Category Archives: Substack

Zubby Newsletter #55: Ever Rolling Onward

Three days after getting back from the Founders & Legends-Gary Con 9 day gaming event marathon, I’m still recovering. There are mountains of emails to catch up on and deadlines galore. The next four weeks is looking to be an absolute sprint, but that’s okay because I had a fantastic time at both shows.

Old friends and new. Old games and new.
So much enthusiasm. So many amazing people.

What an absolute joy it was to be part of the big celebration.

I’ve got dozens of amazing anecdotes and trying to summarize it all means I’ll definitely miss some key things, but here are a few of the many high points:

• I playtested my new AD&D 1st edition adventure called “The Crucible” four times over the week, three times with strangers who signed up to play and once with an all-star adventuring party of friends. It was an honor and a blast watching these groups puzzle their way through the tricks and traps I put together. I definitely want to keep building on this foundation and run it again at future tabletop gaming events.

• Playing a cursed marine named Private Zoob in a wonderfully tragic one-shot session of the Mothership RPG, a twisted scenario called Moonbase Blues.

• Trying out Keith Baker‘s upcoming strategic card game called Glim.

• Sketching a first edition-style Rust Monster as part of the Gary Con Artist Jam.

• Late night chatter with The Dungeon Dudes all about the good old-bad old days of tabletop RPGs, before smartphones and social media.

• Making Chris Perkins cackle and get verklempt in the same conversation as we waxed nostalgic.

• Playing a deranged dilettante named Chancellor Longbottle in a spirited game of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

• Gossip and good times with Erik Mona, Jeff Richards, and Joshua Dinges, nightcaps before we crashed and started it all over again, day after day, game after game.


A History Unfathomed


CONAN THE BARBARIAN #9, the first part of THE AGE UNCONQUERED, arrived today at comic shops nationwide.

Surprises and action aplenty, my friends. Get your copy today! Cannot wait for you to see how it all plays out, with line art by Rob De La Torre, colors by Dean White, and letters by Richard Starkings.

In many ways, this is the biggest issue since our launch, using momentum built in Conan #0-8 to propel us to the end of our first year.

And yes, that says “first year”. We’re not hitting the reset button after issue 12 or anything like that. I have many more stories to tell in the Hyborian Age and our crew is already deep into work on arc 4 and beyond, plus Savage Sword magazine and Conan: Battle of the Black Stone.

If wonderful fans like you keep buying, reading and sharing your excitement, this new era of Conan will keep conquering!


Art of Storytelling Interview Clips

Proko has posted up some new clips from footage I filmed as part of Marvel’s The Art of Storytelling comic creation course. Watch and share:

What makes comics so special as a medium?

Why do I like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange so much?


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

April 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada
June 7-8, 2024 Howard Days Cross Plains, TX, USA
August 1-4, 2024 Gen Con Indy Indianapolis, IN, USA


Links and Other Things

• I made this Chicken Scallopini recipe and it turned out great. I normally use thighs for most chicken recipes, but chicken breast worked really well with this one.

The Comicstorian did a spirited narrative run through of Bound in Black Stone, our first arc on the new Conan series.

Jim

Zubby Newsletter #54: Couldn’t Even See The Bucket


I’m in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for Founders & Legends and Gary Con, celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop roleplaying games alongside a slew of writers and artists who helped build a hobby from the ground up. Two days in and it’s already been a pretty amazing and surreal experience.

Last night someone asked me if getting to write Dungeons & Dragons and Conan the Barbarian and be a guest at events like this were on my “Bucket List” – life goals/dreams someone hopes to achieve.

And, I had to be honest, the answer was a resounding “No”.

These kinds of things weren’t on my bucket list when I was younger because I couldn’t even see the bucket.

I would read comic books, absorb the names of those artists and writers, and wonder if it might be possible to meet those amazing people some day. My brother and I would pore over RPG books, see that an adventure was originally run as a tournament at a convention and dream about maybe someday going to that convention and playing in one of those tournaments. Just getting a bit closer to the people who made the stuff we enjoyed. That was the extent of my nerdy dreams.

The idea that I would ever get to create that stuff, have my name on the cover of a book, be well regarded in that field or be friends and peers with any of those creators would have seemed ridiculously impossible to me as a kid.

Right now, my creative career is so cosmically beyond any bucket I could have perceived that I can’t fully wrap my head around it. It’s special and wonderful even when it can be stressful and difficult and a bit exhausting.

I said something to that effect to the person who asked me and he said “Well, I’m kind of having that experience right now getting to chat with you.”

