Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King Free Comic Book Day 2026

From Free Comic Book Day/Comics Giveaway Day 2026 at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming, Enfield CT USA.

Title: Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King Free Comic Book Day 2026
Issue: 1
Date: May, 2026
Publisher: Titan Comics
Writer: Jim Zub
Artist: Jesus Merino
Colorist: Jao Canola
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Tyler Smith
Editor: Chris Butera

This was a really interesting introduction with parallel stories of Conan fighting as a mercenary along the border of Zingara and Argos back in the Hyborian Age, and 20th century soldier fighting in World War I, and surviving as a veteran of that conflict. American soldier Stephen Costigan isn't the mythic hero that Conan is, but he survives horrors just as brutal as those of Conan's time, and eventually in the aftermath of the war, he steps into his own encounter with the dark magic of the Hyborian Age. The parallel stories are fun, and they're very nicely presented in the artwork. To make this more intriguing, the 20th century plotline is actually adapted from Robert E. Howard's pulp story "Skull-Face", which had its own references to Howard's own mythos.

The story is just an introduction, but it does a good job of setting up both timelines, and an essay at the end explains the connection to Howard's pulp writings.

Conan isn't a title that I pick up expecting to find something new and innovative, so this was a pleasant surprise, both because of the innovation and because it was honoring Robert E. Howard's legacy in doing so.

Rating: 7.5/10

Amazing Spider-Man 1000 / Queen In Black CGD 2026 #1

From Free Comic Book Day/Comics Giveaway Day 2026 at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming, Enfield CT USA.

Title: Amazing Spider-Man 1000 / Queen In Black CGD 2026
Issue: 1 
Date: June 2026
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Joe Kelly, Al Ewing, Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Nic Klein, Iban Coello
Colorist:  Matthew Wilson, Guru-eFX, Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna, VC's Clayton Cowles, VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Nick Lowe, Tom Groneman, Kaitlyn Lindtvedt

Due to the reshuffling of the assets of Diamond Distributors, we have two overlapping events involving free comics this year. Marvel is participating in Comics Giveaway Day, while other publishers use the familiar Free Comic Book Day logo. The day worked pretty much the same otherwise, and what we have here is a fairly standard Marvel preview book focusing on three upcoming events: The Amazingv Spider-Man #1000, Queen in Black, and The Infernal Hulk.

The Amazing Spider-Man story was the best of the three, a well-told self-contained story where the Answer has attacked the recording session for J. Jonah Jameson's latest podcast. I'm not familiar with the Answer, but the narration does a good job of explaining what he's all about, and more importantly, why this isn't the typical state of affairs for him. What follows is a pretty good dialogue-based confrontation with a satisfying resolution, and then a final page teasing Peter Parker's latest bit of family drama. This reminded me a little bit of the confrontation between the Question and the Riddler back in the Question comic in the 80s, although not quite as intense. It also felt a bit like some of Superman's stories where he's able to handle a situation without resorting to full-on violence, but still keeping Spidey's persona at the forefront. Good stuff.

In the second story, Hel (Thor's sister) has usurped Knull (king of the Symbionts) and now commands his armies. And she is invading Earth, attacking six locations at once with venomized versions of well-known Marvel Universe extraterrestrial species like Kree, Skrull, Chitauri, and so on.

This all looks scary at first, but when Spider-Man and a crew of "Spider-Friends" show up to oppose the New York landing, it ends up looking like Hel's army consists of like six dudes, and the whole invasion looks less threatening. This felt an awful lot like DC's (awful) Invasion crossover and I have a feeling it will have a similar lack of impact. That being said, the visuals in this were pretty nice, and we barely got into the story, so there is room to turn this around.

The last story was a preview of Hulk War: Infernal War, which was mostly just a rambling discussion of monsters with some grimdark visuals leading up to a full-page shot of this version of Hulk with a crew of monsters including a giant spider Shelob knockoff. There's also a dead Captain America and some other characters that I am probably supposed to recognize but didn't. Very little actually happens, so again, there's some room for this to get better, but it's not off to a good start.

Rating: 5.5/10

Little Comis

From the unread comics box.

Title: Little Comis
Writer: KC Green
Artist: KC Green

Minicomic collection of comic strips, mostly in 3-panel or 4-panel format, mostly on pretty nihilistic themes with a scattering of video game and tech references. Some cleverly done, if still rather bleak, takes intermixed with some that I just didn't get. This might have just been me not being the target audience.

