I flew home to Toronto on a red eye flight from San Diego and didn’t get much sleep, so there’s definitely a spacey quality to the universe as I unpack and then repack my luggage while following up on correspondence before heading off tomorrow to Indianapolis.

This might be the first San Diego Comic-Con I can remember where I didn’t actually have a “washout moment”, a crisis of faith or momentary stab of imposter syndrome about being at the show, meeting people, or talking about the work. From the moment I touched down Wednesday morning to the late night Sunday takeoff, there was a wonderful burst of uplifting energy, excitement, and engagement from friends and strangers. Despite how busy it all was, I felt weirdly comfortable and settled in, going with the flow and letting inconsequential stuff slide. It felt great. If I saw you there, thank you for making this year extra-special.

I’d love to be more elegant and verbose about this year’s SDCC, but unfortunately I don’t have enough time between two crazy cons, so bullet point anecdotes and info will have to do:

• The teams at Heroic Signatures and Titan were amazing. Their enthusiasm and organization kept everything cooking and I could not be more proud of where we’re at with it. Our signings throughout the show were packed and the panel on Sunday was energized.

• Speaking of which, I’m ecstatic to announce that I’ve signed a multi-year deal with Heroic Signatures to keep writing the Conan the Barbarian monthly title and related narrative development (event mini-series and Savage Sword in particular, but other stuff too) for the foreseeable future! Working on such an important character and building out this vibrant mythology over a longer span is both an honor and a privilege, one that I don’t take for granted.

The new contract I’ve signed is non-exclusive (so I will have work with other publishers), but it solidifies my commitment to the Hyborian Age going forward. Like I said at our Conan panel, none of this would have been possible without reader and retailer support, so thank you for helping make my dreams come true.

When I was a kid it would have been a dream to meet the people who made Conan the Barbarian or Dungeons & Dragons. Actually being one of those people is stratospherically beyond anything I could have imagined, even in those fantasy worlds.

• Savage Sword of Conan is getting a second year of magazine-sized black & white glory. We defied expectations with the classic format and year two is poised for even more. Roy Thomas is teaming up with Rob De La Torre for a B&W feature story and Jason Aaron and Geof Isherwood are set for a King Conan epic.

• Conan: Battle of the Black Stone action figures are in the works and first out of the gate is our savage Cimmerian, including armor and weaponry taken from our Free Comic Book Day 2024 story.

• Getting to meet and talk with Kenichi Sonoda (Bubblegum Crisis, Riding Bean) at the UDON Booth this year was a glorious experience. It was hard to express to him how much his work blew my mind when I first saw it in high school.

• Seeing Hitoshi Ariga was also an absolute thrill. We worked together on the Klonoa: Dream Traveler of Noctis Sol webcomic for Bandai-Namco way back in 2012 and I hadn’t seen him since then, so it was a rush getting to touch base again.

• My Artist Alley table was hopping thanks to the staff at Comic Sketch Art. They rolled with every schedule change and press request and it was always nice settling back in for signings there and focusing on readers instead of the hustle and bustle needed to keep the booth running.

• The Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary panel was unbelievable. The crowd packed a triple-sized panel room, the kind normally reserved for big movie-TV panels, and the energy was off the charts. The crew at Random House filmed the panel, though they did miss our intros, but you can watch the rest of it HERE:

So many great stories and aspirational thoughts on the magic of tabletop roleplaying games – where they’ve been, why they matter, and the needs of creative VS corporate desires. Watch it!

Zub is Gen Con Bound

Like I said above, I’m mid-marathon with SDCC and Gen Con, two of the biggest conventions, back-to-back. I just posted up my Gen Con location, live play, panels and more right HERE. Just like with SDCC, I’ll be keeping that site post up to date in case things change.

Getting Ready for the Big Show

I spoke to Gerald Ford at The Corner of Story and Game all about how special Gen Con is and advice for people heading to the big show:

Hyborian Age Crash Course

The official Conan the Barbarian YouTube Channel has a great new video that acts as a crash course on The Hyborian Age. You can read Conan’s adventures without this knowledge, but this 15 minute introduction gives greater context to the fiction.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Links and Other Things

• My friend Mark Jones has a new book coming out next month about creative careers and the creative economy called The Starving Artist Myth. Mark helped guide Seneca’s award-winning Animation program when I was in charge there and his expertise and guidance helped us thrive, so I’m incredibly excited to give this a read.

