Zubby Newsletter #22: Gen Conquest

Posted by Jim Zub on August 10, 2023 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

A bunch of readers signed up for this newsletter at SDCC and Gen Con, so – welcome!

Zubstack is where I keep people up to date with my creative projects (mostly comics and games) and also dig into things on my mind, recipes I’m cooking, games I’m playing, articles I’m enjoying, and more. For my main website, go HERE and, for an archive of past newsletter installments jammed with info and links, go HERE.

Social media is more mercurial and annoying than ever, so being able to go old school internet and reach fine people like yourself directly is really nice. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, that’s fine, but at least you get to choose instead of algorithms choosing for you.

Okay, on we go~

Flights to Gen Con were annoyingly expensive for such a short hop, so Stacy and I decided to drive down to Indianapolis instead (9-ish hours on the road depending on traffic). It was a bit of a throwback to my earliest convention years racking up kilometers and crisscrossing the border at strange hours.

In my previous newsletter I talked about how much has changed for me at shows like Gen Con since I first started attending 20 years ago, but it’s even clearer when you see Darrin’s incredible booth set-up for Howard and I this time-

Conan the Barbarian comics, D&D Young Adventurer’s Guides, the D&D Ultimate Pop-Up Book, D&D comic trade paperbacks, Skullkickers, Wayward, and so much more. There were several times when I was asked which books I worked on and just motioned to my left and said “All of those”, which felt cool but also weird. There’s no way we can stock everything, but even this cross section of my work feels like a heck of a lot.

Gen Con was sold out every day, which also meant Saturday-style crowds every day. I have never seen the exhibit hall so consistently packed, hour after hour. I stepped out for some meetings around meal times and managed to visit friends after the floor closed, but during show hours it honestly felt better to have the table between us and the torrent of people moving through the aisles.

Each morning of the four day show, here’s how it looked before the exhibit hall opened-

Gamers were back in full force, ready to play and buy. Sales soared and a lot of the other exhibitors I spoke to said it was their best year ever. Most of the new books I brought sold out by Saturday and I ran out of Rick and Morty VS D&D sketch covers long before the end of the show as well.

Like at San Diego this year, I tried to slow things down to enjoy richer conversations with old friends or deeper impressions with new people I met. Tons of nostalgia and appreciation, that’s for sure. Lots of chatter about possible future plans as well.

Cromulent Interviews

I know this will surprise you, but I’ve been talking about Conan the Barbarian. Here are a couple interviews shot during San Diego a few weeks ago:

Speaking of Conan-

The reviews for issue #1 are incredibly kind and I posted a teaser of issue #2 on social media that I’ll include below-

Issue #2 keeps the momentum of our first issue going and then some, my friends.
Line artist Rob De La Torre and colorist Dean White deliver a stunner on every page.