Conan the Barbarian – Tides of the Tyrant-King #0 (FCBD 2026) – A Quick Review

Titan Comics has once again availed itself of Free Comic Book Day to lay the groundwork for their next massive sword-and-sorcery epic. It’s become a yearly thing, and this fan could not be happier.

Conan the Barbarian: Tides of the Tyrant-King #0 serves as a prelude to the upcoming event of the same name, and it makes one thing perfectly clear: Jim Zub isn’t just writing a Conan comic; he continues to weave together the larger Robert E. Howard universe.

In this latest story arc, despite the evil necromancer Thulsa Doom having been vanquished, dark powers are stirring once again. The issue sets up the return of the Tyrant-King, promising a threat where the dead will overtake the living.

The dual narrative makes this prelude move at a brisk pace. Zub splits the story into two. In one thread, we get classic Conan, a mercenary earning his living along the border of Zingara and Argos. In the other, we follow Stephen Costigan—an American soldier surviving the brutal, muddy horrors of World War I (and cousin to REH’s famous Sailor Steve Costigan). And the Black Stone, the glowing artifact with the eerie sigil we’ve seen in previous Conan story arcs, is, once again, the connecting plot device bridging those two eras and bringing those REH heroes together.

This preview issue is a good entry point for new readers, and an enticing tidbit for existing Conan readers – not only those who jumped on board when Titan took over the IP, but also the OG crowd. Jim Zub knows exactly how to write Conan for both generations. Jim Zub can write Conan for both new and OG readers. His narrative moves at a brisk pace, hitting a great balance between action and dialogue. He obviously has great reverence for the source material – not only the REH stories, but also the comic books released in the Marvel Comics heyday. He’s a modern-day Conan scholar in the vein of Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp and Roy Thomas. He’s also tried his hand at Conan prose stories in the pages of the new Savage Sword of Conan magazine, and I can only hope and pray to see a Conan novel bearing his name in the near future. This old fan feels like he’s a teenager again when he reads the new Conan titles. Everything old is new again, and it is a great feeling. Zub and the rest of the Titan team are to thank for that.

Jesus Merino’s artwork transitions well between the mythic brutality of Conan’s world and the gritty, grounded horrors of 20th-century trenches. Any new artist on the Titan Conan titles has big shoes to fill, and Merino acquits himself wonderfully. I would love to see more of Merino’s Conan work in the future.

Conan, Conan the Barbarian, and all related characters and logos are trademarks of Conan Properties International LLC. © 2026 Conan Properties International LLC. All rights reserved. Comic book artwork and text excerpts © 2026 Titan Comics. Images and excerpts are used under fair use for review and commentary purposes.

Just like last year’s Scourge of the Serpent event, Zub shows his respect for Robert E. Howard’s legacy while doing something fresh with it. The Howardverse moved me to go back to my old books and reread all of REH’s other works. It’s exciting to be there to witness the birth of this new universe.

As a bonus, Titan continues its tradition of including excellent back matter, treating us to another great historical essay by Jeffery Shanks, a REH scholar.

Strict Sword & Sorcery purists who only want to see Conan cleaving skulls in the Hyborian Age may not enjoy the cuts to a 20th-century war setting. They may not even like the idea of a Howardverse. Multiverses are everywhere now, from DC Comics to Dungeons & Dragons. Has the trend gone too far? I think it boils down to personal preferences. I have met and talked to many REH readers, and they are not merely Conan fans; they also like El Borak, Solomon Kane, and Kull. I think the Howardverse will be just fine and that it will please troves of REH readers.

Tides of the Tyrant-King #0 is exactly what a Free Comic Book Day prelude should be: visually striking, deeply rooted in its creator’s lore, and a huge tease for what lies ahead. Whether you are fully on board with the time-spanning narrative or just here for Thulsa Doom’s return, this issue successfully baits the hook for Titan’s next big Conan event.

If you didn’t get your hands on one during FCBD, it’s worth it to get it at “scalper” rates on eBay. It’s nauseating how comic book outlets put FCBD books on sale even before they are released. But much like a sold-out concert you simply cannot miss, paying the premium is sometimes a necessary last resort.

Publisher: Titan Comics

Writer: Jim Zub

Artists: Jesus Merino (interior art), Jao Canola (colorist), Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith (letterers), Rob de la Torre (cover artist)

About the Author

Jules-Pierre Malartre currently lives on a small island west of Montreal (Quebec), which is as close to the Great White North that he will ever dare go, but still cold enough to save him from big-ass spiders, alien abductions, undead dinosaurs and tourists who find his French accent charming. In 2005, he quit a promising aerospace engineering career to go into freelance writing, which was a very, very bad idea according to his mother. Since then, he has become considerably poorer, but he has grown much happier. Along the way, he adopted cats—lots of cats! When he is not writing technical manuals, newspaper articles, press releases or blogs on anything from comic books to yoga, he is busy working on his first novel, a semi-autobiographical fictional account of his life that dares to ask the question, “where did God go wrong with me anyway?” His first short story, “The Rest Was Easy,” was published by the online literary magazine Amarillo Bay in 2013. The five people who read it liked it. He’s well aware that it took him over a decade to publish another one, so he’d really appreciate it if you'd cut him some slack about it! He loves coffee, cats and reading, mostly because those three things go very well together.