This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on September 14, 2024.

The Savage Sword of Conan #4

By Jim Zub (Writer), Fernando Dagnino (Artist), Dean Kotz (Artist), Patch Zircher (Writer & Artist), Fred Kennedy (Writer), Andy Belanger (Artist), Jeff Shanks (Writer), Eryk Donovan (Artist), Ron Marz (Writer), and Mike Perkins (Artist) – Titan Comics – August 28, 2024

Review by Robin Marx

Much like the prelude Free Comic Book Day issue, this double-sized installment of The Savage Sword of Conan helps lay the groundwork for the Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone multi-character crossover event miniseries. In this issue, each of the miniseries’ main characters has a close encounter with either the titular black stone that has been a recurring motif throughout the first twelve issues of Titan Comics’ Conan the Barbarian title or the mysterious eye-shaped sigil associated with it.

After a brief introductory page written by Jim Zub describing the concept behind the Battle of the Black Stone project, the issue opens with “Birthright in Black,” a Conan story by Zub with art by Fernando Dagnino. Conan experiences a vision in which he devolves to a primitive pre-human state. In a scene reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, Conan battles against other savages at the foot of the black stone obelisk. As he fulfills the obelisk’s bloodlust, he is rewarded with earthly pleasures, but the barbarian soon finds himself chafe under the malign influence of the obelisk. When Conan comes to, he’s back in the Aquilonian frontier, suggesting that this story takes place shortly after the Free Comic Book Day issue. While the artwork is fantastic, the hallucinatory nature of the comic’s event makes it hard to get too excited about the events of the story. Prophetic or not, it’s all a dream.

“Blood From a Stone” is another Solomon Kane story written and illustrated by Patch Zircher. While I didn’t feel like the plot of Zircher’s three-part “Master of the Hunt” series in previous installments of The Savage Sword of Conan quite lived up to the phenomenal artwork, this outing is a more successful one. Solomon Kane finds himself thrown in with a handful of mercenaries and remnants of the Hungarian military, raiding Turkish troops for supplies. When several of his comrades suffer mysterious deaths, their hearts removed from their bodies, Kane surmises that dark sorcery is afoot. Separated from Conan by thousands of years, Kane ends up having his own encounter with the black stone obelisk and its corrupting influence. The historical grounding of this story adds to its appeal, and the monster appearing at its climax is visually striking. I hope Zircher will contribute more Solomon Kane stories to future issues of The Savage Sword of Conan, they have been some of the strongest work to be featured in the current incarnation of the magazine.

Written by Jim Zub with artwork by Dean Kotz, “Ever and Never Beyond” deals with Brissa, the Pictish scout who joined forces with Conan during the “Bound in Black Stone” story arc (Conan the Barbarian issues #1-4). Readers of the monthly title may recall that Brissa was separated from Conan at the climax of Conan the Barbarian #4 and presumed dead. Those who read the 2024 Free Comic Book Day issue already know that Brissa is alive, if perhaps existing outside of her normal era, but this short comic fills in the circumstances surrounding her disappearance from the black stone citadel. Like Zub’s Conan story in this issue, this episode feels vaguely superfluous, like something that will be briefly recapped in a few panels of the Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone miniseries proper.

Set in 1935, “Horror from the Tomb” is a pulp adventure by Jeffrey Shanks and artist Eryk Donovan, starring Professor John Kirowan and his two-fisted companion John Conrad of author Robert E. Howard’s Cthulhu Mythos tales. Kirowan and Conrad journey to the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to examine a colleague’s archaeological findings. It’s not long before the duo encounters a corpse inscribed with an unsettling eye-shaped rune, along with evidence that their host has fallen prey to an otherworldly threat. The general premise is familiar but well-executed, and after reading so many non-fiction essays by Jeffrey Shanks in the pages of Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan it was exciting to see him try his hand at a comic script.

“Matrimony,” by Fred Kennedy and Andy Belanger is perhaps destined to be the most controversial installment of this issue. It features Robert E. Howard’s other hot-blooded red-headed swordswoman: not Red Sonya of Rogatino (the initial inspiration for the Red Sonja comic book heroine), but Dark Agnes de Chastillon. For reasons that remain slightly obscure, Dark Agnes creeps into the estate of Duke Ilya Kursonovich, searching for evidence of occult misdeeds. Upon encountering the dark eye sigil emblazoned on a tapestry, Agnes abruptly loses consciousness. The audience is then presented with a truncated retelling of Dark Agnes’ origin story—Howard’s short story “Sword Woman”—but modified to include supernatural elements. While the original Dark Agnes is a fierce and entertaining character, her depiction here does her a disservice. Her story here is muddled, with no real resolution. In an issue full of realistic artwork, Belanger’s anime styling also sticks out like a sore thumb.

Fortunately, the issue concludes on a strong note with “Black Oasis,” by Ron Marz and artist Mike Perkins. This story focuses on Texan adventurer Francis Xavier Gordon, known to enemy and ally alike as El Borak (Arabic for “The Swift”). Having rescued a young prince from a rival tribe, El Borak and the youth flee across the Arabian desert, pausing to take shelter in the ruins of an ancient temple. Despite his misgivings about the eerie atmosphere within the temple and the prominently displayed dark eye sigil, El Borak uses it as the stage for his final showdown with the prince’s pursuers. Compared to the other comics in this issue, the supernatural element is nicely understated. This comic also succeeds where the Dark Agnes short “Matrimony” fails, by effectively demonstrating how El Borak is a cool character worthy of the audience’s support and enthusiasm. El Borak’s first appearance in the Titan Comics incarnation of The Savage Sword of Conan is a success, and I hope to see more by the same creative team.

Overall, The Savage Sword of Conan #4 is a brisk and entertaining read. Given the goal of this issue there’s a certain degree of “sameyness” across the issue’s stories, with each installments’ hero encountering either the black stone obelisk or the dark eye sigil that accompanies it, but there was enough variety between settings and the telling of each chapter to keep the issue from feeling monotonous.

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