I’m a Featured Guest at this year’s Toronto Comicon on Friday and Sunday (unfortunately, I am unable to attend on Saturday). I’ll be set up with the Comic Sketch Art team at-
Professional Table P-133
In addition to signing at my table, on Friday I also have a panel:
FRIDAY, MARCH 14 4:00 PM-5:00 PM – Comic Writers Unite! – Theatre 2
Comic writers Jim Zub(Conan the Barbarian), Fred Kennedy(Dead Romans), Michael Schwartz(Armored), and Cecil Castellucci(Batgirl) talk about their craft and answer questions.
It’s wonderful to be back at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington, one of my favorite conventions each year. I’ll be set up with the Comic Sketch Art team at-
ARTIST ALLEY TABLE A-27
In addition to signing at my table during the show, on Friday I have two panels and a book giveaway:
FRIDAY, MARCH 7 2:00 PM-2:45 PM – Dungeons and Dragons and Comics, Oh My! – Room 345 • Level 3
Swords are cool! And comics with swords are even cooler. Join Jim Zub(Conan the Barbarian, Dungeons & Dragons), G. Willow Wilson(The Hunger and the Dusk), Zack Davisson(Record of Lodoss War), and others to talk about sexy orks, bladed weapons, fantastical beasts, and what makes comics a perfect medium for telling fantasy stories.
3:15 PM-4:00 PM – Convention Horror Stories, An ECCC Tradition – Room 320 • Level 3 Jim Zub(Conan the Barbarian, Rick and Morty VS Dungeons & Dragons) and Katie Cook(My Little Pony, Nothing Special) are back with their fan-favorite con horror stories panel! What’s it like working as a pro in the business on the convention ‘circuit’? Ridiculous, embarrassing, and always entertaining! Some of these stories will make you laugh out loud, others will make you cringe! This panel is recommended for those 16+ due to coarse language.
4:15 PM-4:45PM – D&D Young Adventurer’s Signing and Giveaway – Booth #20515
At the Penguin-Random House booth, author Jim Zub will be signing FREE copies of Artificers & Alchemy, the newest Dungeons & Dragons Young Adventurer’s Guide, while supplies last!
Here’s my weekend schedule of signings and panels: THURSDAY, August 22, 2024
03:00pm-05:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
06:00pm-07:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
FRIDAY, August 23, 2024
12:00pm-01:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
01:30pm-02:30pm — By Crom, It’s the Conan Panel with Jim Zub – Theater #7-Room 715B Let’s revisit the Hyborian Age together with Jim Zub, the current chronicler of everyone’s favourite Barbarian for Titan Comics, with moderator Brent Chittenden.
04:00pm-05:00pm — Writing For Comics – Theater #6-Room 713 Do you want to be a comic book writer? Here’s your chance to hear from industry pros on the ins and outs of writing for Marvel, DC and beyond, featuring Jim Zub(Conan the Barbarian), Stephanie Cooke(Racc Pack), Fred Kennedy(Dead Romans), Frank Tieri(Wolverine), and Ray Fawkes(Batman Eternal).
05:00pm-07:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
SATURDAY, August 24, 2024
10:30am-01:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
03:00pm-04:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
SUNDAY, August 25, 2024
11:00am-01:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
02:00pm-03:00pm — Wolverine at 50 – Theater #6-Room 713 Canada’s most famous superhero turns 50 and some of the creators who have contributed to his adventures give their thoughts, featuring Jim Zub(Life of Wolverine), Steve McNiven(Old Man Logan), Stephen Platt(Wolverine), and Marc Silvestri(Uncanny X-Men) with moderator John Kirk.
It’s been six years since I visited the Windy City, but I’m back for Fan Expo Chicago, running from August 16-18th, 2024, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
I’ll be set up with the Comic Sketch Art block, which you can find at TABLES P41-P52 in Artist Alley. If you’re headed to show, I hope to see you there!
Here’s my signing and panel schedule at the show: FRIDAY, August 16, 2024
03:00pm-05:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
06:00pm-07:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
SATURDAY, August 17, 2024
11:00pm-01:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
03:00pm-05:30pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
SUNDAY, August 18, 2024
10:00am-12:00pm — Signing at Comic Sketch Art
01:00pm-02:00pm — Writing For Comics – THEATER 3 (ROOMS 5-6) Do you want to be a comic book writer? Here’s your chance to hear from four industry pros on the ins and outs of writing for Marvel, DC and beyond! Jim Zub (Conan), Patrick Gleason (Spider-Man), Stephanie Williams (Nubia and the Amazons) and Jeremy Adams (Green Lantern) are featured.
