October 7, 2025 • 44 mins
Comics writer Jim Zub returns to Word Balloon to discuss his work on Conan the Barbarian #25 for Titan Comics, a milestone issue that celebrates both the Cimmerian’s legacy and the current Titan era of storytelling. Zub talks about honoring Robert E. Howard’s classic voice while keeping Conan fresh for modern readers, balancing sword-and-sorcery action with character depth. The conversation also dives into how this special issue bridges past and present creators, what makes Conan timeless, and how Titan’s publishing approach keeps the Barbarian’s adventures thriving for a new generation of fans.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, welcome back time again for Word Balloon the
Comic Book Conversation show. Jon Stutris with you, I am
presenting a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago
with Jim zub that I did a YouTube for, but
I held back on releasing the audio. We were having
a lot of bad connection problems. We were on a
weird delay of each other, and it got so bad
(00:23):
that finally I'm just like, you know, let's just give up.
But we did cover enough of the important stuff, and
that is that Conan twenty five came out already, and
it's a landmark issue. It is incredibly good, and it's
fully painted, and Jim is here to give you all
the details on it. It is available now. It will
be at New York Comic Con this weekend as well
(00:45):
as will Jim and you shoul definitely hit him up
and check out this incredibly fully painted Conan twenty five.
Titan's doing a great job with the license. Jim has
been doing such a wonderful job writing these great Conan
stories and these various Conan books. And you know, he
teased me with one of my favorite Robert Howard characters,
Steve Costigan. That's part of the conversation as well, so
(01:07):
you're going to get that right now on this edition
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(02:34):
Thanks for listening and thanks as always for your support.
Please welcome Jim Snob.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
This is kind of amazing. I just became the host
of John Santris's word Balloon thanks to the power of
the Internet, so thank you for having me. I was
gonna tell John that it's been almost exactly a year
since last time we chatted, but I guess I will
have to do that at once. He logs back in.
(03:03):
Welcome to word Balloon. John is one of the best
in the business when it comes to talking about the
comic book industry, interviewing comic book talent, and really kind
of giving a sense of the ebb and flow of
how the comic industry works and what it's like to
be in the business, what it's like to make comics,
what it's like to build these stories and work on
these iconic characters. And I can't tell you how you
(03:27):
know much of an honor it is to be on
the show, especially since there are so many creators. You
know that I am just a huge fan of over
the years and have enjoyed hearing about. And that's John's flowers.
He'll never know what I said until he checks the
stream after the fact. So I was just gonna say.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
John is to leave me hidden messages.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Oh, that's amazing. So I was just gonna say we met.
Last time we chatted was all my most exactly a
year ago. It's like a year and a week we
chatted last time, like September eleventh, twenty twenty four. So
clearly the fall is a good time for us to
catch up.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well, and you have things going on in the fall.
We're about to talk about Jim's upcoming issue of Conan.
Is She twenty five big milestone. There's a cover everybody,
we'll get this over and Jim describe this issue.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I have to. So, yeah, I've been obviously, I've been
the writer of Conan the Barbarian now for years. We
relaunched the series at Titan in twenty twenty three and
it has just been a rocket ride ever since. Every
art team we've had on the book so far has
been phenomenal, and the current crew we've got is just stellar.
So we just literally last week finished the story arc.
(04:48):
Fernando de Agnino and Diego Rodriguez did just a phenomenal,
phenomenal job. And as we were coming up on the
issue twenty five, the good thing is we're planning that
far in advance. I'm like long term on the series.
I'm going to be sticking around for a year's to come.
And so we knew quite a you know, we knew
Issue twenty five would be coming down the pipe. And
(05:08):
so last year around this time, I was talking to
Chris Paterra and Ashley Hodgkins, my editors, and we were
talking about how can we make this issue special? How
can we really really show people what it's all about.
Oh yeah, there's some art from number twenty three, so
it's stunning. Man Diagnino's just killer. And so for Ishoe
twenty five, I proposed that we were going to do
(05:29):
self contained story all in one adventure, so you just
get a complete Conan kind of quest from start to finish.
It would be my first King Conan story because like
the original Weird Tales magazine, we're jumping around the timeline
rather than just going, you know, one story after another.
And I asked if we could try and get a
like an illustrator to do the full kind of issue,
(05:51):
and the proposal came up. You know, Alex Horley is
a phenomenal painter. He's done a lot of great covers
for us on the regular series and on Savage sort
of Conan the anthology magazine. Let's you know, he's been
wanting to do something ambitious, but I think he was
thinking like maybe a painted story in Savage Sword, maybe
like a ten or a twelve pager. But we brought
him this epic and we said, look, are you interested
(06:14):
in doing this? And he signed on board. I said,
how long is it going to take you to paint
this like thirty six story pages plus a wrap around cover?
And he said, when can you get me the script?
And so literally like two weeks later, late September last year,
I gave him the script for the story and he's
been sending you know, after some development artwork about a
page a week, he's been doing an oil painting. These
(06:36):
are original oil painted pages. Wow, it's all done now,
and it's going to be out first week of October,
the same week as New York Comic Con. So I'm
going to be at New York promoting the Big twenty five.
I am so, so so pumped, and I'm going to
show you guys tonight some exclusive sneak peaks at some
of the artwork. Titan has been sending out a few,
(06:57):
you know, sample preview pages, but I'm going to sort
of put side those and show you a few other
ones as well. So I could not be more proud
of our team. Everyone on the crew is just phenomenal,
and this one is like it really is like a celebration.
I think of, you know, what we've been doing, all
the hard work we've been putting into the series, you know,
(07:18):
year after year. Hold on one second, Oh, I had
the page up, of course, of course the minute that
I started. I'll do all that.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's all right here. While while you're looking for it,
no proble, buddy, while you're looking for and I don't know,
I might be we might still be on a delay
to each other. I'm sorry to say, but here I'll
bring back up the the images from issue twenty three,
and there were Honestly, Jim, these these images are so great, Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I know, like Tagnino twelve Killer, I just yeah, it's
unbelievable that the quality we've been getting from all the
art teams like you know, Roberto Dolatore and Doug Braithwaite,
you know Denica Breen and now Fernando Degnino, like everyone
on the monthly book's been awesome. We did that Battle
of the Black Zone, you know mini series last fall
(08:12):
with Jonah Sharf, and now this fall I'm going to
talk to you a little bit about Ivan Gill's work
on Scourge of the Serpent. But man, you know, everyone,
I feel so like just blessed with the quality of
work we've been getting and with the dedication people have
been bringing to the series. It is such an honor
to be able to do this stuff and to have
(08:32):
people who are just as passionate about the material as
I am. All right, let's take a let's take a
sneak peek here at issue twenty five. It's going to
be out in just a I can't believe about a
month now, like you're less than a month through, right, So,
so what you see here is like I said, every
page is an oil painting. It's just a crazy amount
of uh work involved. That is Tarantia, So that's the
(08:56):
capital of Aquallonia, the capital city when you know King Conan. Yeah,
we wanted to do this just epic scope on everything involved.
This character here we call him the Nomad. He's this
mysterious figure who has traversed the land and he's come
to Aqualonia to basically give Conan a challenge to ask
(09:19):
him some important questions. And he is initially rebuffed by
the guardsman at the gates, and then finally he is
let in, and this is when we finally see you know,
King Conan himself for the first time in the book.
And it is just stunning. You know, every single page
is an absolute stunner. YEA, Yeah, I could not be
(09:42):
more proud of the book. Everything just looks so so sharp,
everything involved in it. You know, like you hope that
when you're working on one of these kind of any
any issue, but obviously like an anniversary issue like this,
everyone's going to put their all into it and man
oh Man, Alex is just you know, know, body and soul.
Every single page just looks so phenomenal as they confront
(10:05):
each other. And this is all that. When I wrote
this story, it's very much got an almost like fable
like structure I kind of compared to like The Green
Knight or something like that. So the first quarter is
very slow and kind of it's got this mythical, kind
of poetic build up, and then once we hit the
halfway point, everything kind of goes full bore. There's tons
(10:26):
of action, there's tons of just insane, crazy, beautiful, beautiful artwork,
and I cannot wait for people to see it. Going
to let me pull that away because I start work.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I have a question.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Sure, sure, go for it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No, the art is beautiful, Jimmy, before you show us more. Yeah,
you know, I really appreciate, Uh, first of all, the
format in your normal in your normal stuff, you've got
a lot of narrative boxes because you need them. And
I understand that this artwork is so beautiful, and I
know which you'd start is your lettering guy, and how
are you going to handle you know, dialogue and narrative
(11:08):
boxes because you've got this great art I mean, I
imagine that's gonna be quite a dance totally.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, that was the thing when we were going through
the lettering, like on this particular story and on other
ones I've been doing recently. I've been doing it at
old school, so we've been doing real Marvel style plot style,
where I'll describe the big beats on the page, the
artist will do the artwork, and then I go in
to do the dialogue and the narrative afterwards, so I
know exactly how much real estate I've got on the page.
