BotTalk Reviews

Jim Zub's The Age Unconquered part 3: Call from the Depths continues. We are still knee-deep in the Thurian Age aka the Pre-Cataclysmic Age.  Brule has been burning to know, since issue 9, what was said during the secret meeting between Yag-Kosha and Conan. Conan spills the beans via a flashback: The elephant man made the barbarian aware that he is indeed in the past, that spirits can roam free, but mortals are stuck in specific times, impeded by their own memories. Yag-Kosha knows that Conan has been strategically sent back in time by unknown divine forces. Conan thinks that perhaps he's being used by these godlike forces. Yag-Kosha, limited by his current physical form, cannot foretell Conan's future beyond his own death (at the hands of Conan in The Tower of the Elephant).  Yag-Kosha can see Conan only because they previously encountered each other in the future. He actually sees the Cimmerian as a floating chest hole, a phantasm without physical limitations. The friendl...

eBook by Henry Herz Cover once again by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Our favourite freebooters: Bêlit, the Queen of the Black Coast and Conan are on board The Tigress, the bireme oared warship is known by its painted menacing eyes and feared red long narrow flag.    Conan, wearing his horned helmet, an Hauberk from Nemedia and a cuirass, gorget and pauldrons all from Koth, spots a cog sailing by its lonesome. Bêlit really wants to ram the merchantman. Conan and his ebony reavers board the ship. Conan cuts a dude in half with his broadsword from Aquilonia. All the sailors still crossing swords on the trading vessel get killed. This carnage gets our pirates some grain, rum and amphorae of olive oil. Bêlit wants to go home to her haven. The Tigress, now damaged, is taking on water. Conan tells the boatswain to slow the ship down, they start removing water from the vessel. They arrive at Bêlit's magically concealed island retre...

Also available in Spanish: ISBN-13: 9788467964325 Conan el Bárbaro: La Historia Oficial de la Película Also available in German: ISBN-13: 9783986663438 Conan der Barbar: Die Entstehungsgeschichte des Kultfilms Also available in French: ISBN-13: 9782364809482 Conan le Barbare: L'histoire d'un Film Culte Also available in Portuguese: ISBN-13: 9788550822174  Conan o Bárbaro: a História Oficial do Filme John Milius's magnum opus gets an official hefty coffee-table book on its 41st anniversary. You know the sword-and-sorcery story: Warrior. Thief. Gladiator. Conqueror. Conan. It takes a little from "The Tower of the Elephant", "Queen of the Black Coast", "The Devil in Iron", "Shadows in Zamboula", "A Witch Shall Be Born", "Worms of the Earth", "The Shadow Kingdom", "The Cat and the Skull", "The Thing in the Crypt" and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). Young Conan learns of the Ridd...

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 th...

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...

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 Valusi...

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...

The all-new PREQUEL to the original simian sci-fi classic from 1968 is finally over. Cornelius frees the Gibbon slaves from their gigantic prison. Our favourite hippie chimpanzee Lucius saves his aunt Zira from being trampled by horses. The Hominidae empire is actually planning an invasion of Ape City. Nova kills Sergeant Audhild. Mutant leader Ivana makes Colonel Jarl see insects, he runs away.  The Gibbons do not want to fight the Gorillas, Cornelius tries to motivate them with a stirring "Caesar" speech. Surrounded by Gorillas, Sniper Kennard wants to retreat, Ivana says no. Nova wants to fight some more. Cornelius attacks with his Gibbon allies. Ivana avenges Lyla. Cornelius runs away with Lucius and Zira. The Gibbons win the day, Ivana wants Colonel Jarl to order his troops to surrender, he refuses. Ivana takes control of Jarl and the Colonel orders his soldiers to stand down. Ivana sends the gorillas to the gigantic Gibbon prison.   Back at Hope's Point (the ruins ...

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 sec...