In addition to being at my table throughout the show, I’m also part of a writing panel on Sunday:
SUNDAY, January 18, 2026 12:15pm-1:15pm – SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY COMICS in RM B111 – THEATER 3
Panelists Heather Antos and Jim Zub discuss Science Fiction and Fantasy storytelling and how these genre staples are represented on the comic page.
I’m no longer on Twitter. Last week, I downloaded my archive and deactivated my account. If you used that platform to contact me or follow along with my work, check my website for other options or just reach out to me here instead.
Looking through 15 years worth of photos over the weekend was nostalgic and wistful. So many incredible memories and a reminder that I benefited from a distinct uptick in visibility and excitement around my work thanks to the chatter and shareability Twitter helped generate in its heyday. The enshittification algorithms (now focused on enforcing a walled garden, boosting illegal material, and echoing dangerous rhetoric) haven’t allowed for that kind of positive communication and empowerment for quite some time…and I knew that, but the sunk cost fallacy of sticking around and expecting the rot to be swept out finally became too much. Frankly, I’m thankful to lose what had become such a potent anchor of negativity pulling my brain down.
I’ve mentioned it several times, but having my own website and this newsletter as direct outlets has been key to maintaining a sane online presence capable of riding out rising and crashing tides of the internet. If someone gets this in their inbox and deletes it without even reading it, that’s okay – At least they chose that rather than systems out of their control deciding they should never see or be able to interact with it in the first place.
Some of you may be angry I left, other people may be angry I didn’t leave many months ago, and still others won’t give a damn at all – Welcome to the internet.
A nerdy reference on the way out the door? Shocking, I know.
Dude, You Didn’t Write That
Speaking of people not giving a damn, just before X-mas an old high school friend popped up on social media and announced that he’d finished his first novel. I didn’t know he had aspirations to write so it was surprising, but in that good way where you realize someone has other sides to them and it’s intriguing.
(But wait~)
Self published on Amazon, which makes sense since he has no previous creative track record. I grab the free Kindle preview. Two chapters. The cover looks grim, but also a bit weird…Weird…and uncredited…
Oh fuck, this is all AI-generated, isn’t it?
Deep sigh as I read the sample. Ironically, it’s dystopian, about enclaves of humanity holding on after technology simultaneously saved and damned the world. Plant life overtaking skyscrapers, people musing on technology VS nature, etc. etc.
Some of the sentences come across as ‘profound’ in isolation, but the telltale slop is too distracting to ignore. Paragraphs repeat concepts and visuals in subtly different ways, making you question whether you’re getting any new information. A deer glimpsed on abandoned streets 3-4 times because it’s symbolic.
Chapter Two is a different character in the same city with similar musings about how the world crumbled and the impact of technology on our shared humanity. Getting AI to slop about how it will wreck us would almost be witty if the whole thing wasn’t taken so seriously and sold as his genuine work.
The sentences are readable and in isolation there are some poetic turns of a phrase, but when the sample ended nothing stuck in my mind because it’s aggressively filling its word count rather than engaging me with a voice or anything unexpected.
Have I read worse? Absolutely.
Did I want more of this? Not even a bit.
No insight into my friend or maybe too much – He thinks this is what writing and creativity are all about and that’s just incredibly sad to me.
Ordering a pizza and calling yourself the chef.
And, showcasing how little value any of it has to him, that one post where he announced the novel is the only time he’s mentioned it 3 weeks after its debut. Some family and friends hit ‘Like’, a couple dozen people congratulated him, and that’s that.
Nothing earned, nothing gained.
Utterly hollow.
I still remember the excitement and fear I had when I launched my webcomic 25 years ago. In an instant, I can recall how proud I was holding my first book. I can close my eyes and remember some of the tales we created together at the gaming table because they were ridiculous, energetic…and real.
Dude, are you proud of this?
Creative projects aren’t just “content”. They’re time capsules, glimpses into who we are and what we value at that moment in time – Choices made and time spent.
Even the bad ones.
(Especially the bad ones.)
Congrats. This book is the milestone of your shitty shortcuts and stolen valor.
Genuinely Okay
Daaamn~ That’s two negative posts in a row there, Jim. You better stop typing in third person and mention some positive stuff!