• My friend Gail Simone announced that she’s written a new Red Sonja prose novel that arrives in stores in November. Can’t wait to read it!

• My friends Fred Kennedy and Adam Gorham produced a graphic novel for Blizzard called Diablo: Legends of the Necromancer- Rathma. Fantasy and a beloved video game series? I’m pumped to check it out.

• My friend Cary Nord is a guest for a special sword & sorcery-themed screening of Conan the Barbarian happening in Calgary on August 1st. He’ll be signing comics and prints of the poster he designed for the event.

• A mainstream news article all about the anime industry? ABC News covers the popularity of Japanese animation and the economics of studios and artists struggling to make a career of it.

• Arthur Brooks talks about 4 Key Concepts for a Happier Life over on Big Think and it’s engaging stuff.

Jim

I mentioned the pre-convention sprint in my previous newsletter and it’s definitely getting intense now. I’m plugging away on writing deadlines and finalizing my schedule for meetings, signings, and panels while trying to leave enough room for all the weird and wonderful things that happen each year at the big show.

If you’re headed to San Diego Comic-Con or Gen Con and want to talk business or you’re a friend and want to hang out, now is the time to reach out and find a good time for it instead of leaving it to chance.

Who will I see at the shows?
Are you ready for impact?

I’m a Poet and Didn’t Even Realize…

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #3 arrived in stores this week!

My contribution this issue is small in terms of page count, but big for me in terms of flexing new creative muscles. Check out more info here:

Big thanks to Chris Butera and Fredrik Malmberg for the suggestion and encouragement, and Rob De La Torre for the incredible art that accompanies my piece in the magazine.

Nominate These Dragons

The nomination form for the 2024 Dragon Awards is now open and anyone can submit books that were released from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2024 for consideration…which means that CONAN THE BARBARIAN: BOUND IN BLACK STONE is eligible in the ‘Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel’ category.

Want to help us out? Fill out the form with your fantasy, sci-fi, or other genre favorites and let’s see if we can move to the nomination stage, by Crom!

Listen To These Dragons

Speaking of dragons, I had a great chat with Erin M. Evans, B. Dave Walters, and Treavor Bettis on their wonderful podcast Writing About Dragons and Sh*t.

We cover graphic novels versus prose, working with artists, writing a short story, the eb and flow of nerd culture, working on Conan the Barbarian, structuring stories for serialized storytelling, and more!
Give it a listen.

And, while you’re at it, Collect These Dragons

The D&D Young Adventurer’s Collection 2 arrives in stores on Sept 24th, 2024!

Books 5-8 of the series collected together in a great looking box set that makes a perfect gift for new players or dungeon masters.

If you want more information on the D&D Young Adventurer’s Guide series and how they bring new people into tabletop RPGs, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page I put together HERE.

Got a Question? – Ask Here

I’m continually impressed by the number of questions that Tom Brevoort answers in each installment of his newsletter. It’s clearly a lot of work, but he’s also able to maintain a great sense of back and forth with his readers.

I’ve done extensive Q&As before, and am happy to answer more here if people pose questions in the comments.

Got questions about current or old projects I’ve done? Want to know more about working in the industry or attending conventions? Other queries about other things? Ask away and we’ll see if it gets some traction.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Links and Other Things

• I read an advance of the first issue of The Power Fantasy, a new creator-owned comic series by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard, and it’s really sharp stuff. Make sure you pre-order to get on board this rocket before it launches to the stratosphere.

• My friend Shelly Mazzanoble has a new book coming out in November called How to Dungeon Master Parenting: A Guidebook for Gamifying the Child Rearing Quest, Leveling Up Your Skills, and Raising Future Adventurers. That title is a mouthful, but it also tells you exactly what you’re going to get, and it’s great stuff all around.

• My friend Phil Rickaby is crowdfunding a Christmas horror stage play called It Sees You When You’re Sleeping about terrors that lie beneath the holiday season, embodied by that damn elf-doll. If you’re in the Toronto area or want to support an independent theater production, check it out.

