Conan the Barbarian #15 arrived in stores last week, Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 this week. The one-two punch of those comics thundering their way onto shelves and the excited response from readers has been incredibly gratifying.

As always, thank you for reading and sharing your enthusiasm with others. It really does make a difference.

Now that October is underway, I’m sprinting to hit my writing deadlines before Canadian Thanksgiving and then four weeks of convention travel. Lots to do but it’s a good sprint, especially when I know I’ll be seeing so many great people in the days ahead.

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Difficult News

Speaking of great people, my friend Howard Andrew Jones, sword & sorcery author/editor extraordinaire, has been diagnosed with brain cancer (multifocal glioblastoma) and, since he’s in the U.S., that means his family’s health expenses are set to skyrocket.

Help directly if you can, and please share widely.

In June – Howard, John C. Hocking, and I were in Texas for the Robert E. Howard Days Festival, laughing and celebrating. Howard had signed a multi-book deal for Hanuvar and I was in the final stages of signing on for at least 3 more years of work on Conan the Barbarian. We talked at length about how good it felt to know what we’d both be doing for the next 3 years.

I caught Covid and missed Gen Con, but Howard sent texts all weekend, telling me how much I was missed and that we’d need to celebrate twice as much next year to make up for it.

Getting the news about Howard’s diagnosis absolutely knocked the wind out of me-
Man plans. God laughs.

I cannot even fathom what he and his family are going through. Adding a crushing financial burden to that? It’s unbelievable.

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Chatting With The Shrine of Comics

When I was at Robert E. Howard Days in June I spoke to Alfredo and Ludwig from The Shrine of Comics, but they had problems with the audio quality of the recording, so we decided to schedule another interview, this one online.

We talk about a lot of different subjects: the cast of Battle of the Black Stone, Civilization VS Savagery, long term story planning, working with the team, traveling to conventions, the legacy of Robert E. Howard, writing Conan at Marvel, writing Conan at Titan, the Conan fandom, and more!

Check it out!

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A Big Bolt On Your Bookshelf

My first Marvel monthly series, THUNDERBOLTS from 2016-2017, is getting collected in a spiffy 12-issue omnibus called THUNDERBOLTS: WINTER SOLDIERS just in time for Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie coming out next year.

Is there anything from my comics in the new film?

I have no idea. Guess I’ll find out if I get invited to the premiere and/or get a Special Thanks callout in the credits.

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Back to the Cimmerian Source, Part 5

I’m rereading all the original Robert E. Howard Conan prose stories and jotting down a few thoughts about each one. I don’t want to overwhelm this newsletter with text, so if you want to read what I think of more of the original Cimmerian stories, click on through to the posts linked below:

16) The Hour of the Dragon
17) Red Nails

Unfortunately, I fell behind on my reading because writing deadlines had to take priority, obviously. There are still a few Conan stories I want to cover that were published after Robert E. Howard’s death, but those will have to wait, so I guess it’ll be in Cimmerian Sept-ober. 😉

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Current + Upcoming Releases

D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – released September 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #15 – released September 25th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – released October 2nd.

Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 23rd.

Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.

Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.

Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.

Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

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Upcoming Appearances

Another UK signing date has been added to the list, this one with artist Doug Braithwaite in Newcastle on November 1st! So excited to meet our readers in England and sign some books!

Oct 15, 2024	Kowabunga Comics	Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Oct 17-20, 2024	Gamehole Con	Madison, WI, USA
Oct 25-27, 2024	MCM Expo: London	London, England, UK
Oct 29, 2024	Forbidden Planet International	Nottingham, England, UK
Nov 1, 2024	Forbidden Planet Superstore	Newcastle, UK
Nov 4-8, 2024	D&D In a Castle	Newcastle, UK

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Links and Other Things

• My pals at UDON Entertainment have a new comic series for Final Fight based on the classic video game and they’re giving away the first issue online for free, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t check it out.