So yeah, it’s all a bit mind blowing…


The Crucible Welcomes Its First Victims

Speaking of gaming tournaments, this week at the shows I’m playtesting an original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition adventure I put together for fun.

The Crucible is a dungeon crawl tournament-style AD&D adventure for six 3rd level characters. It’s filled with dangerous traps, puzzles, and unusual combat encounters in the tradition of the Tomb of Horrors and Deathtrap Dungeon.

I built the riddles and puzzles so a group can “brute force” their way through if needed, but solving them either nullifies or severely weakens an encounter, giving the party a much better chance of surviving the whole adventure.
The adventure is named after an arc of Conan I wrote at Marvel, a story where our Cimmerian is tricked into competing in a similar deathtrap-laden tournament.

I ran the adventure for the first time yesterday and the playtest crew did really well. Over the course of 3 hours these six strangers came together to overcome five major encounter areas and reach the last puzzle, while roleplaying and laughing all the way. The team made some smart strategic decisions in combat and exhausted all their healing magic to bring two characters back from the brink of death. I’m curious how the other groups fare later this week.

A few people here and online have already asked if I’m going to publish the adventure. Right now it’s a pet project I put together so I’d have something original to run at TTRPG shows and in its current state it’s a series of scrappy notes, handouts and other pieces, not a properly written and edited manuscript. That said, it would be fun to formalize it up at some point and bring things full circle by having an adventure playtested at a game event become “real”.


Coffee & Heroes – Part 3

A few weeks ago I had a wonderful time talking with the owners of Coffee & Heroes in Ireland all about my career in comics. It was a great chat and covered so much ground that they’ve split it into 3 parts.

Here’s part 3, where we dive deep on CONAN THE BARBARIAN, including writing an icon, working on Conan at Marvel during the pandemic, pitching the relaunch to Heroic Signatures, working on the new monthly series, the new Savage Sword of Conan magazine, and more!

(And here’s Part 1 and Part 2, if you missed them.)


Talking AI Art on NPR

I was one of the comic creators who spoke to Jason Burrows at Emerald City Comic Con all about generative AI artwork and the changing industry.

“I’m confused about the desire to have computers make the fun things, and make sure that people are continuing to do the drudgery.”


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

March 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Lake Geneva, WI, USA
April 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada
June 7-8, 2024 Howard Days Cross Plains, TX, USA
August 1-4, 2024 Gen Con Indy Indianapolis, IN, USA


Links and Other Things

Leila del Duca has a Kickstarter running for a beautiful collection of her Sleepless story and, to no one’s surprise, it’s looking incredible.

Kyodokan‘s technique for cooking Teriyaki Chicken is simple and effective. I made it last week following their technique and it turned out wonderfully.

Jim

Zubby Newsletter #53: Marching Onward


Quite a whirlwind this week trying to get caught up on emails and work after Seattle and prepping for my road trip next week to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for back-to-back gaming events with Founders & Legends and Gary Con, celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons and TTRPGs. If you’ll be at either convention, let me know. I won’t have a booth or table, I’m there to run and play some games, do a few panels and interviews, and otherwise hang out with friends and enjoy. That said, if you have any of my books, feel free to bring them to either event as I’m happy to sign them.

While I was away last week I received notification that my YouTube channel finally reached the threshold for the YouTube Partner Program (ie. I will start receiving a portion of ad revenue generated from video views), which was nice. I haven’t had time to post many videos lately, but past ones about art and writing continue to get traffic. Here are some for you to check out if you’ve never seen them before. Watch and share:

Making Comics – Dialogue Order and Page Thumbnails
Making Comics – Outlining Your Story
Making Comics – Page Turns and Pacing
Making Comics – The Power of Short Stories
Making Comics – Writing Conan the Barbarian


Coffee & Heroes – Part 2


Speaking of YouTube, a few weeks ago, I had a wonderful time talking with the owners of Coffee & Heroes in Ireland all about my career in comics. It was a great chat and covered so much ground that they’ve split it into 3 parts.

Here’s part 2, where we cover omnibuses, Rick and Morty VS Dungeons & Dragons, Thunderbolts, Avengers: No Surrender, Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk pitch, Avengers: No Road Home, the zen of Chip Zdarsky, and more!

(And here’s Part 1, if you missed it.)


Conan Noodles


UDON Entertainment is now offering an exclusive variant cover for CONAN THE BARBARIAN #9, the first issue of The Age Unconquered, our epic third story arc. Cover artist Ickpot has taken an anime approach to the Hyborian Age and it’s a pretty fun fusion of styles. Get your pre-order in before they’re gone.


