As soon as upon a time, within the bygone age of 2023, I thought-about myself kind of completed with Conan the Barbarian. I’d learn Robert E. Howard’s authentic tales and favored them rather a lot, however as soon as I completed, I felt little inclination to learn the numerous follow-ups penned by different authors, suspecting none of them would have the identical luster.

Then I got here throughout Jim Zub’s epic new Conan the Barbarian comedian collection, and my preconceived notions went out the window. Feeling each basic and contemporary, it shortly grew to become certainly one of my favourite ongoing comics, and reignited my curiosity in a sure skull-cracking Cimmerian, together with the return of the favored Savage Sword of Conan collection. Not too long ago, I used to be fortunate sufficient to have a chat with Jim, wherein he pulled again the curtain on these rip-roaring tales.

Initially, how did you get began writing comics? 

I made a bunch of comics once I was a child, every kind of by-product superhero and action-adventure stuff, however the first comedian I put critical effort into as an grownup was one I each wrote and drew. It was a webcomic known as The Makeshift Miracle that serialized on-line from 2001-2003.

I joined the UDON studio in 2003 and labored as an illustrator, editor, and artwork director on every kind of various tasks for animation, video video games, promoting and comics. By these tasks I realized loads about how these industries labored and what corporations seemed for when it got here to artwork and story. I lastly obtained the possibility to start out writing comics professionally with the Exalted comedian collection revealed by UDON and White Wolf in 2005, however much more readers began noticing my writing with both Skullkickers, a creator-owned sword & sorcery action-comedy collection that launched in 2010, or Pathfinder, primarily based on the best-selling tabletop role-playing recreation that launched in 2012.

And the way did your present run on Conan the Barbarian come about? 

I’ve written a number of Conan tales earlier than the present Titan collection. My first Conan writing credit score was in 2015, teamed up with Gail Simone on the Conan/Crimson Sonja mini-series at Darkish Horse. I additionally wrote fairly a couple of Conan points at Marvel from 2018-2022.

When Heroic Signatures, the rights holders to the Robert E. Howard character library, determined to companion with Titan Books for his or her new prose and comics, I used to be certainly one of a number of writers they requested to pitch on the brand new publishing initiative. I pitched them a plan that included a flagship collection for Mature Readers that hewed intently to the pulp supply materials whereas incorporating key parts from the basic comics that have been a success with followers within the 1970’s. When the crew at Heroic evaluated the pitches they’d obtained, they determined to go ahead with my story plan and, fortunately, to this point it’s completed extraordinarily effectively when it comes to each retail gross sales and significant opinions.

How did you strategy telling tales a few character as iconic as Conan? The place did your inspiration come from? 

I’ve been lucky to jot down tales for some iconic characters – Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, The Avengers, and fairly a couple of others. In each case all of it begins with analysis. Even when I believe I do know the character effectively it’s necessary to drill again down and skim as many basic and present tales as potential to remind myself what’s on the core of that character and what I like about them.

Within the case of Conan, it was all about rereading the unique Robert E. Howard pulp tales from Bizarre Tales journal – all of the Conan ones, after all, however a variety of different ones too, to try to faucet into the foundational materials that kicked off the sword & sorcery style.

Studying for analysis is totally different from studying for pleasure. I’ve a notepad shut at hand to jot down key textual content – names, phrases, and questions – every part that catches my consideration as I learn. From there I dug into essays from Robert E. Howard students and the basic 70’s comics as effectively. All that materials helped type key concepts across the character, his world, and methods we’d be capable to maintain a basic really feel whilst we pushed the narrative out into locations I hadn’t fairly seen earlier than.

What have been a few of your favourite Conan tales?

It’s a fairly typical checklist within the fandom, however for good cause as a result of they’re a few of the most iconic and evocative tales REH wrote – The Tower of the Elephant, The Frost-Large’s Daughter, Queen of the Black Coast, and Crimson Nails.

I’ve all the time discovered Howard’s Hyborian Age to be a captivating setting; have been there some specific facets of it you wished to incorporate or have been particularly serious about?


Completely, the Hyborian Age builds on a core theme of “Civilization vs. Savagery,” that the ‘civilized’ world of governments and religions declare their superiority even whereas they are often extremely duplicitous and merciless, whereas the ‘barbaric’ tribes are much more honorable and forthright of their phrases and deeds. Sure, Conan will kill and take what he must survive, but when he offers his phrase then that’s a bond he’ll maintain to his dying breath.

We see Conan at numerous levels of his life, as a mercenary, pirate, thief, and king. Do you propose to inform tales from all these eras? Do you have got a specific favourite to jot down?

Sure, and that course of is already underway. Like the unique Bizarre Tales tales, the place Conan was already the King of Aquilonia within the first revealed story, The Phoenix on the Sword, the brand new Titan comedian collection jumps across the timeline, introducing new parts after they’re wanted for the narrative after which paying them off down the highway. Conan the Barbarian #25, arriving this Fall, is my first King Conan story and it received’t be the final.