So I'm never going to crowd out the art. I'm
(11:34):
never gonna you know, I don't want it's you know,
the book is a showcase for in this case, Alex
Horley or Fernando or Roberto or Doug or anyone else
that's drawing the book. And so for me being able
to do the dialogue after the fact, it keeps me
inspired because you look at this artwork and you're like, damn,
(11:55):
I've got to live up to these visuals. And then
you're also trying to get that kind of lyrical Roberty
Howard quality really to the to the art, and that's,
you know, means a lot to me. To be able
to pull that kind of stuff off and make it work.
And so in this case, you know, with Alex's pages, yeah,
I'm very careful about how much dialogue I'm putting on
a page where we're putting those caption boxes, how much
(12:17):
narration we're putting in there, because I do want this
to be like a showcase. I do want this to
give Alex just you know, the platform he deserves. His
work is so phenomenal. He's been in the business long
enough that you know, more people should know him and
should be huge fans the way that we are, you know,
over at Heroic Signatures, And I think that this issue
(12:38):
is really going to put him on the map for
a lot more people, and they're going to realize that
he does phenomenal covers, but he can do incredible storytelling
and mood as well. That that's the thing. He's like
the complete package. We had such an amazing time working
on this issue together and really building this thing, like
I had the initial vision for it, but you know,
this is a collaborative process, and so as soon as
(13:00):
that artwork came in, the story evolves and changes in
the best way possible because you've got a partner who is,
you know, building this thing and putting themselves into it
as well, and both of us wanting to just kind
of make with that trying to sound too audacious, you know,
like a story for the ages, like something really really
special that hopefully people will read and enjoy in that
moment but also enjoy for years to come. All right,
(13:23):
let me show.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You some milestone issue, and of course being if I may,
let me, let me finish my let me finish my
thought on told like I said, unfortunately, I think we're
on a delay. So yeah, there's a slight I'll speak
and then when I finished it up. Yeah, yeah, So
so I wonder also before you show us more images,
(13:45):
have you, guys, had Titan done any sort of collection
of the covers, and also with Alex's work on twenty five,
would you envision any sort of silent issue of just
featuring some of the paintings that Alex is doing.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Man, I think that that's a really cool idea. I know,
so people have talked about doing like a having an
art book of just the cover material because between variant covers,
obviously in the regular covers, there's so much art already,
you know, out there So next month we've got a
deluxe version at the luxe oversized hardcover of the first
story arc, Bound in Blackstone, that we did in follow
(14:22):
twenty twenty three, and I think based on how well
that does, then we're gonna they're gonna decide if they're
going to do more kind of deluxe editions, more kind
of art books or that kind of the higher end
kind of reprint material on it. But I know so
far that that has been probably the most requested thing.
When people come to see me at the shows, they've
got single issues and they're like, when are you guys
(14:43):
doing a hardcover? When are you guys doing an omnibus?
And you know, that kind of publishing stuff's out of
my hands. But I'm hoping that this deluxe edition of
Bound in Blackstone, our first arc, really kind of grabs
that collector audience and then they go, Okay, there's definitely
a market for this kind of thing as well, these
coffee table books and other kind of stuff celebrating you know,
it's crazy. They're they're doing an action figure based on
(15:08):
Bound in Blackstone, and literally this afternoon they sent me
one of the prototypes so I can show this to
you here. Check that sucker out looks crazy cool. And
so this is currently on pre order at the Heroic
Signature's website, and so you can get this guy. I
think they're shipping out before Christmas, if I'm not mistaken,
(15:29):
but pre orders are being taken intil October tenth, and
that's based on Roberto Dolatori's artwork. It's an absolute stunner.
It's filled with all kinds of cool weapons and posable stuff.
They did this amazing stop motion ad for the toy
that they just posted up a couple of weeks ago,
where you see County and the figure has got so
many different points of articulation. They did like a full
(15:51):
little stop motion kind of movie with it, and he's
like chopping into monsters and stuff like that. It's crazy
what they've been able to do with this thing, you know,
compared to the action figures when we were kids. It's
just like night and day. It's so mind busting to me,
you know. All right, let's I've got my screen shared
there again so I can show you a little bit
more artwork. Don't want to spoil too much story stuff,
(16:14):
as you'd imagine with this kind of an anniversary issue,
We've got the opportunity to also kind of flash back
and show some key moments from Conan's history, and with
Alex here, you know, it's the perfect time obviously. So this,
for example, is the Battle of Venarium, which is kind
of the moment when Conan the young boy becomes Conan
a man. Any sort of reliving it here in this
(16:36):
critical juncture. Because we've got, you know, an emirated book,
now we can go a little more intense than I
think people have seen in a lot of the Conan
stuff of the past, and the best way possible. So
that's been a ton of fun. And then things start
to shift and change. All these old memories start sort
of mixing together, and I'll just show one more piece here,
(17:00):
think that will grab people the classic kind of frustrants.
So just stunning stuff. Like I said, every page coming in,
it was like a year worth of inspiration for all
of us in the office, because you know, usually on
a Monday, you know, Harley would send in a new piece,
and he would send in sketches for the next one
(17:20):
at the same time, and so it'd be this crazy
thing where you just keep anticipating the next one. In
anticipating the next one, and scenes that I had written,
you know, six seven, eight, nine months ago, all of
a sudden are coming to life visually, and it's this incredible,
incredible process. And then when we had all the artwork
finally together, I put that lettering script together and I
was able to lavish you know, attention on it in
(17:41):
a way that you don't normally get to do on
a monthly book. But because we had this long lead time,
and because we had such we knew the goal so
far ahead of time, it gave us the chance to really,
you know, tweak it in a way that I think
is again going to help make this one one for
the ages. You know, Richard and Eyler Tyler Smith, who
(18:01):
works with Richard Starkings, he's there our lettering team, and
they just do phenomenal, phenomenal work. And we're going back
and forth on the caption placement and shifting things in
a place and how big those word balloons are going
to be, and just everything a kind of, like I said,
a level of craftsmanship that I'm not saying that the
monthly book doesn't get that, but normally there's a little
(18:23):
bit more of the kind of that rocket ride of
Oh my god, we're going to press right right right now,
and here we knew in much further in advance what
we were able to put together, and I think it's going
to really show on the final printed page. And I
am so pumped the fact that it's coming out the
same week as New York Comic Con is going to
be you know, extra special because I get to be there,
(18:43):
you know, with the fans, and that issue comes out
on the Wednesday, and then the show starts on the Thursday,
so we're going to have copies obviously at New York.
We're actually got an exclusive cover for our comic sketch
art that we'll be available at my table and artist
Alli and I just I'm so pumped for people to
(19:04):
be able to read it. I'm so pumped for it
to be out there in the world at last, and
that this isn't like I find lately a lot of series,
you know, they hit some milestone book and then they
end or they hit the new number one, you know,
kind of reset button or whatever, and we are not
doing that here. We are going on and stronger than ever.
So I've already got like, literally today I was working
(19:25):
on twenty eight twenty nine thirty like we are onward
and upward and that is the best feeling of all.
We've got amazing art teams. We've got a crazy long
term plan. Each fall we're doing these event series books.
So last year we did what was called Battle of
the Blackstone, and that's where we took all these Roberty
Howard characters and kind of had them crisscross time and
(19:46):
going a quest with each other. And then next this
fall we've got Scourge of the Serpent, which is all
focused on you know, set the Serpent God and machinations
on a cosmic level that I cannot wait for people
to check out. I'll show you some of that stuff
as well. I'm just pumped, man, it's like such a
(20:07):
crazy fun time. Could not be more more proud.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Of you, Jimmy, honestly, yeah no, And you have every
right to be proud to him because truly, I again,
I used to get the Black and Whites in the day,
and every time I read one of your things, I'm
so happy. It is so home cooking for the old fans.
Are you reaching a younger new audience? Are you anecdotally
(20:32):
finding people that never tried Conan until you're run.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah. Absolutely. You know what's funny is Conan is generational, right, So,
and I mean that in the way you've got people
grew up reading the original pulps, the characters older than Superman.
So you've got thirties and forties kind of readers there
they or they read the Nome Press reprints in the
nineteen fifties, or they picked up a lot of people
surged in the nineteen sixties with the Frank Frazetta covers
(20:56):
on the Lancer or the Ace paperbacks. Right, you've got
through the seventies nineteen seventy is Conan number one, depending
on how you measure. A lot of people say that's
the start of the Bronze Age, And so the Conan
comics obviously bring in a whole new cast of readers.
In the eighties, you've got the Conan comics running strong.
But then you've got the Arnold movie that knocks people
out and creates a whole new fan base in through
(21:18):
the nineties, and then you start to get Conan video games.
And honestly, for the new generation age of Conan and
Conan Exiles are these two kind of evergreen video games
that there's more content for those two video games on
YouTube than anything about the literary works of the comic books.
