DF Interview: Jim Zub celebrates a decade of derring-do a dozen years later in the ‘Skullkickers Super Special’! (what?)



By Byron Brewer

When the Skullkickers enter the Academy of Serious Sorcery, it’ll take all their wits and steel to defeat warped wizardry, whimsical wands, and wicked witchcraft.

Celebrate 10 years of skull-kicking goodness with a brand-new story of swords and sassery of the Skullkickers Super Special one-shot from writer Jim Zub (Conan the Barbarian, Dungeons & Dragons) and artist Edwin Huang (Street Fighter). All I needed to do was see Jim Zub’s name on the solicit and I was on board with this interview. Here’s what the creator/scribe told me about the “super special”!



Byron Brewer: Jim, having started doing this great profession about the same time as fans were recognizing your talents via Skullkickers, I cannot believe it has been 10 years. For the uninitiated, talk a little about your creation of the Skullkickers.



Jim Zub: Would you believe it’s actually been 12 years, not 10? Celebrating the 10th anniversary 12 years after our issue #1 launch is VERY on brand for Skullkickers.

In my defense, I first started working away on this story in time for the 10th anniversary, but the pandemic side-swiped everything.
Anyway, the important thing is that over a decade ago, Chris Stevens, Edwin Huang, Misty Coats, Marshall Dillon and I launched a swords & sassery-driven comic series called Skullkickers at Image Comics.
Chris and I had previously done two short stories for the Pop Gun anthology series called “Two Copper Pieces” about a pair of mercenary monster hunters causing trouble and that evolved into Skullkickers. If you count those original anthology stories, in some ways it’s Skullkickers’ 14th anniversary, but that just makes the whole thing even more complicated.
Anyway, Image was seeing a new surge in popularity at that time thanks to The Walking Dead and other creators were starting to make their mark with titles like Chew, 27 and Morning Glories. It was a great time for experimentation and building a new readership.


Byron: Before we get to the grand news of the super special coming anxious fans’ way in November, recall what these characters meant to your career as a comic book writer, and the role they played in the superstar you are today.



Jim Zub: I don’t know about “superstar”, but it definitely grabbed attention for my comic writing career and put me on the radar for a lot of readers and editors, leading to a lot of other projects like Pathfinder, Legends of the Dark Knight and Samurai Jack, which would springboard me to Conan-Red Sonja, Dungeons & Dragons and eventually Thunderbolts, Avengers and more.

It’s fair to say that without Skullkickers I would not have the writing career I do today.


Byron: How did the idea for this special issue of Skullkickers come about? Is it a collection of former materials, all-new story and art, or a combo of both?



Jim Zub: The Skullkickers Super Special is a new 36-page self-contained story done by the original creative team that’s a reunion for old readers and a great way for new readers to see what all the fun is about. If you remember the original Skullkickers stories, that’s great, but you don’t need to have read any of them to get on board with this one-shot special.



Byron: What can readers old and new expect when they pick up the one-shot anniversary special coming from Image? Can you give us a summation of the plot and what our harried heroes will be facing? Will this by chance lead to a return to comics for Skullkickers?



Jim Zub: Skullkickers has always enjoyed bulldozing classic fantasy tropes and this new comic story here is no exception. In our Super Special anniversary tale, we riff on the concept of “magic schools” and magic in fantasy settings in general. When our story begins, Rex and Rolf are infiltrating a magic school called the Academy of Serious Sorcery and Holistic Occult Learning (A.S.S.H.O.L) for their latest job, despite the fact that neither of them have any magical aptitude at all and detest spellcasting as a vocation. Staying in disguise and pulling off their mission is going to be a challenge and, as always, things spiral into entertaining disaster from there.



Byron: Talk about the awesome art of line artist Edwin Huang and colorist Misty Coats.



Jim Zub: Our original Skullkickers art team is back and their skills are as sharp as ever. It’s amazing to see how much we’ve all grown but we can all still slip back into “Skullkickers mode” to deliver the goods. Edwin’s storytelling is even better than before, and Misty brings tons of atmosphere and excitement to every page. It was such a joy to “get the band back together” and build this new story to celebrate the series.



Byron: What can you tell us about the new tabletop role-playing game associated with Skullkickers?



Jim Zub: This new comic story was part of an anniversary Kickstarter I ran in Fall of 2020. In addition to the new comic yarn, we developed a tabletop roleplaying game adventure set in the same ridiculous magic school so gamers could delve the depths of the Academy of Serious Sorcery and discover their own particular brand of trouble. That 200-page book, Caster Bastards and the Great Grotesque, was released as a hardcover to backers earlier this year and is still available via the Tayler Corp. store right here:

https://shop.schlockmercenary.com/collections/zub-stuff
or a digital PDF right here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/397852/SKULLKICKERS-Caster-Bastards-and-the-Great-Grotesque
The Skullkickers Super Special is the first time that non-backers and retailers can get their hands on the comic story. Soooo~ if readers like what’s in the comic and enjoy playing D&D or other fantasy TTRPGs, they should definitely dig deeper and check out the RPG adventure as well.


Byron: This is on a subject as far afield of Skullkickers as you can get, but I had to ask you about a new precedent you are setting. Aren’t you writing Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja? The only other to do this, I believe, is their comics iteration creator, Roy Thomas… but you are doing it for two different companies! Is that correct, and ‘splain?



Jim Zub: It’s true! I’m currently writing Unbreakable Red Sonja, a 6-issue mini-series for Dynamite that launches [this month] and also working on the relaunch of Conan the Barbarian coming from Titan in 2023. Getting the chance to write the two most famous characters in the Hyborian Age at the same time for two different publishers is quite an honor and I couldn’t be happier.



Byron: Jim, what other items are busting forth from the Zubaverse?



Jim Zub: A lot of projects that were delayed from 2020 and 2021 have finally kicked into gear this year so things are bustling. In addition to the Skullkickers Super Special, Unbreakable Red Sonja and Conan the Barbarian, I have:

Thunderbolts, a 5-issue mini-series at Marvel that started in August with Hawkeye leading a team of heroes trying to reform the team name sullied by Baron Zemo and Wilson Fisk.
Murderworld, a series of 5 one-shot specials at Marvel that connect together to tell a twisted tale of Arcade’s ultimate contest with unexpected lethal results. The first part, Murderworld: Avengers, launches in November.
Rick and Morty VS Cthulhu, a new crossover mini-series published by Oni Press with artist Troy Little where we pit Rick Sanchez and the Smith family against H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous creations, the ultimate contest of Nihilism Vs Narcissism. That launches in December.
Lots of fun stuff underway.

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Jim Zub for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. The Skullkickers Super Special one-shot from Image Comics is slated to be on sale November 9th!



For more news and up-to-date announcements, join us here at Dynamic Forces, www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/, “LIKE” us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dynamicforcesinc, and follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/dynamicforces.

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