Zubby Newsletter #109: Travel Changes You

Posted by Jim Zub on April 16, 2025 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Travel changes you.

I’ve told my students that for years and even now, after attending around 200 conventions all over the world, it still holds true. The moment you move outside the places you know and experience other countries and other cultures, you expand your understanding of our shared humanity and see how the place you grew up helped shape who you are.

Traveling to India for the first time was wonderful, but intense. If my schedule wasn’t so stacked right now I would’ve loved to stay longer and see more, but even this quick tour and convention was still a real eye-opener. Mumbai is a bustling, vibrant city jam-packed with colorful sights. It’s also summertime right now, so the weather was extremely hot and humid, which slowed us down on our tour day, but it still made a really big impression on me.

Great food, great conversations, and quite a few ‘How did all this even happen?’ pinch me moments. Six days across the world and back is a rough schedule and I know jet lag is going to have its grip on me for days to come, but it was worth it.

*My incredible booth set-up at Mumbai Comic Con*

Mumbai Comic Con was absolutely wild. It was one of the busiest and most passionate shows I have ever experienced in my 20+ years of conventions. I am gob smacked at the fandom there. The economics of everything in India is different from North America, so as a creator you need to adjust expectations on that front, but as a social and travel experience it was top notch and incredibly enriching.

Unexpectedly, I was a huge draw at the show. I didn’t realize that the span of projects I’ve worked on would have such international appeal, but looking in the rearview mirror after the show it sort of makes sense – Marvel superheroes, Dungeons & Dragons, Conan the Barbarian, Rick and Morty, and Samurai Jack. Obviously I didn’t create those properties, but I’ve contributed to all of them and so fans from India came out in a big way to show their excitement and appreciation. In many ways, I was a one-stop shop for both younger and older fans. It was so crazy-busy on the show floor that volunteers had to form a human ring around Rob DenBleyker (Cyanide & Happiness, huge with the online crowd) and I to get us to our booths or out to the green room for lunch. I have never experienced anything like that before. I’m not stating that to brag, honestly, the whole thing was amazing and also mind-numbing.

The Comic Con India staff worked their butts off to keep the event running smooth and I could see a lot of shared values and bonds between them that reminded me of the original Calgary Expo crew, a show put together by one of my closest friends that earned its excellent reputation. That’s the best compliment I can give – the hospitality and hard work in Mumbai reminded me of some of my favorite convention experiences and is now right up there with them.

All in all, it was one heck of an adventure. I’m so thankful I was able to experience it and now have advice for other creators who might be interested in heading to India for conventions in the future.

*One of the many sketches I did for fans and staff at the show.*

Indian Comic Creators – Info and Links

*With Ravi Raj Ahuja, Bijoy Raveendran, and Utsab Chatterjee – The Technicolour Lovers team.*

One of the other nice surprises at the con was getting to meet other creators in India, both independant and commercial. I wish I had more time to explore and meet local creators at the show, but here are a few highlights:

• The crew at Black Sheep Comics and Yali Dream Creations had copies of Technicolour Lovers at the show and it looks absolutely top notch. Make sure you check out the preview pages and, if you’re as impressed as I was, snag a copy for yourself.

• Vivek Goel was inspired by Marc Silvestri‘s company Top Cow Entertainment and, since India reveers cows as sacred, his comic company is called Holy Cow Entertainment, and they have a slew of original titles worth checking out.

• Rosh is an award-winning artist and colorist and his wife Lilo is a fashion designer. Together they have a fantastic selection of sketchbook bags and other art supplies at their website LILOROSH.

• Tadam Gyadu is the artist of Spider-Man: India, producing amazing artwork locally and abroad. Check his art out!

• Aparna Chaurasia gifted me a copy of Soul Contract, her manga-style graphic novel and it looks great!

Twisting Loyalties and the Road Ahead

*Zula makes his Titan debut – line art by Doug Braithwaite, colors by Diego Rodriguez, lettering by Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith.*

Today sees the arrival of Conan the Barbarian #20, the final part of our Twisting Loyalties story arc! Doug, Diego, and the rest of the team put their all into every damn page. I am so, so proud of our work here. Please grab your own copy and let us know what you think.

Now that we’re a month removed from the previous issue, I can spoil that Zula is back. He’s a fan favorite character from the original Marvel run who was adapted into a female version in the Conan the Destroyer movie. Like with introducing the iconic Atlantean Sword into comic continuity, I’m working to merge pop culture visions of Conan together into a somewhat cohesive whole, so expect to see multiple versions of Zula work their way into the story in ways readers may not expect. Issue #19 even has tabletop roleplaying game stats for Zula included, a bit of cross promotion with the Conan: The Hyborian Age TTRPG.

Twisting Loyalties is transitional in some ways, setting up chess pieces for future moves in the big mythic story I’m building in the monthly flagship book and yearly events, but I wanted to make sure that the adventures here also had pulpy power all on their own. That’s the tricky balance we’re trying to keep and so far readers are responding well.

Current + Upcoming Releases

With the sale of Diamond Distribution there have been shipping delays and hassles galore across the comic industry, but it looks like things are set to improve with new ownership and new options, including Lunar. We’ve been on time, production-wise, but to keep from having a gap mid-story arc as ownership changes hands, it looks like Titan is delaying the release of Conan the Barbarian #21 by one month, from May to June. Thankfully, with Free Comic Book Day we’ll still have a May release, our free Scourge of the Serpent Prelude issue. Don’t miss it!

Thunderbolts: Winter Soldiers – released March 4th.

Conan the Barbarian #19 – released March 19th.

Conan: Battle of the Black Stone TPB – released April 1st.

Rick and Morty VS Cthulhu – Deluxe Edition – released April 1st.

Conan the Barbarian #20 – released April 16th.

FCBD Conan: Scourge of the Serpent – Prelude – releases May 3rd.

Conan the Barbarian #21 – releases June 11th.

Street Fighter Masters: Elena one-shot – releases June 25th.

Conan the Barbarian #22 – releases July 9th.

Upcoming Appearances

Apr 24-27, 2025	Calgary Expo	Calgary, Alberta, CANADA
May 3, 2025	Third Eye Comics – FCBD Signing	Annapolis, MD, USA
Oct 16-19, 2025	Gamehole Con XII	Madison, WI, USA
Nov 3-14, 2025	D&D in a Castle	Castle Lumley, Newcastle, UK