Zubby Newsletter #145: A Traitor to the Crown

Posted by on February 3, 2026 No comments

Last week’s newsletter was a monster, with lots of stuff to cover, so let’s keep this one more under control-

Excerpt from Conan the Barbarian #28 – “Better a traitor to the crown than to slay one’s own kin in cold blood.”

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #28 arrived in stores last week and I was thrilled to see how many reviewers had it as their Pick of the Week. Our team put their all into this wartorn storyline and I’m so glad readers keyed into what we were going for while we filled in a crucial gap of Conan’s history.

As we’ve been doing throughout the series (and how Robert E. Howard did it in the original Weird Tales stories in the 1930’s), we’ll keep jumping around Conan’s timeline, so our next story arc returns to pre-King adventures, but I definitely have big plans for future stories with the mighty monarch of Aquilonia.

One of the other things I’ve been seeing lately is the good word of mouth online leading to more readers getting on board with volume one and excitedly catching up. Having that clear entry point for the series and our whole publishing line is something that so easily gets lost with rebooted issue #1’s and I’m hopeful that if we keep going on this trajectory we’ll build something that lasts, a run worthy of the world’s greatest sword & sorcery hero.

Game Day

Post-Filming Pic with the Dungeon Dudes Crew: Me, Joe, Monty, Kelly, and TroySteel/Mickey.

I spent yesterday in studio with the Dungeon Dudes filming a few episodes of a TTRPG Actual Play one-shot adventure, which was a fun way to start the week. More details and footage should be coming later this month.

Beyond spending a whole day gaming and laughing with great people, the other unexpected advantage was being too busy to check social media at all. I came home and realized how nice it felt, before reengaging in updates about the current merry-go-round of garbage that is world news.

Introducing Cap, As Only Chip Can

Last week I mentioned that Zdarsky was unable to attend the Captain America (1990) screening so I stepped in for him, but he also sent along a video introduction of his own, which is as Chip as you might expect-

At the same time, Amazon announced a Sex Criminals TV show, which is surprising, amazing, and about fuckin’ time (literally, it’s about people who stop time when they have sex and use the time freeze to rob banks), so big congrats to his Chipness and Matt Fraction.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

I’m heading to the UK in August for a one day comic festival happening in Gloucester!

Feb 14-16, 2026 Fan Expo Vancouver Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Mar 5-8, 2026 Emerald City Comic Con Seattle, WA, USA
Apr 23-26, 2026 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, CANADA
Aug 15, 2026 Comics Assemble Gloucester, England, UK

Other Links

• “Art is the means by which we become what we want to be.” – Author Brandon Sanderson‘s keynote speech has some great moments talking about art, AI, and what we might lose if we punt all our creativity to prompts.

• Uriah has a really good piece of tabletop RPG advice that cuts to the heart of player agency and interactive narrative in ways that completely make sense but also surprised me. Great stuff.

• Ever have that paranoid feeling that your smartphone was listening in on conversations and pushing ads your way based on what you said in private? Yeeeeah~ so now both Google and Apple are paying out many-many millions because it really was happening behind the scenes.

• Rob Liefeld is a contentious comic creator whose career has spanned multiple booms and busts in the comic industry. His Robservations podcast can be all over the map in terms of subject matter but, when it’s at its best, it’s filled with enthusiasm for the medium, insightful anecdotes, and deep cuts about some of the biggest names in the industry. His latest episode, an interview with Jim Valentino, is one of the more enjoyable ones I’ve listened to as they reminiscence about the founding of Image Comics.

Jim

Conan the Barbarian #28 Reviews

Posted by on February 2, 2026 No comments

Conan of Cimmeria and his forces fight a desperate battle against the oppressive Mad King Numedides of Aquilonia and only one will survive their final confrontation! What did reviewers think of the climax of our story arc?

• 9 Panel Grid: “Top Comic of the Week…The way everything has been laid out shows that the team on this book and everyone involved at Titan Comics with Jim Zub, the art team, everyone – they’re arguably just as strategic as Conan himself is on the battlefield.”

