Conan The Barbarian Hits His Quarter-Century

Painted wraparound cover for by Alex Horley

The blockbuster Conan The Barbarian comic, from Titan and Heroic Signatures, releases its landmark 25th issue this October.

To mark the occasion, this issue will be a 48-page, standalon King Conan adventure from celebrated Conan scribe Jim Zub, fully painted by Alex Horley.

In his weekly newsletter, Zub stated:

"Solicits and preview pages are making the rounds and it’s so nice to be able to show people some of the jaw-dropping work I’ve been staring in awe at since Alex and I started working on this epic back in September of last year.

"This issue is my first King Conan story, it’s a self-contained adventure, and it’s a fist-pumping sword-swinging celebration of our series – past, present, and future."

He added:

"And just as a reminder – Conan the Barbarian will keep going after issue #25! I know a lot of current comic series seem to be getting cancelled or constantly relaunched, but we are going strong and our latest issues have defied typical attrition patterns and are going up in sales.

"There are many more adventures to come as long as readers and retailers keep supporting the series the way they have so far."

Fully-painted preview of interior artwork by Alex Horley

At last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, it was also revealed that the popularity of Patrick Zircher's recent Solomon Kane mini-series means a second series is coming next year; and a new title called Savage Sword: Reforged is being launched, reprinting select stories from the original black and white Marvel run of Savage Sword of Conan but in colour.

A sample of Barry Windsor-Smith's coloured art from The Frost-Giant's Daughter

The first issue of Reforged comes with a choice of covers:

A new podcast, called Legends of Conan, was mentioned; Jim Zub hinted at his four-year plan (with annual 'event' pillars) for Conan The Barbarian, including the arc in issues 26 to 28 which will show how Conan became the king of Aquilonia; and a forthcoming, brand new Kull comic book series was also announced during the busy Heroic Signatures panel.

It's a great time to be a comic book-reading fan of the creations of Robert E Howard!

Art tease from Patrick Zircher's next Solomon Kane miniseries

How Far Will You Go?

Ouija (2014)

When their daughter unexpectedly kills herself, Debbie Galardi's (Shelley Hennig) parents move away, leaving their home in the care of Debbie's best friend, Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke).

Laine can't find it in herself to say goodbye to her best friend and so convinces a handful of other teens to join her in playing with a 'spirit board' (aka a ouija board) to try and contact Debbie. This is a game Laine and Debbie played as kids and she knows it isn't real, but just needs some form of closure.

However, when the gaggle of teenagers are gathered in Debbie's old house they do make contact through the board and when greeted with the message "Hi Friend", they believe they've reached Debbie. Unfortunately, they've actually connected with the ghost of a child murdered in the house decades earlier.

And, naturally, things spiral out of control from there.

There's a fairly decent backstory to the main plot of Ouija, but ultimately the film devolves into typical, trashy, teen pop horror because the writers fail to nail down any logic to the ghosts' powers and behaviour, instead letting them do whatever the filmmakers' think will generate a good jump scare.

Even the presence of the brilliant Olivia Cooke, who gets saddled with some contortedly corny lines that she manages to deliver with conviction nonetheless, can't save this effort from being all about the flash, rather than the substance.

Another wasted talent in the flick is Lin Shaye (of Insidious and other horror flick fame) who pops up as the batty sister of the murdered child; there's never any sense that she's doing anything more than reciting her lines.

It was also great to see Shelley Hennig again, a face I haven't seen since The Secret Circle disappeared off our TV screens several years ago (we have yet to be allowed to see the seasons of Teen Wolf where Shelley shows up).

However, while her fellow Secret Circle alumnae Jessica Parker Kennedy was owning it in Black Sails at this time, Shelley's role in Ouija - despite some unexpected appearances towards the end of the tale - isn't that rounded.

The film has its moments, but ultimately Ouija is a missed opportunity to craft a solid ghost story around the Victorian hokum of spirit boards.

If only more thought had been put into the internal logic of the piece and less on creating the next 'oh-so-clever' jump scare, Ouija could have elevated itself above its popcorn status into a decent horror film.

Come (To Derry) and Get IT!

First Class Trailer for Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy follows the adventures of a new class of cadets in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.

Starring Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, Bella Shepard, and Zoë Steiner, as well as Holly Hunter, who plays the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy. Additional cast members include Tig Notaro and Robert Picardo, reprising their roles as Jett Reno and The Doctor, and guest stars Oded Fehr and Mary Wiseman, reprising their roles as Admiral Vance and Sylvia Tilly, as well as recurring guest stars Gina Yashere and Paul Giamatti.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is my favourite "modern" Trek, and I love the fact that it's continuing to embrace the "weird" that I associate with the original and best Star Trek from the 1960s.

Rabid (2019)

After an argument with her best friend, vegetarian wallflower and aspiring fashion designer Rose (Laura Vandervoort aka Smallville's Supergirl) is hideously disfigured in a road traffic accident.

During her recuperation, she learns of an experimental private medical centre, run by the not-at-all-sinister Dr William (yes, I see what they did there) Burroughs (Ted Atherton).

After undergoing cutting-edge stem cell treatment and remarkable restorative plastic surgery, Rose emerges full-on Vandervoort gorgeous.

However, upon returning home, she is troubled by crippling stomach pains and increasingly gruesome nightmares.

Unfortunately, for everyone she comes into contact with, they are not nightmares and she is actually patient zero for an outbreak of superfast, mutated rabies which spreads through the city like wildfire.

A retelling of David Cronenberg's original 1977 body horror classic, Jen and Sylvia Soska‘s Rabid is a phenomenal and shocking tale that takes its audience to some surprising places along its visceral journey.

