FOC – The Barbaric Cutoff is Here – Join Us!

Final Order Cutoff is the last chance for comic retailers to adjust their order numbers on books heading to print.

So, with that in mind, please allow me to beat the drum here one last time about CONAN THE BARBARIAN #1, arriving in stores on Wednesday, July 26th.

This week is your last chance to pre-order a copy from your favorite comic shop and be guaranteed a copy will be waiting for you.

Our art team (Rob De La Torre, José Villarrubia, Dean White, Richard Starkings and the many incredible artists lending their skill to variant covers) has put together the Hyborian adventure of my dreams, delivering something really special on each and every page. This is one of the highest profile launches of my writing career and it would mean a lot to me if you pre-ordered a copy of #1, added the series to your pull box subscriptions, and/or let other people know that Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics are bringing the goods.

Thank you, as always, for your support!

---

Dramatic VS Literal Color

Looking at some recent comics and I notice a lot of cookie cutter color palettes: blue sky, green grass, brown bark, etc. The rendering is okay, but the dramatic impact is lacking.

Even when panels all take place in the same scene under the same lighting conditions, colorists should try to vary things up and improve the storytelling by using dramatic color.

Check this old school example from Uncanny X-Men #275

Pencils by Jim Lee. Inks by Scott Williams. Colors by Glynis Oliver and Joe Rosas. Lettering by Tom Orzechowski.

Notice how the yellow and blue KRUNCH panel stands out even though the palette choice isn’t ‘real’? If that panel was colored like others on the page (with a green T-Rex) it would be way less potent.

Here’s another page from the same issue:

That top panel’s cool color palette pushes it away from us visually and makes it less important than what’s below, creating a ‘fade out’ feel between scenes and locations. If the characters and environment were all rendered using local/true colors it could end up quite busy and readers wouldn’t know where to focus.

Digital tools are convenient, but some colorists seem to think that lots of rendering and realistic lighting = higher quality and that’s not always the case when it comes to successful communication and entertainment, panel by panel and page by page.

On the other hand, here’s an impressive coloring example from All-New X-Men #3:

Pencils by Stuart Immonen. Inks by Wade Grawbadger. Colors by Marte Garcia. Letters by Cory Petit.

Marte’s rendering is more ‘modern’, but he also has an eye for dramatic color choices that effectively move the reader through big moments on the page. It’s wonderful work and I’d like to see even more of that from modern comics over bad lighting effects, repetitive palettes, and an over reliance on texture brushes or photo textures.

---

Murder Is More Convenient Than Ever

The collected MURDERWORLD trade paperback arrived in stores last week!

If you missed the five connected one-shot issues Ray Fawkes (Constantine, Batman: Eternal) and I put together with artists Jethro Morales, Farid Karami, Luca Pizzari, Victor Nava, and Lorenzo Tammetta, now you can snag it in one spiffy volume and read our twisted Arcade-centered story from start to finish.

---

“Pop-Up” Doesn’t Quite Describe It

An advance copy of the Dungeons & Dragons: Ultimate Pop-Up Book arrived at our place this week and it’s a monster in all the right ways!

Stacy and I came up with the narrative and she wrote all the text. Award-winning paper engineer Matthew Reinhart built each scene and all the moving elements and Claudio Pozas tirelessly illustrated each piece.

The name “Pop-Up” doesn’t really encompass these paper creations. The locations unfurl from the page base, rising up to form incredible buildings and features!

Even more amazing, the page spreads can be folded out beside each other so that all five D&D interactive locations can be laid out simultaneously. When Stacy and I unleashed the full behemoth it took up our entire dining room table!

---

Talking Conan…in Portuguese!

Marco Collares and Duda Ferreira from the Conan the Barbarian Forum, a vibrant Portuguese language Conan community, chatted with me about the upcoming CONAN comic relaunch, working with the incredible Rob De La Torre and editor Matt Murray, and much more!

There’s a lot of great information about the new series in this interview so, to make it easier for English language fans to follow along, I put together a series of time-stamped links to my answers you can check out right HERE.

---

Classic Character + Classic Artist

The Comics On The Green comic shop has posted an exclusive CONAN THE BARBARIAN #1 variant cover illustrated by legendary artist MARK SCHULTZ (Xenozoic Tales, Conan the Cimmerian)!

Mark’s illustrations of Conan over the years have been incredibly iconic and powerful. I’m blown away that he created a new piece for our series launch (and even included the comic shop owner’s dog in there too 😀 ).

This variant is limited to 500 copies and you can pre-order it HERE.