• Comic Book Corner 2.0: “Top Indie Pick of the Week…it was great and the artwork is phenomenal. I love the narration in this book. Just another top notch independent and a phenomenal read.”

• Comic Culture: “Aesthetically, the book is phenomenal. The character designs, the environments, the dungeons, and everything else. The action, coloring and everything is absolutely perfect for a Conan book.”

• Comic Patrol: “Book of the week…This book is beautiful, month after month – writing, art, colors, letters – Everything about this book is constantly as good as comics get. Old fashioned without being ‘old fashioned’, modern without being ‘modern’ – It’s timeless!”

• Comical Opinions: 9/10 “You should absolutely make room in your monthly budget for this series because it represents the gold standard of modern adventure comics.”

• Cool Thunder: 10/10 “The art by Fernando Dagnino consistently delivers a sense of grand, glorious epic with every issue he pencils, and the color work by Diego Rodriguez brings each and every panel vividly to life. This issue is chock-full of action, massive battle scenes, and emotion on every page.”

• Cupcakes Comic Reviews: “It’s amazing and has got great art…Whenever it’s collected it’s going to be an amazing read. Even now in single issues I’m enjoying each and every one.”

• Eternal Crusader: “This is arguably Dagnino’s most epic issue to date and once again demonstrates how outstanding his panel composition and page layouts are…This run is something we will be talking about for a long time to come.”

• Fanlight Zone: “Fantastic art, kinetic energy just jumping off the page and Jim Zub murdering it on this book for 3 years now…This needs to be the best selling comic forever!”

• League of Comic Geeks: 10/10 “The narration is spot on and carries with it the voice of those days of 30s and 40s adventure writing. Political intrigue, a rising and unstoppable hero, and an epic showdown that leaves the reader feeling very satisfied are all present and accounted for, by Crom.”

• Pop Culture Philosophers: “The artwork by Dagnino is frickin’ fire in this book. Classic comic book awesomeness and the story gives us the same…Jim Zub is creating an entire new generation of Conan fans with his incredible work.”

• Stygian Dogs: “Readers of Heroic Signatures’ Conan the Barbarian are treated to yet another glimpse of the epic cosmic narrative Zub has been building and foreshadowing since issue #1. I remain eager to see it reach its climax.”

• Two Guys and a Stack of Comics: “This was one of the best issues of the series so far. I thought it was suitably dramatic and did a great job with so many things.”

• Thinking Critical: “This is easily my Pick of the Week…Definitely starting out 2026 on fire once again to be in competition for the best comic book of the year.”

• Void City Reviews: “I enjoyed the hell out of it. It’s well written, well drawn, and very well executed and could have possibly been Pick of the Week.”

Zubby Newsletter #144: Down With the Mad King

Posted by on January 27, 2026 No comments

This week’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN #28 feels strangely appropriate to the mood out there-

Conan of Cimmeria and his forces fight a desperate battle against the oppressive Mad King Numedides of Aquilonia and only one will survive their final confrontation! If you love epic swords & sorcery or ever wanted to know how Conan became king, do not miss this issue!

A Grand Zubstitution

With Anthony at the Revue Cinema just before the screening start.

Saturday night’s Dumpster Raccoon screening of the Director’s Cut of CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) at the Revue was supposed to be hosted by current Cap comic writer Chip Zdarsky here in Toronto, but he was incredibly sick so I stepped in as his *ahem* Zubstitute.

Back in 2019, Chip subbed in for me at East Coast Comic Expo when I had to attend an Avengers creative summit in New York City. He tweeted that he was the superior “Z” and signed my comics while taking selfies with fans. 8 years later, turnabout was fair play as I signed a bunch of his Captain America #1’s sent as giveaways to the screening.

A 100% genuine “Chip” signature – Worth big money!

Big thanks to Anthony Oliveira for bringing me on board and the crowd for being good sports about it all. America is a terrifying mess right now, but the dream can endure if patriots keep fighting for it.

