Fan Expo Canada swept in and out like a storm – tons of friends, former students, and other familiar faces stopped by catch up, along with readers who discovered my work for the first time at their local shop, or were struck by my books or banner.
Friends joked back in March that I’ve become “Everyone’s Dad’s favorite new comic writer” thanks to Conan, and that trend proudly continued here. The monthly collectors came out in force and it was so nice chatting with them about how they first discovered the Cimmerian – through the 60’s paperback books, the 70’s comics, the original 80’s movie, the 90’s animated series, or more recent video games. In quite a few cases I was thrilled to hear that readers started with our new series and are now working their way back to the original source material.
Even though it was very busy, I managed to get quite a few sketches done. I still don’t have a set “look” for my take on Conan – there are so many phenomenal artists who have created iconic versions of the character and I keep getting pulled toward one look or another. At some point it would be a real honor to do a variant cover of my own, but finding the time and space to do that would be tough with my current writing and travel schedule.
After the show wrapped up on Sunday, Stacy and I grabbed dinner with friends and then dashed home to pack our luggage once again. We had an early morning flight to Atlanta and I’m currently typing this while visiting Stacy’s brother and family north of the city, a few days to try and recharge before Dragon Con kicks into gear to finish the summer convention season.
During Dragon Con, I’ll be part of the Comic and Pop Artist Alley located in Americas Mart Building 2 on the 4th Floor at TABLE 109.
Ringo Nominee
Team Conan served up two nominations for the 2025 Ringo Awards – Best Anthology for Savage Sword of Conan, and Best Letterer for Richard Starkings.
If you’re a comic industry professional, please cast your vote and, if you like what we’ve been doing and can support Savage Sword and Richard, even better.
Savage Sketches Coming Your Way
Artist Mike Rooth created a sharp convention variant cover for Ottawa Comiccon (happening Sept 5-7) and, beyond the wonderful illustration he put together for it, he asked the printer to use sketch cover paper stock and make the back cover blank to create the first Savage Sword sketch cover! It’s magazine-sized with a bold logo, the perfect canvas for fans to get a one-of-a-kind sketch from their favorte artist at an upcoming convention.
Local Comic Shop Day Promo Video
When I was at Gen Con, I shot this quick promo video, encouraging retailers to order up on Scourge of the Serpent, especially the special variant cover we have for Local Comic Shop Day on September 27th.
Black Stone Action Figure
Back in December, I mentioned that Heroic Signatures was making a Conan action figure based on Rob De La Torre’s artwork on the Battle of the Black Stone mini-series, and it’s getting ever closer.
Robo Don’t Know has one of the prototype figures and does an extensive review of it – poseability, components, and more!
Current + Upcoming Releases
Upcoming Appearances
| Aug 28-Sep 1, 2025 | Dragon Con | Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Sep 27-28, 2025 | Chattanooga Comic Con | Chattanooga, TN, USA |
| Oct 16-19, 2025 | Gamehole Con XII | Madison, WI, USA |
| Nov 3-14, 2025 | D&D in a Castle | Newcastle, UK |
| Nov 15-16, 2025 | Thought Bubble | Harrogate, UK |
Other Links
• Battleborn is a new fantasy prose anthology magazine funding on Indiegogo. Lots of familiar names in the mix on this one, so if you’re a sword & sorcery fan, check it out!
• Legendary artist Joe Jusko has a new artbook funding over on Kickstarter, and it looks like it’ll be a stunner, packed with recent illustrations and development work.
I hope your summer is wrapping up strong!
Jim
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