---

More Limited Edition Covers

• Forbidden Planet (in the UK) has a limited edition Conan the Barbarian #1 cover (limited to 500 copies) with Rob De La Torre’s splash art from our Free Comic Book Day issue. In the U.S. it’s being offered by Jetpack comics.

• Since Conan debuts at San Diego Comic Con this year, there’s a limited edition cover with Conan in the San Diego Gaslamp District (limited to 2000 copies) with cover art by Christopher Jones.

---

Links and Other Things

• The incredible background art of the classic Looney Tunes animated shorts, especially designer Maurice Noble. As some who worked in background layout for animation, it’s nice to see this part of the artform spotlighted and appreciated:

• Famous comic artists drawing iconic characters. You can learn a lot just by watching how professionals confidently lay down their lines.:

That should cover things this time.
Jim

One of the Greats Has Left the Building

John Romita Sr. passed away yesterday.

He was an absolute legend, with iconic imagery that defined generations. A giant even amongst his peers.

When I close my eyes and imagine Spider-Man, it’s almost always a piece drawn by ‘Jazzy’ John. Thank you for so many great memories, sir.

---

Comics Almost Broke Me

Quite a few people in and out of the industry have asked if I’ve read posts from the #ComicsBrokeMe hashtag that’s been trending on Twitter.

Absolutely.

Unfortunately, barring a few extreme cases, a lot of this is not surprising to people who work in comics. I have a few stories of my own, just about everyone in the business does, and have managed to come out the other side with a career, so I have some advice but also need to stress that it’s deeply tempered with Survivor Bias–

A lottery winner telling people to buy lottery tickets is tainted by their good fortune. It’s easy to tell people not to give up on dreams when yours is happening.

A creative career isn’t as random as the lottery, but luck plays a part, so take everything I say with that in mind.

• Treat others the way you want to be treated. Heck, be better than that if you can.

Kindness, patience, and clarity won’t always be reflected back your way, but it does matter and will benefit you far more over the long haul compared to diva behavior, anger, or greed.

Being kind, patient and clear does not mean you should take bad gigs for substandard pay. Part of that clarity has to include understanding what your time and effort is worth.

---

• When you’re starting out and unproven, the effort VS pay equation will be badly out of whack, especially when you’re competing directly with so many other hopeful freelancers willing to work for less than what they should.

With that in mind, having a day job and starting slow is not something to be ashamed of. Your chances of success increase the longer you keep creating and having stable income is a big, big part of how you can keep at it.

Putting all your chips (effort, health, financial well-being) down on a career filled with so much uncertainty is a bad idea. I know it’s frustrating because you want things to happen as quickly as possible, but the risks outweigh the rewards.

Trust me – Slow but steady is far better.

I’ve watched quite a few creators rocket past me (and, of course, felt a flash of jealousy in the moment) only to see them quickly crash because they risked too much, burned themselves out, or treated others like shit and it caught up with them.

Your future in a creative field will almost certainly be built over time with occasional bursts forward. It does not come down to one roll of the dice, one opportunity, or one failure. If you treat it that way, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

---

• There have been quite a few times where I felt my comic writing career might come to an end.

Opportunities drying up. Editors not responding to messages.

You can’t control those things. All you can control is your response to it and build safety nets to carry on despite it.

There are times when you need to push yourself and deliver under duress, but you can’t sprint all the time. You are the only one who can properly gauge your limits and communicate them accordingly.

---

• Having stable income outside of comic freelance work means I’ve been juggling two careers for a long time. That can be tough at times and absolutely leads to some late nights working, but it also means I am never cornered into terrible gigs or contracts that would screw me over.

I am very, very fortunate in that way and I know that, but I also made distinct choices in terms of work and savings to maximize my options and bolster my ability to keep creating over the long haul. Contrary to the romanticized version you may have internalized, being a starving artist sucks. Desperation leads to terrible decisions, stupid working hours, and long term career damage far more often than it turns into success.

---

• Underlying all of this are also extremes in terms of skill and quality levels.

A lot of people who aren’t professional quality cannot see the gap they still need to clear to be viable.

A lot of very skilled people undervalue their abilities.

---

• Being a skilled writer or artist doesn’t mean you’re a strong negotiator, good communicator, capable self-promoter, intelligent with your finances, or well organized. In fact, the more focus you have on creative refinement, the more those other areas tend to suffer

If a person or company offers terms you don’t like, figure out your threshold and when the pay/opportunity isn’t worth the effort.

If a person or company offers an opportunity too good to be true, it probably is and that means they can also take it away in an instant. Plan accordingly.