• Derek Muller at Veritasium has a great video that explains how QR codes work and who invented them. Fascinating stuff.

• Scientific American explains why certain cheeses melt incredibly well and others don’t. Useful food science for cooks, and just interesting all around.

Jim

I’ve been posting on social media about rereading the original Conan stories and, with an eye on purple prose, a well-meaning fan pointed me toward an infamous sword & sorcery story called The Eye of Argon.

The Eye of Argon is a sword & sorcery novella written in 1970 about a barbarian named Grignr, clearly inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, but it’s notorious for how poorly put together it is. In an age well before the internet, this thing went “viral”, was copied and shared amongst professional authors and eventually fandom at large. It has been called the “worst fantasy novel ever” and, at quite a few science fiction conventions of the era, there would be meet-ups where people would attempt to read The Eye of Argon aloud without cracking up. Right now, if you search YouTube for “The Eye of Argon” there are hundreds of videos with dramatizations, analysis, or group readings.

I’d heard passing mention of it before, but didn’t know any specifics and had never actually read the damn thing. It’s short and readily available online, so I finally checked it out.

As you’d expect, it’s bad. The story has spelling mistakes, grammatical problems, plot issues, and misuses words in spots that leave some sentences adrift in a sea of confusion. It leans into painfully overworn genre tropes and the pacing is terrible.

And yet…

…And yet, Jim Theis was only 16 years-old when he wrote this 11,000+ word story on a typewriter and submitted it to the Ozark Science Fiction Association’s fanzine. I sure as hell didn’t write stories that long at his age, and didn’t have nearly enough confidence to even try submitting work for publication. Maybe it was blind hubris on his part, but at least he made something, finished it, and could learn from it.

In this case, unfortunately, what he learned was that a group of successful authors and fervent fans were eager to endlessly mock the hell out of him for his literary shortcomings and ensured that he would never improve or write fiction again. Even worse, multiple small press publishers reprinted the story and sold it without ever paying him a dime. Even now, 22 years after his death, people are still making money on Jim Theis’ work, regardless of its quality.

What’s odd to me is that when I read The Eye of Argon I can see a writer struggling to understand the form and function of pulpy prose. He’s misfiring all over the place but, rather than just copying sentences word for word as a crutch, he keeps trying to grab bits of poetic thunder, make it his own, and put it on the page. He fails but, by God, he’s trying.

Yes, The Eye of Argon is bad, but I’m genuinely surprised that this particular badness took hold so intensely in the mind of fandom. I’ve read worse writing from some of my college students submitted for grading, and also much worse from obsessive fan fiction writers, hopeful game designers, and cocky first-time comic creators…and all those people had access to spellcheck and a ridiculous amount of online How-To resources that would have blown young Jim Theis’ mind.

Having all this knowledge at our fingertips hasn’t solved the Dunning-Kruger effect. If anything, non-stop internet access and the ability to ‘publish’ our words and ideas in an instant has created an endless factory of Argons, an ever-flowing torrent of naive stories and hurtful criticism. Even worse, the cringe-worthy creative output you put online when you were 16 now gets to sit dormant like a landmine until it’s ready to blow up in your face thanks to deep internet archives and the virality of social media.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve mocked terrible writing and had my mind vaporized by art portfolios so bad it was hard to believe they were sincerely trying to qualify for an art program or get a job as a professional. I snark about shitty movies and TV shows all the time and shake my head about the middling to poor quality of at least half the comics being professionally published each week. I understand the cathartic desire to filter and judge material that feels utterly incompetent, but watching nerds giddily eviscerate a hopeful teenage writer in the public square for decades is more sad than funny.

I hope the first story you ever wrote stays locked away in a drawer, so you never have to face the burning truth of its inadequacy.