Rating: 4/10

Waterways: On Geography & Disability

This was (I believe) also a Flywheel Zine Fest (Holyoke, MA USA) find, but from last year.

Title: Waterways: On Geography & Disability
Writer: Niamh Timmons

This zine is an essay linking changes in the landscape of the Seattle WA area with the author's own experiences with disability, illustrated with photos from the archive of the University of Washington. This was a pretty fascinating dive into the geography of human-engineered changes (on indigenous land) that have shaped the city of Seattle and altered the ecosystem of the region. These changes are juxtaposed with the changes the author has experienced living with disability, which add a powerful personal component to the geologic history. The alternation between the two threads serves to connect them, resulting in a piece that is moving and informative.

Rating: 7.5/10

Some Of My Favorite 'Nyms

From the 2026 Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: Some Of My Favorite 'Nyms
Date: February 2025
Writer: Bee (Mossybee.com)

Fun and informative zine covering quirks of the English language. In particular, this zine covers a bunch of terms ending with -nym, including demonyms, pseudonyms, acronyms, and more. This had some fun facts, and some amusing examples, and references to Franz Kafka, Monty Haul, and Chuck Tingle. I love a good quirky zine on a really specific topic, and this one delivered.

Rating: 8/10

Rage Monsters

From this year's Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: Rage Monsters
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Date: March, 2021
Writer: Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Color minicomic depicting various creatures who are not particularly happy. I would go so far as to call them miffed. Or as the creature on the cover says, pretty freakin furious, y'all. It's not made clear what these creatures are angry about, but imaginative readers will probably have some ideas. I loved the cute monsters and the use of color in this book.

Rating: 6.5/10

Tall Creatures

From this year's Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: Tall Creatures
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Date: January, 2021
Writer: Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

A tall, thin zine about tall creatures. Includes the requisite giraffe, a sheep who's cheating a bit, and a bit of lyrics from a song I remember from summer camp. Very cute and a clever use of the format.

Rating: 6.5/10

Space Pants

From this year's Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: Space Pants
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Date: April, 2026
Writer: Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Sometimes you just find the perfect piece of apparel and need to make a zine about it. And sometimes, the perfect piece of apparel is shiny reflective pants. They end up being just the thing for the artist's trip to Iceland. Fun and cute zine about a very small bit of joy.

Rating: 7/10

The House Femme Twink and Emo Fix a Dryer

From this year's Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA.

Title: The House Femme Twink and Emo Fix a Dryer
Date: January, 2026
Writer: Nola QC
Artist: Nola QC

I bought this one entirely for the title. It delivers exactly what it promises. The dryer gets fixed. Raw sex appeal is involved. Takeout dinner is consumed. Cute slice of life with the characters drawn in furry style.

Rating: 7/10

A Brief Visual Survey of Goblin Culture

From the 2026 Flywheel Zine Fest.

Title: A Brief Visual Survey of Goblin Culture
Date: 2026
Writer: Jey Barnes
Artist: Jey Barnes

This collection of sketches in zine form is divided into sections covering the musical traditions, visual arts, and culinary arts of goblinkind. This was delightfully whimsical, with goblins of various shapes and sizes engaging in some very messy artforms, but clearly having a great time. The sketches were done for "Goblin Week", an annual event organized by artist Even Dahm. I really enjoyed this collection.

Rating: 8/10

Faeries' Landing Volume 3

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Faeries' Landing
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2004
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: You Hyun, Tim Beedle
Artist: You Hyun
Letterer: Jeanine Han
Editor: Paul Morrissey

Faerie girl Fanta is trying to save human boy Ryang from his curse, which has doomed him to 108 failed relationships, in one of those over-ambitious plotpoints that is hoping that this series will go really, really long. While Fanta watches out for the "evil affinities" that Ryang is destined to attract, her faerie rival Medea is plotting her way back to the throne of Avalon where she has plans of becoming queen.

This had a lot going on, including lots of dialogue and jokes in tiny font, and it had trouble holding my attention. Possibly my bad for starting at Volume 3, but in spite of a decent summary to start things off, I quickly found myself pretty lost. I also had a hard time getting too hooked into the drama around Ryang's cursed lovelife. Medea's intrigues and ambitions for the throne of Avalon were a bit more interesting, but are clearly a secondary plotline. The art was lovely in places, especially when Fanta and Medea were featured. I do have a couple more volumes of this on the tbr shelf, so maybe some familiarity with the characters will help, but this felt more difficult to get into than it needed to be.

