Titan Comics; $6.99

The upcoming mini-series Battle Of The Black Stone gets a large-scale teaser in what is essentially a crossover of Titan’s Conan The Barbarian and Savage Sword Of Conan series with stories of Conan (by writer Jim Zub and artist Fernando Dagnino) and other creations of author Robert E. Howard.

Included in this issue are tales of Brissa (by Zub and Dean Kotz), Solomon Kane (by Patch Zircher), Dark Agnes (by Fred Kennedy and Andy Belanger), Conrad & Kirowan (by Jeff Shanks and Eryk Donovan), and El Borak (by Rob Marz and Mike Perkins). All of them are enticing, and the Marz-Perkins collaboration on El Borak is worth the price of admission by itself.

Each issue of this series has had great story and art, but they had a bit of a learning curve for dealing with black and white printing on old school newsprint. Whatever the limitations of the previous issues – and to be clear, they were not severe – they got better each issue.

In fact, with this one, the learning curve seems to be a thing of the past.

Savage Sword of Conan #4 stands on its own merits, but it offers an intriguing look at what’s to come. If Battle Of The Black Stone lives up to this, it’ll be a great ride.

– J.C. Vaughn