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Back to the Cimmerian Source, Part 4

As I mentioned above, I’m rereading all the original Robert E. Howard Conan prose stories and jot down a few thoughts about each one during September. I don’t want to overwhelm this newsletter with text, so if you want to read what I think of more of the original Cimmerian stories, click on through to the posts linked below:

14) Beyond the Black River
15) Shadows In Zamboula

I’m currently in the midst of reading The Hour of the Dragon, the only full-length Conan novel Howard ever wrote, and it’s 5-6 times as long as the other short stories, so my rundown on that is taking longer, especially while juggling writing deadlines.

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Current + Upcoming Releases

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 (of 4) – released September 4th.

D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – released September 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #15 – released September 25th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – releases October 2nd.

Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 30th.

Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.

Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases November 19th.

Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.

Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.

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Upcoming Appearances

Since I’m traveling through the UK in late October/early November, I’m adding some comic shop signings to my schedule. First out of the gate is a signing in Nottingham, at Forbidden Planet International.

Oct 15, 2024	Kowabunga Comics	Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Oct 17-20, 2024	Gamehole Con	Madison, WI, USA
Oct 25-27, 2024	MCM Expo: London	London, England, UK
Oct 29, 2024	Forbidden Planet International	Nottingham, England, UK
Nov 4-8, 2024	D&D In a Castle	Newcastle, UK

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Links and Other Things

• The BBC has placed their entire Sound Effects Library online. It’s in-depth, searchable, downloadable and free for non-commercial use, including education.

• Jeff Shanks, Robert E. Howard scholar extraordinaire, chatted with the Sword & Sorcery Book Club about all things Conan, pulp storytelling, making his first comic, research, and more.

• My friend Vee Mus’e is part of a new start-up tabletop roleplaying game company called Broken Door Entertainment and they’ve just launched their first crowdfunding campaign for a superhero game called Paragons.

• Luke Gygax has a new crowdfunding campaign for an old school TTRPG adventure called Wrath of the Sea Lich.

Jim

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”– Ira Glass

I definitely felt this frustration when I was starting out, and see it a lot in first-early comics from new creators. That nervous-awkward feeling because they finished a comic and are proud of it, but know it’s not clicking like the work that inspires them. They feel that gap.

Getting their first project done was incredibly hard and finishing it didn’t hit that high, so clearly they’re not cut out for this because creativity is supposed to feel good and inspiring and this doesn’t feel like that at all, so they quit.

The bad news is that it’s not destiny or the muses driving the work. You making this stuff is not inevitable or unstoppable. It’s messy and annoying and jam-packed with doubt because there are no guarantees on the other side of completion and there never will be.

And the people you know who aren’t in this field tell you you’re “brilliant” because they want to be supportive and don’t know any better, and that’s incredibly kind, but the compliment doesn’t fit how you feel or the quality you see, so you carry this dichotomy around with nowhere to put it.

When I was coordinating the Animation program at Seneca, there was an inevitable drop in student morale during second year (before it slooowly climbed back up). We’d warn students that drop was coming and they’d chuckle about it on the first day of class when I brought it up, but it always happened. Foundational learning was done (but not yet mastered) and we were moving into more advanced lessons, assignments where we wanted them to not just follow along and demonstrate the basics, but show us their creativity in storytelling and design. The vast majority of material handed in was poorly stitched-together monstrosities of current trends and obvious influences, surface level aesthetics at best, and when we called them on it they’d absolutely crumble. Maybe they weren’t cut out for this art thing after all. They wanted the work to be just as good as the stuff that inspired them and the gap was so damn obvious.

But, what they didn’t realize, was they were actually making important progress. They weren’t as good as they thought they were and were finally aware of it. They’d pushed through a crucial barrier – They could finally see the gap and work to close it!

The process hurts, but take comfort that you have a goal to achieve and see quality worth striving for. Being aware and chipping away at improving your craft is far better than producing utter trash and thinking you’re brilliant. Oh sure, you’d love to have that mind-melting level of confidence, but ignorance and hubris is so much worse in the long run. As frustrating as it can be, seeing quality and striving to reach it is a crucial aspect of the journey, wherever it leads.

