Zubby Newsletter #10: Hither Came Comics
Hither Came Comics
BLUESKY: Thanks to a kind reader, I’m now set-up on Bluesky social. If you’re on the new platform, you can find me there at: jimzub.bsky.social
Free Comic Book Day at Third Eye Comics was bonkers, easily one of the most amazing comic events I’ve ever been a part of. From 8:30am to 12:30pm I signed over 1200 copies of Conan the Barbarian #0 and a couple hundred other books (my creator-owned series, super hero stories, and D&D aplenty) bought or brought by readers. At the same time, my social media was blowing up with excited messages from readers at other locations who picked up the prequel issue and enjoyed it as well. What a rush!
Here’s the last sprint of signatures I did before wrapping the signing up-
With all the hard work our team has been putting into the series, getting this kind of enthusiastic response really makes it all worthwhile. Thank you for reading and spreading the word about Conan’s return. I’m even more excited for our issue #1 launch coming in July.
If you want to get a signed Conan #0 and won’t be seeing me at an upcoming convention, Third Eye still has some copies available for mail order.
CONAN #0 online for FREE
If you missed your chance to grab a physical copy of Conan the Barbarian #0 from your favorite local comic shop, fear not, adventurers - you can enjoy the digital version absolutely FREE right here:
Kindle/comiXology - CONAN THE BARBARIAN #0
or here:
TITAN Comics - CONAN # 0 PDF Download
Please share those links everywhere you can!
Now that our zero issue has been released, there’s a fan mail address listed in the back for the upcoming letters page. If you read our pulp-infused prequel, please send a message to Heroic Signatures via chainmail@conan.com to let them know what you think of it!
Chaos Machine
Last week saw the release of D20 or Die!: Memories of Old School Role-Playing Games From Today’s Grown Up Kids, a book of essays about discovering tabletop role-playing games in the 70’s and 80’s. I wrote the Foreword and it’s a tale in which my first D&D character, a little dwarf with grand ambition, learned a grim lesson about paying attention…er, I mean, I learned the lesson, he just paid the price for it.
I have so many great memories and ridiculous stories thanks to TTRPGs and it was fun waxing nostalgic here.
Appreciation and Insight
I recently did an interview with Tess Curious from the Curiosity Project and was really impressed with the engaging variety of questions we covered. Even though I’ve done a couple hundred podcast interviews over the years and thought I was ready for just about any kind of question I might get, this interview includes some unexpected and genuinely thought provoking ones that will stick with me:
• What are the three things you value most in life?
• Tell me a memory that shaped you.
• Tell me about something that once existed, but now does not.
• What, if anything, is perfect?
• What do you suck at?
• What are you great at?
• Do you say “I love you” too much or too little?
• If you could name a hot sauce, what would you call it and why?
• What are you most proud of?
• How do you deal with failure?
• If you were on a starship, what position would you hold?
• If you could give just one piece of advice, what would that be?
The Wordysmiths Panel from TCAF 2023
Jamie Colville recorded the panel at TCAF that Ryan North (Fantastic Four), J. Torres (Teen Titans Go!), and I were on where we spoke to moderator Mark Askwith (Space Channel) all about our comic writer careers - How we got our start, the many ways the industry has changed, indie projects VS commercial ones, quitting the day job, failed pitches, and more. Give is a listen.
Links and Other Stuff
Eike Exner has some fascinating insights about the origin of manga, demystifying a few historical assumptions that have been erroneously repeated many times over the years.
Kenzo and Mayko at Love Life Drawing have an archive of great tutorials focused on their namesake on their YouTube channel and website. With my current crazy schedule I haven’t had time to do any life drawing for several years, but I want to dive back into it, so the material here will be really helpful.
Until next time-
Conan #0 was great! Looking forward to July!