Titan Comics; $17.99

When Titan’s Free Comic Book Day issue of Conan the Barbarian arrived, it was a jolt, something that grabbed and held my attention. It was one of the best Conan stories I’d read in years, and it held a lot of promise for their upcoming, ongoing series.

But would that series live up to the standard set in that FCBD issue?

The quick answer, by Crom, is yes!

Actually, the longer answer is no, it won’t live up to it; it exceeded it.

By background, I’m not a huge Conan fan. I like the best of the best, but average tales of the character just don’t hold my attention. That’s not the case here. When it arrived, Conan The Barbarian #1 was easily the best regular format comic book issue I had read in several years, and the issues that followed built on it.

What I love is this issue’s unfailing, old-fashioned blend of story and art. The folks at Titan have clearly recognized that it’s not an either/or proposition. How can you have a two-page splash and two splash pages with inset panels and still have a dense story that you have to slow down to read? How can you have all that and still not have an issue that’s too wordy?

I don’t know the answer to those questions, but clearly writer Jim Zub and artist Rob De La Torre do. I’ve found myself looking at this issue over and over, as well as telling friends to rush out now in a buying frenzy. This comic is that good. If he stopped right now, Zub could say that he’d written himself into Conan comics history as one of the greats.

What’s more, they’ve sustained it over a year and a half at this point with Doug Braithewaite providing the art for the second art and de la Torre returning for the third. It starts, however, with the issues contained in this edition. If you haven’t checked it out, do so.

– J.C. Vaughn