• I made Sam Zien‘s Saucy Pasta recipe on Friday night and it cooked up fast and turned out really tasty. It’s also a simple base to build other pasta recipes around, so I’m definitely going to make it again in the future.

Jim

July has already burst from the starting blocks and is moving into quite the sprint. I’ve got an aggressive writing schedule going right now, trying to get as much done as I can before the back-to-back blitz that is San Diego Comic Con and Gen Con this year. I’m chipping away at my To-Do List while also carving out time for walks with Stacy, seeing family and friends, exercise, cooking fun meals, and a little bit of gaming. It’s a busy time, but also feels good all around.

The response to Conan the Barbarian #12 has been amazing. After so much planning and hard work, seeing it finally out there in the world getting such positive feedback from readers and retailers is an absolute thrill.

I know I say this a lot, but it still bears repeating – Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing your enthusiasm with other readers, in person and online. It means so much to all of us on the team.

So…after that epic finale to The Age Unconquered, what comes next?

In our first issue there was a flashback montage that shows Conan fighting at the Battle of Venarium that also included these two panels-

The narration drops hints about a young Conan challenging himself on his early journeys and that was by design. Like the original Conan short stories published in Weird Tales, we’re hopping around the timeline to build larger thematic arcs, not just telling Conan’s story in chronological order.

Our fourth story arc, called Frozen Faith, chronologically takes place between issue #0 and issue #1. It will show Conan traveling north after leaving Cimmeria and issue #13 includes that fateful bear hunt and its meaning to our Cimmerian hero. After a wild year of dark magic, time travel and cosmic horror, this is very much a back to basics man vs nature-style survival story, but with twists and turns along the way and important tethers to The Frost-Giant’s Daughter, one of Robert E. Howard’s finest Conan tales.

In a similar fashion, I’ve already planted seeds for our fifth story arc, crucial moments and thrilling adventures we’ll fill in as they become important to the big picture. Building this kind of non-linear story structure is obviously a lot more challenging than just going in order, but it also gives us a lot more flexibility and keeps readers on their toes.

Look Inside Battle of the Black Stone #1

Alongside Frozen Faith, the mysteries of the Black Stone also carry onward this Fall-

Popverse has an exclusive full color look at interior pages from CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE #1, the first of a four-issue mini-series that brings together characters from Robert E. Howard’s incredible cast of pulp-tastic protagonists.

Jonas Scharf‘s line work is sublime and Jão Canola‘s colors punch up every scene. Like with Rob De La Torre, I’m writing plot-style on this mini-series, letting Jonas define the page composition and panel count in ways that works best with his art, then writing a separate lettering script after page art comes in. It’s incredibly collaborative and keeps me inspired at every turn. I think this mini-series is going to be one for the ages, my friends. Make sure you get on board.
—
CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE #1 (of 4)
Story – Jim Zub
Artist – Jonas Scharf
Colors – Jao Canola
Cover A – Gerardo Zaffino

In Shops: Sept 4th, 2024

The Corner Box – Part 2

Here’s part 2 of my chat with my friends John Barber and David Hedgecock on their podcast.

In this second half, we cover the evolution of my comic career – webcomics, joining the UDON studio, my first published comic credit, working with editors, my oldest pitch, Conan the Barbarian, channeling the source material, and more. Make sure you give it a listen.

Slay the Hydra

I read an advance digital copy of the upcoming graphic novel Gamemasters, a history of roleplaying games told by my friends Fred Van Lente and Tom Fowler. I enjoyed it so much I gave them a blurb, which you can see above.

The crowdfunding pre-launch page is already up, so make sure you have this one on your radar.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Links and Other Things

• Jay Deitcher has a fascinating article on Rolling Stone all about Steve Ditko’s personal life, giving a glimpse at the very private man and his world. Well worth reading.

• 7-11 wants to change its businesses in the U.S. to more closely match their Japanese counterparts. If you’ve ever been to Japan and experienced the amazing food and value at a ‘konbini‘, you know how awesome that would be.

• Lindsay Ellis has a new video essay on Yoko Ono and the Beatles that twists and turns its way through pop culture in an impressively compelling way, illuminating aspects of fame, friendship, relationships and more. It’s feature documentary length, but worth the watch.

Jim

Stacy and I arrived home from our 3 week Japan trip on Thursday just before midnight and, after two rough flights with no sleep across 16 hours, we crashed hard.

