Zub Tales

Two whirlwind weeks, but I’m home now – WE’RE home now.

Stacy missed San Diego Comic Con, but was able to join me at Gen Con in Indianapolis and having her there helped me power through to the finish line on two of the biggest conventions back-to-back.

Huge thanks to everyone who reached out after my last newsletter with kind words and support. The past three weeks have certainly had their share of highs and lows but, on the whole, we’re in a good spot right now. Ten days from now, Stacy and I head to England (specificaly Gloucester, for Comics Assemble) and have a small vacation in Dublin after, but before that we’re climbing out from sleep debt and emails, tidying up around the house and hitting some writing deadlines.

San Diego

Me being at San Diego at all was in doubt but, once Stacy was home and recovering with friends and family at the ready, I felt confident enough to tackle the big show again. That said, by the time I arrived in California on Wednesday, grabbed my badge and slammed into Preview Night, I realized how behind I was on sleep after Stacy’s hospital stay and it felt pretty surreal. Every time I turned around, a friend was giving me a hug or a random person would say “I’m glad your wife’s okay” or “Conan is awesome”. The adrenalin I needed to get through that health scare was all used up and I had to dig even deeper to find my convention legs.

It was good, it was cathartic, it was strange. It was SDCC on my backfoot, but I pulled it off.

For the fourth year in a row, I was at the show thanks to Titan and Heroic Signatures, celebrating another year of Conan the Barbarian comics and looking toward an exciting future. The series has transformed my career and its stability has been a safe harbor in the rough seas that comic publishing can be. Knowing what I’m working on for at least another year is a real blessing. I’m not exclusive and can take on other writing work, but Conan is still a bedrock and that’s pretty damn sweet.

Both panels I was on were well attended. The Celebrating Dungeons & Dragons panel was absolutely packed and the crowd was energized as we shared advice and anecdotes about our favorite game and its ongoing pop culture expansion. TTRPGs and Liveplay are bigger than ever and it’s incredible to see this hobby that transformed my creative life inspiring so many other people.

The Conan comic panel really surprised me. Normally we have only one SDCC panel for everything Conan, but this time we had so many announcements they were split into two – one on Thursday for all the media and the second on Saturday just for comics. I felt certain that without the media stuff propping us up that the comic panel would be lightly attended but boy, was I wrong. The room was jammed with Conan comic fans and when I was introduced the cheer from the crowd really took me aback. Our panel room was directly above Hall-H, so the floor literally shook with bass from the media presentations happening below, and I used that to my advantage, telling everyone that our upcoming Conan stories would “shake you to your core!”

Beyond that, there were signings, meetings, and social stuff galore. Inbetween all my commitments, I’d call Stacy to check on her and hear about her recovery, day by day steadily improving. I could hardly believe she’d been in the hospital a week earlier.

There was some of the typical San Diego sturm and drang that happens every year. A peer I had a disagreement with several years ago apologized to me out of the blue and I found out an editor who I thought was a friend blocked me on a few key projects, which was quite a gut punch, but weirdly I was (and am) kind of zen about it all.

It feels like half the battle of being in a creative industry is staying in it and, after all this time and so many amazing projects, I’m no longer worried about whether I belong. I’m still here and still doing the work while trying to surround myself with people who value what I do and making sure they know how much I value them as well. I’d rather wear my heart on my sleeve and occassionally be hurt by that optimism than grow bitter and assume the worst in others.

Los Angeles

After San Diego, I took the train up to Los Angeles. A dear friend picked me up at the train station and we caught up Sunday night, then Monday was a whirlwind tour of the Heroic Signatures office, stopping by a couple cool comic shops (Golden Apple and Revenge Of) and a dinner meeting with the Conan crew, talking about our big plans for 2027. Then, I was off to Indy-

Indianapolis

This year’s Gen Con was the busiest I’ve ever experienced. The booth was hopping with customers, lots of friends came by to visit, and there was a ton of positive energy. Stacy’s D&D Crochet Book was a rocket, selling out on Thursday of all the copies we brought, with Penguin Random House scrambling to order more copies and quickly selling out again at their booth.

I was one of the speakers for the D&D Talk series held offsite and it went really well. Mayanna Berrin and I talked all about D&D character backstories – inspiration, advice, and anecdotes.