Mind the gap and carry on.

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Free Scripts

A new writer reached out with questions about how much detail they should have in their comic scripts. Every writer I know approaches it differently, and the amount of detail given when describing panels varies from project to project depending on the artist, specific reference required, and complexity of each scene. I have a lot of writing tutorials free on my website and, for more direct examples, browse these free full issue scripts available on my Patreon:

• SKULLKICKERS #1 and WAYWARD #1 full scripts
• WAYWARD #6 full script
• CARGO, a sci-fi short story script

For the price of a coffee you can dig into my Patreon script archive – over 300 scripts produced for practically every major comic publisher in North America – and compare the script I wrote to the published version to see how it all came together.

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Last Chance Bundle

Speaking of Skullkickers, you have only a few days left to take advantage of the Skullkickers digital Bundle of Holding deal! Over 1000 pages of comics and gaming goodness for $10? Ridiculous.

If you’ve never read my creator-owned action-comedy series, this is where my sword & sorcery writing career begins!

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Back to the Cimmerian Source, Part 3

In previous newsletters I mentioned Cimmerian September, with bloggers and vloggers reading and chatting about Conan stories. I’m hoping to reread all the original Robert E. Howard Conan prose stories and jot down a few thoughts about each one. I don’t want to overwhelm this newsletter with text, so if you want to read what I think of more of the original Cimmerian stories, click on through to the posts linked below:

9) Queen of the Black Cost
10) The Devil In Iron
11) People of the Black Circle – Part 1 Part 2
12) A Witch Shall Be Born
13) The Servants of Bit-Yakin

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Quite a Trip

The 2024 Tripwire Awards have been announced and Conan creators are nominated for 4 awards:
Best Writer, Best Cover Artist, Best New Series, and Best New Talent!

Vote here on your favorites until October 14th.

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Current + Upcoming Releases

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 (of 4) – released September 4th.

D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – releases September 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #15 – releases September 25th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – releases October 2nd.

Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – releases October 9th.

Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 30th.

Savage Sword of Conan #5 – releases October 30th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – releases November 6th.

Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 – releases November 19th.

Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases November 27th.

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Upcoming Appearances

Oct 15, 2024	Kowabunga Comics	Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Oct 17-20, 2024	Gamehole Con	Madison, WI, USA
Oct 25-27, 2024	MCM Expo: London	London, England, UK
Nov 4-8, 2024	D&D In a Castle	Newcastle, UK

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Links and Other Things

• Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, Mark Finn‘s excellent biography of the creator of Conan, is now finally available as an ebook on Kindle.

• The documentary Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters by my friend Jim Demonakos is now available on a slew of different platforms: Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, Microsoft, Vimeo, YouTube.

• I made this pork tenderloin recipe last night for Stacy and friends and it turned out great. I don’t usually try out a new recipe with company coming over, but in this case it was a solid choice.

Have a great weekend!
Jim

Health Update: Thank you to all the people who reached out about my previous newsletter where I talked about catching Covid and missing Gen Con. So many kind messages about that and the Conan contract helped bolster me through a tough week. A few friends came through with food care packages and many others offered to help, which was also deeply appreciated.

Two days ago I tested negative for Covid. I still have some minor aches and bouts of exhaustion but it’s getting better, day by day. Stacy seems to be about two days behind me in terms of symptoms and recovery so our fingers are crossed that she tests negative later today so we can fully restock groceries and start to socialize again.

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Chicago Fan Expo is next week and if I wasn’t clear of Covid obviously I wouldn’t be going, but I am so I will, though I’m definitely going to be less cavalier about handshakes and hugs. I haven’t been to the Windy City since 2018, so I’m really looking forward to it.

A quick browse through photos from that show and it’s a bit mind boggling to me that it’s already been six years. Tom, Mark and I were out for dinner when Tom told us Marvel would be licensing Conan the Barbarian again and he wanted us to include the Cimmerian in our second Avengers weekly event series. A month later I was in a boardroom at the Marvel offices hashing out story beats with our team as we brought together a wild amount of elements in Avengers: No Road Home. So many great memories.