And so what I find is that we're starting to
(21:39):
get those people. The video game fans are coming over
and they want to check out the source material, or
they've heard the good word about the comic books and
they're checking them out. So I'm meeting a bunch of
video game fans and that kind of younger generation that's
coming in on that stuff, and they want this kind
of raw, you know, just unleashed badass and sorcery classic,
(22:01):
you know, kind of fair, and we're able to bring
that to them. And the nice thing about the new
series is that it's very new reader friendly. If you
know you're coning in the Barbarian, you're going to see
aspects of it that are very familiar. And we're trying
to pull as much from the original pulps, but I'm
not doing straight adaptation of the original Howard stories. We're
trying to do new stories so we can surprise people
(22:22):
and give you cliffhangers where you don't know what's going
to happen next, and that you're not intimidated by, you know,
like like literally this the Omnibus kind of library that
you see there, which is awesome reference material, and I
absolutely love that stuff. But for your average, you know,
new reader coming in from the video games, they're like,
oh wait, there's how many thousand page volumes. You're like,
(22:44):
that's okay, it's okay, don't worry. You can just come
in on bound. In Blackstone twenty twenty three, we've currently
got five trade paperbacks and you're you're good to go.
So it's it's a lot more, a lot less intimidating
in that kind of way. So yeah, and then these
event mini series are a chance for us to kind
of pull in other cool threads from Roberty Howard stories,
(23:06):
because he wrote more than just Conan. I mean he
really only wrote, depending on how you measure it, fragments
and whatnot, like twenty one to twenty two Conan stories,
but he wrote over two hundred short stories across other genres.
So he wrote westerns, and he wrote horror stories, he
wrote detective stories in noir. One of the things I
had the most fun with is in the latest issue
of Savage sort of Conan, we did a boxing story.
(23:28):
So Roberty Howard has a character called Sailor Steve Costigan,
who's this like fast talk and fast punch and trouble
making sailor who goes around the Asiatic seas, and he's
never had a comic made of him before, and I
was able to do, you know, a short story with him,
drawn by Roberto Dolatory. It looks like something right out
(23:49):
of Cubert Man. It's so killer looking. And the response
we got from readers was phenomenal that, you know, there's
still the Conan lead story and Savage Sword, so we're
doing you know, you're gonna get your high boring age.
But then having this as a backup story I think
was a nice, you know, bit of fresh air that
people saw something they haven't quite seen before. And it
was so much fun to write too, for the exact
(24:09):
same reason, just something completely different.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Well, Jimmy, I think I've mentioned it to you before,
Sailor Steve Agan is my favorite of the Howard characters.
You're gonna have to send me the issue. But also
I remember talking to someone at dark Horse when they
had the license and they said, yeah, you know, we're
trying to figure out a way and we might do
a Sailor Steve story. But I love it and for
people who don't know, it's a combination of foreign intrigue
(24:35):
and fighting and it's great. It's you know, merchant Marine
Steve's Costigan. Uh you know, yeah, man, I can't wait
to read it, dude, And so yeah, you gotta you
gotta send me that savage sort of issue because I
would love to see you.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Pull up some pages here because I gotta show you
because it's it's an absolute knockout. Great, please this one
sec here.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Luke is excited to see issue twenty five and he's great, Yeah,
great to see some minute King Konan stories.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It is, like I said, just just working on all
this stuff has been could not be more of an honor,
and the response from readers has been phenomenal. And then
being able to do this kind of like the celebration thing.
I think that's you know, knowing that we were going
to be able to put this thing together far enough
in advance that we can really build it out and
just give it, give it the time and the quality
(25:28):
it deserves, because really, these you know, these stories are
so uh, these characters are so cool and and you know,
this character has such a phenomenal legacy and the fact
that we've been able to kind of bring some of
that back and get readers who haven't been reading this
stuff regularly for years, for years and years, and convince them, look,
(25:49):
there's something on the stands every single month. The anecdotal,
you know, stuff I've been hearing from retailers is that
they've got people they haven't seen in years back in
the comic book shop picking up stuff on a monthly basis,
back issues of Conan and Savage, sort of Conan, you know,
might have been in the quarter or the dollar bins,
and now it's like, oh, these are moving as collections
(26:09):
again because there's this excitement around the character, and this
is excitement around just great old comics, and that's you know,
being part of that legacy is just the best. It
is the best feeling. All right. I got to show
you some Sailor Sieve. I'll job I was gonna show
off that. I will show off Scourge of the Serpent.
But for John, we got to do this because this
(26:31):
is his favorite character. I've forgotten and so now I
want to make sure that everyone knows how good this
stuck is stuff is. Check this out. So we got
to pin up here from Gerardo Zafino. I appreciate to
share that, share that there. Look at that so good.
(26:52):
And then the actual story itself is just and Mike
the Bulldog. Everyone loves Mike the Bulldog. Look at that.
Every page is a banger, literally outstanding.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Look at that. That's fantastic man writing the dialogue on
If you ever do an audio adaptation.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh yeah, check this out.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Do you ever do an audio adaptation? I'm ready to
do the play by play.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Oh that'd be amazing. Plenty of sailor step Costigan, not
to be confused with soul. Just Stephen Costagan, my courageous
cousin who fought in the trenches in a big world war.
And then it goes down here. Oh don't get me wrong.
I'm sure fight to fight like hell fighting right now
as a matter of fact, trading strikes with a Punjabbi
pile driver called purveys the python, taking my licks like
(27:39):
a silly brit sucking a gobstopper, and it is just
the best man. Look at this, it does look like uh.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yes. And also what I love is again a modern
writer like you, Jim, because Howard, you know, it's purple prose,
and really, unfortunately there's a lot of stereotypical words used
in in In Howard's original text, it was the thirties,
what are you gonna do? But the good news is,
you guys can take the modern guys. I've said this
(28:16):
to Ron V as well about when he has tackled
pulp subjects. You guys can take the best elements of
pulp and put in a modern sensibility where the old
days you would have these foreign opponents of Steve and
they'd be natives, very stereos And now now you.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Know, yes, check this out. He goes here, gorgeous. The
second Fedora tried to cut me out, so I cut
in blip blim blam. Then it goes whatever your SAPs
are selling the lady gave by and you hear, oh yeah.
(29:01):
Working on this was genuinely.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
He's like more of a realistic Popeye.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah yeah, essentially, Yeah, you're not even kidding. There's so
many great moments here, and we set up this ridiculous
just like in the original stories, we set up this
ridiculous reason for there to be a boxing match. I
love this panel so much. Shut up, punt weight, where'd
you put the sneer ring? I love the exaggeration on
the neck. I love the crazy, forceful drawing. It's got
(29:29):
such good gesture to it. It's amazing. Oh man, yeah,
this is good, which brings us back to now the problem.
My face feels like hamburger and my legs are starting
to go gooey.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Do you have to are the are the artists that
you're picking for cost like, for instance, costigant? Like are
they are they sharp on doing a boxing action scene
rather than just you know, a sword and sourcer reactions? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Honestly, Roberto was kind of like, keep on a bunch
of conan already and he's had a lot of fun,
but he just needed a bit of a break. He
loves Westerns, he loves noir, he loves all that pulpy stuff.
And so we threw it out to him, hey man,
what about a boxing story? And he was in with
both feet. He just absolutely dug it. And so that's
what was so fun about it too, was again it's
about finding the artists who are passionate for the material.
(30:18):
It's about you know, working with those guys and making
something that all of us are going to be proud of.
That's the key for me, is like Look, I don't
not to say that that I against anyone taking a
gig because they got to pay the bills, because that's
obviously how it works with a lot of these things.
But being able to find people who love this stuff,
(30:38):
you know, whether it's for the variant covers or for
the monthly book or what may have you or Savage Sword.
You know, we met Ivan Gil, the guy who's doing
Scourge of the Serpent Our Fall event book, because he
reached out to me. He's been working in the French market.
He's been doing these beautiful, crazy Bondestine of Napoleonic, you know,
(30:59):
war stuff, and he reached out to me and he said,
you know, I grew up on Conan. It's my favorite character.
Could I do a pin up or something for Savage Sword?
And I looked over his artwork and I was like,
is that all you want to do is just a
pin up? Like I want you to do more than that,
if you're available and if we can make it work.
So I showed his work to my editor and the editor,
you know, Chris freaked out because stuff looks so amazing.
(31:22):
And then it was a matter of looking at the
schedule and figuring out where he would fit best, and
that's where we decided. Okay, you know, the next event
book is starting to line up. Let's make this happen.
And now I can show you some artwork from this.
My god, this guy's nuts. Like I said, he's been
doing these incredible Napoleonic War you know, graphic novels and
(31:47):
now it's just like, holy moly. We He and Joe
Canola are a hell of a team, the colorists, they're
just wonderful together. They've really really gelled. All right, you
should be able to share that. Now, look at that.
He did not scrimp. He does not scrimp on any
of it. So just killer. Every scene is a stunners
(32:14):
great architecture.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, yeah, people are the artists? Are they are? They?