It was nice to see Wizards of the Coast back at Gen Con in a big way, reconnecting to the community and trying to rebuild bonds with key creators who have defined the game for decades.

The social events were top notch and I had the chance to play a couple live games as well. One was the Draw Your Weapons Gen Con Special (which I will link to once it’s online) and a two-player session of the new Justice League Unlimited RPG with Sydney Gayle:

I may not do as much work in the tabletop gaming space as I do in comics, but the people there have always been incredibly warm and welcoming. I think it’s part of gaming’s DNA – the idea that we share time and space together as part of the hobby, so those collaborative bonds tend to form fast and strong.

All in all, Gen Con recharged my creative batteries even as my overall endurence started to flag. If I didn’t see you there or we didn’t get as much time to hangout as you hoped, it wasn’t you, it was my body starting to power down after two weeks of convention craziness.

Legacy of the Giant-Kings

The trailer for Legacy of the Giant-Kings, a brand new content patch for Conan Exiles Enhanced, arrived right as SDCC began and I’m excited to reveal that I’m part of the writing team!

Working with the crew at Inflexion and Funcom has been a lot of fun and, if you’re a fan of the current Conan comics, you may find a couple little Easter Eggs I snuck into the dialogue as you explore new quests in the Exiled Lands.

Auroboros At Last

I’m also happy to finally announce that legendary game designer Chris Metzen (Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo) and I teamed up to write a graphic novel called The Muse that takes place in his original TTRPG campaign setting called Auroboros, and if you sign up for their next crowdfunding campaign you’ll get serialized chapters of it sent right to you!

Getting to work with Chris, artist Eduardo Mello (who I previously worked with on Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker back in 2021), and the rest of the team was such a pleasure and I’m excited for readers and gamers alike to check this one out.

Current + Upcoming Releases

• Conan the Barbarian #33 – released July 29.
• Conan the Barbarian #34 – releases August 26.
• Journey to the West: The Beginning – releases September 15.
• Savage Sword of Conan #16 – releases September 16.
• Conan the Barbarian vol. 4-6 Slipcase Set – releases September 16.
• Conan: Tides of the Tyrant-King #1 – releases September 23.
• Savage Sword of Conan vol. 1-3 Slipcase Set – releases September 23.
• Wayward Compendium – releases September 29.
• Conan the Barbarian #35 – releases September 30.

Upcoming Appearances

Other Links

• Speaking of the Justice League Unlimited TTRPG I mentioned above, here’s PART 2 of the online game I played with Mark Waid, Johann Reed, and Alex the Chaotic Goblin.

• If you missed the Dungeons & Dragons aerial drone show from Gen Con, you can check it out here.

Jim

Not the kind of thing you can plan for.

I didn’t want to go into details about this in public unless Stacy did, but now that she’s posted about it, I feel okay mentioning it as well.

In short, what should have been a same-day surgical procedure for Stacy turned into a four day stay at the hospital. From Wednesday morning through to Saturday night, we rode out a roller coaster of health stuff with her and, as you might imagine, it was confusing and scary. Thankfully, she’s now at home and on the mend so we’ll see what future tests bring. Fingers crossed.

As she said: “Thanks to a couple of stellar nurses, I was on the rebound by mid-Friday and able to come home Saturday evening. Thanks to the Canadian healthcare system, I never had to worry if I could afford the extra care.”

So yeah, not how I expected last week to go, but overall we’re okay. Stacy won’t be able to attend San Diego while she recuperates and my attendance was in question as well but, now that she’s home and recovering well (with family and friends available and able to help), I feel okay making the trek to California.

Zub at San Diego Comic Con 2026

Speaking of which, Comic Crom in on! I now have a separate post all about my SDCC 2026 schedule that I’ll keep up to date if anything changes. Otherwise, here’s a handy graphic:

This will be my 21st San Diego Comic Con and, as always, I’m heading into it with a mixture of excitement and nervous energy. I’m always thrilled to see friends and fans, but also know how intense and draining it will be, especially when it crashes right up against Gen Con happening next week.

Ask Me

While I’m in San Diego, I’ll be doing an on camera interview with Penguin Random House all about my work: specific projects, the writing process, legacy, and more!