After missing last year, I’m back at the Calgary Comics & Entertainment Expo on April 25-28, 2024! If you’re headed to the show, I hope to see you there.
BIG FOUR BUILDING – ARTIST ALLEY TABLE P-58
In addition to being at my table, I’m also on a panel Saturday:
Saturday April 27th
6:00pm – CONAN vs DEAD ROMANS: JIM ZUB and FRED KENNEDY – BIG 4 COMIC STAGE
Writer Spotlight: Jim Zub is the acclaimed writer of Conan the Barbarian and Dungeons & Dragons, and Fred Kennedy’s first Image Comics mini-series Dead Romans, debuted in 2023.
Late last week I walked away from an unannounced and unfinished project. I’m pretty sure that’s a first for me.
(No, I won’t publicly say what it was and probably never will. I’m not here to sling mud. There are a lot of wonderful people involved who did great work and they don’t deserve any more stress than they’ve already got.)
In some ways, it’s a good thing – a signal to myself that there is actually a limit in terms of how much I’m willing to be yanked around before the time-money-hassle equation no longer adds up.
Of course, my pragmatic freelancer-fueled brain tried to fight me every step of the way. I had a hard enough time convincing it that I could turn down work from time to time even if a project wasn’t a good fit, the schedule was too tight, or the pay involved was insultingly low, but this…this was different – it was a great fit, the original schedule worked fine, and the pay was in my range…but then the whole thing slid into chaos.
When you contribute to licensed properties, obviously, the licensor gets approval. I know the drill and I work damn hard doing the research and bringing the things I do well into the mix while fitting within the confines of an existing IP. I’ve done it dozens of times on plenty of well known properties.
I’ve also done my fair share of revisions and rewrites. I don’t think my words are sacrosanct or unchangeable, by any means. I deeply appreciate editorial and licensor feedback to make sure we all have something we’re proud of when the finished project is out there in the world.
But, in this case – I was almost done writing, multiple scripts were approved, and there was finished art well underway when we were suddenly told that everything our team had done was now “unapproved” and we needed to start from scratch – That’s just unnecessary, unprofessional, and I can’t trust anything you tell me going forward.
Why even have ‘approvals’ if they don’t mean anything?
It became pretty clear that the people reviewing the work had changed and the licensor no longer wanted this project to exist at all. It was a vestigial limb hopelessly dragging behind a previously agreed upon deal. I had to decide if I was going to pull it all back to the starting blocks and bitterly try to figure out the moving target of their expectations or step away and use my time and effort more productively. I chose the latter and, despite some twinges of freelancer guilt, I’m glad I did. The Zub of 5 or 6 years ago might have made a different decision and it would have been ulcer-inducing.
I don’t know if this is a sign of success, but it’s certainly a sign that I know what I bring to a project and that I’m willing to communicate that more clearly, in any case. Every creative career has highs and lows (and lows, and lows…), and I’m thankful that, at this moment, I have the freedom to make this choice and lean into other projects that engage and challenge me without breaking my brain.
Cover art by Joe Jusko. Logo by Dan Panosian. Pre-order now!
A Savage Story
Speaking of challenges, this week I finalized my prose piece for Savage Sword of Conan #1. Marinating in Robert E. Howard’s famous fiction before I tried to rock out a short story of my own for the Cimmerian was suitably humbling, in all kinds of good ways. Summoning a scene without an artist to make me look good is a much different prospect and flexes a whole different set of creative muscles.
I have never taken any formal writing classes. I did a swack of Creative Writing in high school and learned some script writing when I took a year of Film & Multimedia before I started Classical Animation, but the rest of my ‘training’ has been reading about the craft and putting my own work out into the world; improving story by story and project by project. With my art background, the visual rhythm of animation and comics make the most sense to me. They’re where I feel most comfortable. I love the visual medium and love collaborating with artists.
Stripping everything back to the primacy of prose exposes a lot more of my imposter syndrome. I struggle to quiet that inner critic because I can’t point at the great art and tell it to shut up. It’s just my words sitting out there exposed on the page and either it grabs the reader’s imagination or it doesn’t.