Are they known in their countries because like you know,
are they popular artists already? And things? Right?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Well, that's the thing, because yeah, because Ivan's doing stuff
in the French market, he's known in that space quite well,
and he's known you know, he actually lives in Spain.
It's funny because he's in Spain, and so's Fernando Dignino
and so is Roberto de latore So, three of the
artists I'm working with on Conan and stuff are all
in Spain. Doug Braithwaites in northern England. So I went
(32:50):
to England in May, I went for MCMXPO, and after
the show was over, I flew over to Spain and
I spent four and a half days in Major and
so I was able to meet these guys in person
and we did some amazing signings. I got to hang
out with them, and Alberto Albuquerque and Pepe la Raz
and a bunch of the other guys who are all
(33:11):
the you know, the the Spaniards, as I was saying,
that had just been knocking it out in the North
American market and in the European market, and so that
was just a ton of fun. It was great to
hang out with them. They were all so wonderful, and
we did some great store signings over in Madrid and
just really really fun adventure this summer.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That sounds amazing, Jim, and I honestly, this start looks
amazing too. Did you want to describe this page that's
up right now? Sure so.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
In Scourge of the Serpent last time, when we did
Battle the Black Zone, we had all the characters coming
together in the high Borean Age. This time, I've given
myself quite a puzzle to play with. There's three separate
stories happening in their own timelines. So this right here
is call the Conqueror and Rule the Spear Slayer in
what's called the Thurian Age kind of the ancient past
(34:00):
before Conan, and there's a story going on with cal
There's a story happening in the Highborian Age with Conan,
which is based around a very classic Conan story called
the God and the Bowl. And then we also have
in the nineteen thirties, we have a character called Kirawan,
(34:22):
and he is this occult investigator and he ends up
getting pulled into his own kind of snake themed shenanigans.
And between the three of them, all three of these
stories are going to start echoing into each other. Events
that happen in one story ripple backwards or forward through time,
(34:42):
and so it starts to get pretty crazy, gets really
really wild as the supernatural stuff starts to take hold.
I don't want to reveal too much more beyond that,
but you can see that just the quality of the
work is so so good. The quality of the drawing
is really really sharp, The environments are beautiful. It's just
a complete, like pulp package in the best way possible.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Jim is the supernatural Detective. Is that also a Howard character?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, So there's not a ton of stories. There's usually
so kier one has. I think there's seven stories with
him in it. Most of them he's with another character
called Conrad. So it's Kiirwe and Conrad and they go
on these kind of adventures together. And they showed up
the two of them in Battle of the Blackstone, and
they're in several different Howard stories. The one that I'm
(35:35):
kind of building off of the foundation of for this
particular one is an infamous one called the Haunter of
the Ring because in the original pulp story that came
out in the thirties, Kiirwan investigates a ring and it
is the Ring of thotham On. It is the ring
from the Conan stories. And that's not me adding that
into that crossover that was in the original Howard story
(35:57):
as well, And so for me, it's like we're kind
of honoring that, you know, cross pollination of ideas and
those pulp kind of concepts by bringing them together in
this story. As they weave together.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Jim did Howard live long enough to know about bandom,
and I realized a lot of the fandom happened well
after his death. And I know he died young, but
in the thirties when he was cranky, this stuff out
was you know, did he ever get any sort of
fan feedback?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I mean, it's interesting, so he you know, he passed
away in nineteen thirty six, and Conan was becoming popular.
He was in most of the issues of Weird Tales
where there was a Conan story that readers would vote
for their favorites, and usually Conan was the favorite for
the issues that he appeared in. You know, he and
Lovecraft were kind of neck and neck in terms of
(36:51):
popularity at that time in the Weird Tales magazine, you know,
kind of ecosystem, and so he was seeing success and
he was starting to to get you know, known in
those spaces. He was penpal with Lovecraft and several other writers,
so he was starting to understand I think, you know,
something outside of Texas and more in terms of he
(37:13):
was very well read, you know, but actual interacting with
other you know, authors and understanding that people were becoming
fans of his work. I don't know that he really
understood the depth and breadth obviously in terms of how
many people were reading weird tales and had no way
(37:36):
of of course, knowing that those stories would carry on
for generations to come. And so it is kind of
crazy to think that he did write more Westerns and
boxing stories than he ever wrote Conan stories. So if
he'd have lived longer, you know, maybe he would have
been known in completely different genres. Maybe he would have
been a famous author in completely different ways. He had
(37:58):
written hundreds of poems, you know, so again those kinds
of things could have struck gold in a different way,
or you know, the Conan reprints may not have happened
because if he was still around, or he had written
more and the character became more popular, you know, by
his own hand. It's impossible to know. That's what's so
kind of crazy about it, the effect that his work
(38:20):
has had and been able to carry forward, you know, generationally,
even though he was so young, you know, he was
so prolific, and the quality of the work when you
look at it, you know, yes, some of the stuff
in there is dated, like you were talking about, but
the actual lyricism and the explosive kind of prose that
(38:41):
he puts on the page. It still staggers me, like
I read some of these stories, you know, something like
Frost Giant's Daughter, which is I want to say, seven
thousand words, and the amount of stuff he covers in
such a short span. It really is pure pulp in
that way of like no no fat, like no no
(39:03):
space wasted whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That's amazing and I really well, first of all, I
forget what publisher put out a hardcover of Howard's boxing
stories and Gary Gianni, the excellent artist did the cover
and even did a remark for me inside inside the book. Great.
But yeah, I'm fascinated by that. The movie, the movie
(39:28):
The Whole Wide World? How how do you feel about it?
And also have you met? Have you? And I know
Donofrio does right the Convention Circuit and he played Howard
in the movie. Have you met him? As he aware
of what you're doing with with Howard stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
So I have not met Donofrio. I have seen, you know,
The Whole Wide World, and it is a great movie. It's,
you know, like any Hollywood kind of biopick. It's got
its areas where they're exaggerating different elements of it, but
it is fascinating because it's Evelyn Price, Who's this woman
that he had a relationship with, and it kind of
(40:05):
is her the kind of tragic romance that they share,
these two writers, and Howard's difficulties, you know, going through
life before he ends up committing suicide. And so it's
this you know, dramatic piece, and it's built off of
her letters and off of you know, actual material. And
then in that Hollywood way, they're sort of tightening up
(40:26):
little elements of it or repacing bits for added drama.
But on the whole, it's a pretty respectful piece and
it's extremely well done. I think then Offer does a
really great job at playing the kind of explosive, passionate,
you know person that that Howard was from all accounts,
and that's you know, pretty amazing to see in that regard.
(40:47):
And again, I think in a best case scenario, we're
able to bring people not just Conan, don't get me wrong,
who is my favorite, but also show the depth and
breadth of what you know, Howard was able to do.
His horror stories are really great. You know, he did
a ton of pirate tales, He did these boxing stories
and all these other things, and that his range is
(41:10):
kind of further than most people realize, and so you know,
kind of rising tide raises all ships. If we can
use Conan to kind of bring more people in the
door and show them, look, check this out. The guy
that made Conan, he did all these other awesome things
as well. And these characters are kind of woven together
across this grand tapestry.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Beyond the stories in conn in the Barbari, and you
also have the text pieces that are really helping to
flesh out some of the history that's depicted in the books.
Talk about the text pieces for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
So we've got a secret weapon on our creative team.
Jeffrey Shanks is this amazing. He's a literary scholar and
he's a pulp collector in his day job, he's actually
an archaeologist, which is kind of amazing, and so he
is a deep, deep collector of all kinds of different pulp.
And he has been our consultant at heroic signatures on
(42:03):
everything related to kind of Howard and Conan. And what's
great about him is he's a wonderful, wonderful collaborator. He's
a deep researcher. He's passionate about the material. But he
also understands that this, you know, we are trying to
publish and create entertainment. And so what he does is
I'll lay out big story ideas or big beats or
(42:24):
things that I want to do, and then he goes, hey,
that is a really cool idea, and did you know
this obscure You know howard poem references something like what
you're talking about, or there's symbology that matches the kind
of things that you're doing, or these stories all kind
of tie together in funky ways. Maybe you could use
them in the future so that I don't have to
(42:44):
have two hundred plus short stories and hundreds of poems
and all those letters you know, in my head at
any one time. You know, Jeff's the expert, and then
he points me towards them, and then I helped kind
of tie those strings together. And so he's been just
it's just an incredible resource and a really great collaborator,
and he's become a friend and that's something really sweet
(43:05):
as well. You know, whenever you work on this stuff,
you hope that the people you work with you know
that you have a bond together. And he's kind of
made me, you know, more excited and more passionate about
the pulp end of it, and given me more confidence
to kind of push out and do big, dramatic kind
of stories and things that I've been wanting to do,
(43:26):
and bolstering, you know, the material that we've got with
his knowledge that we can push it to the limit
and make it feel as kind of, you know, legitimate
as possible while also not pushing out modern readers.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Okay, and anything after that was really unsalvageable. So thank
you for your patience. I hope you enjoyed this conversation
with Jim Zub. I hope you'll pick up Conan number
twenty five from Titan Comics. Thanks for listening to today's
word balloon. Until next time. Word Balloon is a copyright
feature of Shaky Production, Copyright two thousand, twenty five.