As always, in the rearview mirror the route of these creative projects make sense, but in the midst of the journey it can feel like you’re just driving into the dark and hoping it all works out.

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D&D In a Castle!

So thrilled to formally announce that I’m the latest Dungeon Master to join the D&D In a Castle team and I’ll be running a big adventure at Castle Lumley on November 4th-8th!

Seats are extremely limited, so if you want to travel to the UK and play with me in a castle as we celebrate 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons, gather up your dice and register as soon as possible. It’s going to be one for the ages.

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Sanctuary of Comics

I spoke to Alfredo at Sanctuary of Comics from Mexico when I was in Cross Plains for Robert E. Howard Days. There are some audio issues with this interview, but we cover a lot of good ground, so it’s worth checking out if you can muscle through:

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Endured, Not Surpassed

At home resting and recovering, so I tackled the last part of the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

All in all, Erdtree has incredible design and atmosphere – The new locations look epic, the new dungeons are interesting, and the new weapons are fun to try out. But, even with all that new stuff and stellar art and design, it didn’t push Elden Ring to the top of my personal Souls game list. Not even close. The issues I had with the base game are still here and some are even more pronounced in the DLC.

The bosses are designed to challenge characters across such broad power builds and assume you’re using spirit ash allies, so by the time you reach the end game they have to unleash ridiculous movements and area of effect attacks that make battles feel less like epic one-on-one duels and more like hooligan free-for-alls with anime explosions.

Without spirit ashes, most of the big boss battles are winnable but become endurance slogs as you jump and flip like a fool waiting for those moments when you’re allowed to punish the enemy.

With spirit ashes, most of the bosses get distracted so you can unleash combos or have time to heal, but then it feels like you’re ambushing them with attacks or running away to hide and lick your wounds instead of actually being in a direct duel. This means that even when you win, it can feel remarkably unsatisfying.

For me, Bloodborne had an ideal balance of aggression and maneuverability. You face down boss creatures or other hunters, the combat is intense, and you feel like you earned each victory.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice laser focused on sword combat and pushed it to the absolute limit. Every key boss battle was a white knuckle struggle that was hard as hell, but also fair in its application of the gameplay skills it taught you.

Elden Ring has a massive amount of content and a ridiculous amount of flexibility, which is really impressive, but the need to encompass all that creates a host of problems that crop up over the long haul. Even still, my first playthrough was flush with discoveries and a feeling of my character’s power growing, bit by bit. The Erdtree DLC has that same sense of awe and discovery. It is absolutely worth the price of admission…but also exhausting.

When I finished Bloodborne and Sekiro I immediately wanted to play them again, and soak up every moment, showcasing my new confidence and mastery.

When I finished Elden Ring (and now Erdtree) I was glad I went through it in general, but had zero desire to jump back in. The whole thing wore me down instead of pumping me up for another playthrough.

In Sekiro, when I fought Genichiro, Owl, and Isshin I felt the intensity of those duels. They were a test of my skill in watching enemy movement or listening to the audio cues for tells, and then executing moves in the core gameplay to succeed. I didn’t just want to move past those bosses, I wanted to prove myself.

In Elden Ring and Erdtree, the big fights feel so chaotic, the camera so unwieldly, and the arms race of combos so unrelenting that I used anything at my disposal to just get them over with. Most of the bosses felt like a punishment endured instead of a challenge surpassed.

I eventually platinumed Elden Ring and I’m sure I’ll play Erdtree again at some point, but right now I’m happy to set it down and try something else. It didn’t get its deep hooks into me like Bloodborne and Sekiro did…and that’s kind of disappointing.

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Current + Upcoming Releases

Now that the solicit info for Conan the Barbarian #16 is out, I can show off Doug Braithwaite and Diego Rodriguez‘s wonderful connected covers for this story arc:

Conan the Barbarian #13 – released July 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #14 – releases August 21st.