I can write emails, blogposts, tutorials, curriculum, critique, pitches, ad copy, art notes, informal descriptions, and dialogue aplenty but, you know, that’s not ‘real’ writing. That’s not the power of the written word to weave worlds of wonder.
I wrote a Conan short story and, this time, it’s just me.
It’s very pulpy and punchy and I like it, even though it felt strange as a process. (Not bad, mind you, just strange.) People who edit this stuff for a living have read it and liked it and I’m being paid for it, so either they’re all lying because they don’t want to hurt my feelings, or I did okay.
It’s called “Sacrifice in the Sand”, it’s based on Joe Jusko’s gorgeous cover art and, when the big first issue of our mighty magazine hits stores in late February, readers get to decide if it hit the mark or not.
Either way, let me know.
And Yet, More Advice
Despite me exposing my fiction fears, I’m still out here writing advice to people who want to pursue a comic writing career. Ridiculous!
Give it a read and, if you find it helpful, feel free to share it around.
We Sold Out – Again!
Conan the Barbarian #6 arrived in stores last week. Readers seemed to really like it and the pent up demand (it had been delayed two weeks after shipping problems) blew reorders past the overprint, which means there’s a 2nd print coming at the end of the month, with a line art version of the stunning cover art by Jae Lee.
We’re now in the rare position of having sales rise as the series continues, which is an incredible vote of confidence for our team’s hard work. Thank you once again and please keep reading!
More Shenanigans
Despite the fact that I’m a quitter, a sham, quite ridiculous, and a sellout, I also can’t shut up when it comes to talking about my work and the craft.
For Conan fans, the Hyborian chatter starts at around the 22 minute mark. At the 37 minute mark I talk about my Marvel run of Conan issues and reflect on what I did well, things I still needed to learn, and things that were out of our control.
It’s always a pleasure talking with Adam. He’s enthusiastic, well researched, and subtly moves the conversation into some great places. Give it a listen and feel free to check out past interview episodes I link to below-
I hope your holidays have been prosperous and that the new year is looking bright.
I haven’t updated my YouTube channel in quite some time, and with everything that’s been going it’s not something I’ve had time to concentrate on, but I put together a video on January 1st thanking fans for reading and teasing what comes next.
Please watch and share-
In my Year In Review message I mentioned how excited I am for 2024, and a solid part of that centers around-
Rob De La Torreis back for Conan the Barbarian #9-12 and we’re absolutely blowing the doors off in terms of story and visuals. An epic adventure to cap off the first year of our relaunch!
Conan #0-12 is our mission statement for what classic pulp-inspired sword & sorcery can be in the modern era. You’ve made 2023 a winner for our team and I can’t wait to show you what we have planned for 2024 and beyond.
cover art by Rob De La Torre with colors by Dave McCaig.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #9
– Writer: Jim Zub
– Line Art: Roberto De La Torre
– Color: Dean White
– Letters: Richard Starkings
– On sale date: March 27th, 2024
BEYOND FLESH. BEYOND DEATH. BEYOND TIME.
Conan has traveled far and seen much in his legendary journeys, but nothing he has experienced thus far can prepare him for a quest to lands beyond to answer dark riddles of the past. Unexpected allies await, fierce enemies loom, and the strange power of the Black Stone stirs in THE AGE UNCONQUERED!
The triumphant new era of Conan continues in this brand-new tale of brutal heroic adventure from acclaimed creators Jim Zub(Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons) and Rob de la Torre(Invincible Iron Man, King-Size Conan)!
– Cover A: Mike Deodato
– Cover B: E.M. Gist
– Cover C: Roberto De La Torre
– Cover D: Chris Moreno
– Cover E: Blank Sketch Variant
Some Frequently Asked Questions I’ve been getting since that info went out to the public:
Wait a sec, is that Yag-Kosha?
You’ll have to read Conan #9 to find out.
Is this a new adaptation of Tower of the Elephant?
No. This is a new story that builds on the canon Robert E. Howard stories and elements introduced in Conan #1-8.
Will we see Doug Braithwaite and Diego Rodriguez return in the future?
Yes! I’m thrilled to confirm that Doug and Diego are working on Conan #13-16, our fourth story arc.
What is best in life?
Working on this series with this killer creative team.
Almost every page, especially the action scenes, have major story spoilers (seriously), so it’s hard for me to tease what’s coming up… Hmmm~ how ‘bout this?