I’m more thankful than ever to be where I’m at, working on projects I’m passionate about, and able to chart the course of this stuff with Stacy at my side. We’ve had a good couple weeks easing into the new year – Getting reorganized and back into the work groove. Appreciating what we have and trying not to endlessly get stuck on things we cannot control.
But Wait-
Why aren’t you mentioning Conan? You talk about Conan every single time!
Doug Braithwaite sent in new inked artwork the other day and every page is soul-stirring stuff. His deep skill for posing, staging, light and shadow, and texture is just off the charts. I mean, look-
Doug turns ‘guy inspecting a campsite’ into a goddamn masterpiece!
My Patreon has an archive of over 300 scripts I’ve written for a variety of different comic publishers over the past 20+ years – Learn how comics are made for the price of a fancy coffee.
The climax of our second Conan event mini-series arrived in stores last Wednesday – what did critics think of the big finish and the pieces it sets up for the future?
• 9 Panel Grid: “It feels like these events are stacking up and making a story unto themselves where one leads to the next and we get this great fleshing out of all the Robert E. Howard properties…I had a really good time with it.”
• Brother Lore: “As far as everything goes – the writing, the pacing, the suspense, who is behind it all (which I’m not going to reveal) and the art. This comic book is a culmination, an apex, and 100% worth it to go and either get the single issues or paperback.”
• Comic Culture: “Gil on the art spectacular. Love the art. Love the coloring inside the stories and I feel like I get my money’s worth when I read Conan every single time.”
• Comic Patrol: “This really impressed me and won me over in a big way…Holy smokes, did I ever love this.”
• Comical Opinions: 8/10 “Ivan Gil’s artwork on this issue is the strongest yet because he has to illustrate something that should not be illustratable: a god existing outside of time speaking directly to a human consciousness…A confident, ambitious final chapter that makes a genuine philosophical statement.”
• Cool Thunder: 9/10 “This issue brings everything together in a stunning and satisfying finale…Jim Zub continues to write with a sense of grandeur and mythology that feels unmatched in current comics, while Ivan Gil proceeds to artisticly deliver epic weight on every page.”
• Eternal Crusader: “It becomes evident Zub has been planting both subtle and more overt hints throughout his Conan run from the very beginning, all of which come together here in a harmonious way…Artist Ivan Gil unleashes a veritable fireworks display of epic spreads and striking panels. It’s a feast for the eyes, though by now that’s something I’ve come to expect given the consistently high quality of the artwork throughout Titan’s Conan run.”
• Fanlight Zone: “Conan by Titan and Heroic Signatures is one of the best books on the shelf every single month. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it – This crossover event has been fantastic…Awesome art and a really cool story.”
• League of Comic Geeks: 10/10 “Ivan Gil’s artwork is a feast for the eyes, capturing the raw ferocity of battles and the eerie, otherworldly dread of the cosmic sequences with equal prowess. The colors pop with a gritty Hyborian palette. If you’re into pulp fantasy laced with cosmic chills, this is essential reading.”
• Major Spoilers: “I still enjoyed it very much, even though I’m not a big Robert E. Howard scholar or fan of all his work, and I was still able to follow it. It’s a very good four issue series.”
• Pop Culture Philosophers: “The end of this book was masterful. This is a must-read if you’re following the work Jim Zub and company are doing on Conan, which is phenomenal work…The entire family of Conan books have become some of my favorite books to read.”
• Stygian Dogs: “A magnificent marker in this multi-year mission to deliver pulp adventure and mystery drawn from the wider cast of Robert E. Howard’s formidable stable of characters…The result is a story that raises the stakes and inexorably pulls readers along, thrusting us deeper into an encroaching mystery that leaves us eager and guessing for more.”
• Thinking Critical: “This issue’s foot is on the accelerator and it just flies by…It’s tension filled, fast-paced, well illustrated and once again left me wanting more.”
• Two Guys and a Stack of Comics: “This is build up. This is payoff. Great action, incredible art, and balancing different timelines, delivering stakes and I’ll give them credit – One of the coolest last page teases for what comes next.”
Set telepathically communicates with our heroes in Scourge of the Serpent #4.
Welcome to 2026, everyone! I hope your holidays were a worthy respite from the turbulent world around us. I had some great social time with family, relaxing time with Stacy, and nerd out time with movies, video games, board games and reading aplenty. Most of my clients and collaborators took vacation days until today, so there was a good amount of time to rest and reenergize before diving back into work this morning.