Savage Sword of Conan #4 – releases August 28th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 (of 4) – releases September 4th.

D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – releases September 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #15 – releases September 25th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #2 (of 4) – releases October 2nd.

Conan the Barbarian #16 – releases October 30th.

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Upcoming Appearances

Aug 16-18, 2024	Fan Expo Chicago	Chicago, IL, USA
Aug 22-25, 2024	Fan Expo Canada	Toronto, ONT, CANADA
Oct 17-20, 2024	Gamehole Con	Madison, WI, USA
Nov 4-8, 2024	D&D In a Castle	Newcastle, UK

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Links and Other Things

• Over on AV Club, Jarrod Jones discusses the legacy of The Iron Giant, one of the finest animated films ever made, 25 years after its release.

• Jon Peterson‘s Playing At The World and The Elusive Shift are wonderful books about tabletop gaming history and this interview with him from a few years ago feels even more relevant this year on D&D’s 50th anniversary.

• Campbell Walker has a neat video on the history of fonts, from ancient record keeping through to modern design. We take a lot of the typefaces around us for granted, so it was a nice reminder of the way these things build on each other over looong periods of time.

Jim

San Diego Comic-Con went so well, with almost no downside at all, and I joked with Stacy that it meant Gen Con would be a disaster…

We drove down to Indianapolis Tuesday and Wednesday, and everything went well. Laughing and singing on the road, chatting about our plans. On Wednesday night I saw lots of friends and could feel that convention excitement starting to build. Then, on Thursday morning, literally minutes before the exhibit hall opened, my head suddenly felt stuffy and lightheaded, so I went back to our hotel room and took a Covid rapid test-

And there it was. The joke was now the reality.

As soon as I called Stacy, she stepped up to cope with a rapid series of logistic needs. She took a Covid test and it came up negative, and then sprang into action. While day one of the show kicked off, I notified everyone I met the day before and started repacking our luggage while she carted a load of books back to the hotel room so I could autograph them in the hope that they might sell at the booth even if I wasn’t there.

(And if you’re at Gen Con right now, BOOTH #1145 is still selling our signed books all weekend.)

Going to the show Covid symptomatic would be irresponsible. Staying sequestered in a hotel room wouldn’t work. Not being able to socialize with anyone and spending more money would just be pointless. So, heartbroken and frustrated, we loaded up the car and drove out of Indy less than 24 hours after we arrived.

The drive to Indianapolis from Toronto usually takes about 9 hours and on the way down we split it up over two days, so it was leisurely. Thanks to construction slowdowns and bad weather the drive home took 11 hours and it was utterly miserable, especially as I kept getting messages from people asking where we were at the show

The crapola icing on the cake was that when Stacy got home she tested again and this time was Covid positive. We knew that would likely be the case, but having that at the finish line after such a hard day was pretty demoralizing.

I slept almost 12 hours today and have been congested and a bit feverish. Stacy hasn’t slept as steadily and has more body aches and fever. We know we need to just rest and recover, but doing that while Gen Con rolls on feels so strange.

Last year I managed to attend a lot of events and not get Covid, but obviously I became too lax and need to be more methodical about future appearances. Ironically, I have new events to announce coming up but, as you might imagine, that is not my top priority at this moment.

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Years In The Making

In my previous newsletter I mentioned signing a long-term deal with Heroic Signatures to keep writing Conan, and when I expanded on that info a few days ago it went wide to the comic press and a barrage of happy messages poured forth from readers, retailers, and fellow pros.

I was really taken aback, in the best way possible. It’s been a steady stream of excitement and well wishes that continued even while our Gen Con plans unraveled in real time. I woke up this morning from my feverish sleep to dozens of new congratulations from colleagues and fans, so word is still getting out to wider circles. It’s been a bright spot through a couple dim days.

Thank you. I’m genuinely humbled by all the kind words.