The End That Was A Beginning


Over on my Patreon– The full scripts for CONAN THE BARBARIAN #24 + 25, the final issues I wrote on the previous run before the Titan relaunch.

There are now over 300 scripts in my Patreon archive, available for the price of a fancy coffee.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

March 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Lake Geneva, WI, USA
March 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Lake Geneva, WI, USA
April 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada
June 7-8, 2024 Howard Days Cross Plains, TX, USA
August 1-4, 2024 Gen Con Indy Indianapolis, IN, USA


Links and Other Things


• On Valentine’s Day I cooked the best steak of my life, a medium-rare dry-aged rib eye that Stacy and I could not get enough of. The cooking technique I used is called a Reverse Sear and, if you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it! J. Kenji Lopez does a great job covering the process here.

Brian Lagerstrom‘s cooking channel is great in general, but his new video with Easy Techniques to Make You a Better Cook is extra sharp, a solid summary of useful techniques I’ve incorporated into my cooking approach over the past few years.

Todd Klein has posted up his entire Art and History of Lettering book on his site and, if you’re a fan of comics or a creator looking to enhance your knowledge about the medium this will absolutely hit the spot.

NASA has created their own tabletop RPG adventure? Seriously…check out The Lost Universe on the NASA website. It’s absolutely free.

Jim

Zubby Newsletter #52: A Sparkling Emerald

This young warrior’s name is Conan! He’s not quite ready for Venarium,
but I’m sure he’ll get his first sword soon.

This past weekend was Emerald City Comic Con, my first convention of 2024, and it was an incredible experience. ECCC is usually a sharp show, with excited comic fans aplenty and a solid guest list of professional pals, but this year had more sparkle than usual.

At New York Comic-Con back in October I had a few old school Conan the Barbarian fans come to my table to tell me how much they were enjoying the new series. This time, with 5 more issues and the first trade paperback released and months of good word of mouth across the industry, it was a steady stream of readers, many of them collectors from the 1970’s, lining up in front of my table with praise and hearty handshakes as we talked about everyone’s favorite Cimmerian and the incredible artwork Rob De La Torre and Doug Braithwaite are unleashing each issue. In addition to longtime fans, there were plenty of new readers too, many who said they had wanted to check out Conan for years but didn’t know where to start. The new series grabbed their attention and now they were looking at back issues and collections to dig in even more.

It was an intense and heartfelt experience and it kept happening in person over and over, every day of the show, while at the same time my social media was blowing up with photos, compliments, and strong reviews for Savage Sword of Conan #1 and Conan the Barbarian #8, which both arrived in comic shops on Wednesday. I was taken aback by all of it in the best way possible.

This isn’t meant as an ego thing, I swear. I just want to mark this moment and thank everyone for their abundant enthusiasm.

Taking it even higher, on Friday morning the nomination list for the 2023 Robert E. Howard Awards went public and I found out that the new Conan comic is up for two possible awards:
THE COSTIGAN – for literary achievement
THE RANKIN – for artistic achievement

I’m thrilled that The Robert E. Howard Foundation, a dedicated group of scholars and conservators of the man’s work, has recognized our series. It’s an honor to contribute to such an important literary legacy and bring new fans into the fold.

I’ve been writing Conan stories since 2015 and this is the first time I’ve been nominated by the Foundation, so that’s a pretty special milestone. Fan engagement at the show and the REH Foundation nominations hitting at the same time was an incredible jolt of excitement. It feels like we’re tapping into the bedrock that made the original stories so engaging and helped launch the sword & sorcery genre over 90 years ago.


Off the show floor, lots of great meals and conversations with friends, some karaoke and a few pints to celebrate another year on the convention circuit.

My good friend Jody Houser was hit with an inner ear infection that brought on intense bouts of vertigo Friday evening and that necessitated a group of us skipping out on social stuff to help take care of her, but even in the swirl of all that there was a throughline of friendship and looking out for each other that reaffirmed how much I enjoy doing these events and being part of this industry.


Undriven

The enshittification of technology continues.

When Google Drive launched, I was an early adopter and it was an absolute gamechanger.

The document I had on hand was always the latest, saving me from version numbering and worrying about losing work. Having every single story I’d written saved locally on my laptop simultaneously backed up on the cloud and my desktop computer at home meant I could work flexibly and fearlessly. A bit of writing done at the airport or on a flight would update all versions as soon as I connected to wifi or settled in at a hotel.

