Zub Tales

San Diego Comicon 2011 whipped by and I’m still trying to recover. It was a fun show, but the whole thing came and went in a flash.

Thanks to everyone in the UDON crew and the gang at Image for helping to make it a special week. I wasn’t as social as usual this year with the crush of things that had to get done keeping me running almost the entire time, but that’s all part of the Comicon experience. When I had a bit of time to take it all in, it amazed me how much of it I take for granted. It’s an amazing place and the people I’ve met thanks to the show each year are some of my nearest and dearest friends.

Thanks also to friends, pros, reviewers, retailers and fans who came by to tell me how much they’ve been enjoying Skullkickers. It means the world to me to hear that it’s keeping you entertained.

This week is all about following up on the momentum built at the show interspersed with tiny daydreams about what may yet be for next year.

This sketch image was done with Alias Sketchbook Pro as part of Viz’s ‘Art For Hope’ Japan Charity fund-raising event.

Details here:
http://www.viz.com/content/viz-media-teams-autodesk-art-hope-benefit-japan-disaster-relief

Since I wasn’t as familiar with Sketchbook as I am with Photoshop, I went for a simple composition and flat colours. It was a neat program to play with though and I’m looking forward to trying it more in the future.

Click for larger version

Here we go! Preparations are underway for the biggest comic/game/movie/pop culture convention of the summer – Comic Con International, the wild and woolly San Diego Comicon!

Team Skullkickers will be stationed at Booth #2729, the Image Comics booth, mashing monsters and signing books… and not just any books, mind you…

The limited edition hard cover Skullkickers Vol. 1’s we printed up for Emerald City Comicon vanished faster than expected, but since we were headed back to press on the regular edition anyways, we printed up a brand new convention-exclusive hard cover edition for SDCC with a spiffy new cover! Check it out:

Convention-only hardcover special edition for $25!

We’ll also be bringing two exclusive convention art prints to the show, both taken from rare variant covers you may not have gotten your hands on. These illos won’t be in our trade paperback and have never been reproduced without our skull trade dress before, so you’ll want to snag these 11″ x 17″ beauties.

Convention-only art prints – two for $25!

We received our advanced copies of Skullkickers #9 in the mail over the weekend so I’m bringing some copies to the show for eager readers who want to get the first crack at reading part 3 of ‘Five Funerals and Bucket of Blood’.

Advanced copies of Skullkickers #9!

In addition, I’ll be balancing time and doing a few signings at Booth #5037, the UDON Entertainment booth, as part of the studio’s Mega Man Tribute art book release.

Convention-only hardcover Mega Man Tribute

Click on the zoomed in map below for a larger version of the whole crazy exhibit floor.

If you’re attending San Diego Comicon this year, I want to see you there! Come by and say ‘Hi’!

It’s nerd prom and everybody’s getting ready to dance! 🙂

The fine folks at deviantART, who are sponsoring this year’s SDCC Artist’s Alley section, invited me to be a part of a special panel they’re holding on Saturday as part of the big show next weekend. Here’s the info:

12:00-1:00 Comic-Con How-To: Angelo Sotira, CEO of deviantART— Know the platform, deliver the goods, and be awesome!

Find out how to build a one million+ following on the web. Angelo Sotira, CEO of deviantArt, will moderate a panel of experts, including Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (co-founder and creative director, Imaginary Friends Studios), Jim “Zubby” Zubkavich (Project Manager, UDON Entertainment), and Dave “deevelliott” Elliott (comic book illustrator, editor, publisher), who will discuss how to use tools to create a following on the Internet. Room 28DE

I figured since I’m now writing my own stuff and juggling so many different things I should probably get some personal business cards done up in time for SDCC. My UDON business cards are great, but they’re not appropriate for every social situation.

Here’s the design I put together, front & back, incorporating a bit of art but something simple that won’t over complicate such a small space. The final printed version includes my cel number too, but that’s not for public consumption.

Everyone calls me ‘Zub’ anyways so I’m embracing that for my professional writing/art stuff from here on out.

click for larger version

While everyone at UDON gears up for this year’s San Diego Comicon, we’re extra pumped to be launching our Mega Man Tribute art book at the show.

Here’s my pin-up, focused on my favourite game in the series, Mega Man 2!