(Want more info on the 1990 Captain America movie? Secret Galaxy has a solid overview of its production woes and how the Director’s Cut completely changes the film.)

A Most MADdening Situation

Zub and Ramon at this Year’s RAID Holiday Party.

Speaking of his Chipness, Zdarsky invited me to be a part of his guest edited April Fool’s Day issue of MAD Magazine called MAD ABOUT DC. I teamed up with my friend Ramon Perez on a brand new SPY VS SPY comic strip called GUY VS SPY with Green Lantern vet Guy Gardner squaring off against the pair of infamously hapless espionage agents.

As one of the millions of kids who grew up reading MAD Magazine and was changed by the way it playfully ripped the veil off pop culture and politics, it’s a rush to contribute to this issue, especially on Spy VS Spy, one of the most iconic features. Make sure you pre-order this special, as it’s jam-packed with comic talent.

Back in the Fight

Street Fighter Masters: Elena cover art by Jeff “Chamba” Cruz.

Delayed several times but now finally in comic shops, the STREET FIGHTER MASTERS: ELENA one-shot is a throwback to my favorite fighting game franchise, reuniting characters I enjoyed writing back in 2010!

Ibuki and Makoto head to Africa to visit Elena and tournament-laden trouble ensues, with pulse-pounding artwork by Genzoman and Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz!

Double-Zubble on Free Comic Book Day!

Two Zub-Written Free Comic Book Day Titles Coming in 2026!

It’s rare having one release on Free Comic Book Day, but this year readers will be see Double-Zubble as I have two free books available Saturday, May 2nd!

Titan Comics unleashes our CONAN: TIDES OF THE TYRANT-KING Prelude, foreshadowing the return of Thulsa Doom, Necromancer of Ancient Atlantis, and UDON asked me to do some epic scripting on their Manga Classics take on JOURNEY TO THE WEST, an anime action-adventure version of the famous Chinese fables.

UDON just sent out their press release about Journey to the West HERE and it contains more info and preview artwork. I’ll have a lot more to cover on Tides in the coming weeks.

Happy Birthday, REH!

Last week, the Robert E. Howard Foundation celebrated Bob’s 120th birthday with readings of poems and story excerpts. I was honored to be in this year’s line-up alongside other authors, literary scholars, pulp researchers, and lifelong fans. Check it out and raise a glass to the man and his work:



Hugo Eligible


It’s that time of year when Worldcon members get their registration finalized (the registration deadline is January 31st, 2026) and think about which titles they will nominate for the Hugo Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in fiction. Stacy and I attended Worldcon in Seattle last year and it was an absolute whirlwind of panels, parties and time well spent with some of our favorite people in the business.

It can be an odd balance when it comes to making sure members are aware of work without coming across like you’re sucking up, but in this case I feel a deep need to beat the drum, so here we go-

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #25, “The Nomad” is a heck of an achievement. It took almost a year for Alex Horley to traditionally oil paint 38 pages of stunning sword & sorcery imagery and I did everything in my power to summon lyrical narration and dialogue to live up to those visuals. It’s a self-contained story about legacy, loss, and survival – poetry amidst pain. It’s one of the best comics I’ve ever worked on and the response from readers and reviewers was top notch.

If the Worldcon membership considers The Nomad worthy of nomination for Best Graphic Story or Comic and Alex Horley for Best Professional Artist, our whole team would be thrilled.

Anyone can join the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), even if you’re not attending this year’s event in Los Angeles in person, and a $50 base membership allows you to nominate up to five titles/people in all 17 award categories and vote on winners once the Hugo nomination ballot is ready. Get involved and nominate your favorites!

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

More shows have popped up on my Spring schedule:

Feb 14-16, 2026 Fan Expo Vancouver Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Mar 5-8, 2026 Emerald City Comic Con Seattle, WA, USA
Apr 23-26, 2026 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, CANADA

Other Links

• Drew Petursson covers the core of what makes hand drawn animation so compelling and appealing, using examples from some of the best animated films EVER. As both a fan and a professional, this video pulled me right in.

