#IReadsYou Review: CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8 (2023)

TITAN COMICS/Heroic Signatures

STORY: Jim Zub

ART: Doug Braithwaite

COLORS: Diego Rodriguez

LETTERS: Richard Starkings of Comicraft

EDITOR: Chris Butera

COVER: Ashleigh Izienicki

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Patch Zircher; Greg Broadmore

32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (March 2024)

Suggested for mature readers

“Thrice Marked for Death!” Part IV: “Sacrifice”

Conan the Cimmerian was born in the pulp fiction of Robert E. Howard (REH), first appearing in the magazine, Weird Tales (1932).  In 1970, Marvel Comics brought Conan to the world of comic books via the title, Conan the Barbarian. With only a few pauses, Conan comic books have been published for the better part of five decades.

Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures are the new producers of Conan comic books, and they launched a new Conan the Barbarian series in 2023.  The current story arc is written by Jim Zub; drawn by Doug Braithwaite; colored by Diego Rodriguez; and lettered by Richard Starkings.  Entitled “Thrice Marked for Death!,” the arc finds Conan taking up with a thieves guild known as “The Gloryhounds,” and the target of their latest act of larceny is a fine-cut, dark stone that only Conan realizes is dangerous.

Conan the Barbarian #8 (“Sacrifice”) opens with Conan alone, wandering the streets, and possessed.  Only recently, he ran with the thieves guild known as the “Gloryhounds.”  They wanted to steal an artifact known as “Tarim's Touch,” but only Conan recognized it as a shard of the cursed “Black Stone,” which he'd once broken with a Pict Blade.  Now, all the Gloryhounds are dead, their violent deaths caused by the spirits within Tarim's Touch.

Now, it's Conan's turn.  All the spirits of the shard are inside him, and they want him to find the blade he once used against the stone.  Because he'd sold it, Conan must now go on a rampage through darkened Shadizar in order to find it.  When he finds it, will that bring him peace and freedom or more trouble and damnation?

THE LOWDOWN:  Titan Comics has been providing me with PDF copies of their publications for review for several years now.  Conan the Barbarian #8 is one of them.

Writer Jim Zub spends the narrative of his script for issue #8 working himself and the story into a corner.  “Thrice Marked for Death!” must come to an end, but it doesn't seem that Zub will come up with an end that makes sense in the context of the situations in which he has placed Conan.  But, of course, Zub does it.  He saves the day and sends Conan on a new adventure, with the kind of tremendous surprise I would never expect.

Artist Doug Braithwaite continues to summon the ghosts of Conan's greatest comic book artist, John Buscema, with strong storytelling.  Issue #8 is a sound and fury signifying a storm of trouble for Conan, with powerful, brutal and violent action that boggles the mind even of a longtime Conan reader like myself.  The art shines brilliantly under Diego Rodriguez's remarkable colors.  All the while, Richard Starking's lettering maintains a soundtrack of doom.

People looking for good comic books should be reading Titan Comics' Conan the Barbarian.  This is the real Conan deal, and dear readers, I think you will enjoy this as much as I keep enjoying it.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Conan comic books will want to try Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures' Conan the Barbarian.

[This comic book includes the essay, “Robert E. Howard and His Ages Undreamed Of,” by Jeffrey Shanks.  Although labeled as “Part Six,” it is also the eighth installment.]

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

The CONAN THE BARBARIAN: THRICE MARKED FOR DEATH! trade paperback is available at Amazon.

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The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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DC Comics from Lunar Distributors for July 9, 2025

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Blood Type #2 (Of 4)(EC Comics)(Cover E Patricia Martin EC Archive Edition Variant), AR

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Dark Regards #3 (Of 4)(Cover B Noah Bailey), $4.99

Dark Regards #3 (Of 4)(Cover C Noah Bailey Full Art Variant), AR

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Meat Eaters GN, $24.99

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover A Dave Bardin), $4.99

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover B Juan Gedeon), $4.99

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover C Troy Little), $4.99

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Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover E Flops Interlocking Variant), AR

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover F Tom Fowler Event Variant), AR

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover G Jarrett Williams Prime Variant), AR

Rick And Morty Vs. The Universe #1 (Of 4)(Cover H Rian Gonzales Wedding Variant), AR

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Ask And You Will Receive Volume 2 GN (not verified by Diamond Distribution), $12.99

Therapy Game Restart Volume 5 GN (not verified by Diamond Distribution), $12.99

TITAN BOOKS

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Return To Skull Island #1 (Of 4)(Cover A InHyuk Lee), $4.99

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#IReadsYou Review: ELEKTRA VOLUME 2 #1

[This review of "Elektra Volume 2 #1" is one of the early comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog (which began as a website) way back in the Summer of 2001.  For a few years, I wrote my comic book reviews under the column title, "Why I Love Saturn," which I took from Kyle Baker's 1990 graphic novel, "Why I Hate Saturn."