We originally planned for the final issue of Scourge of the Serpent to arrive before the end of the Year of the Snake, but a shipping slowdown bumped it to first week of the Year of the Horse instead. That’s okay – The issue no longer has to compete with holiday chaos and I’m eager to hear what readers think of the big reveals that erupt in this climactic chapter. (Speaking of which, Youtuber Tennessee Fats is the only person I’ve seen so far who picked up on this visual bread crumb I asked artist Dean Kotz to include in Savage Sword of Conan #4, released back in August 2024.)
In Scourge #4, artist Ivan Gil and colorist João Canola deliver a swirling, stirring finale that ripples backward and forward, recontextualizing moments that have come before and teeing up cool things still to be revealed…
As you’d expect, I have a lot of Conan projects on my plate and couldn’t be happer with that. Between multiple art teams working on the monthly title, more Savage Sword anthology stories, and our next event mini-series that will kick off with a free prelude in May (and I’ll start chatting about more in the coming weeks), the Hyborian Age will be central to my 2026 schedule but that doesn’t mean that’s all I have on tap. I’m reaching out to other editors and talking to a couple publishers, so we’ll see if any of that bears fruit.
Serpents Everywhere
Also in stores this week, Conan the Barbarian vol. 6: A Nest of Serpents. Artist Fernando Dagnino joins our team and makes a huge splash with pulse-pounding action and soaring environments worthy of the world’s greatest sword and sorcery hero.
Fernando is currently drawing another storyline coming later this year, one he teased in this New Year’s sketch on his Instagram:
Yup, that’s Valeria, pirate swordswoman of the Red Brotherhood… 🙂
Movies + Games
With such an intense writing and travel schedule in 2025, I fell way behind on other pop culture stuff. I try to read comics or other books when I’m flying somewhere, but movies and video games took a pretty serious backseat over the past few months, so it was nice to bum around with a bunch over the holidays.
• Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out mystery movie, impressed the heck out of Stacy and I. It’s a classic whodunit with lots of fun twists and turns. Even though the film is packed with actors clearly having a blast chewing up the scenery, Josh O’Conner manages to outpace the rest and delivers a performance that feels both intense and effortless – genuine, humble and yet always engaging. We enjoyed it enough that it led us down a bit of a rabbit hole with a few other classic murder mystery films, but the genre can be a bit of a minefield with painful tropes and cringe-laden stereotypes, so it’s interesting to revisit some of them but hasn’t been a full blown revelation.
• Speaking of awkward classics, Christmas films can be a real mixed bag as well, with nostalgia goggles fogging out a lot of poorly paced storytelling that puts me to sleep. Over the years, Stacy and I have endured a lot perennial ‘favorites’ and slowly winnowed down our X-Mas movies/specials list to a handful we actually enjoy rewatching year after year.
Currently on that list: Scrooge (1951), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), A Muppet Family Christmas (1987), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Invader Zim: The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever (2002), Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special (2016), and Klaus (2019).
Feel free to suggest others, but don’t be too surprised if they’re not my cup of tea.
• We also watched Tokyo Godfathers, a 2003 tragi-comedy anime film that takes place around the holidays and enjoyed that too, though I’m not sure if it’ll become an annual tradition or not. Seeing the seedier side of Tokyo so well represented reminded me how many interesting and unexpected places can be found outside the more touristy spots in Japan. We tried to channel a similar off-the-beaten-path vibe in Wayward, my creator-owned teen supernatural series.
Our treehouse in the Black Forests of Valheim.
• On the video game front, my brother and I have been using our weekly gaming meet-up to chip away at Valheim (originally launched in 2021 but still technically in Early Access) and thoroughly enjoy exploring and surviving each challenge, bit by bit. The simple 3D models and environments are wildly enhanced by lighting and effects, creating a compelling atmosphere even though the game has a thankfully small footprint on my hard drive.
• I snagged Astro Bot thanks to a Playstation Store holiday sale and have been blown away by just how polished and charming it is. I’m about halfway through right now, and almost every single level has some kind of innovative gameplay element or twist on an existing 3D platform concept that surprises me and makes me smile. When it won Game of the Year in 2024 I wondered if it had been overhyped, but now that I’m playing it I can see exactly why it earned so many accolades.
