Zub Tales

Over the weekend, Stacy and I watched all six of the released Delicious in Dungeon episodes out so far on Netflix and it is a strangely accurate representation of an actual Dungeons & Dragons campaign-
Foolish characters with poor impulse control doing weird stuff and losing track of the core plot while they obsess over random encounters. 🙂

Like many anime series, you have to buy into the trope-y character parts, otherwise it’s a non-starter.

That said, the creature ecology and cooking bits are fun and the rest bounces between cliche and amusing. Almost every episode had a part where I thought “That’s inventive and interesting” and another part where I thought “That is absolutely moronic”.

Again, I must stress how accurate this is to tabletop gaming with friends. Improv at the table can be ridiculously brilliant or just ridiculous, usually multiple times per session. Kudos to manga creator Ryōko Kui on capturing that vibe.

Delicious In Dungeon is low stakes silly fantasy fare obsessed with food. If you go in expecting a cute-silly anime and RPG-style logic, you’ll probably have a good time.

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Format and First Impressions

Speaking of anime and manga, over on my site, I recently posted up a new tutorial article called Don’t Fight the Format, all about manga pacing and making sure a story is paced and priced properly for your intended audience.

When I was first getting rolling with my comic writing career I posted up all kinds of different tutorials and there are over 50 of them for free on my site if you’re interested in a behind the scenes look on how comics are made.

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Comic Chatter

With the imminent arrival of Conan the Barbarian Vol. 1: Bound in Black Stone, I’ve been promoting the series in recent interviews-

It was an absolute pleasure returning to the mighty Cromcast to talk all about how the Conan relaunch went and big plans for the future. The enthusiasm those guys have for all things Robert E. Howard is electric and it’s a great conversation. Make sure you give it a listen.

Then I spoke to World At War Comics about my career as a whole, how I got my start, and the things I’ve learned making comics, and going to conventions. Lots of great discussion here too.

Lastly, I received a Golden Grant award from Geek Hard and J. Torres presented me with it during the latest episode of their podcast. If you want to pop ahead to our chat, it starts at the 31 minute mark of the episode.

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Current + Upcoming Releases

• Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #3 – released January 24th.
• Vampire: The Masquerade – The Complete Series omnibus – released January 24th.
• Batman: Urban Legends Vol. 6 tpb – released January 30th.
• Conan the Barbarian #6 2nd print – released January 31st.
• Conan the Barbarian #7 – releases February 7th.
• Conan the Barbarian Vol. 1: Bound in Black Stone tpb – releases February 13th.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #4 – releases February 21st.
• Savage Sword of Conan #1 – releases February 28th.
• Conan the Barbarian #8 – releases February 28th.

Upcoming Appearances

Feb 29-Mar 3, 2024	Emerald City Comic-Con	Guest	Seattle, WA, USA
Mar 16-18, 2024	Founders & Legends	Guest	Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Mar 21-24, 2024	Gary Con	Guest	Lake Geneva, WI, USA
Apr 25-28, 2024	Calgary Expo	Guest	Calgary, AB, Canada

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Links and Other Things

• Want to see superstar Conan the Barbarian artist Rob de la Torre sketch our favorite Cimmerian? Damn right you do.

• Katie Cook (My Little Pony, Nothing Special) and I are bringing back our annual Convention Horror Stories panel to Emerald City Comic Con this year. The gut-wrenching embarrassing tradition continues!

Have a great week!
Jim