The main story follows on from the classic Red Nails, with Valeria staying with Conan for a rip-roaring adventure to the Sunless Isle.

Patrick Zircher is the perfect storyteller for this kind of tale. His artwork is incredibly detailed on the locations and people, giving you a real feel for Conan's world, and when it comes to the action he roughs things up enough to make it feel wild.

In many ways it's a typical Conan tale - there's only so far you can move away from Robert E Howard's vision before it stops being Conan - but told with sufficient pace and flair to make it enthralling.

The back-up story is quite a slight tale of Kull, well-drawn, but a touch too slick for me. Kull and his warriors should look more primitive than this.

The coloured sketch cover by Neal Adams is glorious.

Titan have done a great job with Savage Sword and it's better when they fill it a long story and a back-up instead of a collection of short stories. more