I woke up on Friday morning feeling surprisingly good and, as I unpacked and started reorganizing, I thought maybe this time I might ride out the jet lag well and be able to enjoy the long weekend before diving back into work, but no such luck. By dinner time I was hit with waves of deep exhaustion, the kind that just shuts you down for hours at a time, and bouts of hunger or an upset stomach and that’s kind of been the last two and a half days – bursts of feeling okay smashed up against long bouts where I feel like a tiny drunk mecha pilot maneuvering my own shambling corpse.

It’ll pass, it always does, but it’s part of getting back into international travel that I’d memory holed a bit.

Now that I’m home, I need to dive right back into writing and prep for Howard Days in a couple weeks. No rest for the wicked.

Japan-age

Quite a few people reached out to ask where Stacy and I went during our trip. It’s a bit hard to encompass it all, but here’s the overview (and some photos):

• We stayed in Tokyo for the first few days, which covered my Free Comic Book Day signing and shopping in Ikebukuro, Akihabara, and Nakano.

• We went to Nagoya to explore a city we’d never been to before and experience the new Ghibli Park.

• Our next stop was Osaka to enjoy the food and night life, more shopping and exploring. Key spots included Dōtonbori, Kuromon Market, Denden Town, and Shin Sekai, along with the new Universal Japan theme park to check out Super Mario World.

• We took a day trip to Nara to spend time with the deer in Nara Park and show our friends Todaiji Temple.

• Back to Tokyo for the final leg of our trip – TeamLab Planets and TeamLab Borderless, the Design Festa indie art convention, along with exploring Ginza, Asakusa, Odaiba, Yūyake Dandan, and Shinjuku.

• The places we went were amazing, and just diving back into Japan after six years away was a joy, but it was also wonderful traveling with a couple of our friends from Alberta, touching base with old friends we have in Japan, meeting new people (including an evening where I chatted with a Robert E. Howard scholar living in Yokohama and another night where I ran AD&D in a pub for a group of old school gamers), and unexpectedly running into a couple former students while we were on the road.

Celebrating my birthday and kicking off my teaching sabbatical with this whirlwind trip was incredibly special…and worth the jet lag. 😉

Legendary Hero, Legendary Sword

As part of the long term Heroic Signatures publishing plan for Conan, we’ve talked at length about how best to honor the canon source material of Robert E. Howard while also incorporating elements that are recognizable and appealing to the wider pop culture audience Conan has built in the 90+ years since he was created.

Conan is an icon, he’s the Superman of Sword & Sorcery, and just like Superman, there are aspects of the character and his world that came later but have become intrinsically linked to how he’s now recognized. Superman didn’t fly in the original stories, there was no Kryptonite, and he didn’t work for the Daily Planet, but almost everyone would agree that these elements are now important parts of the canon.

With that in mind, in this week’s Conan the Barbarian #11 we surprised readers by bringing the iconic ATLANTEAN SWORD into Conan’s ongoing continuity for the first time. The sword and its distinctive look by Production Designer Ron Cobb is already inextricably linked to Conan and we believe it’s time to make it a formal part of his story.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out this issue, the penultimate piece before we wrap up our epic first year on the relaunch, do not miss it. Rob De La Torre and Diego Rodriguez are delivering incredible art on every page and we’re paying off plot material set up at the start.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

Links and Other Things

• A slew of friends and fans sent me Alain Seguin‘s fan animated trailer for Conan: Tower of the Elephant. Seeing our favorite Cimmerian in a classic animated style here is a treat.

• When I started this newsletter just over a year ago Karl Kerschl had a crowdfunding campaign going for Death Transit Tanager, and now he’s back with a campaign for part 2. Karl’s a friend, I love his artwork, the first one rocked. Done and done.

• On the flight home one of the films I watched was a documentary called Soviet Bus Stops, and I’m glad I did. It’s about a Canadian photographer who has been taking pictures of obscure bus stops across the former Soviet Union, immortalizing their unexpected architecture and showing how artistic and ambitious they were at a time when the country’s culture and construction were being homogenized in service to the state. It’s a fascinating bit of oddball history that echoes larger themes about art and rebellion, well told and whimsical.

I hope your weekend has been a good one with zero jet lag. 😉
Jim