Hey everybody, welcome back time again for Word Balloon the
Comic Book Conversation show. Jon Stutris with you, I am
presenting a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago
with Jim zub that I did a YouTube for, but
I held back on releasing the audio. We were having
a lot of bad connection problems. We were on a
weird delay of each other, and it got so bad
(00:23):
that finally I'm just like, you know, let's just give up.
But we did cover enough of the important stuff, and
that is that Conan twenty five came out already, and
it's a landmark issue. It is incredibly good, and it's
fully painted, and Jim is here to give you all
the details on it. It is available now. It will
be at New York Comic Con this weekend as well
(00:45):
as will Jim and you shoul definitely hit him up
and check out this incredibly fully painted Conan twenty five.
Titan's doing a great job with the license. Jim has
been doing such a wonderful job writing these great Conan
stories and these various Conan books. And you know, he
teased me with one of my favorite Robert Howard characters,
Steve Costigan. That's part of the conversation as well, so
(01:07):
you're going to get that right now on this edition
of word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to you by
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(01:28):
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(02:13):
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(02:34):
Thanks for listening and thanks as always for your support.
Please welcome Jim Snob.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
This is kind of amazing. I just became the host
of John Santris's word Balloon thanks to the power of
the Internet, so thank you for having me. I was
gonna tell John that it's been almost exactly a year
since last time we chatted, but I guess I will
have to do that at once. He logs back in.
(03:03):
Welcome to word Balloon. John is one of the best
in the business when it comes to talking about the
comic book industry, interviewing comic book talent, and really kind
of giving a sense of the ebb and flow of
how the comic industry works and what it's like to
be in the business, what it's like to make comics,
what it's like to build these stories and work on
these iconic characters. And I can't tell you how you
(03:27):
know much of an honor it is to be on
the show, especially since there are so many creators. You
know that I am just a huge fan of over
the years and have enjoyed hearing about. And that's John's flowers.
He'll never know what I said until he checks the
stream after the fact. So I was just gonna say.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
John is to leave me hidden messages.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Oh, that's amazing. So I was just gonna say we met.
Last time we chatted was all my most exactly a
year ago. It's like a year and a week we
chatted last time, like September eleventh, twenty twenty four. So
clearly the fall is a good time for us to
catch up.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well, and you have things going on in the fall.
We're about to talk about Jim's upcoming issue of Conan.
Is She twenty five big milestone. There's a cover everybody,
we'll get this over and Jim describe this issue.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I have to. So, yeah, I've been obviously, I've been
the writer of Conan the Barbarian now for years. We
relaunched the series at Titan in twenty twenty three and
it has just been a rocket ride ever since. Every
art team we've had on the book so far has
been phenomenal, and the current crew we've got is just stellar.
So we just literally last week finished the story arc.
(04:48):
Fernando de Agnino and Diego Rodriguez did just a phenomenal,
phenomenal job. And as we were coming up on the
issue twenty five, the good thing is we're planning that
far in advance. I'm like long term on the series.
I'm going to be sticking around for a year's to come.
And so we knew quite a you know, we knew
Issue twenty five would be coming down the pipe. And
(05:08):
so last year around this time, I was talking to
Chris Paterra and Ashley Hodgkins, my editors, and we were
talking about how can we make this issue special? How
can we really really show people what it's all about.
Oh yeah, there's some art from number twenty three, so
it's stunning. Man Diagnino's just killer. And so for Ishoe
twenty five, I proposed that we were going to do
(05:29):
self contained story all in one adventure, so you just
get a complete Conan kind of quest from start to finish.
It would be my first King Conan story because like
the original Weird Tales magazine, we're jumping around the timeline
rather than just going, you know, one story after another.
And I asked if we could try and get a
like an illustrator to do the full kind of issue,
(05:51):
and the proposal came up. You know, Alex Horley is
a phenomenal painter. He's done a lot of great covers
for us on the regular series and on Savage sort
of Conan the anthology magazine. Let's you know, he's been
wanting to do something ambitious, but I think he was
thinking like maybe a painted story in Savage Sword, maybe
like a ten or a twelve pager. But we brought
him this epic and we said, look, are you interested
(06:14):
in doing this? And he signed on board. I said,
how long is it going to take you to paint
this like thirty six story pages plus a wrap around cover?
And he said, when can you get me the script?
And so literally like two weeks later, late September last year,
I gave him the script for the story and he's
been sending you know, after some development artwork about a
page a week, he's been doing an oil painting. These
(06:36):
are original oil painted pages. Wow, it's all done now,
and it's going to be out first week of October,
the same week as New York Comic Con. So I'm
going to be at New York promoting the Big twenty five.
I am so, so so pumped, and I'm going to
show you guys tonight some exclusive sneak peaks at some
of the artwork. Titan has been sending out a few,
(06:57):
you know, sample preview pages, but I'm going to sort
of put side those and show you a few other
ones as well. So I could not be more proud
of our team. Everyone on the crew is just phenomenal,
and this one is like it really is like a celebration.
I think of, you know, what we've been doing, all
the hard work we've been putting into the series, you know,
(07:18):
year after year. Hold on one second, Oh, I had
the page up, of course, of course the minute that
I started. I'll do all that.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's all right here. While while you're looking for it,
no proble, buddy, while you're looking for and I don't know,
I might be we might still be on a delay
to each other. I'm sorry to say, but here I'll
bring back up the the images from issue twenty three,
and there were Honestly, Jim, these these images are so great, Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I know, like Tagnino twelve Killer, I just yeah, it's
unbelievable that the quality we've been getting from all the
art teams like you know, Roberto Dolatore and Doug Braithwaite,
you know Denica Breen and now Fernando Degnino, like everyone
on the monthly book's been awesome. We did that Battle
of the Black Zone, you know mini series last fall
(08:12):
with Jonah Sharf, and now this fall I'm going to
talk to you a little bit about Ivan Gill's work
on Scourge of the Serpent. But man, you know, everyone,
I feel so like just blessed with the quality of
work we've been getting and with the dedication people have
been bringing to the series. It is such an honor
to be able to do this stuff and to have
(08:32):
people who are just as passionate about the material as
I am. All right, let's take a let's take a
sneak peek here at issue twenty five. It's going to
be out in just a I can't believe about a
month now, like you're less than a month through, right, So,
so what you see here is like I said, every
page is an oil painting. It's just a crazy amount
of uh work involved. That is Tarantia, So that's the
(08:56):
capital of Aquallonia, the capital city when you know King Conan. Yeah,
we wanted to do this just epic scope on everything involved.
This character here we call him the Nomad. He's this
mysterious figure who has traversed the land and he's come
to Aqualonia to basically give Conan a challenge to ask
(09:19):
him some important questions. And he is initially rebuffed by
the guardsman at the gates, and then finally he is
let in, and this is when we finally see you know,
King Conan himself for the first time in the book.
And it is just stunning. You know, every single page
is an absolute stunner. YEA, Yeah, I could not be
(09:42):
more proud of the book. Everything just looks so so sharp,
everything involved in it. You know, like you hope that
when you're working on one of these kind of any
any issue, but obviously like an anniversary issue like this,
everyone's going to put their all into it and man
oh Man, Alex is just you know, know, body and soul.
Every single page just looks so phenomenal as they confront
(10:05):
each other. And this is all that. When I wrote
this story, it's very much got an almost like fable
like structure I kind of compared to like The Green
Knight or something like that. So the first quarter is
very slow and kind of it's got this mythical, kind
of poetic build up, and then once we hit the
halfway point, everything kind of goes full bore. There's tons
(10:26):
of action, there's tons of just insane, crazy, beautiful, beautiful artwork,
and I cannot wait for people to see it. Going
to let me pull that away because I start work.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I have a question.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Sure, sure, go for it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No, the art is beautiful, Jimmy, before you show us more. Yeah,
you know, I really appreciate, Uh, first of all, the
format in your normal in your normal stuff, you've got
a lot of narrative boxes because you need them. And
I understand that this artwork is so beautiful, and I
know which you'd start is your lettering guy, and how
are you going to handle you know, dialogue and narrative
(11:08):
boxes because you've got this great art I mean, I
imagine that's gonna be quite a dance totally.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, that was the thing when we were going through
the lettering, like on this particular story and on other
ones I've been doing recently. I've been doing it at
old school, so we've been doing real Marvel style plot style,
where I'll describe the big beats on the page, the
artist will do the artwork, and then I go in
to do the dialogue and the narrative afterwards, so I
know exactly how much real estate I've got on the page.
