Comics Review: "CONAN THE BARBARIAN #12" - Conan Vs Thulsa Doom

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #12 (2023)

TITAN COMICS/Heroic Signatures

STORY: Jim Zub

ART: Roberto de la Torre

COLORS: Diego Rodriguez

LETTERS: Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith of Comicraft

EDITOR: Chris Butera

COVER: Jeffrey Alan Love

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Stuart Sayger; Greg Broadmore; Jeffrey Alan Love

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

Suggested for mature readers

“The Age Unconquered” Part IV: “Terror Undreamed Of!”

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 Roberto de la Torre; colored by Dean White and Diego Rodriguez; and lettered by Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith of Comicraft.  Entitled “The Age Unconquered,” this arc finds Conan's body and/or soul transported 80,000 years into the past

Conan the Barbarian #12 (“Terror Undreamed Of!”) opens with the horror of the Black Stone sarcophagus revealed.  Plunged tens of thousands of years in the past to the time known as the “Thurian Age,” Conan joined Kull of Atlantis (also known as “Kull the Conqueror”), Brule the Spear-slayer, and Kull's elite “Red Slayer” guards on Kull's journey to find the source of the darkness that threatens his kingdom.  Kull believed the source of the darkness to be in Atlantis, the land of his birth, but what they found first was the terrors of the abyss.

Now, Kull lies near death, and the specter of Atlantis' most hideous evil, the man who was known as “Kathulos” and is forever known as “Thulsa Doom,” emerges from his sarcophagus.  Jealous of the warrior-kings like Kull who emerged after his burial Thulsa Doom is determined to destroy Kull and once again conquer everything before him.  However, he must contend with a foe that is familiar to him, but one he did not expect to be present now.

THE LOWDOWN:  Titan Comics has been providing me with PDF copies of their publications for review for several years now.  Conan the Barbarian #12 is one of them.

I am so far behind in my reviews of Titan and Heroic Signatures' Conan the Barbarian comic book series that some of you, dear readers, already know what fate awaits Conan, Kull, and Brule.  However, I am enjoying my slow roll through the narrative wonders of writer Jim Zub.  Zub brings his third Titan Comics Conan the Barbarian story arc, “The Age Unconquered,” to a stunning close.  It is full of mystery, evil, stunning revelations, and a great duel, of course.

Artist Roberto de la Torre, with his haunted illustrations, offers storytelling that recalls the vintage wonders of weird fiction.  Roberto has made “The Age Unconquered” seem like a story out of a mysterious unknown “times past” with aesthetic elements and graphical styles that recall Frank Gazetteer, Al Williamson, and John Buscema.  It is not often that modern comics recall the hoary pulpy prose of Weird Tales, but Jim and Roberto pull that off.

Diego Rodriguez's colors enhance the Stygian and infernal wonders of this third chapter of the arc.  It is a dazzling display of comics coloring.  I love that Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith's lettering completes the classic comic book vibe because whenever I see Comicraft letting, I know that I am really experiencing the true spirit of comic books.

“The Age Unconquered” ends up being a nice change of pace for Conan the Barbarian.  I heartily recommend the third trade paperback volume of Titan's Conan, dear readers, because it collects this hugely enjoyable story.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Conan comic books absolutely must read Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures' Conan the Barbarian.

[This comic book includes the essay, “Conan, Cthulhu, and the Cosmic Horror of Robert E. Howard” the twelfth installment of Conan/Howard essays by Jeffrey Shanks.]

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

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