Rating: 3.5/10

Cats Who Legit Can't Deal With Y'All

From the 2025 Flywheel Zine Fest.

Title: Cats Who Legit Can't Deal With Y'All
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Date: April, 2025
Writer: Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Micro-sized minicomic, six interior pages plus covers. Anne loves truth in advertising. This is six pages of cartoon cats saying "No" in no uncertain terms. The lettering in this one is half the fun. Good work with a very simple idea.

Rating: 6/10

The Complete Marvel Conan the Barbarian Volume 1

Bought at last year's Brimfield Antiques Show.

Title: The Complete Marvel Conan the Barbarian
Issue: Volume 1 
Date: 1978
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Roy Thomas, Robert E. Howard
Artist: Barry Windsor Smith, Dan Adkins, Sal Buscema
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Roy Thomas, Stan Lee

Mass-market paperback collection reprinting the first three issues on Marvel's Conan the Barbarian. Brief introductions by Stan Lee (in typical Stan Lee hype style) and Roy Thomas (with a bit more insight into the history of the Conan character).

The three issues are each self-contained stories, although there is a reasonable attempt made at continuity with some prose that fills in Conan's travels and adventures between each of these episodes. This was actually pretty well done, and succeeded in helping the stories feel less disjointed.

The first story has Conan as a mercenary, fighting in a border war between Aesgaard and Vanaheim. Conan, on the Aesgaardian side because they pay more, saves the life of one of the leaders of his army and helps turn the tide of battle. The enemy, in full retreat, end up making a deal with the mysterious Shaman for supernatural aid against Aesgaard. This had an interesting bit of a plot twist at the end, and the characterization of Conan did a good job of setting the tone for the series.

The second story was a pretty familiar set of tropes. Conan gets captured by some "beast-men", enslaved, tossed into an arena, and manages to inspire the other slaves to rebel. There was a nice touch at the end, although the emphasis on the distinction between a "manling" and a "man" was silly and laid on a bit too thick.

The third story, an adaptation of Howard's "The Grey God Passes" was excellent. Beginning with a vision that Conan has, it follows his quest for revenge against the Hyperborians who briefly enslaved him, while telling the tale of several characters involved in a coming battle that will bring down warriors, kings, and even a god. This story juggled a bunch of characters and subplots while maintaining an air of tragic destiny unfolding.

These stories were reformatted a bit to fit the constraints of the mass-market paperback size, and Barry Windsor Smith is early in his career here. The necessary-at-the-time dancing around showing blood and gore hurts some of the action scenes a bit, but I still enjoyed the art style, especially on the costumes and the supernatural elements.

This was a fun piece of nostalgia that offers insights into how Conan was able to develop into such a long-running series for Marvel.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sarasah Volume 3

From the unread book shelf.

Title: Sarasah
Issue: Volume 3
Date: 2010
Publisher: Yen Press
Writer: Ryu Ryang
Artist: Ryu Ryang
Letterer: Abigail Blackman

Set in the Shilla kingdom of ancient Korea, this is a period court drama with some minor fantasy elements. Ji-Hae, a girl disguised as a boy, is training to become part of the Hwa-Rang-Do. She has feelings for Ja-Yun, a warrior recovering from an injury, and now has reason to suspect the feelings could be mutual.

Meanwhile, there is a plot against the Queen, and an investigation to try to uncover the conspiracy.

This is an exceptionally pretty book, and the courtly intrigue and drama were fun to follow, even in my position of jumping into this in the third volume. There is a lot going on here, and I found myself wishing I had a better (as in better-than-none-at-all) of Korean period costume to get a more sure sense of who everyone was and what their position was in the court. The fact that I had this train of thought is testament to how this managed to grab my interest.

I may be looking for more of this series.

Rating: 8/10

Heartstopper Volume 4

From my school's library.

Title: Heartstopper
Issue: Volume 4
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2021
Writer: Alice Oseman
Artist: Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie are on Summer break, and Charlie is trying to figure out how to say "I love you" to Nick for the first time. Nick is trying to find a way to help Charlie with his mental health issues.