• I also finally had the chance to finish Spider-Man 2, a game that came out late 2023 that I enjoyed, but just did not have the time to complete the main storyline until now. The whole Insomniac team did an incredible job distilling tons of comic book material into their own continuity, turning some of my least favorite comics from the 90’s into something actually resonant and interesting, which in itself is a heck of an achievement. The super smooth gameplay that makes you feel like you’re Peter Parker or Miles Morales – swinging, fighting, dodging and quipping the whole way is a damn delight. I’m hopeful that the studio’s upcoming Wolverine game is just as compelling and well executed.
• I pulled our InstaPot out of the dusty dark corner of the pantry where it had been stashed and tried out Chris Young‘s time-saving chicken stock-making technique and, I’m happy to say, it works brilliantly well. Having top notch homemade chicken soup stock in the freezer will serve us well as we head into the coldest part of the year.
I’m honored to see Conan the Barbarian make it on to so many ‘Best of the Year’ lists. Working with this creative team is such a thrill. Our artists elevate every single story I put together and I could not be more proud of the work. Thank you for the enthusiastic support!
• 9 Panel Grid: “Zub continues to show his love and dedication to this character each and every issue, and make sure you check out issue #25 in particular as it’s one of the best single issue experiences you’ll have in 2025.”
• CBR: “Conan the Barbarian has always been home to brutal comic book action, and Jim Zub has given Robert E. Howard fans everything they could possibly want. It’s the greatest sword and sorcery comic in decades and the peak of what dark fantasy should be.”
• Comic Book Corner 2.0: “This book is absolutely phenomenal. If you’re not a Conan fan, the only thing I can say is give it a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
• Comic Culture: “The world of Conan feels complex and vast, making you want to go back and read from the beginning…There is an aesthetic that needs to be upheld and, in my opinion, each Conan book does that perfectly.”
• Comic Patrol: “I think it’s highly entertaining and extremely well written…It’s an exceptional read and always has beautiful artwork.”
• Larry’s Library: “Dare I say that Jim Zub is the next best Conan scribe after Robert E. Howard himself and the legendary Roy Thomas. There’s no higher praise I could give a writer on Conan than to say that.”
• The Sanctuary of Comics: “Comic book of the year is Conan the Barbarian #25…The brutality, melancholy, epic scale and artwork of Alex Horley. It’s absolutely stunning, powerful, savage and completely worthy of the Cimmerian.”
• Thinking Critical: “My #1 book of 2025, the best of the best, is Conan the Barbarian…Fernando Dagnino has done an amazing job and really gotten better every single issue. Jim Zub really is able to channel that inner Robert E. Howard…It’s so amazing just to read this. I’m loving every single issue.”
• Two Guys and a Stack of Comics: “The third year in a row that Conan the Barbarian is the #1 comic on our list…It’s enthralling, it’s incredible, it astounds me. It’s the best book of the year by far.”
For the past 15 years I’ve put together a ‘Year In Review‘ post on my website as a way to summarize my thoughts and feelings on the year that was. It’s nice to measure highs and lows, and help jog my memory as things carry forward.
No pressure of course, but if you’re curious about what I was thinking in late December each year, here’s a complete link archive:
Stacy and I at the Distillery Winter Market in late December.
For me, 2025 was both a year of massive change and also one of surprising stability.
In mid-January, as I headed toward the end of my teaching sabbatical that started in 2024, I decided to permanently step away from teaching at Seneca and return to full-time freelancing. I’d been at the school since 2004 (full-time since 2008) and was Coordinator of the Animation program for 14 years, so even though this was something I’d thought about and planned for, it was still a massive life-changing decision. Juggling two careers, teaching and writing, for so long was taking a toll on my personal life and health and I knew I had to pick one path forward at some point, but when the moment finally came it still really took me aback.
Having a more flexible schedule meant I could attend a lot of events I’d previously missed out on and I certainly took advantage of that in a way that was almost too good; 2025 was my most traveled year ever, with work trips to Orlando, Vancouver, Seattle (twice), Lake Geneva, Mumbai, Calgary, Annapolis, London, Madrid, Las Vegas (twice), Columbus, San Diego, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Chattanooga, New York, Madison, Newcastle, and Harrogate. Including local Toronto conventions where I didn’t need to travel, I attended 24 comic or gaming events. It was certainly fun and adventurous, but also became quite exhausting, so I need to strike a better balance around work travel in 2026.