That’ll have to do for now, my friends.
Land of the Lotus
Script sample for Conan the Barbarian #19 from 2021. Line art by Cory Smith. Inks by Roberto Poggi. Colors by Israel Silva. Letters by Travis Lanham.
Over on my Patreon, the full scripts for part 1 and part 2 of the Land of the Lotus storyline published in 2021 are now up. Learn how comics are made for the price of a fancy coffee. There are over 300 scripts in my Patreon archive.
I learned a lot on this arc and refined my ‘voice’ for Conan and the pulp-fueled narration that makes his comics feel quite distinct. At the time I was hopeful we’d be able to build momentum toward issue #25, (which was also legacy #300 for the series) and carry on from that anniversary issue. Obviously that didn’t end up happening, but all of it led to where I’m at now, which I’m thankful for.
CROM of the Mountain may not care about you or yours (or me…or anyone, really) this season, but I want to wish you and your family the happiest of holidays – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Whatever you celebrate, whoever it’s with, I hope it’s a good one!
Thank YOU for helping make 2023 one of the most exciting and creatively rewarding years I’ve ever had. It’s been an absolute rocket ride and I owe so much of that to people like you supporting my work and sharing it with others.
I hope that time with family, friends, and good cheer are coming your way.
Hearing From Readers
I’ve been getting messages like this every week since Conan launched in early August – emails, texts, Facebook messages, tweets, comments, you name it. Dozens and dozens of them. Most in English, of course, but many in Portuguese, Spanish and French as the foreign editions start to ramp up for release early next year.
It’s incredible hearing from so many lapsed fans and new readers. They tell me that they’ve been heading to their local comic shop on release day every month and have set up a pull file, many for the first time in well over a decade.
Getting this second chance with one of my favorite characters was an unexpected thrill. Having it do so damn well this time is both gratifying and humbling.
I made this guacamole recipe from Epicurious last night as a snack and it was fantastic! Chef Saúl Montiel teaches you how it’s done and his enthusiasm is infectious.
Next time, I’ll have my annual Year In Review. Until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Young Zub – Some day you will write RPG adventures!
Arcade, the infamous game show assassin, unleashes a twisted new Murderworld theme park, this time built in the heart of the Savage Land!
The Murderworld That Time Forgot is a brand new tabletop adventure for characters Rank 1-3 specifically built to teach new Narrators/Game Masters how to successfully run a tabletop role-playing game and also how to structure and execute an exciting Marvel superhero story! There are lots of extra notes and tips on setting up the game, pacing each scene, and keeping players engaged.
Adam Bradford at Demiplane knows how passionate I am about tabletop gaming, so he recruited me to help launch their new line of original Marvel RPG material. With my background in game writing and as co-writer of the recent Murderworld comic, it was the perfect match-up.
And here are the creative credits on the adventure-
Everyone on the team did a fantastic job and it’s all ready to run online or in-person with the speed and convenience of the Demiplane tabletop tools.
I can’t wait to see gaming groups create their own superhero stories filled with twists, turns, and T-Rex’s galore.
I think the new Marvel Multiverse RPG is really well put together. It simulates comic book-worthy action and drama in a way that’s easy to get into and using world famous heroes is an easy way to get new players to try tabletop RPGs, because it gives them an immediate framework to work with. Instead of feeling intimidated by what they ‘should’ do during the game, they can easily get into character by imagining “What would Miles Moralesdo?” (or any other hero they want to play).
Words, Images, & Worlds
I was interviewed by Jason DeHart at Words, Images, & Worlds. We chatted about working on comics and the collaborative process-
Creating effective mysteries in tabletop RPG sessions can be difficult. This gaming tips article, the Three Clue Rule by Justin Alexander, is a classic for good reason. I was reminded of this as I played through Baldur’s Gate 3 and saw how almost every plotline in the game has multiple routes to bring characters in and almost every location has multiple entry points so players can organically move through the story and explore the game world without feeling intensely railroaded along the way.
That should cover it this time. I hope your December is going strong. Jim
On social media some fans and creators were recently sharing anecdotes about the first issue of Uncanny X-Men they read, especially if it hooked them on the series, and that pulled me into a bit of a nostalgia vortex.