---

• Companies aren’t loyal. People can be.

Pay attention to good people you work with. Cultivate great working relationships. Celebrate successes. Commiserate over setbacks.

Be patient. Be kind. Be careful.

Build up your work, bit by bit. Slow and steady.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Comics almost broke me a few times over the years, but I’m not done yet.

---

The Shadow-Spider Returns!

Back in 2018, Sean Izaakse and I convinced the Powers That Be at Marvel to let us take the Champions to Weirdworld and, in the process, redesign each team member with a sword & sorcery-themed variant.

Champions #25 kicked off the storyline and it was a ton of fun.

Last week, Insomniac Games announced a Collector’s Edition of their upcoming Spider-Man 2 PS5 game and, lo and behold, our Miles Shadow-Spider outfit is one of the feature costumes. It looks so great!

If you want to read our Champions-fantasy tale with Shadow-Spider and friends, it was reprinted in the Champions: Weird War One trade paperback.

---

Links and Other Things

• Nathan Price did a deep dive review of Conan the Barbarian #0, analyzing the story structure, art, and broader themes. It’s nice and a bit humbling when someone really delves into your hard work like this.

• CBR has an exclusive look at our Conan the Barbarian #3 covers.

• Tom Brevoort’s latest newsletter here on Substack includes a ‘Welcome to Comics’ letter given to new freelance writers coming from other writing fields. Most of the advice in there is relatively obvious to experienced creators but if you’re just starting out it covers a lot of the basics quite well.

• Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood has his own YouTube channel.

That should cover it for this time.
Jim

Good news, everyone. Today is Clean Air Day in Canada. Meanwhile, wildfire smoke from the Great White North chokes the northeast-

---

Third Time’s The Charm

Tomorrow I’m flying to New Brunswick for East Coast Comic Expo, June 9th and 10th. This appearance has been a looong time coming.

Back in the olden days of 2018, I was announced as a guest for ECCE, but a Marvel summit (the one where our team planned out Avengers: No Road Home) fell on that same weekend so I had to back out.

In 2019, I was announced as a guest again, but D&D Live: The Descent fell on that same weekend and I had to be there for crazy Dungeons & Dragons stuff.

2020 to 2022…well, you know…

Which brings us to now – 2023! Finally, after five years, I’m heading to Moncton and am really looking forward to seeing friends and fans on the east coast.

---

Good Listening!

Over on the Graymalkin Lane podcast, we talk about the strange history of Sapphire Styx and how she became a pivotal player in my plans for Betsy Braddock back in the MYSTERY IN MADRIPOOR mini-series from 2018.

Give it a listen here: https://redcircle.com/shows/graymalkin-lane-the-podcast

I’m also guest on the latest episode of the mighty CROMCAST, chatting up a storm about the CONAN THE BARBARIAN comic relaunch, Canadian whiskey, the Hyborian Age, sword & sorcery, TTRPGs, and more!

Give it a listen here: https://thecromcast.blogspot.com/2023/05/season-18-episode-9-conan-in-comics.html

---

CONAN #1: Final Order Cut-Off Cover

Speaking of Conan-

The legendary Jae Lee illustrated a special CONAN THE BARBARIAN #1 cover just released as we soar toward our July 3rd Final Order Cutoff, the last day readers and retailers can pre-order the first issue

Mind-blowing stuff, as expected. I’m honored to have so many cool covers on this book.

---

Elden Things

My pals over at UDON just released pics of the incredible translated Elden Ring artbooks they’re releasing in September (volume 1 and 2), including a limited edition foil slipcase edition. Daaaamn pretty. I am sorely tempted to add them to my collection.

---

Links and Other Things

The Iron Sheik passed away today at age 81. His words of wisdom stay with me always-

Okay, that’ll cover it this time. Have a good week.
Jim

On Sunday afternoon, I stared at my laptop in genuine shock as it showed me I lost over five hours of writing work.

I was so stressed I gave myself a headache.

I re-opened my script file and it was from the day before.

Back-ups on my user profile roaming data were the day before.

Google Drive on the cloud was also the day before.

I checked and rechecked Word’s autosave folders and nothing was current. Absolutely maddening.

I imagined trying to explain to my editor and the art team that “my computer ate my homework” and how full of shit they’d think I was.

I tried to stay calm and methodically check every spot, but none of it was up to date. It was all from the day before and I was spinning in circles.

Finally, at my wit’s end I vent to Stacy. I’m so damn angry and don’t know how this happened.

Cool as can be, she says “Check OneDrive.”

“I don’t use OneDrive.”

“Check anyways.”