Featuring everything from Lovecraftian mad science to unstoppable plague zombies, this ticks a lot of boxes for me.

As the mayhem escalates - with the mutated strain of rabies engulfing the city - there's almost an In The Mouth Of Madness level of existential dread, which is then compounded by the film's bleak denouement.

The not-too-subtle critique of body-shaming and vanity is wryly amusing, with several of the supporting roles teetering on the brink of being arch.

Nicely paced and cleverly shot, blurring hallucinations (such as the Silent Hill/music video sequence) with gruesome reality, the action in Rabid may take some time to get going but the central performances never fail to draw the audience in.

As well as a number of the characters carrying over their names from the original, the Soska Sisters's Rabid is sprinkled with Cronenberg-related Easter Eggs, such as the use of  the name of William Burroughs alluding to Cronenberg's adaptation of his famous novel Naked Lunch and the red surgical gowns worn during Rose's operation are a clear nod to Jeremy Irons's gowns in Dead Ringers.

The Complete Timeline Of The Fantastic Four

This video looks at all the complete publishing history of the Fantastic Four from its beginning in 1961 to modern times. It highlights the major developments, changes in creative teams and why the title has stopped and started numerous times over the last six decades.

Another quality feature from the marvellous Strange Brain Parts, the erudite king of comic book analysis on YouTube.

This 13-minute film breaks down the various incarnations of the main Fantastic Four title, since their creation by Stan Lee and Jack Lee, right up to the modern Ryan North era. It also offers some suggested "jumping on" points for newcomers to the title.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

I've been reading the Fantastic Four for over 50 years and have seen all the previous movies (even the unreleased Roger Corman version), but the latest offering from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe is - beyond a shadow of a doubt - the most comic book accurate to date.

Taking place on an alternate Earth to the main Earth-616 of the MCU, Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces us to the planet's heroes - Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic (The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (Napoleon's Vanessa Kirby), Sue's brother Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Stranger Things' Joseph Quinn), and family friend Ben Grimm/The Thing (The Bear's Ebon Moss-Bachrach).

In fast order, a chat show - hosted by Mark Gatiss - summarises the team's origin story and gives us a good look at the retro-futuristic 1960's world the team inhabit.

Soon after Sue reveals to the team that she's pregnant, Earth-828 is visited by the alien herald known as the Silver Surfer (Ozark's Julia Garner) to tell everyone that the planet has been selected as the next meal for the ever-hungry extraterrestrial "god" known as Galactus (The Witch's Ralph Ineson).

Naturally, Reed and co. want to prevent this and travel back out into space to try and negotiate with Galactus. 

The incomprehensible space kaiju, seated in his cyclopean planet-devouring spaceship, offers them a trade: it will spare the Earth if Reed and Sue give him their child, who Galactus says is a powerful cosmic being and the only creature that can take his place.

Of course, the Fantastic Four refuse this deal and head back to Earth, with the Silver Surfer and Galactus in pursuit across the vast expanse of space.

Once home, the people of Earth are initially angry at our heroes for turning down the offer that would have saved them all, but nevertheless the Fantastic Four knuckle down and try to come up with a scheme to dispose of Galactus and save the world.

With influences from classic science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and numerous period B-movies, Fantastic Four: First Steps has more of a pure pulpy sci-fi feel than any previous MCU offering and, to my tastes, is all the better for it.

Kudos to director Matt Shakman (of WandaVision fame) and scriptwriters Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, for channelling the spirit of the original Fantastic Four comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (there's a lovely explanation at the end of the credits tying Kirby to the choice of Earth designation).

I might have tweaked the look of a couple of the supporting members of the cast, but that's trivial compared to how much of First Steps is just so right in the eyes of this life-long Fantastic Four fan.

I cannot stress enough how "comic book" this film is. I nearly cried a number of times because it was so perfect, and the rest of the time I was either grinning from ear-to-ear or my jaw was on the floor from the sheer awesomeness and grandeur unfolding before me. 

For my money - although I'm obviously biased - Fantastic Four: First Steps is the best Marvel movie yet, perfectly encapsulating why I've always loved this team of characters as well as dropping multiple breadcrumbs and potential plot hooks for future movies.

We're going to have to wait until the end of next year and the release of Avengers: Doomsday though before we see the team again.

Although I can't wait for the home video release and the film's appearance on Disney Plus to watch it again... and again... and again.

I'd booked cinema tickets for Rachel and I to see Fantastic Four: First Steps weeks ago, prior to the whole "losing the power to walk" nonsense, but a kind attendant in the foyer of The Odeon (Tunbridge Wells) today swapped them for two spots in the third row. One was a place for me to park my chair, the other was an adjacent sofa seat for Rachel.

Naturally, she turned it into a comfortable bed and slept through about an hour in the middle of the movie - as is her wont. 

Rachel on her comfy sofa, next to me in my wheelchair slot

Having spied some Fantastic Four-themed merch on the way in, after the movie I was directed to the food counter where I was able to order an empty drink container and popcorn bucket (not that I eat popcorn).

Rachel had agreed to pay for these treats, but we both realised my "schoolboy error" in ordering them without asking the price. Both items were way more expensive than we'd naively imagined, but Rachel kindly got them for me anyway.

Back home, showing off my unexpectedly expensive Fantastic Four merch

Weird World War Horror Awakens On Monster Island

After being torpedoed by allied submarines, a Japanese soldier and a British POW are stranded on a deserted island and soon discover that they’re being hunted by a ferocious mythological creature, the Orang Ikan. Monster Island aka Orang Ikan drops today (Friday, July 25) on Shudder.