Ask me a question (or two, or three) at the link and yours might be in the video!

Marvel Moves

While I was at the hospital, there were seizmic changes at Marvel Comics, with the announcement that their famous New York City offices will be moving westward to Burbank and that there’s a new Editor-In-Chief. Everyone online was buzzing about the big news and I was obviously too distracted at the time to comment.

CB Cebulski was Marvel’s EiC for the majority of time as I worked on a variety of Marvel projects and, though we didn’t personally interact much, he was supportive, collaborative and we got along. I remember him being in the conference room and quite active during our in-person Avengers Summit in 2018 to build the story that became Avengers: No Road Home and he was excited for us to jam all kinds of ideas and have fun with the story.

As for new EiC Steve Wacker, the only interaction with him I’ve had was short but positive. In early 2013, I sent him an out-of-the-blue email, introducing myself and letting him know how much I was enjoying the titles he edited at that time, namely Superior Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Hawkeye. He responded, which may not sound like a big deal, but if you’ve ever worked in comics you know how difficult it can be to get an editor’s attention, especially from a cold intro like that. Taking it even further, at San Diego Comic Con that year he set up a quick meeting to introduce himself and ask me what Marvel characters I was interested in. Keep in mind, I had only a handful of writing credits under my belt at this point and he was running the Spider-Man office, so it was quite a gracious move on his part.

Assuming I had no chance at writing any A-list characters, I pitched him a few oddball Marvel project ideas with second-stringers, and he thought they sounded okay but was also quite confused.

“Is that all you’re interested in? Just the weirdos?”

“I mean, I edit Spider-Man…so maybe think about Spider-Man stuff, okay?”

We both laughed. It was awkward. I was coming off being fired from a DC project I thought was going to be career-making and instead turned into five months of ever-shifting edicts and long gaps of communication before being unceremoniously shown the door and was still feeling raw from that experience. I was incredibly nervous and I’m sure that’s what came across to Steve, but he was solid, classy, and probably doesn’t remember this interaction at all. Six months later, he was promoted to head up Marvel Animation and moved to Hollywood, so we never had the chance to work together.

Anyways, I know a lot of people who have worked with Steve and speak highly of him, so I’m curious to see what his vision as EiC will be and how Marvel changes with this big move west. I’m sure it will fuel a lot of gossip at San Diego, that’s for sure.

The “Just Us” League

Speaking of superheroes, getting to try out the new JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED TTRPG with Mark, Alex, Johann, and Peterson was a ton of fun. Watch the first half of our adventure as I play Wally West and bring my FLASH-fulness to this new adventure:

Current + Upcoming Releases

• MAD About DC – 2nd printing – released June 3.
• Conan the Barbarian #32 – released June 24.
• Conan the Barbarian #33 – releases July 29.
• Conan the Barbarian #34 – releases August 26.
• Journey to the West: The Beginning – releases September 15.
• Savage Sword of Conan #16 – releases September 16.
• Conan the Barbarian vol. 4-6 Slipcase Set – releases September 16.
• Conan: Tides of the Tyrant-King #1 – releases September 23.
• Savage Sword of Conan vol. 1-3 Slipcase Set – releases September 23.
• Wayward Compendium – releases September 29.
• Conan the Barbarian #35 – releases September 30.

Upcoming Appearances

Other Links

• Ron Meischker from PAGE (which I’m attending in 2027) has a new Kickstarter underway for a TTRPG sourcebook called The Adventurer’s Log. It’s a book for players to keep track of all the important details of their adventures in a nice and organized way.

• I’m sure almost anyone who follows my newsletter is already aware of Felicia Day‘s crowdfunding campaign for The Guild Movie, returning for their 20th anniversary but, even still, I wanted to link it here. I watched the original Guild episodes as they were posted online, was thrilled to see them carve out their spot in nerd culture, and had the chance to meet the cast at quite a few conventions over the years. Seeing creators build their own amazing stuff and get so much fan support is always amazing and inspiring.

• Speaking of inspiration, Len Nicholas goes through his creative sketching process and it’s wonderful to see how he approaches his work and gets creative designs flowing. It definitely makes me want to noodle away on fun drawings again in my own sketchbook.

Jim