En route to Mumbai in April 2025.
The shift from two careers to one wasn’t perfectly smooth and I feel like it’s something I’m still finding my feet with. For almost my entire adult life my time had been measured in semesters and now I have a lot more freedom, but that means creating my own structure and clearer goals, day to day and week to week. Stacy and I both work from home now, which is amazing, but can turn into whole days disappearing without much accomplished if we’re not careful.
That said, when I wasn’t traveling, having more time at home has been wonderful. When I took the car in for seasonal service, our mechanic remarked on how ridiculously low our mileage was and the simple reason for that is that we rarely drive anymore. Even if we grab groceries, Stacy and I usually just take backpacks and go for a walk in the neighborhood, and that’s been good both in terms of getting us out of the house and getting more exercise.
Writing-wise, Conan the Barbarian is still at the core of my work schedule, and continues to be a real blessing. Knowing exactly what I’m working on, that it will stick around so we can build long-term stories, and having such an incredible team delivering their best, month after month, has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling creative projects I’ve ever been a part of. I’m signed on to continue writing the flagship Conan monthly series and events through 2026 and 2027, which is a level of dependability that is incredibly fleeting in publishing, especially comics. I’ve been working in this industry for over 20 years and know exactly how special this kind of stable run can be, so I certainly don’t take it for granted.
Outside the Hyborian Age, I’m working on a new creator-owned comic series I hope to launch in 2026 and have a few other creative irons in the fire on potential projects, both in comics and other media, so fingers crossed for all that. Sword & sorcery is still my bread and butter, but I’m always game to show people other aspects of my creativity.
Stacy is writing up a storm as well. Beyond the D&D Young Adventurer’s Guides (which will continue with new volumes in development), Stacy has more writing work on the horizon than at any other point of her career, which is incredibly exciting. The highly anticipated D&D Crochet book arrives late March and I can’t wait for the other projects she has on deck to be announced so we can celebrate them with all of you.
Summer sunset.
Beyond our personal life, the world feels incredibly turbulent – culturally, economically, and politically. I feel good about the sturdy situation Stacy and I have built here at home, but worry about how all this upheaval affects our friends and colleagues as so many industries and places struggle. Many of our friends have had to move out of Toronto because of the skyrocketing cost of living and, even when we enjoy time together, there’s an undercurrent of fear about where things might be heading and the dissolving moral core of the people and systems we entrust to lead us. I can’t do anything about the largest ripples, but try to help family and friends ride out these fierce waves of the future.
When I was in Harrogate for the Thought Bubble comic festival, I saw an old industry friend and the first thing he said to me was “You’re aging well.” I honestly didn’t know how to react to that statement at the time but, in retrospect, I’ll take it as a compliment. Yes, I’m older and grayer, but also deeply thankful for love and life in general, and still plugging away as best I can.
Thank you for following along with these newsletter posts. Your support and encouragement means so much.
Here’s my writing output for 2025:
I hope you spent lots of time with your loved ones this holiday season and that your new year is looking bright. Jim
Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I hope this Yuletide Dwarven Defender finds you well and that you’re able to make the most of the season.
Gift shopping is done and I’m just sending off a few more emails before I settle in for my holiday break. I’ll have more to cover in my annual Year In Review post but, in short, I’m feeling good and really looking forward to spending more time with family and friends to wrap up the year.
Last week I made a Teriyaki Flank Steak Stir Fry with Garlic Broccoli and Rice with beef that turned out extremely flavorful and tender. I ‘velveted’ the meat (a Chinese cooking technique) and that made all the difference. Definitely adding that to my cooking arsenal:
Cut the beef into small pieces, then marinade them in this mixture for around 30 minutes before stir frying (per 1 pound of beef):
♦️1 tsp corn starch
♦️1 tsp soy sauce
♦️2 tsp of oil
♦️1 tsp mirin
♦️1 egg white
with a dash of salt and white pepper
After I quickly cooked the meat in my wok pan, I added a homemade teriyaki glaze and it tasted fantastic. One of the best stir fry meals I’ve ever made.
• Mike “Sly Flourish” Shea has a great video discussing the Two Opposing Truths of Tabletop RPGs and it’s bang-on: it can be a magical experience that deeply matters and it’s also just a game so don’t stress the small stuff.
