Monthly Archives: July 2020

Beasts & Behemoths New Preview Pages

Posted by on July 30, 2020 1 comment

The fifth D&D Young Adventurer’s Guide, Beasts & Behemoths, arrives in stores on October 20th, 2020. Here’s an exclusive look at four of the creatures from the book!

Cranium Rats:

Legendary Death Knight – Lord Soth:

Lycantropes – Weretigers:

Metallic Dragons – Bronze Dragons:

Study this guide and keep it close at hand–this manual of monsters might save your life! This immersive illustrated bestiary introduces you to memorable monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, from the smallest beasts to the most dangerous behemoths.

This illustrated guide transports new players to the magical world of Dungeons & Dragons and presents a one-of-a-kind course on the unusual creatures, from the minuscule to the massive, that fill the fantastic world of the game. This guide features easy-to-follow and entertaining explanations of where to find each beast, their strange abilities and magical powers, and how to defeat them, along with amazing illustrations that will ignite your imagination. Organized by size from small to large, bigger and more dangerous monsters are introduced with every turn of the page.

Beasts & Behemoths is a perfect way for new players and young fantasy fans to learn about the monsters an adventuring party can meet, with profiles full of example encounters and storytelling tips that encourage creative problem-solving skills when battling beastly foes.

Talking with the Conan Forum in Brazil

Posted by on July 27, 2020 No comments

Here’s the live interview I did on Saturday in English (translated during the stream into Portuguese) with the Conan Forum in Brazil.

We talk about working on Conan, the movies compared to the literary source, Conan at Marvel, and a whole lot more!

Empyre: Avengers #1 Reviews

Posted by on July 27, 2020 No comments

• Adventures in Poor Taste: 8/10 “The strength of this book is how it uses characters who don’t usually get a lot of page time. It’s a breath of fresh air, since it allows for more exciting interactions we don’t usually see.”

• Bleeding Cool: “The art is the most interesting of the Empyre books I’ve read so far. Artist Carlos Magno and colorist Espen Grundetjern create a hyper-realistic vision of the Marvel Universe together with a slight painterly touch.”

• But Why Tho: “The art of Empyre: The Avengers #1 does a great job capturing its moments. Magno uses some great choices of perspective to give what could’ve been a standard mission briefing some extra life. That, coupled with his ability to put the reader right in the middle of the action, creates an all-around excellent illustrative performance.”

• Candid Clark: 8/10 “…an action-packed comic filled with great moments from the Avengers that will likely not appear in the main event title. It was nice seeing lesser known heroes, like Doctor Voodoo, the Black Knight and Wonder Man in action.”

• Comic Corner: 8/10 “With some fan favorite characters and some surprise appearances, this has everything an Avengers fan wants.”

• Comic Crusaders: 9.2/10 “Jim Zub could easily make this crossover book into filler, but instead adds enough character moments to keep the issue interesting and make it vital to the larger story.”

• ComicBook.com: 8/10 “…it’s refreshing to see some of the lesser-known characters have their time to shine before we hop right to calling in the core Avengers team.”

• Danger Mart: 9/10 “Magno’s layouts carry the eye across the page and he fills the panels with good looking active, good guys and bad guys.”

• Embrace Your Geekness: “The deep roster of characters allow this book to focus in on other Avengers besides just Cap and Iron Man.”

• Fortress of Solitude: 8.5/10 “A great front line set issue as the Cotati war erupts all over Earth…I can’t wait for the second part of this three part story.”

• Tsunami Studios: “I think [Zub] really understands what this book is and what it’s supposed to be, because holy cow is this issue fun. I loved every second of it.”

Comic Shenanigans Interview

Posted by on July 21, 2020 No comments

I spoke to Adam at the Comic Shenanigans podcast all about the last four to five years of my writing career – Getting traction on my writing, creator-owned and commercial work, sword & sorcery and a whole lot more. Give it a listen!

Comic Book Club Live

Posted by on July 14, 2020 No comments

I was a guest on Comic Book Club Live. We chat about working during the pandemic, tabletop RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, Conan the Barbarian, Skullkickers the animated series and more. Check it out!