The first X-Men issue I remember reading was quite the head trip- Uncanny X-Men #141, first part of the legendary “Days of Future Past” story. As far as I remember, my older brother bought it from a used bookstore in Oshawa that sold comics. The issue was released in late 1980, but I think Joe bought it a couple years later because I must have been 7 or 8 years old at the time.
I didn’t even know who this cast of characters were and they were already thrust into an alternate universe post-apocalyptic future where most of them were dead and their very survival was at stake. It was intense, emotional and incredibly compelling, even if I didn’t understand large parts of the story or had any inkling of the character history at the time. It begged to be explored.
My first point of confusion was the guy on the cover with metal claws. I thought he was “Beast” because he had the exact same haircut as the guy on the poster right behind him-
No one in the story called him “Beast”, they called him “Logan”, but that just added to the air of mystery around him.
Anyways, Joe started collecting Uncanny X-Men a few issues later and I started picking up Amazing Spider-Man and G.I.Joe around the same time.
There was an unexpected joy to dropping right into the middle of the narrative instead of an issue #1 to start things off. Reading and collecting became about filling in holes of the past just as much as it was about engaging the new ongoing stories that arrived each month
Having Uncanny X-Men #141 as a starting point meant that Kitty Pryde was central to the X-narrative and everything Jean Grey/Phoenix-related felt like “history”. I had a similar demarcation point in Amazing Spider-Man – Hobgoblin was the current big bad, so anything Green Goblin-related felt “old” in comparison. (Not bad, of course, just old.) Marvel Tales and Classic X-Men allowed us to dig into the past and fill in gaps in our collection since we couldn’t afford expensive back issues, especially for “key” moments (first appearances, character deaths, things like that).
It felt like rocket riding through a huge interconnected world that extended way behind us while also zipping confidently forward.
Like a lot of comic collectors, over time we’d start to focus on the creators as much as the characters. Who made the books became just as important as the titles we looked for – John Byrne, Michael Golden, Chris Claremont, Roger Stern, John Buscema, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Art Adams, Ann Nocenti, Walt and Louise Simonson, and a slew of others became names we recognized and work we craved because it seemed to stand head and shoulders over others at the time.
And, through it all, the X-Men reigned supreme.
Uncanny X-Men was the best damn soap opera in comics. Claremont and company kept their big cast moving forward with an impressive amount of thoughtful evolution. The team line-up changed constantly. Romances flourished and failed. The month-to-month narrative clipped along with A-plots, B-plots, and occasionally almost completely forgotten C and D-plots that finally popped back up to surprise and delight. One month the team might be in outer space and an issue or two later they could be in the Savage Land, Tokyo, or just playing a game of pick-up baseball in Westchester, New York.
The heroes, villains and supporting cast were deeply flawed and beautifully human. There’s a reason why the series was an absolute sales juggernaut…and it wasn’t because sometimes a character named Juggernaut showed up to break shit.
I don’t think anyone could or should try to put X-Men back in same mold in the here and now, but it’s valuable to re-read those older issues to try and understand why it was so vibrant and how it generated so much loyalty in its readership over so many years.
In an age of endless new #1’s that act as both jumping on and off points, dozens of variant covers every issue, and near-instant digital access to both new comics and almost every issue of the past, it all feels very different. Some things have been gained and other things have been lost and that’s the way life goes, but hearing that prompt of “What was your first X-Men?” brought back a lot of good memories so I thought I’d lean into that a bit here.
Talking Conan
I know this will seem odd, but I’m still talking about Conan the Barbarian.
Someone filmed the Conan the Barbarian comic panel from San Diego Comic-Con, so you can check that out on Forbidden Planet’s channel:
This panel was on Sunday morning, so our voices are pretty shot by this point. Other than that, it was a ton of fun and we were really impressed with the turn out and enthusiasm from the crowd.
I also spoke to the team at Geek Hard all about our Conan the Barbarian relaunch. The interview starts at the 7 minute mark of their latest episode and runs until the 36 minute spot in the show.
Marc Brunet is a former Art Director from Blizzard who goes through a variety of drawing and rendering techniques on his YouTube channel. Like many popular YouTube creators, over time he’s become an exaggerated parody of himself as a way to get more traffic, but if you ignore the twitchy behavior and edits his tutorials are solid and well worth checking out. This new one about rendering skin tone shadows is the same method we used at the UDON Studio on our official Capcom artwork, and a great tool to have in your digital rendering toolbox-