The character and level design in MM2 hits just the right note for me, with challenging stages and bosses delicately balanced so it never becomes a slog to play through.

I hope you all enjoy my piece. It’s an absolute honour to be a part of another great official Tribute project. I can’t wait until fans get their hands on the book (soft cover in stores or our limited convention hard cover edition).

Mat Nastos at The Comic Market website interviewed me about marketing Skullkickers – getting retailers on board the series, promotional tools, convention selling and more.

Maybe the concept of branding and selling comics doesn’t sound too thrilling to you, and that’s understandable, but I have received quite a few e-mails from comic creators or people looking at starting their own comics and talking about how you build that brand awareness and get comic retailers on your side is an important part of the print comic industry equation right now.

Anyways, I’m happy with how the interview went and wanted to put it up here for people to check out. Click on through.

For Immediate Release
June 28, 2011

Contact: Elan Freedman
Surge Licensing, Inc.
elan@surging.com
516-939-2226

Surge Licensing Signs Breakout Comics Series – Skullkickers^TM
For Exclusive Licensing and Entertainment Representation

The Hangover Meets World of Warcraft
in Zub’s Serialized Adventure Series

Jericho, N.Y. — Surge Licensing, Inc., the agency known for developing off-the-wall comic book properties such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, more recently, Axe Cop have signed an exclusive licensing and entertainment agreement with Swords and Sassery, Inc. to develop TV/film, video games, toys, apparel and other tie-ins for Skullkickers – an on-going series published by Image Comics that debuted in September 2010 and continues to sell-out print runs into its second story arc.

Created by Jim Zubkavich and Chris Stevens, Skullkickers is the story of two monster killing mercenaries – a giant bald-headed warrior and a short red-headed dwarf. They’re an odd pairing, a medieval fantasy-esque “Jay and Silent Bob”, in search of fame and fortune. The two adventurers, affectionately known as “Baldy” and “Shorty”, make their living slaying werewolves, necromancers, plant monsters, the undead, and almost anything else readers can imagine from classic fantasy literature and games. Nothing will stop these two from getting paid and enjoying a fine pint of ale.

USA Today describes it best – “Imagine Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name, Bad Boys and your local Renaissance festival thrown into a stein of the finest grog in town, and you have a sense of the full-on Skullkickers experience.”

As soon as Skullkickers comics began to hit shelves, issues immediately sold out. The first 3 issues vanished from stores within days of release. The first trade paperback collection quickly followed suit and Image has rushed a new print run to keep up with unexpected demand over the summer. A second trade, collecting the new story arc currently underway, will arrive in time for Christmas.

Skullkickers has been highly praised by pop culture news outlets including MTV, Bleeding Cool, G4 and Ain’t It Cool News, as well as virtually every fanboy site on the web.

“We couldn’t be more excited to work with ‘Zub’ and his team on Skullkickers, a comic with so much whimsy, charm and wit” exclaims Surge’s VP, Elan Freedman, “It’s a story that not only gives the masses a peek inside the fun world of fantasy adventure but rather it entirely busts down the door and brings readers in with a welcome parade of hilarious action and banter.”

Skullkickers’ irreverent approach to classic fantasy, a proverbial buddy cop movie slammed into Conan the Barbarian, plays with cartoonish violence and banter in a way that appeals to young teen boys, older fantasy fans and gamers of all ages.

New sketches from the Calgary Comic Expo and my signing yesterday at Ultimate Comics in North Carolina. I don’t take photos of every sketch I do at a show/signing, but when I think one comes together well I try to snap a quick shot that I can throw into Photoshop afterwards, adjust the Levels on and keep.

Thor

Allen the Alien

Conan the Barbarian

Magik from the New Mutants

Atomic Robo

Harley Quinn

The Dwarf from Skullkickers as Battle Pope

This weekend is the amazing Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo in Alberta and I’ll be there as a guest of the show, set up at table #K09.

This piece of art is for the Expo’s annual convention exclusive artbook. The theme this year was ‘Dream & Wishes’, so I did up a slightly dim-witted dragon’s infatuation with a castle. It was a really fun illo to put together, pushing the cartoony style I did for the Zork series a bit further.

Also, for those just coming to my journal for the first time, here’s a link to my deviantART page.