• Speaking of glorious 2D animation, master animator James Baxter has posted up a wonderful tutorial about character walk cycles. Whenever I watch an expert showcase their process like this, I learn a lot even while I’m humbled at the same time.

• Meredith Gran has released PERFECT TIDES: STATION TO STATION, a point-and-click adventure game sequel to PERFECT TIDES, and both are heartfelt coming of age story video games. I first met Meredith way back in my webcomic days and it’s been amazing watching her skills and career flourish over the years.

• Steve Jackson Games has launched a crowfunding campaign for Munchkin 2nd Edition with all new art by my friend John Kovalic. If you’re a tabletop gamer like me you probably already knew about this, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Jim

Zub Comics in April 2026

Posted by on January 23, 2026 No comments


CONAN THE BARBARIAN #31
On sale April 22, 2026
Story: JIM ZUB
Line Art: DOUG BRAITHWAITE
Colors: DIEGO RODRIGUEZ
Cover A: MAHMUD ASRAR
Cover B: DOUG BRAITHWAITE
Cover C: MAX DUNBAR
Cover D: PAOLO PANTALENA

A DEADLY FOE CONTINUES TO HUNT CONAN
A DEADLY NEW FOE hunts Conan the Barbarian, tracking his spirit wherever he travels – a killer with keen blade in hand and teeth from old prey strung ‘round his neck. The cult of the Black Stone WANTS REVENGE against the Cimmerian and the Son of the Tooth is their weapon of choice.


MAD ABOUT DC
On sale April 1st, 2026
Written and Drawn by THE USUAL GANG OF COMIC BOOK CREATORS WHO NEEDED THE EXTRA MONEY
Cover by DAN “MAD ABOUT GLUTEN LABELING BECAUSE IT SHOULD ACTUALLY BE CLEARER OR ELSE WHAT’S THE POINT” PANOSIAN
Variant covers by SIMON BISLEY and CHIP ZDARSKY

Chip Zdarsky is a funny guy. Remember when he made that whole April Fools’ gag comic with rub ‘n’ smell farts? Oh, wait, that was me, DC Comics E-I-C Marie Javins. Chip was the one saying, “I’d turn back if I were you,” but he couldn’t stop me. Editors are a self-destructive lot. Which is why this year, I said, “I give up, you do it, Chip, you are so much funnier and prettier and also better with cats than I am.” And look, he went and did it. Chip demoted himself to “editor.” Chip is turning the DC universe on its ear and bringing you savage mockery of all we hold dear, and he is assisted in this brutal task by Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, Skottie Young, and many, many more. Next year? Back to farts.

Includes MAD favorite Sergio Aragones with “A MAD Look at Comic Book Stores,” “Guy vs. Spy” by Jim Zub and Ramon Perez, and a DC Fold-In by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. Plus a slew of MAD-style parodies of all DC Comics you hold dear, and some you’ve always hated anyway.

MAD About DC #1 will fulfill your every comic book dream, or at least three or four of them.

Conan the Barbarian #25 is Hugo Eligible

Posted by on January 23, 2026 No comments


It’s that time of year when Worldcon members get their registration finalized (the registration deadline is January 31st, 2026) and think about which titles they will nominate for the Hugo Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in fiction. Stacy and I attended Worldcon in Seattle last year and it was an absolute whirlwind of panels, parties and time well spent with some of our favorite people in the business.

It can be an odd balance when it comes to making sure members are aware of work without coming across like you’re sucking up, but in this case I feel a deep need to beat the drum, so here we go-

CONAN THE BARBARIAN #25, “The Nomad” is a heck of an achievement. It took almost a year for Alex Horley to traditionally oil paint 38 pages of stunning sword & sorcery imagery and I did everything in my power to summon lyrical narration and dialogue to live up to those visuals. It’s a self-contained story about legacy, loss, and survival – poetry amidst pain. It’s one of the best comics I’ve ever worked on and the response from readers and reviewers was top notch.

If the Worldcon membership considers The Nomad worthy of nomination for Best Graphic Story or Comic and Alex Horley for Best Professional Artist, our whole team would be thrilled.