So I'm never going to crowd out the art. I'm
(11:34):
never gonna you know, I don't want it's you know,
the book is a showcase for in this case, Alex
Horley or Fernando or Roberto or Doug or anyone else
that's drawing the book. And so for me being able
to do the dialogue after the fact, it keeps me
inspired because you look at this artwork and you're like, damn,
(11:55):
I've got to live up to these visuals. And then
you're also trying to get that kind of lyrical Roberty
Howard quality really to the to the art, and that's,
you know, means a lot to me. To be able
to pull that kind of stuff off and make it work.
And so in this case, you know, with Alex's pages, yeah,
I'm very careful about how much dialogue I'm putting on
a page where we're putting those caption boxes, how much
(12:17):
narration we're putting in there, because I do want this
to be like a showcase. I do want this to
give Alex just you know, the platform he deserves. His
work is so phenomenal. He's been in the business long
enough that you know, more people should know him and
should be huge fans the way that we are, you know,
over at Heroic Signatures, And I think that this issue
(12:38):
is really going to put him on the map for
a lot more people, and they're going to realize that
he does phenomenal covers, but he can do incredible storytelling
and mood as well. That that's the thing. He's like
the complete package. We had such an amazing time working
on this issue together and really building this thing, like
I had the initial vision for it, but you know,
this is a collaborative process, and so as soon as
(13:00):
that artwork came in, the story evolves and changes in
the best way possible because you've got a partner who is,
you know, building this thing and putting themselves into it
as well, and both of us wanting to just kind
of make with that trying to sound too audacious, you know,
like a story for the ages, like something really really
special that hopefully people will read and enjoy in that
moment but also enjoy for years to come. All right,
(13:23):
let me show.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You some milestone issue, and of course being if I may,
let me, let me finish my let me finish my
thought on told like I said, unfortunately, I think we're
on a delay. So yeah, there's a slight I'll speak
and then when I finished it up. Yeah, yeah, So
so I wonder also before you show us more images,
(13:45):
have you, guys, had Titan done any sort of collection
of the covers, and also with Alex's work on twenty five,
would you envision any sort of silent issue of just
featuring some of the paintings that Alex is doing.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Man, I think that that's a really cool idea. I know,
so people have talked about doing like a having an
art book of just the cover material because between variant covers,
obviously in the regular covers, there's so much art already,
you know, out there So next month we've got a
deluxe version at the luxe oversized hardcover of the first
story arc, Bound in Blackstone, that we did in follow
(14:22):
twenty twenty three, and I think based on how well
that does, then we're gonna they're gonna decide if they're
going to do more kind of deluxe editions, more kind
of art books or that kind of the higher end
kind of reprint material on it. But I know so
far that that has been probably the most requested thing.
When people come to see me at the shows, they've
got single issues and they're like, when are you guys
(14:43):
doing a hardcover? When are you guys doing an omnibus?
And you know, that kind of publishing stuff's out of
my hands. But I'm hoping that this deluxe edition of
Bound in Blackstone, our first arc, really kind of grabs
that collector audience and then they go, Okay, there's definitely
a market for this kind of thing as well, these
coffee table books and other kind of stuff celebrating you know,
it's crazy. They're they're doing an action figure based on
(15:08):
Bound in Blackstone, and literally this afternoon they sent me
one of the prototypes so I can show this to
you here. Check that sucker out looks crazy cool. And
so this is currently on pre order at the Heroic
Signature's website, and so you can get this guy. I
think they're shipping out before Christmas, if I'm not mistaken,
(15:29):
but pre orders are being taken intil October tenth, and
that's based on Roberto Dolatori's artwork. It's an absolute stunner.
It's filled with all kinds of cool weapons and posable stuff.
They did this amazing stop motion ad for the toy
that they just posted up a couple of weeks ago,
where you see County and the figure has got so
many different points of articulation. They did like a full
(15:51):
little stop motion kind of movie with it, and he's
like chopping into monsters and stuff like that. It's crazy
what they've been able to do with this thing, you know,
compared to the action figures when we were kids. It's
just like night and day. It's so mind busting to me,
you know. All right, let's I've got my screen shared
there again so I can show you a little bit
more artwork. Don't want to spoil too much story stuff,
(16:14):
as you'd imagine with this kind of an anniversary issue,
We've got the opportunity to also kind of flash back
and show some key moments from Conan's history, and with
Alex here, you know, it's the perfect time obviously. So this,
for example, is the Battle of Venarium, which is kind
of the moment when Conan the young boy becomes Conan
a man. Any sort of reliving it here in this
(16:36):
critical juncture. Because we've got, you know, an emirated book,
now we can go a little more intense than I
think people have seen in a lot of the Conan
stuff of the past, and the best way possible. So
that's been a ton of fun. And then things start
to shift and change. All these old memories start sort
of mixing together, and I'll just show one more piece here,
(17:00):
think that will grab people the classic kind of frustrants.
So just stunning stuff. Like I said, every page coming in,
it was like a year worth of inspiration for all
of us in the office, because you know, usually on
a Monday, you know, Harley would send in a new piece,
and he would send in sketches for the next one
(17:20):
at the same time, and so it'd be this crazy
thing where you just keep anticipating the next one. In
anticipating the next one, and scenes that I had written,
you know, six seven, eight, nine months ago, all of
a sudden are coming to life visually, and it's this incredible,
incredible process. And then when we had all the artwork
finally together, I put that lettering script together and I
was able to lavish you know, attention on it in
(17:41):
a way that you don't normally get to do on
a monthly book. But because we had this long lead time,
and because we had such we knew the goal so
far ahead of time, it gave us the chance to really,
you know, tweak it in a way that I think
is again going to help make this one one for
the ages. You know, Richard and Eyler Tyler Smith, who
(18:01):
works with Richard Starkings, he's there our lettering team, and
they just do phenomenal, phenomenal work. And we're going back
and forth on the caption placement and shifting things in
a place and how big those word balloons are going
to be, and just everything a kind of, like I said,
a level of craftsmanship that I'm not saying that the
monthly book doesn't get that, but normally there's a little
(18:23):
bit more of the kind of that rocket ride of
Oh my god, we're going to press right right right now,
and here we knew in much further in advance what
we were able to put together, and I think it's going
to really show on the final printed page. And I
am so pumped the fact that it's coming out the
same week as New York Comic Con is going to
be you know, extra special because I get to be there,
(18:43):
you know, with the fans, and that issue comes out
on the Wednesday, and then the show starts on the Thursday,
so we're going to have copies obviously at New York.
We're actually got an exclusive cover for our comic sketch
art that we'll be available at my table and artist
Alli and I just I'm so pumped for people to
(19:04):
be able to read it. I'm so pumped for it
to be out there in the world at last, and
that this isn't like I find lately a lot of series,
you know, they hit some milestone book and then they
end or they hit the new number one, you know,
kind of reset button or whatever, and we are not
doing that here. We are going on and stronger than ever.
So I've already got like, literally today I was working
(19:25):
on twenty eight twenty nine thirty like we are onward
and upward and that is the best feeling of all.
We've got amazing art teams. We've got a crazy long
term plan. Each fall we're doing these event series books.
So last year we did what was called Battle of
the Blackstone, and that's where we took all these Roberty
Howard characters and kind of had them crisscross time and
(19:46):
going a quest with each other. And then next this
fall we've got Scourge of the Serpent, which is all
focused on you know, set the Serpent God and machinations
on a cosmic level that I cannot wait for people
to check out. I'll show you some of that stuff
as well. I'm just pumped, man, it's like such a
(20:07):
crazy fun time. Could not be more more proud.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Of you, Jimmy, honestly, yeah no, And you have every
right to be proud to him because truly, I again,
I used to get the Black and Whites in the day,
and every time I read one of your things, I'm
so happy. It is so home cooking for the old fans.
Are you reaching a younger new audience? Are you anecdotally
(20:32):
finding people that never tried Conan until you're run.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah. Absolutely. You know what's funny is Conan is generational, right, So,
and I mean that in the way you've got people
grew up reading the original pulps, the characters older than Superman.
So you've got thirties and forties kind of readers there
they or they read the Nome Press reprints in the
nineteen fifties, or they picked up a lot of people
surged in the nineteen sixties with the Frank Frazetta covers
(20:56):
on the Lancer or the Ace paperbacks. Right, you've got
through the seventies nineteen seventy is Conan number one, depending
on how you measure. A lot of people say that's
the start of the Bronze Age, And so the Conan
comics obviously bring in a whole new cast of readers.
In the eighties, you've got the Conan comics running strong.
But then you've got the Arnold movie that knocks people
out and creates a whole new fan base in through
(21:18):
the nineties, and then you start to get Conan video games.
And honestly, for the new generation age of Conan and
Conan Exiles are these two kind of evergreen video games
that there's more content for those two video games on
YouTube than anything about the literary works of the comic books.
