Zubby Newsletter #6: Covers to Come and Cosmic Clarification

Covers to Come and Cosmic Clarification

Welcome to a new edition of the Zubstack.

Feeling Barbaric?

You should be. Look for CONAN THE BARBARIAN #1 cover reveals and interior preview pages later this week at several of the larger comic news sites…

Until then, these Barbie-Meme pics using older artwork put together by Matt Murray and Zack Morrissette will have to suffice.

After the fantasy barrage in my previous newsletter I promised this edition would have less sword & sorcery (no such promises next week once those covers and preview pages are out in the wild), so let’s move on-

Behind The Scenes of Avengers: No Road Home

Over on Tom Brevoort’s latest newsletter post (make sure you subscribe if you haven’t already), he posted up some behind the scene notes from the Avengers summit held May 18, 2018 at the Marvel offices where we laid the ground work for AVENGERS: NO ROAD HOME, the second weekly run for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes co-written by Al Ewing, Mark Waid, and I after our first run (called No Surrender) did well with readers and retailers.

As we brainstormed set pieces and ideas, Tom would jot good ones down on notecards so we could easily swap pieces in or out and figure out the overall structure of the story:

At the same time, Alanna Smith (assistant editor at the time, now full-fledged Marvel editor) wrote down bullet points to help us remember other bits and pieces that came up in discussion, leading to a back matter page in Avengers: No Road Home #9 that still creates a little ripple in Marvel fandom to this day-

That one note -

“Scarlet Witch is the only mortal connected to the House of Ideas”

- has been brought up by fans of Wanda Maximoff dozens of times as ‘proof’ that she has godlike power and is Marvel’s most powerful magic-wielder but, as I’ve said many times in social media posts or replies to specific messages about this - if it’s not in the printed comic, it’s not canon. As mentioned right on that back matter page, these were concepts we came up with at the meeting and some didn’t make the final cut, including that explicit connection between Wanda and the House of Ideas.

At the time I thought it could be a way to explain Wanda’s reality-bending abilities, but it never quite found its way into the final published story. Could it come up again at some future point? Sure, and I’d be happy to write that story, but until then it’s just material left on the cutting room floor.

Several times a month I get asked about the hierarchy of Marvel cosmology based on the House of Ideas concept introduced in No Road Home. I'm really proud of the work our team did and I’m glad the House part I came up with generates energetic discussion, but defining absolutes for cosmic powers in the Marvel Universe is not something I’m interested in. I don't have a definitive answer on any of that stuff and, even if I did, whatever I say could be instantly nullified by future writers/future stories. That’s how these shared creative sandboxes work.

I’ve been a broken record about this when asked about it online and now, hopefully, by typing up a longer answer here I can point people toward this post and put it to rest, the same way I used my tutorial blog posts to provide more in-depth answers to common questions I get asked all the time, especially “How do I break into comics?”

Snapping To Attention

Snowguard is one of the newest characters added to the Marvel SNAP digital card game and the artwork looks great! From what I’m seeing on social media, her card is quite powerful in combination with others, but I haven’t played the game myself so I don’t know for sure.

It’s nice to see Amka’s legacy continue in unexpected places like this. I hope there are more comic stories in her future as well.

If you want to find out more about our Canadian spirit-infused shape changer, her first appearance is collected in Champions: Northern Lights and there’s a Snowguard solo story I’m really proud of reprinted in Champions: Weird War One.

Chez Zub’s - Fried Rice

I’ve been following some of the techniques covered in this video and it has seriously upped my fried rice skills using some pretty simple ingredients. Well worth checking out-

Links and Other Things

• Line tangents are a common problem with art or photography where 2-dimensional lines from different elements look like they're interacting when they shouldn't, creating visual confusion. Finding clear examples of what tangents are and how to avoid them to show my students was a pain until I found the The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents. Chris breaks down the concept incredibly well in this post. Read, learn, and share!

That’s it for this time. Take care!

Jim