Recently, I was able to recover my files from two 2000s-era hard drives.  Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions on here, my “I Reads You” blog.  I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]

ELEKTRA VOLUME 2 #1

MARVEL COMICS/Marvel Knights

STORY: Brian Michael Bendis

ART: Chuck Austen

COLORS: Nathan Eyring

LETTERS: Comicraft's Wes Abbot

EDITORS: Stuart Moore; Nanci Dakesian

COVER: Greg Horn

52pp, $3.50 U.S., $5.25 CAN (September 2001)

"Why I Love Saturn?" Episode 6

In typical fanboy fashion, I salivated at the thought of the return of Elektra, Frank Miller’s sexy, assassin and anti-heroine from his run as writer/artist of Marvel’s Daredevil back in the early 1980’s.  But I only wanted Elektra to come back if she were to be guided Miller, or Miller and one of his cohorts, like Bill Sienkiewicz, so I, of course, ignored Pete Milligan and Mike Deodado’s mid 90’s incarnation.

In true clown fashion, I still bought the new series, starting with this first issue, Elektra Volume 2 #1.  It is written by way too busy Brian Michael Bendis; drawn by Chuck Austen; colored by Nathan Eyring; and lettered by Wes Abbot.  So many have sung Bendis' praises, via the Internet and magazine articles.  Even other customers in my local shop heartily recommend him, but I’ve yet to read anything by him that’s really “knocked my socks off,” although I haven’t yet read Torso or Jinx.

Still, I can’t go crazy over a man whose main claim to fame is his reinvention of the early Spider-Man saga in Ultimate Spider-Man.  All he is doing is simply retooling for a “modern” audience stories that were very well told when they first appeared in the early 1960’s created by Stan Lee and the amazing Mr. Steve Ditko.  Honestly, John Byrne’s modernization of the early Spidey tales in Spider-Man: Chapter One was excellent.

With his “Ultimate” title and, now, Elektra, Bendis has firmly established himself as the writing equivalent of Ron Frenz.  Bendis is now the “Super Adaptoid” of comics.  However, Frenz version 2.0 is in dire need of repair, as Elektra is the work of an unoriginal and intellectual impoverished mind.  Realistically, I can’t expect anything remotely related to characterization in this book; after all, the only important things about the characters are as follows.

Elektra is a scantily clad assassin whose costume includes a loose, flapping towel to cover her genitalia and another piece to cover the crack of her ass.  Her breasts are impractically large for someone who must perform many impossible athletic feats.  The men in her book are smug 20-somethings with nothing to say, but think that everything that they have to say is funny and/or witty (see Carson Daly or the cast of the American Pie movies).  The established Marvel characters who will visit her book, as Nick Fury does this issue, need no characterization because they’re, well, they are who they are.  Nick Fury is an icon, right?

Most of the dialogue in the first issue belongs to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is the antithesis of interesting and engaging.  He is dull and witless, and it’s not just that he talks too much; his conversations amount to the buzzing of flies.  The character is undoubtedly Bendis himself – college and pop culture educated – and possessing of nothing of substance worth conversing to another person.

Chuck Austen, this series' “artist,” uses a computer to model and to produce his work.  Much of the art in this issue amounts to poor, stiff renderings and copies of Frank Miller’s work on Elektra, the way Rob Liefeld’s drawings are poor, stiff pencil renderings of Miller and Art Adams' work.  Austen's drawings are awkward and clumsy; it’s the work of a mentally challenged man who apparently has never seen people.  He draws people as if he were an artist with an arthritic hand who bases his figures on the crayon cave drawings of the Neanderthals of La La Land.  If you think that I am being harsh, you are wrong.  Harsh is the splash page on page 39 of the book, the one with Elektra leaping the table.  ‘Nuff said.

F

0 out of 4 stars

Re-edited:  Sunday, June 29, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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