Bottalk Reviews

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

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

Thrice Marked for Death! part three: HAUNTED!... Jim Zub's vulgar sequel to Queen of the Black Coast continues. Conan is remembering "the good old times" with his bipolar girlfriend Bêlit. Back to the present, a bewitched Chaundra "The Chat" (It's somehow very important to constantly remind the reader that she's nicknamed "The Chat" but apparently Zub means a chatterbox not a songbird or a cat.) tries to assassinate our Cimmerian. "The Chat", now with deadite-like looks and enhanced strength, stabs Conan in the trapezius and slits a poor random dude's tongue. Conan kills her. Bleeding, haunted by the past, lost in his fevered mind, Conan garrottes Bêlit. Conan stumbles upon Kamal's secret gathering point. The barbarian finds his allies from the guild of thieves butchered by Kamal and locksmith Greff, both also possessed, just like "The Chat". Conan kills his two bandit buddies, dead Chaundra shows up, all 3 spectres

Thanks to Titan Books for giving us this opportunity to interview Simon! 1) How did the current trade paperback re-publications of your TF work come about? 1A) I'd always harboured the idea of getting my US TF run back in print in collected editions, but it wasn't really until 1997/1998 (when I attended two Botcons) that I realized that there may still be a market out there. Even so, it was another couple of years until the time seemed to be right. There was a lot of retro interest in all things 80s, TF included, and a new Gen 1 style toy line in the offing, so armed with enough potential sales information I felt confident enough to pitch the idea to Titan (without getting laughed out of the room). 2) I help run a chain of four comic book stores in America, and I just wanted to tell you that there is a great market here for collections of your U.K. stories. If these are on the horizon for the Titan collections, I think they would sell as many, if not more, than the recent Ameri

Don't cover my six, Iceman! So much nudity in issue 6, so much nakedness. Maybe the most "au naturel" Conan comic ever printed? Bêlit in the buff. Chaundra in the buff. Conan in the buff. Even the winged monster is in the buff. Everybody get naked! Should I follow suit and review this "Not suggested for immature readers" issue in my birthday suit? My Mezco Toyz Solomon Kane action figure (with its inaccurate red sash. It should be green!) next to me is shaking its Puritan head "NO". Thrice Marked for Death! part deux: The CURSED!... the adaptation of the Steven Seagal movie that never was continues or maybe it is still just the continuation of a gory Queen of the Black Coast sequel by Jim Zub. Seeing his she-devil of the sea as a Force ghost made Conan a believer in the afterlife. Preferring to partake in violent heists instead of trying to seek psychiatric assistance in Shadizar the Wicked our tormented Cimmerian from the Hyborian age is still hanging

eBook by Jonathan Maberry Cover by Guillem H. Pongiluppi Illustrations by Patrick Zircher From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers! Very loosely based on the real life of Thiess of Kaltenbrun aka the Livonian werewolf. Swedish Livonia, near the Baltic Sea, 1598 AD, about a couple of years after the events of "The Return of Sir Richard Grenville". Solomon stumbles upon a strange massacre: a farming community decimated by Kurt Grieg, a Nachzehrer from Austria and his gang of brigands. Will Kane file a grievance with the state of New York or will he unleash a world of hurt on the demonic Kurt? Will the villagers be avenged? Will our heroes get to the chopper on time? You'll have to download the ebook to find out. It's a well-researched narrative that lifts the veil on the secrets of the benandanti werewolves of Italy. We discover that these "Good Walkers" are actually benevolent Catholic lycanthropes that serve God. Each born with a caul, a mas

Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane the dour English Puritan Swashbuckler gets a complete collection of his classic Marvel adventures. Sadly no Dark Horse Comics Guy Davis monster creations inside at all. You get All the pin-ups, adverts, text pieces + All the Kane stories from The Sword of Solomon Kane limited series, Savage Sword of Conan, Conan Saga, Kull and the Barbarians, Marvel Premiere, Marvel Preview, Monsters Unleashed and Dracula Lives. My favourite stories are: A Marvel Team-Up featuring the ectomorph: Kane in his twilight years and the mesomorph: Conan the Barbarian in his prime (The Moon of Skulls II: Death's Dark Riders by Roy Thomas and Colin MacNeil). Kane versus a ghost that kills (Skulls in the Stars by Ralph Reese). Kane versus a Lovecraftian cloud of blood (The Footfalls Within by Don Glut, Will Meugniot and Steve Gan). Kane versus the bat-people (Wings in the Night by Don Glut and David Wenzel). Kane versus vampires/zombies/the walking dead men (The Hills of t

Thrice Marked for Death!... it sounds like a must see Steven Seagal movie to me, but it's not, sword-brothers, sword-sisters... it's only a Queen of the Black Coast sequel by Jim Zub. With his buccaneer days over for the moment and with the Amra, the Lion persona still further along in his future, Conan the Cimmerian corsair is trying to get a certain she-devil of the sea out of his system. Back on terra firma our woebegone barbarian brigand has joined a guild of thieves called the GloryHounds. Will this brand-new arc finally quench my thirst for a good heroic fantasy story? We shall see. What I did like: The Patch Zircher tetraptych! Combine covers #5-8 to form a cool Conan quadriptych.  Doug Braithwaite is hitting it out of the London stadium. Bravo! Colours by Diego Rodriguez are fine. The chat? You mean the cat burglar? A little taste of French Canada from Zub is always good to see. Shadizar is full of shady characters. Erlik mentioned. The Living Tarim mentioned. Bel, god

Jim Zub's miserable and interminable zombie tale of ennui ends, at last. Conan transcends the abyss soup, chills with Brule, kills a Lovecraftian creature and escapes this poorly written story arc. What I did like: A cover that features A WOMAN of the Hyborian age by Giada Marchisio!! Bound in Black Stone is done, finished. My boy, Brule, the Spear-Slayer finally appears. Collapsing structures is a very Howardian way of finishing a sword and sorcery tale. Conan Father’s Sword from the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film appears. The Frost-Giant's Daughter cover by Cary Nord is bitter sweet because Titan Comics are presently not adapting the stories of Robert E. Howard. It's only pastiches for now. Let's hope they change their minds and give us adaptations in the future! Nice cover by Nick Percival. What I did not like: Still no cover by British comics artist Colin MacNeil!!! No Kull of Atlantis. No Thulsa Doom. No Set Berserkers from the John Milius film! Not very clear wha