It was simple, elegant, and made sense…so, of course, it couldn’t stay that way.

Now, the files in my Google Drive folder will not open without current active internet running, which means I can’t continue working on a project on a flight or check older files as reference when I’m on the go. Why? No idea. The full-size file is sitting there in the folder saved locally taking up hard drive space and the prompt says it’s all up to date, but now I click on it and it just loads endlessly until it crashes because of…reasons, some new bloated complicated process running under the hood that acts as an unnecessary barrier between me and the file that didn’t used to be there.

It’s so frustrating.

The people building this stuff have stopped using their own products and, in turn, have forgotten what it was supposed to do in the first place. Endless spyware, subscriptions, or hidden processes for less efficient, less elegant, less productive everything.


Coffee & Heroes – Part 1

A few weeks ago, I had a wonderful time talking with the owners of Coffee & Heroes in Ireland all about my career in comics. It was a great chat and covered so much ground that they’re splitting it into 3 parts.

Here’s part 1, where we cover nerdy reading with my brother, my influences, the things I did before comic writing, sword & sorcery as a genre, tabletop RPGs, superheroes and Vertigo books, serialized entertainment, the struggles of launching and maintaining Skullkickers, being typecast, and more!


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada


Links and Other Things

• The second Thunder Road: Vendetta board game Kickstarter is on now. I really enjoyed the base game (it’s basically Mad Max as a board game) and being able to snag a new expansions and other exclusive additions here is enticing.
• J.L. Collins let me know that the crowdfund campaign for Thistle, a new fantasy comic series, is now underway. I read an advance of the first issue and it looks like it’s channeling classic elements with a bit of a twist.
Have a great week, everyone!
Jim

Zubby Newsletter #51: Big Week

This coming week is absolutely packed for me-
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8, the wild conclusion of our second story arc, Thrice Marked For Death.
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1, a grand return to black & white magazine-sized glory.
EMERALD CITY COMIC CON, my first convention of 2024 and always one of my favorite conventions each year. Will I see you there?

BRING IT ON!


My Pulpy Prose


If you do snag a copy of the new Savage Sword, 80 pages of bold barbaric goodness for $6.99, let me know what you think of Sacrifice In The Sand, my prose short story.


The Queen


Speaking of Savage Sword #1, Rebecca Puebla has a pin-up in there of Bêlit, Robert E. Howard’s famous Queen of the Black Coast.

It’s a wonderful illustration and also a fun synthesis of pulp and silent film influences coming together to create a new look for an iconic character. It’s so great!


The Public Lending Right


Last week I received my Canadian Public Lending Right payment for 2024. For the past five years, I’ve been compensated for books I wrote that circulate in Canadian libraries. There are over 18,000 Canadian authors registered in the program.

The average payout per title found in their database is $49 and, as long as those books are in libraries, they will pay out for the next 25 years.

I have 52 books registered. Do the math.

If you’re a Canadian author, it is worth the effort to get enrolled and update your profile with new titles as you release new books.

Authors are giddy when royalties pay on their backlist work. The Public Lending Right is like an extra royalty payment every February for published Canadian authors and illustrators from the Canada Council For The Arts.

For five years I’ve beat the drum about this, and yet I still hear from some prolific Canadian comic creators that they haven’t gotten around to getting their profile set up yet – You. Are. Missing. Out.

Some quick tips for Canadian comic creators registering for the PLR:
• You’ll need the ISBN, year of publication, and page count for each book you register.
• You’ll also need a photocopy of the title page of the book with your name and a photocopy of the copyright page.
• For graphic novels, writers get 50% of the “share claim” since the other half would go to the illustrator (even if they can’t claim it because they’re not Canadian).
• Anthologies don’t count. If there are more than six contributors to a title it’s considered ineligible.
• Each year all you have to add are new titles that weren’t on there previous years.


A Return To Rogues

I returned as a guest on the wonderful Rogues In The House podcast. We chatted up a storm about the return of Savage Sword and talk about the ‘moment’ Conan seems to be having right now in comics, prose, games, and more.


At The Campfire


I had a great chat with Kurtis Wiebe (writer of Rat Queens) as part of his Campfire Stories online conference that happened over the weekend.

We cover a LOT of ground – working on iconic characters, getting started in my career, burnout, gratitude and more. Check it out.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024 Emerald City Comic-Con Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada


Links and Other Things

• My buddy John Barber has a new creator-owned comic project launching called SIGNA and it’s looking good!
• Rafal Jaki, the showrunner on the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime, reached out to chat storytelling with me. he also pointed me toward the new manga series he’s been developing called NO/NAME. It’s a really neat concept off to a strong start, read chapter 1 here, so much so that it’s going to be serializing in Shonen Jump!