The second part of The Conquering Crown arrived in stores on December 17th. What did critics think of it? Read on and find out-
• 9 Panel Grid: “This might be crafting itself to be one of my favorite arcs within Jim Zub’s time with Conan. I can’t wait to see what next issue brings.”
• Brother Lore: “It’s very much written for a collected edition, but at the same time it works brilliantly in issues as well…Once again, I 100% recommend this comic book.”
• Comic Book Corner 2.0: “The writing is just so next level. It’s not just babble. It’s so imperative to read what Jim Zub is trying to describe and what’s going on with Conan, and it’s so good.”
• Comic Book University: “This was a really awesome issue and I’m going to argue that you probably need to have this in your collection.”
• Comic Culture: “As always, Jim Zub and team are doing an amazing job keeping this exciting. The artwork is always solid. It always puts you in that same mood….I don’t know how they’re doing it, but it’s a spectacular book.”
• Comic Patrol: “These are constantly the best written, most exciting, detailed, in-depth, fun you can possibly have. I get so much pleasure out of reading these issues…It’s so immersive and wonderful. I can praise this book all day long.”
• Comical Opinions: 8.5/10 “The writing is sharp and the art is purposeful, making every conversation feel loaded with danger…What truly earns this issue its value is the promise it plants about what comes next.”
• Cool Thunder: 10/10 “Month after month, Jim Zub continues to knock this run out of the park in classic Conan fashion!”
• Cupcakes Comic Reviews: “I’ve been continuing with this for 27 issues and it’s been gold. Every issue has been a bombastic, action-packed Conan story…The art is fire, the story is killer. If you like sword & sorcery, this is the best sword & sorcery book out there.”
• Eternal Crusader: “I have to give it to Jim Zub with how much plot, lore and scenes he was able to cram into just 22 pages. That’s impressive on its own. Dagnino continues to soar to new heights, with some of the best pages in the whole series.”
• Fanlight Zone: “Every issue it feels like your old school Conan books you were buying off the spinner rack…You need to read this book.”
• Gaming Trend: “Overall a fantastic second chapter in that journey. While nowhere near as action-packed as the previous issue, it pushes the story forward significantly, establishing not only the antagonist Conan must face, but also the embers of the revolution that will help to secure Conan’s ascension.”
• Goodreads: 10/10 “An exciting story that starts off with showing the players but seems to stay active with anticipation throughout, a fair amount of violence, with art to boost the tale well.”
• Kabooooom: 10/10 “[Conan] continues to be one of the best comics on the stands. Not merely one of the best fantasy comics or action/adventure comics. It is a great comic and well worth reading if you are any fan of the medium.”
• League of Comic Geeks: 10/10 “On a monthly basis, this always feels like the most bang for your buck of any comic on the shelf…The political unrest and the action were very strongly delivered in this issue.”
• Old Man Hyborian: “Another solid issue from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics. Zub’s doing a good job with the story arc. This issue was a little bit slower, but I’m sure he’s going to build up to an excellent finale.”
• Pop Culture Philosophers: “Conan is the perfect comic book for old school fans and new school fans. It’s a perfect comic book for comic book fans. This is one of the best books on shelves and it has been for over two years now.”
• SciFi Pulse: 9.6/10 “Each interaction feels purposeful, quickly establishing the political tension and the sense that Conan is being pulled in multiple directions by competing interests.”
• Stygian Dogs: “Jim Zub delivers a solid mid-arc entry, succinctly depicting the world of political peacockery under the rule of a maniacal monarch. Conan especially shines here in the moments of his opposition to the opulent and supposedly civilized realm.”
• Titan Comics Corner: “The artwork is a dynamic visual experience due to versatile paneling, lighting, and coloring. Even with some layout chaos, Fernando Dagnino ensures a strong left-to-right flow.”
• Thinking Critical: “This is easily my pick of the week…The dialogue, the art, the covers, the pacing, the humor, the action, all top notch from Zub and Dagnino. Another strong recommend for Conan the Barbarian #27. Conan just continues to be one of the best books out there right now and Fernando has definitely cemented himself as a rising star.”
• Two Guys and a Stack of Comics: “Conan is a book that if you love old school comics, you just want something where you can dive into the story, see excellent world building, excellent character moments, and it always delivers every single month.”
