departing the Wahuan desert, now setting foot into the steppes of Hyrkania, General Conan is leading the 200 men - 1 woman army of exiled Prince Zaahid of Ul-Dalkhana, mostly gold lusting

Thrice Marked for Death! part four: Sacrifice!... Jim Zub's blood-soaked sequel to Queen of the Black Coast ends here. We get more "amazing" memories of Conan's time with his girlfriend aboard the Tigress.  Conan is sword fighting for fun with Lanre. Bêlit wants to spar with an ancient weapon (Brule/Brissa's Pictish blade) that she just stumbled upon, Conan refuses to indulge her because of his feelings for it. In a jealous fit of rage Bêlit tries to toss the half-sword overboard. Conan stops her. Back to the present, Conan, now a thrice possessed tool for Thulsa Doom is walking around the city of Shadizar. We get more flashbacks: Conan breaking the vessel from issue 4, the jungles of Kush, his fight with a shapechanger in the grasslands, the selling of the Pictish blade to Jaali the trader.  The nefarious spectres inside our Cimmerian want that blade... to corrupt it. Jason Voorhees...  I mean, Conan goes back to the pawnshop, kills Jaali's nephew and Thulsa