I hope your week is looking strong.
Jim

Zubby Newsletter #50: Value-Packed Anniversary Edition

Wait a sec, newsletter #50! Oh geez, this should be some kind of anniversary-sized special release…Bigger page count and a higher cover price, right?

Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay double for this installment, my friends…Double that $0.00 price tag and I’ll make sure you get everything you paid for. 😉


Delivering a Delve

Speaking of people getting what they pay for, I’m deeply disappointed that backers, creators, and a charity were misled by the Tales From the Quarantine comic anthology.

My longtime collaborator Max Dunbar and I put together a single page story for the anthology right at the start and have kept it under wraps this whole time, hoping the campaign would complete delivery to the many people who backed it in good faith, but that now seems incredibly unlikely, so here’s DELVE, a little fantasy story created during lockdown, with hopeful sentiments about the future despite dark times-

Story and Lettering by Jim Zub. Line Art and Colors by Max Dunbar.


Haunted By That Slogan

I had a really bizarre dream earlier in the week-
In the dream, the Wisconsin dairy council asked me to write an epic based on a new dairy superhero they developed called MIGHTY MILK.

I had to include their new slogan
“Milk is also in man”.

I told them the slogan was awful. They told me it was mythic and powerful.
The rep kept saying the slogan slowly, emphasizing different words-

“Milk is also in man.”

“Yeah, I get it, but it’s still awful.”

I told them I probably wasn’t the right fit for this project, but they were insistent that it had to be me. Like most dreams, it just vaporized unresolved, but I wanted to share so all of us could be haunted by it together from now on.


Honoring the Past


Hayden Mears from Starburst Magazine (the longest-running magazine of fantastic media) and I talked at length about Conan the Barbarian as an icon of prose and comics. There’s a lot of good ground covered here in terms of Conan’s pulp roots, mythic storytelling, Robert E. Howard as an architect of the original ‘multiverse’ concept, and how our creative team is trying to honor that in the new comic series-


A Page (and Series) I Love

On Thursday night on Comic Art Live they ran a piece I recorded with Kevin Sharp for a segment called A PAGE I LOVE-

I dug deep into my excitement for DOCTOR STRANGE #55 Page 13 from 1982, a stone cold classic written by Roger Stern and illustrated by Michael Golden:

Doctor Strange #55 is a masterclass in writing and drawing superhero comics, a done-in-one story that delivers on every page. You can still find it in back issue bins for cheap, which is great, because everyone should have a copy and every aspiring creator should study the hell out of it.

This issue is also Aldrin “Buzz” Aw‘s favorite comic and he has (wait for it) over 3000 copies! I love this video rundown on how this issue 55 collection began and his excitement as he walks through its quality and how it influenced the biggest artists of the ’90’s.

Doctor Strange is a bucket list character for me to write, and a big part of that is due to the quality of this era. Editorial can sometimes be cagey about giving writers their favorite characters because sometimes they’re such diehard fans that they don’t want to take big narrative swings or shake up the status quo, but if I ever get the chance to pitch on Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme I think I could honor the past while pushing out in unexpected directions.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024 Emerald City Comic-Con Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, Canada


Have a great week!
Jim

Zubby Newsletter #49: Time Flies

Dungeons & Dragons posted a new 50th anniversary tribute video online and it was a nice little surprise to see Stacy and I briefly appear during a montage section of community moments.

I have so many incredible memories of that D&D Live event in Los Angeles. Mind boggling to me that it was almost five years ago.

At that moment, live TTRPG play games like Critical Role were taking off, Stranger Things was a cultural phenomenon, and it felt like the creative and corporate forces needed to shepherd a major brand like D&D were working in tandem, despite a growing awareness by the Powers That Be at Hasbro that they had a Golden Goose in their midst. I know that might just be pre-pandemic nostalgia, but the excitement and optimism that weekend really was contagious.

I hoped D&D Live would become an annual celebration I could be a part of, a way to bring together different fan and professional forces under a single tent of gaming and good times, but it didn’t work out that way. There’s still a lot to be proud of on the big anniversary, but quite a bit of melancholy as well. Controversies aplenty, impossible corporate benchmarks, and ruthless holiday layoffs have stolen some of the magic on what should have been a triumphant victory lap.