Charlie's mental health journey becomes the major plotline for this volume, and it's handled with a good balance of realism and hope. There is also more emphasis on family relationships, after the focus for the last two books have been more on friends. The friendships are still there, and the author is very good at keeping us caught up on relationships with minor characters through small, quiet moments.

The parallel journal-based approach to narration which takes up much of the middle of this book can sometimes feel a bit clinical, although the messages are good ones and well-handled. The is some very effective family drama to end things, and a couple of bonus features at the end are charming, particularly a one-panel-per-page minicomic on the relationship between two teacher characters.

This was a good treatment of serious issues that still kept the delightful character interactions that have made this series stand out.

Rating: 8.5/10

GI Joe Origins Volume 1

First review of 2026! From a Little Free Library in Ware MA USA.

Title: G.I. Joe Origins
Issue: Volume 1
Date: September 2009
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Larry Hama
Art: Mike Hawthorne, Tom Feister
Colorist: Erik Swanson
Letterer: Robbie Robbins, Chris Mowry, Neil Uyetake
Editor: Andy Schmidt, Justin Eisinger

Trade paperback collection covering the first mission of the G.I. Joe team. Duke and Scarlet get airdropped into the Nevada desert on a secret mission that is partly training, partly a test, and partly a real mission, in a way that really doesn't make any sense.

Meanwhile a villain named Chimera (who I guess might go on to eventually become one of the better-known villains like Cobra Commander? Maybe?) singlehandedly fights off a SWAT team, and generally make all of law enforcement look incompetent as he pulls of an escalating series of crimes, leading to the launching of a deadly plan from a secret base. The kind of plan with an unnecessary countdown and some monologuing to explain it. Clearly Chimera did not read The Watchmen.

I did like seeing the early formation of the bond between Scarlet and Snake Eyes.

I did not like Scarlet getting damseled. I was also not thrilled that the story introduced a character who was more interesting than anyone on the Joe team and proceeded to kill her about a fourth of the way through the book.

Rating: 3/10

Updated All Time Top Rated Comics 2025

Here is my updated list of all of the comics I've rated a 9 or above. Only one new book (Seven Ways Through the Woods) was added in 2025.


9/10

All In The Family Part Two: Angel
Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper's Curse
Amulet Book Seven: Firelight
Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
Boxers
Dog Man And Cat Kid
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment
The Flutter Collection
Ghosts
Guts
Heartstopper Volume 1
Life With Archie #16
Lumberjanes Volume 3: A Terrible Plan
Lumberjanes Volume 4: Out of Time
Lumberjanes Volume 5: Band Together
Machiavelli
Rival Angels Season 3 Volume 2
Saga Compendium 1
Seven Ways Through the Woods
Small Town Type #1
The Treasure of the Black Swan
Understanding Comics
Warriors: Graystripe's Adventure
We Won't Be Erased
White Bird
With the Light Volume 2

9.5/10

Amelia Rules: When the Past is a Present
The Arrival
Castle Waiting Volume 1
I Kill Giants
A Monster Calls
The Prince and the Dressmaker
Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

10/10

Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic In One Volume

Looking forward to reading more great books in 2026!

2025 Recap

I read and reviewed 56 comics in 2025, up from 35 in 2024, and slightly above weekly, still a long way from daily.

There weren't a lot of highlights in 2025. I only rated one book above an 8. There were also a fair amount of below-5 ratings.

Highs and Lows of 2025:

Highest-Rated Comics of 2025

Seven Ways Through the Woods (9/10)
Choose Your Own Adventure: Tobacco Hornworm (8/10)
Heartstopper Volume 3 (8/10)
Midwest Books To Prisoners Community Zine 2023 (8/10)
Monsters in Sweaters (8/10)
The Question #8 (8/10)
You Know You're A Rural Queer When... (8/10)

Lowest-Rated Comics of 2025

Bio-Booster Armor Guyver Volume 3: Dark Masters (4.5/10)
Godzilla: The New Heroes (4.5/10)
Marvel Comics Presents #29 (4.5/10)
Pathfinder: Wake the Dead #1 (4.5/10)
Ranma 1/2 Volume 4 (4.5/10)
Sugarholic Volume 2 (4.5/10)
Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition (4.5/10)
Harley Quinn: Lootcrate Exclusive #1 (4/10)
Silver Surfer #2 (4/10)

Top 5 Books Read in 2025

 This is my top 5 books (all genres, not just comics) read in 2025:

5. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
4. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
3. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
1. John Adams by David McCullough