• Void City Reviews: “There’s always young Conan and older Conan and I never quite understood how he got from here to there, and this is telling me exactly how that happened, so it’s what I wanted right when I wanted it and it’s kind of mind-blowing. So awesome…The art is great.”
There’s an intense “end of year” feeling running through everything around me right now. Professionally and socially, almost everyone I know seems to be going into hibernation + holiday mode, even if Christmas is still a couple weeks away. Winter weather has blown in to Toronto, earlier and with more intensity than we’ve seen over the past few years, which certainly adds to that feeling of “shut it all down, get some warm comfort food, and call me in the new year”.
As nice as it would be to take the rest of December off, there are still quite a few things I need to get done before then. I’m trying to pace myself and check each task off my To-Do List bit by bit, while trying not to let the grey skies and bone-deep chill outside sap my energy.
Conquering Crown Part 2 – The Ill-Suited Guest
Conan the Barbarian #27 art by Fernando Dagnino and Diego Rodriguez.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #27arrives in comic shops on December 17th, the second part of The Conquering Crown, revealing how our favorite Cimmerian becomes the King of Aquilonia. In this middle chapter, our hero runs afoul of courtly politics and backstabbing aplenty, struggling to stay true to himself in a country simmering with corruption and unrest. Does that feel timely? Possibly, but the themes and characterization are drawn from timeless ideas laid out in the original Robert E. Howard stories – Civilization VS Savagery and ruthless cycles of power.
Line artist Fernando Dagnino and colorist Diego Rodriguez were given one hell of a challenge with the depth and variety of locations and situations I cooked up in this story but, as you can see, they triumph on every page – Big set pieces, clashing armies, subtle character acting, and brutal action – They deliver it all with aplomb. It really does feel like the best of the Bronze Age of comics done with the fidelity of modern printing, which is exactly what I hoped for when we kicked off this relaunch journey back in 2023.
More Conan the Barbarian #27 art by Fernando Dagnino and Diego Rodriguez.
Just over a week ago, I had a wonderful editorial meeting where we nailed down more details for the next two years worth of Conan comics and events. There is so much amazing stuff coming in 2026 + 2027, and I can’t wait for you to see it all.
Slop Prompts
On the more annoying side of things, almost every day my email inbox is hit with AI-generated marketing crap that slips past Spam filters because of its specificity. Most of these emails are forgettable at best, but this new one I got today from “Adrlan” is one for the ages-
In fact, I like it so much that I think a sample quote pairs well with artwork from our series-
If you’ve given up your personal thought processes and creative impulses to this mindless, inaccurate, unfocused slop, I just feel sorry for you…or at least I would if it didn’t seem poised to drag us into an economic catastrophe while messing with the environment at the same time.
(No wonder everyone wants to sprint to the end of the year and hide out at home.)
• This video of Sandford Greenetalking about superhero anatomy and structure is also inspiring and packed with actionable techniques to level up your own drawing, or at least better appreciate the thought and care that goes into good design.
Conan the Barbarian #18 -> Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #3
There’s a grand plan for the Conan the Barbarian series through to issue #50, using many of the original Robert E. Howard prose stories as pillars to build a larger mythic arc about men, gods, courage, sacrifice and storytelling. Each year we also have a 4-issue event mini-series that exemplifies and extends ideas from the monthly series, putting a button on broader themes and showing how adventures the Cimmerian has been part of echo outward, interacting with other characters in the ‘Howardverse’. My first Heroic Signatures editor Matt Murray and I generated this concept in brainstorming sessions long before the series launched, hopeful we’d get the chance to see it through and, as year 3 continues, it feels amazing to slowly unveil each major moment along the way.
Scourge of the Serpent #3 reveals the reality of a flashback first shown in Conan the Barbarian #18, built around the REH story God in the Bowl. Conan’s memories of that moment are hazy and I love the way artist Danica Brine‘s flashback version has a dreamlike quality while Ivan Gil‘s reality of that moment is more textured and horrific, even while both compositions are identical. Getting to plan all this out and see it executed so incredibly well by our team is a thrill.
With holiday shipping and distribution all jammed up, Scourge of the Serpent #4 has slipped to first week of January, but I promise that you won’t want to miss what gets revealed there, a big piece of the broader mythic puzzle.
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