If I had to decide on just one period to jot down in, it could in all probability be youthful Conan, the impetuous thief and barbarian tackling the civilized world for the primary time, the troublemaker who is simply too naïve and headstrong to be afraid.


I’ve all the time cherished the King Conan period, so I’m thrilled to listen to you’ll be exploring that facet of the character. To date, we’ve seen Conan cross paths with another Howard characters, like Kull in The Age Unconquered, and plenty of extra in Battle of the Black Stone. How did you strategy these crossovers? 

It’s not that a lot totally different from the opposite characters – a lot of analysis, with the added problem of in search of synergies inside the solid, similarities or variations I may play off of on this epic journey they’d be endeavor and making an attempt to tie in a couple of further moments from every of their canon adventures. In Battle of the Black Stone I additionally wished to guarantee that every character obtained a giant second or two to essentially stand out.

What’s the art work course of like?

The artists I’m working with have well-honed instincts for traditional Conan-style storytelling. Rob De La Torre was my best choice to attract the collection, so getting him on board for the launch was a victory proper from the beginning and bringing on different unbelievable artists like Doug Braithwaite, Danica Brine, Jonas Scharf, and Fernando Dagnino has made our crew even even stronger. Their line work has a particular energy that feels just like the Hyborian Age. It’s pulpy and highly effective in all the precise methods.

When Rob and I initially talked about how we may work collectively, he actually wished to chop unfastened on the storytelling and, primarily based on the jaw-dropping Hyborian-themed commissions and covers he’d already completed, I used to be blissful to go that route. We’re working old-school plot model as a substitute of me dealing with full script.

I define the problem utilizing a couple of paragraphs to explain the core motion and key dialogue on every web page after which the artist makes use of that as their information to attract as many or few panels as they need to characterize these story beats. As soon as the artwork is available in, I put collectively a separate lettering script with dialogue or captions as wanted, busting out essentially the most lyrical prose I can to dwell as much as their putting visuals. It’s a manner of working I haven’t completed fairly often earlier than, however the outcomes have been extraordinarily dynamic and natural. I believe readers are going to be stunned by how effectively it flows throughout the web page.

From there, Diego Rodriguez or Joao Canola shade the pages to gorgeous impact and the legendary Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith letter all of it fantastically, whereas Chris Butera and Ashley Hodgkins, our intrepid editors, maintain every part on schedule and ensure we ship tales suitable with the established Howard canon.

You wrote a prose story for The Savage Sword of Conan. Do you have got any plans to jot down extra of these? Would you ever be prepared to deal with a Conan novella/novel? 

Writing “Sacrifice within the Sand” within the first subject of the brand new Savage Sword of Conan was such an unbelievable expertise, intimidating but additionally an absolute honor. Getting to make use of Joe Jusko’s cowl illustration, his first new Conan artwork in nearly twenty-five years, and basing the story on these visuals, was completely surreal. That stated, that prose story was far more time-consuming than writing a comic book script and the present slate of comics I’ve to jot down will maintain me from writing extra Conan prose for now. I’m not in opposition to the concept of writing one other Conan prose story down the highway however proper now I must maintain my eyes targeted on the month-to-month comedian, our occasions, and associated comedian tales for Savage Sword.

With out spoilers, what does the longer term maintain for our favourite barbarian? Any future storylines you may tease? 

This fall we could have our Scourge of the Serpent occasion miniseries, which we teed up in our Free Comedian E-book Day Prelude subject (which everybody can learn and luxuriate in totally free proper right here: https://titan-comics.com/information/download-the-conan-fcbd-issue-here/ )

Like Battle of the Black Stone, Scourge might be a four-issue epic that makes use of a number of Robert E. Howard characters, however not in the identical manner we did earlier than. I need to maintain readers on their toes when it comes to format, pacing, and the place all of it leads. I don’t need any of it to really feel stale or for folks to simply guess what occurs subsequent. Throughout time and house, there are big ramifications that may ripple ahead to future tales whereas the month-to-month Conan the Barbarian collection retains plugging away, elevating the stakes.

After our outsized twenty-fifth subject spectacular, we’re pivoting to a not often explored time in Conan’s life, and after that we introduce a model new villain to the Hyborian Age. A lot of nice stuff on faucet for 2025, 2026 and past!

And I might be studying it, I can guarantee you. Jim, thanks a lot for doing this interview, I actually loved capturing the breeze about Conan. Earlier than we wrap issues up, do you have got any social media handles, or anything you’d wish to cross alongside to our readers? 

I’ve had the identical web site for over twenty years and all my social media, my publication, a whole rundown of my books, and tutorials on find out how to write comics and work with artists are linked there: www.jimzub.com

Thanks for studying and supporting my work.