Zubby Newsletter #59: Semesters

9 years of elementary school, 4 years of high school, 4 years of college, and 22 years of teaching. Fall term, winter term, summer term…They’ve been like a drumbeat every year.

My life has been defined by semesters.

Back in 2020, I announced I was stepping away from teaching to start a 16 month sabbatical focused on writing and travel. When the pandemic flared up just a few weeks later, that ambitious change quickly fell to the wayside as projects went into stasis or crumbled completely and Seneca asked me to pause my plans to help with teaching online.

Four years later and now it’s really happening. I’m breaking free of the semester mold for the next 16 months and, honestly, when Fall rolls around I don’t even know how that’s going to feel.

On Thursday, we watched the 2D Animation grad films and then some of the profs grabbed dinner and a pint. Werner Zimmermann, one of my mentors and a dear friend, starts his retirement at the same time I’m starting my sabbatical, so we celebrated our wrap up together. When I was in charge of Seneca’s Animation program, I told Werner I needed to leave before he retired because I couldn’t imagine running the program without him, so it felt oddly appropriate to toast big changes and then grab the train with him at the end. On the way home, we talked about why we love teaching so much and our passion for stories.

It was a great night
End of an era.

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Free Comic Book Day in Japan!

So yeah, that sabbatical thing I just mentioned…next month Stacy and I head back to Japan for the first time in six years! I won’t be working much on the road, but I did set up a signing-

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, May 4th and I’ll be at Verse Comics in Tokyo from 1-3pm!

CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE #0 is my free issue this year and I’ll sign copies as long as supplies last, along with any other books I’ve worked on (including Japanese language ones).

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Telling Tales With a Stygian Dog

Here’s the second half of the interview I had with Stygian Dogs all about CONAN. This time, we cover:
• Free Comic Book Day 2024 and Battle of the Black Stone
• Conan the Barbarian Arc 4
• The brilliance of Doug Braithwaite
• Diego Rodriguez’s incredible colors
• Upcoming Savage Sword of Conan issues
• Gary Con anecdotes
• Conan fandom
and more!

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A Savage Sneak Peek

Here’s a glimpse of atmospheric black & white page art by Richard Pace from our feature story coming in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #2, arriving in stores May 1st.

In 2019, I pitched two different stories to Mark Basso, the Conan editor at Marvel at that time-
One of them was The Gambler, which ended up in Savage Sword of Conan (2019) #7-9.
The other one was Leaving The Garden, which finally comes to life in this new issue of Savage Sword.

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Ginny Di Gets Our Guide

Thrilled to see D&D YouTuber extraordinaire Ginny Di cover ARTIFICERS & ALCHEMY, the new D&D Young Adventurer’s Guide, in her latest video!

She has tons of creative ideas about flavoring magic for RPGs, which we encourage in the series!

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Upcoming Appearances

Apr 25-28, 2024 Calgary Expo Calgary, AB, CANADA

May 4, 2024 Verse Comics Tokyo, JAPAN

Jun 7-8, 2024 Howard Days Cross Plains, TX, USA

July 25-28, 2024 San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA, USA

Aug 1-4, 2024 Gen Con Indy Indianapolis, IN, USA

Aug 16-18, 2024 Fan Expo Chicago Chicago, IL, USA

Aug 22-25, 2024 Fan Expo Canada Toronto, ONT, CANADA

Oct 17-20, 2024 Gamehole Con Madison, WI, USA

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Links and Other Things

• Mike Monteiro‘s classic presentation on freelancer contracts called F*ck You, Pay Me should be required viewing for anyone in a creative field.

• Chef John‘s recipe for Golden Butter Rice hit the spot.

• Questing Beast talks about Braunstein, the first tabletop RPG, with some footage and chatter from Gary Con.

Have a great week!
Jim