It’s also a distinct reminder to mark special moments when they happen, because they’ll slip through your fingers if you don’t.


Bound For Your Bookshelf

Speaking of marking big moments – This week, CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol.1: BOUND IN BLACK STONE is available everywhere fine books are sold. Check out our new book trailer!

In bookstores you’ll find the cover by Dan Panosian. In direct market comic shops you can also choose covers by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau or Mike Mignola.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I am so incredibly proud of this book and thrilled at the response we’ve seen from readers, reviewers, and retailers. Thank you for reading and sharing your enthusiasm.


Traversing the Stars

I spoke to Jeff Haas at Traversing the Stars all about writing Conan – The character’s literary legacy, working with an icon, collaborating with incredible artists, and more.

“If you make a superhero and you make distinct choices, you’re making those choices in comparison to Superman. When you make choices about sword & sorcery and that singular hero, they’re in comparison to Conan. That’s a very powerful thing.”


Talking Around the Campfire

On Sunday, February 25th just after 2pm EST I’ll be chatting with writer Kurtis Wiebe (Rat Queens) all about storytelling and creativity as part of the Campfire Stories online convention he and his crew at Vast Vision Publishing are putting together.

Vast Vision has a new Discord community where they’re assembling all kinds of different creative people from publishing and other media and they’ve already posted up a great interview with Nick Pitarra and legendary artist Frank Quietly you should check out.


Bad Dinner Guests

On my Patreon you can now find the full script for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: FORTUNE FINDER #2.

Finder’s mysterious journey continues, right into Dungeonland! There are over 300 scripts available in my Patreon archive, available for the price of a fancy coffee.


Clearer Skies

Bluesky, a Twitter alternative, is now out of beta and open to the public. I’ve been there for a while, so if you’re making the move you can find me HERE.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024 Emerald City Comic-Con Guest Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Guest Calgary, AB, Canada


Links and Other Things

The Glass Cannon Network crew played the Marvel Multiverse RPG again and I couldn’t make it, but it looks like they had a blast anyways. The system is so good! I hope I get a chance to bust out big Marvel action with them again.

• On Friday I made Broccoli Tempura and it turned out great. Ordering tempura for takeout or delivery is always disappointing because it loses crispiness so fast if you don’t east it fresh, so learning to make it at home is a nice addition to my cooking skillset.

Have a great week!
Jim

Zubby Newsletter #48: Dungeons For Dinner


Over the weekend, Stacy and I watched all six of the released Delicious in Dungeon episodes out so far on Netflix and it is a strangely accurate representation of an actual Dungeons & Dragons campaign-
Foolish characters with poor impulse control doing weird stuff and losing track of the core plot while they obsess over random encounters. 🙂

Like many anime series, you have to buy into the trope-y character parts, otherwise it’s a non-starter.

That said, the creature ecology and cooking bits are fun and the rest bounces between cliche and amusing. Almost every episode had a part where I thought “That’s inventive and interesting” and another part where I thought “That is absolutely moronic”.

Again, I must stress how accurate this is to tabletop gaming with friends. Improv at the table can be ridiculously brilliant or just ridiculous, usually multiple times per session. Kudos to manga creator Ryōko Kui on capturing that vibe.

Delicious In Dungeon is low stakes silly fantasy fare obsessed with food. If you go in expecting a cute-silly anime and RPG-style logic, you’ll probably have a good time.


Format and First Impressions

Speaking of anime and manga, over on my site, I recently posted up a new tutorial article called Don’t Fight the Format, all about manga pacing and making sure a story is paced and priced properly for your intended audience.

When I was first getting rolling with my comic writing career I posted up all kinds of different tutorials and there are over 50 of them for free on my site if you’re interested in a behind the scenes look on how comics are made.


Comic Chatter

With the imminent arrival of Conan the Barbarian Vol. 1: Bound in Black Stone, I’ve been promoting the series in recent interviews-

It was an absolute pleasure returning to the mighty Cromcast to talk all about how the Conan relaunch went and big plans for the future. The enthusiasm those guys have for all things Robert E. Howard is electric and it’s a great conversation. Make sure you give it a listen.


Then I spoke to World At War Comics about my career as a whole, how I got my start, and the things I’ve learned making comics, and going to conventions. Lots of great discussion here too.


Lastly, I received a Golden Grant award from Geek Hard and J. Torres presented me with it during the latest episode of their podcast. If you want to pop ahead to our chat, it starts at the 31 minute mark of the episode.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024 Emerald City Comic-Con Guest Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Guest Calgary, AB, Canada


Links and Other Things

• Want to see superstar Conan the Barbarian artist Rob de la Torre sketch our favorite Cimmerian? Damn right you do.