And so what I find is that we're starting to
(21:39):
get those people. The video game fans are coming over
and they want to check out the source material, or
they've heard the good word about the comic books and
they're checking them out. So I'm meeting a bunch of
video game fans and that kind of younger generation that's
coming in on that stuff, and they want this kind
of raw, you know, just unleashed badass and sorcery classic,
(22:01):
you know, kind of fair, and we're able to bring
that to them. And the nice thing about the new
series is that it's very new reader friendly. If you
know you're coning in the Barbarian, you're going to see
aspects of it that are very familiar. And we're trying
to pull as much from the original pulps, but I'm
not doing straight adaptation of the original Howard stories. We're
trying to do new stories so we can surprise people
(22:22):
and give you cliffhangers where you don't know what's going
to happen next, and that you're not intimidated by, you know,
like like literally this the Omnibus kind of library that
you see there, which is awesome reference material, and I
absolutely love that stuff. But for your average, you know,
new reader coming in from the video games, they're like,
oh wait, there's how many thousand page volumes. You're like,
(22:44):
that's okay, it's okay, don't worry. You can just come
in on bound. In Blackstone twenty twenty three, we've currently
got five trade paperbacks and you're you're good to go.
So it's it's a lot more, a lot less intimidating
in that kind of way. So yeah, and then these
event mini series are a chance for us to kind
of pull in other cool threads from Roberty Howard stories,
(23:06):
because he wrote more than just Conan. I mean he
really only wrote, depending on how you measure it, fragments
and whatnot, like twenty one to twenty two Conan stories,
but he wrote over two hundred short stories across other genres.
So he wrote westerns, and he wrote horror stories, he
wrote detective stories in noir. One of the things I
had the most fun with is in the latest issue
of Savage sort of Conan, we did a boxing story.
(23:28):
So Roberty Howard has a character called Sailor Steve Costigan,
who's this like fast talk and fast punch and trouble
making sailor who goes around the Asiatic seas, and he's
never had a comic made of him before, and I
was able to do, you know, a short story with him,
drawn by Roberto Dolatory. It looks like something right out
(23:49):
of Cubert Man. It's so killer looking. And the response
we got from readers was phenomenal that, you know, there's
still the Conan lead story and Savage Sword, so we're
doing you know, you're gonna get your high boring age.
But then having this as a backup story I think
was a nice, you know, bit of fresh air that
people saw something they haven't quite seen before. And it
was so much fun to write too, for the exact
(24:09):
same reason, just something completely different.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Well, Jimmy, I think I've mentioned it to you before,
Sailor Steve Agan is my favorite of the Howard characters.
You're gonna have to send me the issue. But also
I remember talking to someone at dark Horse when they
had the license and they said, yeah, you know, we're
trying to figure out a way and we might do
a Sailor Steve story. But I love it and for
people who don't know, it's a combination of foreign intrigue
(24:35):
and fighting and it's great. It's you know, merchant Marine
Steve's Costigan. Uh you know, yeah, man, I can't wait
to read it, dude, And so yeah, you gotta you
gotta send me that savage sort of issue because I
would love to see you.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Pull up some pages here because I gotta show you
because it's it's an absolute knockout. Great, please this one
sec here.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Luke is excited to see issue twenty five and he's great, Yeah,
great to see some minute King Konan stories.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It is, like I said, just just working on all
this stuff has been could not be more of an honor,
and the response from readers has been phenomenal. And then
being able to do this kind of like the celebration thing.
I think that's you know, knowing that we were going
to be able to put this thing together far enough
in advance that we can really build it out and
just give it, give it the time and the quality
(25:28):
it deserves, because really, these you know, these stories are
so uh, these characters are so cool and and you know,
this character has such a phenomenal legacy and the fact
that we've been able to kind of bring some of
that back and get readers who haven't been reading this
stuff regularly for years, for years and years, and convince them, look,
(25:49):
there's something on the stands every single month. The anecdotal,
you know, stuff I've been hearing from retailers is that
they've got people they haven't seen in years back in
the comic book shop picking up stuff on a monthly basis,
back issues of Conan and Savage, sort of Conan, you know,
might have been in the quarter or the dollar bins,
and now it's like, oh, these are moving as collections
(26:09):
again because there's this excitement around the character, and this
is excitement around just great old comics, and that's you know,
being part of that legacy is just the best. It
is the best feeling. All right. I got to show
you some Sailor Sieve. I'll job I was gonna show
off that. I will show off Scourge of the Serpent.
But for John, we got to do this because this
(26:31):
is his favorite character. I've forgotten and so now I
want to make sure that everyone knows how good this
stuck is stuff is. Check this out. So we got
to pin up here from Gerardo Zafino. I appreciate to
share that, share that there. Look at that so good.
(26:52):
And then the actual story itself is just and Mike
the Bulldog. Everyone loves Mike the Bulldog. Look at that.
Every page is a banger, literally outstanding.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Look at that. That's fantastic man writing the dialogue on
If you ever do an audio adaptation.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh yeah, check this out.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Do you ever do an audio adaptation? I'm ready to
do the play by play.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Oh that'd be amazing. Plenty of sailor step Costigan, not
to be confused with soul. Just Stephen Costagan, my courageous
cousin who fought in the trenches in a big world war.
And then it goes down here. Oh don't get me wrong.
I'm sure fight to fight like hell fighting right now
as a matter of fact, trading strikes with a Punjabbi
pile driver called purveys the python, taking my licks like
(27:39):
a silly brit sucking a gobstopper, and it is just
the best man. Look at this, it does look like uh.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yes. And also what I love is again a modern
writer like you, Jim, because Howard, you know, it's purple prose,
and really, unfortunately there's a lot of stereotypical words used
in in In Howard's original text, it was the thirties,
what are you gonna do? But the good news is,
you guys can take the modern guys. I've said this
(28:16):
to Ron V as well about when he has tackled
pulp subjects. You guys can take the best elements of
pulp and put in a modern sensibility where the old
days you would have these foreign opponents of Steve and
they'd be natives, very stereos And now now you.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Know, yes, check this out. He goes here, gorgeous. The
second Fedora tried to cut me out, so I cut
in blip blim blam. Then it goes whatever your SAPs
are selling the lady gave by and you hear, oh yeah.
(29:01):
Working on this was genuinely.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
He's like more of a realistic Popeye.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah yeah, essentially, Yeah, you're not even kidding. There's so
many great moments here, and we set up this ridiculous
just like in the original stories, we set up this
ridiculous reason for there to be a boxing match. I
love this panel so much. Shut up, punt weight, where'd
you put the sneer ring? I love the exaggeration on
the neck. I love the crazy, forceful drawing. It's got
(29:29):
such good gesture to it. It's amazing. Oh man, yeah,
this is good, which brings us back to now the problem.
My face feels like hamburger and my legs are starting
to go gooey.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Do you have to are the are the artists that
you're picking for cost like, for instance, costigant? Like are
they are they sharp on doing a boxing action scene
rather than just you know, a sword and sourcer reactions? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Honestly, Roberto was kind of like, keep on a bunch
of conan already and he's had a lot of fun,
but he just needed a bit of a break. He
loves Westerns, he loves noir, he loves all that pulpy stuff.
And so we threw it out to him, hey man,
what about a boxing story? And he was in with
both feet. He just absolutely dug it. And so that's
what was so fun about it too, was again it's
about finding the artists who are passionate for the material.
(30:18):
It's about you know, working with those guys and making
something that all of us are going to be proud of.
That's the key for me, is like Look, I don't
not to say that that I against anyone taking a
gig because they got to pay the bills, because that's
obviously how it works with a lot of these things.
But being able to find people who love this stuff,
(30:38):
you know, whether it's for the variant covers or for
the monthly book or what may have you or Savage Sword.
You know, we met Ivan Gil, the guy who's doing
Scourge of the Serpent Our Fall event book, because he
reached out to me. He's been working in the French market.
He's been doing these beautiful, crazy Bondestine of Napoleonic, you know,
(30:59):
war stuff, and he reached out to me and he said,
you know, I grew up on Conan. It's my favorite character.
Could I do a pin up or something for Savage Sword?
And I looked over his artwork and I was like,
is that all you want to do is just a
pin up? Like I want you to do more than that,
if you're available and if we can make it work.
So I showed his work to my editor and the editor,
you know, Chris freaked out because stuff looks so amazing.
(31:22):
And then it was a matter of looking at the
schedule and figuring out where he would fit best, and
that's where we decided. Okay, you know, the next event
book is starting to line up. Let's make this happen.
And now I can show you some artwork from this.
My god, this guy's nuts. Like I said, he's been
doing these incredible Napoleonic War you know, graphic novels and
(31:47):
now it's just like, holy moly. We He and Joe
Canola are a hell of a team, the colorists, they're
just wonderful together. They've really really gelled. All right, you
should be able to share that. Now, look at that.
He did not scrimp. He does not scrimp on any
of it. So just killer. Every scene is a stunners
(32:14):
great architecture.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, yeah, people are the artists? Are they are? They?
Are they known in their countries because like you know,
are they popular artists already? And things? Right?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Well, that's the thing, because yeah, because Ivan's doing stuff
in the French market, he's known in that space quite well,
and he's known you know, he actually lives in Spain.
