Zub Tales

Stacy and I arrived in London yesterday on our 14th wedding anniversary, and spent the day wandering the city before perusing the National Portrait Gallery. Even with a bit of jet lag slowing us down in the evening, we had a wonderful time and are excited for adventures ahead of us here in the UK.

A quick reminder that I’m in London all weekend for MCM Expo, set up at Artist Alley table A-04 and hosting a Conan panel on Sunday, then heading to Nottingham, Newcastle, and eventually Edinburgh.

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The press release went out on Friday to Animation Magazine and is circulating elsewhere now-
Copernicus and Baboon Animation continue development on an animated SKULLKICKERS series, and have signed Man Of Action‘s JOE KELLY (Deadpool, Ben-10, Big Hero Six) to act as our showrunner!

This has been in the works for a while and I’m thrilled to finally make it public. Having Joe’s expertise as both a phenomenal comic writer and skilled animation developer gives us a big leg-up in a crowded market and it’s been such a pleasure chatting with him about the series and storytelling as a whole.

These media development deals are slow-moving, especially compared to the rapid fire release schedule of monthly comics, but things are progressing, bit by bit. Everyone involved is passionate about the material and ready to rumble when the time is right.

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What Do You Believe?

On the official Conan the Barbarian YouTube channel, artist Doug Braithwaite and I discuss Frozen Faith with host Shawn Curley – How the story grew from our collaboration, what it means to the Conan canon, gods, mortals and more.

By Crom, check it out, and pick up Conan the Barbarian #16, the coda issue for this story arc, in stores now. I am incredibly proud of this issue.

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Ideas Don’t Bleed – Part 2

Matt Rosenberg, Ethan Parker, and I had a wonderful discussion on the Ideas Don’t Bleed podcast and, I know this will shock some of you, but we barely talk about Conan the Barbarian at all.

Here in Part 2 we talk about why I’m not drawing my own graphic novels, talent VS skill, my making comics blogposts, emailing comic professionals, learning how comics are made, comic coloring, comic creative teams, strange editor interactions, giving critiques, and more!

If you missed Part 1, here it is.

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20 Influential Films

Over on BlueSky there’s a fun meme where people are posting 20 movies that have greatly influenced you, one a day for 20 days, no explanations, no reviews, just posters.

Here are the films I put up, in no particular order:
The Secret of NIMH (1982)
Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro (1979)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
The Thing (1982)
Akira (1988)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Iron Giant (1999)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Army of Darkness (1992)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Dead Poet’s Society (1989)
Star Wars (1977)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Labyrinth (1986)
Superman (1978)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)

No surprise that the majority of them came out in the 1980’s as I was growing up, that magic and adventure plays a big part, and that almost half are animated or Muppet-y.

Way back in my first newsletter I discussed commonalities in stories that appeal to me and many of the films above embody those key elements.

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Perfect Sunday

Writer Cavan Scott asked me for the ingredients that would make up my ‘Perfect Sunday’, relaxing with great food and good company. Click on through to check it out.

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Current + Upcoming Releases

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

Conan the Barbarian #16 – released 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.

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

Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases December 11th.

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Upcoming Appearances

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
Nov 13, 2024	Forbidden Planet: International	Edinburgh, Scotland

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Links and Other Things

• Matttt posts another banger of a comic video, this one all about the development and legacy of Scott Pilgrim, and it includes a short interview with my friend, series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley. Everyone in the Toronto comics scene in that period remembers the meteoric rise of the series, and it’s neat seeing those moments again in a more historical context.

• Goodman Games has a blogpost from a couple years ago discussing Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, two sword & sorcery characters who heavily influenced Skullkickers.

• Daniel Best has a newsletter that covers the strange legal cases around Robert Crumb’s infamous ‘Keep On Truckin” artwork. His posts about the legal side of comics are interesting if you want a peek behind the curtain of the business.

• Ethan Gilsdorf has a great little article about Dungeon & Dragons’ 50th anniversary, how the game is changing and how it’s stayed the same. I share many of his same sentiments.

Jim