Publisher: Titan Comics
Writer: Jim Zub
Artist: Ivan Gil
Color Artist: Jao Canola
Release Date: 8th October 2025

Despite being proudly proclaimed by Titan Comics as the start of a “new Conan epic”, those readers well acquainted with the prose works of Robert E. Howard will doubtless find everything which occurs within this twenty-two page periodical disconcertingly familiar – especially those scenes depicting a young Cimmerian getting caught stealing from the museum of hapless Kallian Publico. Frustratingly, this is primarily due to almost all of “Stealing Faces And Finery” simply being an adaption of three of the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre’s short stories, rather than anything new which the Jim Zub has penned himself.

Indeed, apart from the odd piece of tinkering, such as the Nemedian curator actually being seen desperately trying to open up the gift which will soon bring about his grisly death, there’s arguably little to be found within this publication that isn’t inside the opening stages of “The Shadow Kingdom”, “The God In The Bowl” and “The Haunter Of The Ring”. Of course such reworkings are perfectly legitimate for the officially licenced British Publisher to undertake. Yet such re-treads, especially of a tale as well-known as Conan’s brush with the magistrate Demetrio in Numalia, arguably smacks of this mini-series relying far too much on Howard’s old yarns, as opposed to the Canadian author enthralling his audience with something altogether new.

Furthermore, Conan isn’t debatably even the lead protagonist of this book, with that role surely falling to Kull the Conqueror, seeing as it’s the Atlantean’s adventure whose footsteps are the first to be followed. In fact, Issue One of “Scourge Of The Serpent” is quite neatly book-ended by the King of Valusia, as the monarch is joined by the Pict Brule the Spear-Slayer as they uncover a plot to assassinate the incredulous sovereign by shape-shifting serpent people.; “You have shown great skill and bravery. But it is only the beginning.”

Sadly even the pencilling of “Ironclad” Ivan Gil may well leave some bibliophiles wanting a bit more help to make sense of some of the storytelling, as the Zub leaps between the three different plot threads with little apparent reverence as to whether his audience has had time to take in what has just transpired. Of particular note are the opening panels depicting James Gordon’s extreme physical reaction to Michael O’Donnel showing him an ancient blade – a scene which will doubtless require a couple of rereads to make any sense, and even then its only later on in the comic that his extraordinary outburst appears semi-convincing.

The writer of this piece was: Simon Moore
Simon Tweets from @Blaxkleric ‏
You can read more of his reviews at The Brown Bag