It's funny because he's in Spain, and so's Fernando Dignino
and so is Roberto de latore So, three of the
artists I'm working with on Conan and stuff are all
in Spain. Doug Braithwaites in northern England. So I went
(32:50):
to England in May, I went for MCMXPO, and after
the show was over, I flew over to Spain and
I spent four and a half days in Major and
so I was able to meet these guys in person
and we did some amazing signings. I got to hang
out with them, and Alberto Albuquerque and Pepe la Raz
and a bunch of the other guys who are all
(33:11):
the you know, the the Spaniards, as I was saying,
that had just been knocking it out in the North
American market and in the European market, and so that
was just a ton of fun. It was great to
hang out with them. They were all so wonderful, and
we did some great store signings over in Madrid and
just really really fun adventure this summer.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That sounds amazing, Jim, and I honestly, this start looks
amazing too. Did you want to describe this page that's
up right now? Sure so.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
In Scourge of the Serpent last time, when we did
Battle the Black Zone, we had all the characters coming
together in the high Borean Age. This time, I've given
myself quite a puzzle to play with. There's three separate
stories happening in their own timelines. So this right here
is call the Conqueror and Rule the Spear Slayer in
what's called the Thurian Age kind of the ancient past
(34:00):
before Conan, and there's a story going on with cal
There's a story happening in the Highborian Age with Conan,
which is based around a very classic Conan story called
the God and the Bowl. And then we also have
in the nineteen thirties, we have a character called Kirawan,
(34:22):
and he is this occult investigator and he ends up
getting pulled into his own kind of snake themed shenanigans.
And between the three of them, all three of these
stories are going to start echoing into each other. Events
that happen in one story ripple backwards or forward through time,
(34:42):
and so it starts to get pretty crazy, gets really
really wild as the supernatural stuff starts to take hold.
I don't want to reveal too much more beyond that,
but you can see that just the quality of the
work is so so good. The quality of the drawing
is really really sharp, The environments are beautiful. It's just
a complete, like pulp package in the best way possible.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Jim is the supernatural Detective. Is that also a Howard character?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, So there's not a ton of stories. There's usually
so kier one has. I think there's seven stories with
him in it. Most of them he's with another character
called Conrad. So it's Kiirwe and Conrad and they go
on these kind of adventures together. And they showed up
the two of them in Battle of the Blackstone, and
they're in several different Howard stories. The one that I'm
(35:35):
kind of building off of the foundation of for this
particular one is an infamous one called the Haunter of
the Ring because in the original pulp story that came
out in the thirties, Kiirwan investigates a ring and it
is the Ring of thotham On. It is the ring
from the Conan stories. And that's not me adding that
into that crossover that was in the original Howard story
(35:57):
as well, And so for me, it's like we're kind
of honoring that, you know, cross pollination of ideas and
those pulp kind of concepts by bringing them together in
this story. As they weave together.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Jim did Howard live long enough to know about bandom,
and I realized a lot of the fandom happened well
after his death. And I know he died young, but
in the thirties when he was cranky, this stuff out
was you know, did he ever get any sort of
fan feedback?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I mean, it's interesting, so he you know, he passed
away in nineteen thirty six, and Conan was becoming popular.
He was in most of the issues of Weird Tales
where there was a Conan story that readers would vote
for their favorites, and usually Conan was the favorite for
the issues that he appeared in. You know, he and
Lovecraft were kind of neck and neck in terms of
(36:51):
popularity at that time in the Weird Tales magazine, you know,
kind of ecosystem, and so he was seeing success and
he was starting to to get you know, known in
those spaces. He was penpal with Lovecraft and several other writers,
so he was starting to understand I think, you know,
something outside of Texas and more in terms of he
(37:13):
was very well read, you know, but actual interacting with
other you know, authors and understanding that people were becoming
fans of his work. I don't know that he really
understood the depth and breadth obviously in terms of how
many people were reading weird tales and had no way
(37:36):
of of course, knowing that those stories would carry on
for generations to come. And so it is kind of
crazy to think that he did write more Westerns and
boxing stories than he ever wrote Conan stories. So if
he'd have lived longer, you know, maybe he would have
been known in completely different genres. Maybe he would have
been a famous author in completely different ways. He had
(37:58):
written hundreds of poems, you know, so again those kinds
of things could have struck gold in a different way,
or you know, the Conan reprints may not have happened
because if he was still around, or he had written
more and the character became more popular, you know, by
his own hand. It's impossible to know. That's what's so
kind of crazy about it, the effect that his work
(38:20):
has had and been able to carry forward, you know, generationally,
even though he was so young, you know, he was
so prolific, and the quality of the work when you
look at it, you know, yes, some of the stuff
in there is dated, like you were talking about, but
the actual lyricism and the explosive kind of prose that
(38:41):
he puts on the page. It still staggers me, like
I read some of these stories, you know, something like
Frost Giant's Daughter, which is I want to say, seven
thousand words, and the amount of stuff he covers in
such a short span. It really is pure pulp in
that way of like no no fat, like no no
(39:03):
space wasted whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That's amazing and I really well, first of all, I
forget what publisher put out a hardcover of Howard's boxing
stories and Gary Gianni, the excellent artist did the cover
and even did a remark for me inside inside the book. Great.
But yeah, I'm fascinated by that. The movie, the movie
(39:28):
The Whole Wide World? How how do you feel about it?
And also have you met? Have you? And I know
Donofrio does right the Convention Circuit and he played Howard
in the movie. Have you met him? As he aware
of what you're doing with with Howard stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
So I have not met Donofrio. I have seen, you know,
The Whole Wide World, and it is a great movie. It's,
you know, like any Hollywood kind of biopick. It's got
its areas where they're exaggerating different elements of it, but
it is fascinating because it's Evelyn Price, Who's this woman
that he had a relationship with, and it kind of
(40:05):
is her the kind of tragic romance that they share,
these two writers, and Howard's difficulties, you know, going through
life before he ends up committing suicide. And so it's
this you know, dramatic piece, and it's built off of
her letters and off of you know, actual material. And
then in that Hollywood way, they're sort of tightening up
(40:26):
little elements of it or repacing bits for added drama.
But on the whole, it's a pretty respectful piece and
it's extremely well done. I think then Offer does a
really great job at playing the kind of explosive, passionate,
you know person that that Howard was from all accounts,
and that's you know, pretty amazing to see in that regard.
(40:47):
And again, I think in a best case scenario, we're
able to bring people not just Conan, don't get me wrong,
who is my favorite, but also show the depth and
breadth of what you know, Howard was able to do.
His horror stories are really great. You know, he did
a ton of pirate tales, He did these boxing stories
and all these other things, and that his range is
(41:10):
kind of further than most people realize, and so you know,
kind of rising tide raises all ships. If we can
use Conan to kind of bring more people in the
door and show them, look, check this out. The guy
that made Conan, he did all these other awesome things
as well. And these characters are kind of woven together
across this grand tapestry.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Beyond the stories in conn in the Barbari, and you
also have the text pieces that are really helping to
flesh out some of the history that's depicted in the books.
Talk about the text pieces for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
So we've got a secret weapon on our creative team.
Jeffrey Shanks is this amazing. He's a literary scholar and
he's a pulp collector in his day job, he's actually
an archaeologist, which is kind of amazing, and so he
is a deep, deep collector of all kinds of different pulp.
And he has been our consultant at heroic signatures on
(42:03):
everything related to kind of Howard and Conan. And what's
great about him is he's a wonderful, wonderful collaborator. He's
a deep researcher. He's passionate about the material. But he
also understands that this, you know, we are trying to
publish and create entertainment. And so what he does is
I'll lay out big story ideas or big beats or
(42:24):
things that I want to do, and then he goes, hey,
that is a really cool idea, and did you know
this obscure You know howard poem references something like what
you're talking about, or there's symbology that matches the kind
of things that you're doing, or these stories all kind
of tie together in funky ways. Maybe you could use
them in the future so that I don't have to
(42:44):
have two hundred plus short stories and hundreds of poems
and all those letters you know, in my head at
any one time. You know, Jeff's the expert, and then
he points me towards them, and then I helped kind
of tie those strings together. And so he's been just
it's just an incredible resource and a really great collaborator,
and he's become a friend and that's something really sweet
(43:05):
as well. You know, whenever you work on this stuff,
you hope that the people you work with you know
that you have a bond together. And he's kind of
made me, you know, more excited and more passionate about
the pulp end of it, and given me more confidence
to kind of push out and do big, dramatic kind
of stories and things that I've been wanting to do,
(43:26):
and bolstering, you know, the material that we've got with
his knowledge that we can push it to the limit
and make it feel as kind of, you know, legitimate
as possible while also not pushing out modern readers.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Okay, and anything after that was really unsalvageable. So thank
you for your patience. I hope you enjoyed this conversation
with Jim Zub. I hope you'll pick up Conan number
twenty five from Titan Comics. Thanks for listening to today's
word balloon. Until next time. Word Balloon is a copyright
feature of Shaky Production, Copyright two thousand, twenty five.
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