Wouldn’t you know it? Word switched the damn file over to OneDrive and didn’t save anything to my local machine.

I got the current file back, re-saved it to Google Drive and then emailed a copy to myself as a failsafe so I could stop my brain from whirling.

Crisis averted. Sanity returned. Deadline met. *whew*

---

Blood Will Flow

The Diamond Previews catalogue ran an interview with me about the CONAN THE BARBARIAN relaunch coming in July. I know I’m beating the drum like crazy here in my newsletter, but only because I’m so pumped for this launch.

Anyways, this summarizes our mission on the series and how easy it is to jump in-

---

Productivity, Quantity, and Quantity

In late 2013 I put together a blogpost discussing productivity that included a dorky bar chart showcasing how many comic pages I wrote each year from 2009-2013. A few weeks ago I decided to look at how my career and priorities have changed and what I’ve learned in the nine years since then.

Planning for the future is good, but looking back at the past with extra clarity is nice too.

---

Rule Breakers and Reprobates

Stacy and I don’t get a chance to watch much TV, but Ted Lasso has been a staple for us since it launched in 2020. As I mentioned in the past, that “screwed up characters doing their best with their heart on their sleeves” approach was a big inspiration for the Thunderbolts relaunch I wrote last year. It’s been a joy watching the characters and their dramatic turns play out on the screen.

Season 3 has been bumpy in terms of character development, pacing, and payoffs, but episode 11, Mom City, was a real high point for both this season and the series as a whole.

Coach Beard has been a character I haven’t been crazy about during the show’s run. Brendan Hunt is a compelling and capable actor, but Beard has always felt like the “weird wingman”, inscrutable and unflappable, both conservative and hedonistic without much rhyme or reason.

I didn’t understand why he had a laced-down work attitude that seemed rooted in logic but also ride-or-die backed up every strange decision Ted made. I didn’t understand his unbreakable loyalty for Ted mixed with the addictive and confrontational approach he had with other characters in the cast.

And then, in one amazing scene that seems to break all the rules by having a character flat-out tell us their past mistakes and current motivation, Beard became fully formed with way more depth than I imagined. It was so damn good that it rippled backward and made a bunch of key scenes from previous episodes far better, enriching the show on every level. I don’t know if the writers planned Beard’s back story like this from the start, and honestly it doesn’t matter, because it was just a knockout.

I have problems with some of the meandering plotlines and exaggerated characterization this season and worry whether or not the team can stick the landing in the final episode but, whatever happens, this piece was wonderful and left a real emotional mark on both of us.

---

Eisner Voting

The timeline for Eisner Award voting is quite tight and far more people in the comic industry are eligible to vote than many of them realize.

Voter registration ends on Friday, JUNE 2nd. The vote deadline is Friday, JUNE 9th.

Eligible voters include:

• Comic/graphic novel/webcomic creators (writers, artists, pencilers, inkers, letterers, or colorists)
• Comic/graphic novel publishers or editors
• Comic historians or educators
• Graphic novel librarians
• Owners or managers of comic retail specialty stores

Click here to head to the registration form.

If you’re qualified to vote in the Eisners and put a vote in for Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood #3  for “Best Single Issue/One Shot”, I’d really appreciate it.

Last year, Rick and Morty VS Dungeons & Dragons Deluxe Edition was nominated for “Best Graphic Album-Reprint” and it was a lot of fun being at the ceremony, but the lion’s share of that was due to Sarah Rockwell’s wonderful design work on the book, so having my name front and center on the nomination felt a bit awkward. This year’s nomination is more focused on the comic itself – the story and art – so I’m even more excited.

---

Links and Other Things

Over his lunch break, Richard Friend raves about Rob De La Torre’s artwork, including some thoughtful analysis of why Rob’s work looks so damn good. It’s far more than just the classic artists who influence him.

Comrade Bullski has a great Tweet thread that covers the tumultuous publishing history of Conan the Barbarian in prose.

Matthew Colville has a sharp rundown on how a Dungeon Master can enjoy prepping for a D&D session.

That should cover it for this week.
Jim

Our trip to the UK was a ton of fun, but it’s time to get back to business as summer projects and convention season ramps up in a big way-

Marvel’s Art of Storytelling

After San Diego Comic Con last year, I spent two days at the Proko art studio recording material for a secret project with Stan Prokopenko and his amazing team. This week that project was finally announced – Marvel The Art of Storytelling! This digital course goes through how comics are made, from story concept and writing through to design, finished line art, colors, lettering, and cover illustration.