Anyone can join the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), even if you’re not attending this year’s event in Los Angeles in person, and a $50 base membership allows you to nominate up to five titles/people in all 17 award categories and vote on winners once the Hugo nomination ballot is ready. Get involved and nominate your favorites!

Zubby Newsletter #143: Endless Haze

Posted by on January 20, 2026 No comments

I flew back from Portland yesterday after the 3-day Fan Expo show and it was a strange day of travel. I had to head to the airport from my hotel at 3:00am and hazily made my connection in Denver before mechanical issues kept us hanging out on the tarmac for an extra hour. I rarely sleep on planes and had an aisle seat this time, so even when I did nod off it only lasted for a minute or two before someone needed me to get up or moved alongside me on their way to the back of the plane. Waking up this morning after some deep sleep, I still feel tired and out of sync with the waking world. Hoping I can shake off this lurgy feeling today and dive back into my To-Do List.

In a similar fashion, it was nice seeing friends and fans in Portland but I don’t think my brain was ready for a January convention. This is the first time I’ve ever headed to a show at the start of the year and now I know why – I need more hiberation time and a few deadlines under my belt before I dive back into convention culture. No one did anything wrong and the show itself was fine, I just felt like I floated through most of it instead of being fully engaged.

That said, I did meet some new fans who were really nice and drew up a few sketch covers that turned out pretty solid:

Some sketch covers from Fan Expo Portland.

When I was starting out in this business, conventions seemed to run from around May to September and now there are pop culture conventions every single weekend of the year. On one hand that’s great, but on the other it can start to feel like an endless maze of events and social pressure, so I need to be more careful about defining limits on when travel for work.

Big Fight in April

Conan the Barbarian #31 cover artwork by Mahmud Asrar.

Over on AIPT, they’ve just posted covers for April’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN #31. This issue is where things really explode with a full 22-page battle between our favorite Cimmerian and our brand new villain called The Son of the Tooth!

Talking to The Shortbox

I spoke to Badr Milligan at The Shortbox in their latest podcast episode all about my career in comics, tabletop gaming, iconic characters, pulp writing, working with incredible artists, almost creatively burning out, teaching college students, writing advice, and more. Give it a listen or watch it here:

Current + Upcoming Releases

  • D&D Young Adventurer’s: Warriors & Wizards Compendium – released Nov 4.
  • Stranger Things-Dungeons & Dragons: Tales from the Table – released Nov 4.
  • Conan the Barbarian #27 – released Dec 17.
  • Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #4 – released Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian vol. 6: A Nest of Serpents – released Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian #28 – releases Jan 28.
  • Conan the Barbarian #29 – releases Feb 11.
  • Skullkickers: Compact Attack Edition Vol. 1 – releases Feb 17.
  • Conan the Barbarian 30 – releases Mar 11.
  • Skullkickers: Compact Attack Edition Vol. 2 – releases Mar 17.

    • Upcoming Appearances

    I’ll have more convention announcements for March, April and the summer coming soon, but for now there’s just one confirmed event happening in February.

    Feb 14-16, 2026 Fan Expo Vancouver Vancouver, BC, CANADA

    Other Links

    • Hank Green raises some really good points about the commercialization of everything – how we’ve grown exhausted with the spectacle of it all and need to enjoy social time with others away from endless ads.

    • Shannon Newby goes through the structure of his contracts when hiring a creative team to work on comic projects. Defining the terms of work – deliverables, timeline, compensation, and ownership – is extremely important and this is a solid reminder, especially on creator-owned work being put together with friends.

    • Over on Futurism, Frank Landymore discusses how AI seems to be failing to boost productivity despite billions of dollars being poured into it.

    • Need a good recipe for banana bread? This is the one Stacy and I use.

    Jim

    Zub at Fan Expo Portland 2026

    Posted by on January 13, 2026 No comments

    It’s my first convention of 2026 and my first time at Fan Expo Portland, January 16-18, 2026.
    I’m a special guest and will be set up with in the Comic Sketch Art section of Artist Alley at

    TABLE P-35

    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.

