Zubby Newsletter #94: Happy Holidays, Hyborians!
I hope this CANDY CANE-O-MANCER finds you well and that your holidays look bright, with lots of downtime to visit loved ones –
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Deadlines have been met. Emails are getting wrapped up. It’s a good time to relax and reflect.
Thank you for helping make 2024 so special, both creatively and personally. I’ll have more thoughts on the year that was in my annual Year In Review post next week.
400 Fortresses
Fortress Comics celebrated their 400th episode with a Zub interview!
We chat up a storm about iconic characters, sword & sorcery vs other fantasy, making Dungeons & Dragons stories accessible to non-gamers, role-playing characters in stories, my Conan the Barbarian journey, Samurai Jack, Avengers Tech-On, passion projects, and more!
Hugo Eligible Work in 2024
The Hugo Awards are an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year. There is no nominating jury, instead the thousands of members of Worldcon cast ballots on nominations, finalists are chosen, and then they vote again on award winners.
The first step of all that is making sure Worldcon members know which works are eligibible. In 2024 I released eligible work that members may not know about, so I’ll briefly cover those here-
Best Graphic Story or Comic: CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol. 3: THE AGE UNCONQUERED
Each single issue in this story and the collected book were released in 2024, so this is the clearest volume of work in the new Conan series that could make the cut (the single issues for Bound in Black Stone came out in 2023). The Age Unconquered is also the culmination of a year and a half of mythic sword & sorcery storytelling with a blast of eldritch horror thrown in for good measure, illustrated by the unstoppable art team of Roberto De La Torre and Diego Rodriguez.
Best Short Story: SACRIFICE IN THE SAND
This original short prose story, written with an eye toward Robert E. Howard‘s formative works in Weird Tales, was published in the premiere issue of the new Savage Sword of Conan magazine (launched on the 50th anniversary of the original run) with accompanying painted artwork by Joe Jusko. The story is reproduced here so anyone can give it a read at their leisure.
Best Poem: CALL THEE TO CROM
Each Worldcon may create a special award category for that year and in 2025 that will be Best Poem.
My poem Call Thee To Crom was published in Savage Sword of Conan #3 and is reproduced above.
Best Professional Artist: ROBERTO DE LA TORRE
I believe that Roberto De La Torre‘s work on Conan the Barbarian has been a revelation, hearkening back to a formative era of sword & sorcery illustration while also making it his own with dynamic layouts and a mastery of light and shadow. I hope members agree with me.
The actual nominations and awards won’t be known for many months but, since it’s the end of the year, readers start organizing their favorites. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and sharing my work with others. 2024 has been a milestone for me and I’m excited for 2025 and beyond.
12 Days Of Croms-Mas
The official Conan the Barbarian Facebook page is running 12 days of sneak peeks of upcoming Conan-related material and a couple of my projects are in the mix.
Here’s a script page from our 2025 Free Comic Book Day issue:
And here’s a special Final Order Cut-Off variant cover for Conan the Barbarian #18 illustrated by Giada Marchisio.
Current + Upcoming Releases
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – released Nov 19th.
Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – released December 4th.
Conan the Barbarian #17 – released December 11th.
Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1 TPB – releases January 14th.
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 4: Frozen Faith TPB – releases February 18th.
Conan the Barbarian #18 – releases February 19th.
Conan the Barbarian #19 – releases March 19th.
Upcoming Appearances
My 2025 convention schedule is already starting to fill up, with lots of shows where I’m now signed on but guests haven’t been publicly announced yet. If you run a show or know anyone who does and want me to come to your spot on the map in 2025, reach out to Comic Sketch Art or drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch.
Mar 20-23, 2025 Gary Con XVII Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA
Links and Other Things
• If you get my newsletter you’ve almost certainly already seen it but, just in case, the new Superman teaser trailer does exactly what it needs to do – brings hope and builds excitement. Nice work, Team DC!
• ComicBook.com had a week of cover art reveals for the upcoming Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring mini-series by Patch Zircher, with cover art by Mike Mignola, J.H. Williams III, Andrew Maclean, and Dan Brereton.
• One of my former students has opened a new bar & bistro in Toronto called The Wych and they have special Krampus promotion going right now around the holidays.
Jim
Thanks for the reading and the books. Enjoyed the your work and the art with it.