I firmly believe that serialized storytelling like this works best when the creative team has room to build with confidence. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for short and powerful stories, but iconic characters or teams carry on and thrive, decade after decade, when the fanbase isn’t getting the rug pulled out from under them multiple times per year. Yes, a fresh first issue can be a potent jumping on point, but it can just as easily be an off ramp if readers feel like they’re not getting their money’s worth and it’ll all be vaporized in a reboot/relaunch in a few months anyways.

The Conan the Barbarian relaunch with Heroic Signatures and Titan was a unique opportunity to refocus and renew a character and world with over 90 years of published stories and 50 years of comics, but we had to make absolutely sure the end result felt worthy of that restart. I pitched a wider mythic story that encompassed all kinds of ideas, some self-contained stories and other longer interweaving plotlines, but also knew I was only promised one year to prove it could work. Conan the Barbarian #0-12 had to serve as a self-contained epic and also tee up the future. Thankfully, by issue 4 we could see how solid the response was and could start ratifying the long term plan.

So, here we are! This 3-year contract extension I’ve signed with Heroic is a way to ensure we deliver the goods, with all of us confidently pushing in the same direction. Conan the Barbarian #13 just arrived in stores, and I’m writing issue #22 while tightly plotting out material for the end of year 2 and into year 3. Rob De La Torre, Doug Braithwaite, Richard Starkings, Jeff Shanks, and the rest of our amazing crew are on board, all of us excited to be part of this grand adventure. It’s going to be an absolute blast.

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Barbarian Talk

Quite a few fans asked me if there was any video footage of the Conan the Barbarian panel from SDCC. The official Conan YouTube channel has you covered.

Scholar Jeff Shanks, painter Joe Jusko, letterer Richard Starkings, artist Geof Isherwood, and I talk about the exciting year we just had and exciting plans to come:

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Magic on the Move

During San Diego Comic-Con, Dark Horse Comics announced that they would be taking over the comic license for Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering, previously at IDW and Boom.

I’ve known about this for a few months but couldn’t say anything public, obviously. Both Wizards of the Coast and Dark Horse reached out to let me know well ahead of time. Since the announcement didn’t come with any creative team attached and I’ve written more D&D comics than anyone else, a lot of people asked me if I would be involved in this new DH-D&D comic initiative. I’m not part of the launch line-up, but I know who is and I think fans are going to be really happy once they’re announced.

(That said, I’ve already been talking to my friends at Dark Horse about possible future stories, so don’t be surprised if I do pop up again at some point down the road…)

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Current + Upcoming Releases

Savage Sword of Conan #3 – released July 10th.

Conan the Barbarian Vol.2: Thrice Marked For Death – TPB released July 16th.

Conan the Barbarian #13 – released July 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #14 – releases August 21st.

Savage Sword of Conan #4 – releases August 28th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 (of 4) – releases September 4th.

D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection Box Set 2 – releases September 24th.

Conan the Barbarian #15 – releases September 25th.

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Upcoming Appearances

Just announced at Gen Con, I’m joining the team at D&D In a Castle and will be running my first game at Lumley Castle from November 4th-8th. A lot more details coming up in future newsletters, but if you want to secure a spot at my table, head on over to the website HERE. Specific tickets for my event will start going live next week, so you can secure a spot at the castle now and then specify your Dungeon Master of choice next week.

Aug 16-18, 2024	Fan Expo Chicago	Chicago, IL, USA
Aug 22-25, 2024	Fan Expo Canada	Toronto, ONT, CANADA
Oct 17-20, 2024	Gamehole Con	Madison, WI, USA
Nov 4-8, 2024	D&D In a Castle	Newcastle, UK

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Links and Other Things

• Editor and writer Alex Segura talked to the Los Angeles Times all about the enduring importance of San Diego Comic-Con.

• Samwise Didier posted a streaming rundown of the illustration process for his Battle of the Black Stone variant cover.
Jim