    Zubby Newsletter #142: Thanks For All The Fish

    Posted by on January 12, 2026 No comments


    Some New Year’s house cleaning-

    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!

    Honestly? Like I mentioned in my Year in Review post, on a personal level I am doing well, and I’m not saying that in some kind of sarcastic tone while power stapling my arm to the table next to me or anything.

    “I’m…fine! Everything is…FINE!”

    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!

    Okay, self-imposed straw man. Calm down.

    He’s fine. Readers seem happy with Scourge of the Serpent #4 and I’m happy they’re happy but, even more important than that, I’m satisfied with the work and excited for what comes next.

    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!

    FREE SCRIPT!

    Speaking of the Cimmerian, I shook a bit of dust off my Patreon and have been updating it weekly since the holidays. In addition, my first post of 2026 is absolutely FREE so people can read the script for the CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE Prelude issue and get a feel for how plot-style scripting works.

    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.

    Current + Upcoming Releases

  • D&D Young Adventurer’s: The Warriors & Wizards Compendium – released Nov 4.
  • Stranger Things-Dungeons & Dragons: Tales from the Table – released Nov 4.
  • Conan the Barbarian #27 – released Dec 17.
  • Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #4 – releases Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian vol. 6: A Nest of Serpents – releases Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian #28 – releases Jan 28.
  • Conan the Barbarian #29 – releases Feb 11.
  • Skullkickers: Compact Attack Edition Vol. 1 – releases Feb 17.
  • Conan the Barbarian 30 – releases Mar 11.
  • Skullkickers: Compact Attack Edition Vol. 2 – releases Mar 17.

    • Upcoming Appearances

    This weekend I’m in Portland! Are you in Portland? Come on by and say “Hi!”

    Jan 16-18, 2026 Fan Expo Portland Portland, OR, USA
    Feb 14-16, 2026 Fan Expo Vancouver Vancouver, BC, CANADA

    Other Links

    • The Humble Comics Bundle Dark Horse has going right now for Lone Wolf and Cub and Other Classic Manga is absolutely ridiculous, in the best way possible. 63 volumes of must-read material that is ‘pay what you want’? Bonkers.

    • Tom Francis distills 15 years of indie game development advice into 4 bits of advice and it’s both fascinating and applicable to many other creative projects.

    • It sounds dumb but Capcom fixed a typo in Street Fighter II by using a human leg. What? The technology under the hood of old school arcade cabinets is kind of amazing, especially when they have to jury rig something weird like this.

    Jim

    Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #4 Reviews

    Posted by on January 12, 2026 No comments

    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.”

    Zubby Newsletter #141: One Beast To Another

    Posted by on January 5, 2026 No comments
    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.

    Current + Upcoming Releases

  • D&D Young Adventurer’s: The Warriors & Wizards Compendium – released Nov 4.
  • Stranger Things-Dungeons & Dragons: Tales from the Table – released Nov 4.
  • Conan the Barbarian #26 – released Nov 26.
  • Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #3 – released Nov 26.
  • Conan the Barbarian #27 – released Dec 17.
  • Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #4 – releases Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian vol. 6: A Nest of Serpents – releases Jan 7.
  • Conan the Barbarian #28 – releases Jan 28.
  • Conan the Barbarian #29 – releases Feb 11.
  • Skullkickers: Compact Attack Edition Vol. 1 – releases Feb 17.

    • Upcoming Appearances

    Two shows announced so far for 2026, and more to come:

    Jan 16-18, 2026 Fan Expo Portland Portland, OR, USA
    Feb 14-16, 2026 Fan Expo Vancouver Vancouver, BC, CANADA

    Other Links

    • WatchingTheAerial has a neat short video essay about fans who scan 35mm prints of movies, and how they may be misled about their assumptions around film duplication, color grading, and other aspects of the film restoration process.

    • 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.

    • Major Spoilers has the first look at Conan covers and solicits arriving in stores March 2026.

    Jim