Zubby Newsletter #51: Big Week

Posted by on February 25, 2024 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

This coming week is absolutely packed for me-
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #8, the wild conclusion of our second story arc, Thrice Marked For Death.
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1, a grand return to black & white magazine-sized glory.
EMERALD CITY COMIC CON, my first convention of 2024 and always one of my favorite conventions each year. Will I see you there?

BRING IT ON!

My Pulpy Prose


If you do snag a copy of the new Savage Sword, 80 pages of bold barbaric goodness for $6.99, let me know what you think of Sacrifice In The Sand, my prose short story.

The Queen


Speaking of Savage Sword #1, Rebecca Puebla has a pin-up in there of Bêlit, Robert E. Howard’s famous Queen of the Black Coast.

It’s a wonderful illustration and also a fun synthesis of pulp and silent film influences coming together to create a new look for an iconic character. It’s so great!

The Public Lending Right


Last week I received my Canadian Public Lending Right payment for 2024. For the past five years, I’ve been compensated for books I wrote that circulate in Canadian libraries. There are over 18,000 Canadian authors registered in the program.

The average payout per title found in their database is $49 and, as long as those books are in libraries, they will pay out for the next 25 years.

I have 52 books registered. Do the math.

If you’re a Canadian author, it is worth the effort to get enrolled and update your profile with new titles as you release new books.

Authors are giddy when royalties pay on their backlist work. The Public Lending Right is like an extra royalty payment every February for published Canadian authors and illustrators from the Canada Council For The Arts.

For five years I’ve beat the drum about this, and yet I still hear from some prolific Canadian comic creators that they haven’t gotten around to getting their profile set up yet – You. Are. Missing. Out.

Some quick tips for Canadian comic creators registering for the PLR:
• You’ll need the ISBN, year of publication, and page count for each book you register.
• You’ll also need a photocopy of the title page of the book with your name and a photocopy of the copyright page.
• For graphic novels, writers get 50% of the “share claim” since the other half would go to the illustrator (even if they can’t claim it because they’re not Canadian).
• Anthologies don’t count. If there are more than six contributors to a title it’s considered ineligible.
• Each year all you have to add are new titles that weren’t on there previous years.

A Return To Rogues

I returned as a guest on the wonderful Rogues In The House podcast. We chatted up a storm about the return of Savage Sword and talk about the ‘moment’ Conan seems to be having right now in comics, prose, games, and more.

At The Campfire


I had a great chat with Kurtis Wiebe (writer of Rat Queens) as part of his Campfire Stories online conference that happened over the weekend.

We cover a LOT of ground – working on iconic characters, getting started in my career, burnout, gratitude and more. Check it out.

Current + Upcoming Releases

Upcoming Appearances

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

Links and Other Things

• My buddy John Barber has a new creator-owned comic project launching called SIGNA and it’s looking good!
• Rafal Jaki, the showrunner on the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime, reached out to chat storytelling with me. he also pointed me toward the new manga series he’s been developing called NO/NAME. It’s a really neat concept off to a strong start, read chapter 1 here, so much so that it’s going to be serializing in Shonen Jump!

I hope your week is looking strong.
Jim

Substack

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