Katie Cook (My Little Pony, Nothing Special) and I are bringing back our annual Convention Horror Stories panel to Emerald City Comic Con this year. The gut-wrenching embarrassing tradition continues!

Have a great week!
Jim

Zubby Newsletter #47: Savage Stirrings

Superhero Hype has more preview artwork from SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1, the magazine-sized black & white epic that launches in late February. I have a short prose story in the first issue and comic stories and more in upcoming installments.

Heroic Signatures and Titan are currently lining up six issues (released every other month) worth of content, but if sales numbers are solid they’ll keep it going, so make sure you get your pre-order in now.


Near Mint Condition

A week ago I had a great time chatting with the Uncanny Omar from Near Mint Condition and answering questions on their livestream. So many Conan fans popped by!

Anecdotes and answers aplenty HERE.


Fantasy Flourish

A slew of new fantasy comics have been announced recently. It really feels like we’re moving into a new era of sword & sorcery comic storytelling. A few notable ones that have popped up on my radar-

When the Blood Has Dried from writer Gary Moloney, artist Daniel Romero Ulloa, and letterer Becca Carey, with a main cover by Marco Rudy published by Mad Cave Studios arrives April 3rd.

Heartpiercer from writer Rich Douek and artist Gavin Smith published by Dark Horse Comics arrives May 15th.

• I’m also thoroughly enjoying The Hunger and the Dusk series by writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Christian Wildgoose published by IDW, which launched in 2023. Five issues are available so far.


Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Convention season 2024 is finally getting going! I’ll add more as events get confirmed, but here are 3 events to get things started-

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024 Emerald City Comic-Con Guest Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024 Founders & Legends Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024 Gary Con Guest Lake Geneva, WI, USA


Links and Other Things

• Comic creator Rob Guillory has a new YouTube channel and it’s off to a solid start. Looking forward to seeing what he posts up next.
• Cartographer and artist Mike Schley has a Patreon called The Epic Atlas where he posts up incredible maps and fantasy art. Well worth checking out.
Snipe and Wib discuss the unusual origin of the Githyanki in Dungeons & Dragons.

Jim

Zubby Newsletter #46: Definitely On Board


Last week, the latest Kickstarter campaign for the Conan Board Game by Monolith launched, based on Red Nails, one of the finest Robert E. Howard Conan tales, and it’s been crushing its way through stretch goals aplenty. Although the campaign has a bunch of new material available, they also have a ‘New Recruit’ pledge so you can get the original game flush with extras as well.

Obviously, I have a vested interest in all things Conan right now but, honestly, I think the board game is great on its own merits, and I enjoyed playing the heck out of it even before I started writing Conan on a regular basis. This isn’t a sponsored thing. I’m not being paid for this and Monolith doesn’t know ahead of time that I’m putting this ramble together.

Let me tell you why I think it’s good stuff-

The Conan Board Game has a Rich Thematic Feel

Conan is a skirmish-style board game for 1-5 players. In the base game, one person takes on the role of the Overlord and controls the creatures, traps, and other trouble in the game. The other players are heroes of the Hyborian Age – usually Conan and his allies – on a mission to stop the Overlord’s machinations. After the initial release, Monolith released rules that can automate the Overlord role allowing full co-op and even solo play if that’s something that interests you.

The game design, rules, and different scenarios do a wonderful job at creating a proper atmosphere for big bloody adventures in a world where survival or slaughter are a sword stroke away.

Each turn, players have to decide if they’re going to store up their energy or go for broke with bold movement and attacks. Instead of being stuck with arbitrary turn order and sometimes not knowing what your allies are doing until after you get to go, player actions happen in any order. That means you can send a character into a dangerous situation, see how it goes, and then adjust strategy based on how the dice roll. This keeps everyone at the table engaged as they look for ways to play off each other and assist instead of players feeling disconnected as they take their turns.

The best defense tends to be a strong offense, but you also need to hold some energy back to protect yourself because damage taken equals energy lost. Getting hurt doesn’t just tick down a pool of hit points, it lowers the overall pool of energy your character has access to for the rest of the game (unless you find healing, which is few and far between). The push and pull of offense vs defense, when to unleash brutal attacks and when to back off or protect your allies, keeps things dynamic as each mission plays out.