Even before that video shoot, we built an extensive curriculum, structuring a workflow and series of assignments to give both newcomers and skilled artists lessons and clear objectives to improve their comic storytelling skills and broaden their understanding of the production pipeline.

---

Here’s a rundown of the major sections and which comic pros are involved:

Jim Zub – Storytelling and Story Structure
Ryan Benjamin – Penciling
Mark Morales – Inking
Mike Hawthorne – Basics of Cinematography and Perspective
Aaron Conley – Page and Panel composition
Alitha Martinez – Poses, Acting, and Performance
Sanford Greene – Character Design, Team Design, and Action
Daniel Warren Johnson – Environments
Matt Wilson – Coloring for Comics
Erik Gist – Comic Covers

---

I’m excited to see a new generation of comic creators dive into the program and learn from our experience. The first lesson drops July 12th, and if pre-order you save 20%.

Check out the trailer below-

---

My Fantasy Influences

People on social media have been sharing “Four fantasy books or series that had the biggest influence on you” and it’s been good fodder for discussion.

There are others, of course, but the four listed below are a bi~ig part of my fantasy DNA. When I write sword & sorcery I lean into the feeling these series evoked in me as a young reader-

• The CONAN series by Robert E. Howard showed me “low fantasy” – grit and violence in a world full of unknowable and dangerous magic with gods and devils who use mankind as tools in their cosmic machinations or ignore them altogether as kingdoms rise and fall.

With each new story I get to write in the Hyborian Age, I dig back into the source material trying to capture that same excitement and intensity.

• The FAFHRD AND THE GREY MOUSER series by Fritz Leiber delivered a similar “magic beyond understanding” bent, but the warrior and thief duo had their own flair for troublemaking and problem solving that stuck with me.

Skullkickers, the sword & sorcery series that helped propel my writing career, plays with the same kind of adventuring duo who somehow triumph against foes way beyond them in scope and power and that’s definitely by design.

• The DRAGONLANCE series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is high fantasy in the Tolkien/Lord of the Rings vein, but it arrived at the perfect time for me when I was young – a new epic trilogy that made Dungeons & Dragons ‘real’ – bringing the abstraction of game rules and encounters to life with memorable characters and lots of heart.

Although my Legends of Baldur’s Gate heroes aren’t involved in the same kind of world-shattering threats as the Heroes of the Lance, I’m always looking to channel the warmth and comradery Tracy and Margaret brought to their adventuring party.

• The FIGHTING FANTASY series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone clicked for me, with its choose-your-own-adventure structure and TTRPG-centric combat, but DEATHTRAP DUNGEON towers above the rest. A labyrinth full of ingenious traps and its competitive gladiatorial spectacle drove my imagination into overdrive.

My first Conan the Barbarian story arc, called “Into the Crucible”, is an homage to Deathtrap, plunging our favorite Cimmerian into a similar lethal tournament with the added challenge that he’s also in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the local language.

---

A Freakish Discussion

I spoke to Jed Keith at Freaksugar in-depth about my work on the Conan the Barbarian relaunch, over 2000 words covering my previous Hyborian Age writing, how the new series came about, and more. Check it out.

---

Links and Other Things

• I’ve been checking out episodes of the Cromcast, a podcast dedicated to Conan and other pulp adventure stories and in a few weeks I’ll be a guest on the show. It’s fascinating listening to early episodes where the hosts are just starting to dig into the original Conan prose stories with very little knowledge of the lore and compare that to more current ones after 18 seasons worth of episodes analyzing these classic tales and joking around with each other.
• Last week I made Pasta alla Zozzona, an obscure pasta sauce that combines elements and flavors from 4 different classic pasta dishes, and it turned out great!
  

Okay, that should cover it this time.
Jim

Today’s my birthday. 47.

Things are good.

Stacy and I are still in the UK, spending a few days sightseeing in London after a fun trek to Wales for the Swansea Comic and Gaming Convention. It’s our first overseas trip since October 2019 and feels both familiar and strange getting back to it.

I relish these times where we get to wander and explore, chat and laugh, prioritizing just the two of us for a little while. I want to carve out more time for that in the days ahead.

---

• Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood #3 was nominated for an Eisner Award. That was an unexpected little birthday present. If you’re qualified to vote and willing to send one our way for ‘Best Single Issue/One Shot’, our whole team would appreciate it.

• IGN has lettered preview pages for Conan the Barbarian #1. So damn proud of this book. If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, remember to pop the series on your pull list at your favorite local comic shop or online retailer. These Days of High Adventure are going to be something special.

---

Short and simple this time.

Be good to each other.

Jim