Zub Tales

Edwin and I are exhibiting at this year’s Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, Canada’s largest comics and pop culture convention running from August 25-28!

Image Comics is setting up at the show for the first time and we’ll be there at the Image booth (Booth #130) all weekend selling and signing Skullkickers books.

I’ll also be on two Image convention panels over the weekend:

IMAGE: PITCHING YOUR CREATOR-OWNED COMICS – WRITERS UNITE!
Creator-owned comics have grabbed the imagination of the comic-reading community all over again and publishers are looking for fresh ideas from a new generation of talent. Listen closely as Image Comics creators Charles Soule (27, Strongman), Kurtis Wiebe (Green Wake, The Intrepids) and Jim Zub (Skullkickers) discuss pitching their hit comic series and offer advice on how to climb to the top of the treacherous submission mountain. (How-To, Q&A)
Saturday, 11 AM – Room #717

IMAGE COMICS PRESENTS YOUR NEW FAVOURITES
Join Image Comics for announcements about upcoming projects, updates about ongoing projects, and a Q&A session with some of the best creators working in comics. Don’t miss your chance to find out about what we’re up to before anyone else does, and ask questions of your favorite creators! Panelists include Charles Soule (27), Kurtis Wiebe (Intrepids, Green Wake, Peter Panzerfaust), Viktor Kalvachev (Pherone, Blue Estate), Dennis Hopeless (Lovestruck), Jim Zub (Skullkickers), and Jonathan Hickman (The Red Wing, Feel Better Now).
Saturday, 1 PM – Room #713

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Gen Con Indy 2011 and stopped by the booth to say “hi” or pick up a copy of Skullkickers. The reaction I received from fans and new readers was unbelievably warm and the show was a complete thrill.

At the Tayler Corp/XD/Skullkickers booth with
(from left) Laura Hickman, Zub, Howard Tayler, Tracy Hickman

Howard, Laura, Tracy and the entire booth crew (lovingly dubbed “the Kokomo Irregulars”) were fantastic booth mates for the weekend who helped get me up to speed and make sure the whole thing ran smoothly. Their hard work made it easier for me to focus on showing new readers what Skullkickers was all about. I owe them, big time.

On the last day there was a lot of discussion about what we’d do ‘next year’ to make things even better. The fact that everyone was so quick to make me a part of their 2012 plans warmed my heart. I’m pretty sure Skullkickers will be at Gen Con 2012 to keep the momentum we generated this year rolling forward. Thanks for your support!

I did some commission sketches while I was at Gen Con last weekend. The variety of requests was pretty out there. It was fun drawing so many critters.

Someone had a sketchbook with ‘knitting’ as their theme, so I did a sketch of the dwarf attempting to knit.

Running around like crazy today post-Gen Con trying to get caught up. I hope to have a full rundown of the show up later this week. In the meantime, here’s a fun little tidbit:

I ate Chinese food twice over the weekend… here’s what popped up:

Sounds good to me!

Jim

MTV Geek has a brand new article listing their Top 25 Comic Series of 2011 and Skullkickers shows up at #9!

“Few titles celebrate the pure joy of reading comic books like Skullkickers does. Mixing fantasy conventions with anachronistic humor and bloody, bloody violence, Jim Zub’s ongoing story of a big bald guy and an angry dwarf should be on every comic fans pull list; if not for the story, then at least for the laugh out loud sound effects. Also for the story, though.”

Booth prep for Gen Con went smoothly and the day flew by. Driving almost entirely overnight left me in a weird sleepy head space, but all in all it was a good day.

The comic shop signing at Downtown Comics in Indianapolis started off a bit slow but picked up steam and was very successful by the end. In the midst of it one of our biggest fans arrived with some special stuff to show and get signed.

Original page art bought from Edwin and Steven of Kusia, our elvish assassin. It was so wonderful seeing the original art in person. Because the book is done by transferring line art digitally I’ve never actually seen this stuff in the flesh. Both artists have incredible ink work.

And that same fan bought two head sketches from me on the spot. Very cool.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Downtown Comics. Can’t wait to see how Gen Con day 1 goes!

In and amongst a bunch of work getting done, I sat down and tried re-watching some old anime I remembered thoroughly enjoying back in high school. I was appalled at how low quality it was – way worse than I remembered.

Agonizingly slow pacing, terrible animation, cliche and hackneyed storytelling… how did I recall this stuff being so good? Stacy watched some with me and didn’t even have nostalgia keeping her remotely attached to it. It was quite painful.

After cycling through a few different shows and finding them all lacking, we zipped over to something more contemporary. Samurai Champloo still holds up, thankfully. Great character design, fantastic direction and snappy action scenes.

I don’t know if I should dig further into my anime-loving past. It may just be an exercise in pain and disappointment.

I haven’t done a Skullkickers review round-up in quite some time. We’re still pushing hard to get coverage in as many corners of the comic press as possible. Here are some newer ones:

• It’s Bloggerin’ Time has a full run through of the Skullkickers experience.
“Big laughs. Like, uproarious, knee-slapping stuff.”

• Comic Book Critic gives issue #9 a 9/10.
“After 8 issues, Skullkickers is getting better and better.”

• Weekly Comic Book Review loves Volume 1.
“The script is lively and absolutely hilarious.”

• The Buy Pile on CBR put us in their top picks of the week for issue #8.
“A wonderful adventure romp full of great dialogue and action.”

• The Daily Blam gave issue #8 4/5.
“People accidentally shooting themselves has never been so fun!”

• Comics Nexus falls in love with SKullkickers #8.
“I’ve become very enamored of this title.”

• Geeks of Doom is fully on board the Skullkickers adventure.
“Skullkickers blends the world of fantasy and humour in a perfect way.”

• Nerd Girl Pin-Ups catches up with volume 1 and the latest issues.
“Skullkickers manages to keep the laughs coming while crafting rich characters, and a kick-ass setting to put them in.”

• A Pocketful of Geek discovers the series for the first time.
“I heartily recommend this as a brilliantly fun read that will have you smiling from start to finish.”

• iFanboy reviews issue #9 and likes where we’re headed.
“Are you reading Skullkickers? If the answer to that question is ‘no,’ then you need to slap yourself and go buy this book.”

Back in 2008 I posted up two issues of the comics I wrote/drew when I was 11 years old.

For those of you who may have missed them. Here they are:
Liberty League #1
Liberty League #2
Marvel Universe Pin-Up
Spider-Man Pin-Up

My mother found more of my old comic artwork from when I was 13, so I thought I’d scan it in.

Kurt Busiek ripped me off with his series ‘Untold Tales of Spider-Man’. I had the exact same comic title 6 years earlier, thank you very much!

Check that dynamic posing and McFarlane-era webbing!

My brother was the inker and letterer.

The goblin chews up the scenery here with his evil. Oh man, I cannot wait to see what happens next…

Oh wait, that’s it. I only ever drew 2 pages before we gave up on it. I guess we’ll never know how it ends. Noooooooooooooooooo!

Corey Mintz from the Toronto Star has just posted up his report and photos from the Kit Kat tasting party we had at his place last month. The whole thing was organized by Chris Butcher as part of launch content for his new Japanese snack food blog called Oyatsu Break.

Check out the photos.

Check out the article.

Check out Oyatsu Break!