The Game Variety is Fantastic

There are a bunch of different missions in the Conan base game, a lot more free ones online, and even more with expansion material released since the game launched in 2015. Some missions are assaults where the players attack the enemy in their lair. Others are defensive, with the players protecting a location from invading hordes, assassins, or creatures. There are escort quests, treasure hunts, creature ambushes, bar brawls, and a lot more.

The base game started with missions that were all done-in-one play session, but now there are also missions that link together to tell a larger story. I’ve run scenarios for board game enthusiasts and friends who aren’t into TTRPGs and they had an absolute blast kicking down doors, gathering items, and slaying evil.

The Components Look Great

The artwork is top notch, the boards and counters are evocative, and the multitude of miniatures are really high quality. I’m obviously crazy-busy right now, but I’m looking to carve out some time this summer to start painting the characters, creatures, and bad guys aplenty so my set has even more ‘table presence’.

That said, even if you’re not up for painting, the sculpts look sharp. When you put a Giant Snake or Dark Demon on the table, it gets a great reaction.

Alright, hopefully that overview gets you pumped for Hyborian Age adventures at the table. If you need more info on how the game plays and what it looks like, check out these videos – one and two. I’m excited to crack open the new set when it arrives.

There’s only one week left to back the campaign and get a Conanza of extra stuff.


Conan Previews Aplenty!

Speaking of Conan-
• Kabooooom has preview pages and an advance review of CONAN THE BARBARIAN #7 (and they gave it a 5/5!).

• Newsarama revealed advance artwork for CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8 with interior pages by Doug Braithwaite and covers by Ashleigh Izienicki, Patch Zircher and Greg Broadmore.

• Popverse revealed cover artwork for CONAN THE BARBARIAN #10 by Rob De La Torre, Alan Quah, Erik Gist, and David Aja.

Patch Zircher spoke to David Brooke at AIPT all about working on Solomon Kane as part of the new Savage Sword of Conan series, and in that same interview they revealed fantastic new cover art for SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #2 by Dave Dorman and Nick Marinkovich.


The Thief Many Things Arrives in April!


I thought Fortune Finder might be my last D&D comic for the foreseeable future, but in April there’s one more in the mix.

Ellen Boener (writer of the recent Feast of the Moon D&D movie tie-in story) and I came up with a wild one-shot story with D&D’s infamous Deck of Many Things, a magical artifact that can create or destroy in an instant. Ellen took that core and has scripted up a tale of bombastic adventure and breathtaking betrayal. Eduardo Mello, who absolutely crushed it on the D&D: Mindbreaker mini-series I wrote, is back illustrating this one and delivers the best pages of his career so far.

Look for it in April. Solicit info below-

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE THIEF OF MANY THINGS
STORY: ELLEN BOENER & JIM ZUB
ARTIST: EDUARDO MELLO
COVER A: MAX DUNBAR
COVER B: JESSE LONERGAN
68 Pages • $9.99 • APRIL 2024

The Deck of Many Things is the most infamous item in the Dungeons & Dragons canon. Any one of its cards could throw the world into chaos or, in the wrong hands, end it all together. This mega one-shot reveals fresh lore tied to the Book of Many Things Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook and brings the legends of the Deck to life.

Our quest follows two ex-romantic rivals who team up to steal the cards, risking everything for the chance to save the lover they lost.

Dungeons & Dragons icon Jim Zub (Rick & Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, Uncanny Avengers, Conan) joins forces with up-and-coming writer Ellen Boener (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—The Feast of the Moon) and artist Eduardo Mello (Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker, DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War) for this new Baldur’s Gate tale.


Oshawa is…Gone?

For years, Ed Brisson and I have joked about which of us was the more ‘famous’ comic creator from Oshawa, Ontario, “The City That Moto-vates Canada”. Ed’s now put his thumb on the scales in a way I can’t match by making Oshawa the core of his latest creator-owned series.

Well played, Brisson.

As always, Ed delivers a compelling story, grounded characters, and a killer hook, and the art by Luca Casalanguida and Dee Cunniffe looks great…I’m not jealous at all.

Pre-order cut-off on The Displaced #1 is Monday, January 22nd, so let your local shop know you want one…even if you’re not from Oshawa. 😉


Links and Other Stuff

• Who is the most popular American to ever work in comic books? Matttt has the answer and it’s ridiculously compelling. This guy’s YouTube Channel doesn’t have many videos, but every single one of them is a banger.

• This CBC News report on the ways food companies pass along costs to customers summarizes a lot of good info. With grocery costs on the rise, it’s good to keep an eye out for these manipulative changes so you can make more informed choices.

Have a wonderful week,
Jim