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.

Rick and Morty has finally reached the final episode of Season 6's memorable run, and the series has given fans the first look at how it will all come to an end with a trailer teasing a big Christmas special finale!

Season 6 has been an interesting season to see unfold as the Smith Family has been changing ever so slightly as their characters have been challenged in different kinds of ways thus far. It's gotten many fans wondering just how this season could come to an end, and it appropriately looks like it might involve the entire family. (via ComicBook.com)

Tune into Adult Swim on Sunday, December 11th at 11:00 PM to catch the final episode of Rick and Morty Season 6, "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation".

Trailer: https://twitter.com/i/status/1599622689856966656

“Skinamarink,” a microbudget horror film that has received buzz online after debuting at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, has been acquired by horror streamer Shudder and will receive a theatrical run via IFC Midnight, starting Jan. 13, Variety reports. It will debut on Shudder later in 2023.

“I’m thrilled that after months of keeping it secret, I can finally tell everyone that my weird movie is going to be in theaters and on Shudder,” Kyle Edward Ball, who wrote, produced and directed “Skinamarink,” said.

Per the official synopsis, “Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. To cope with the strange situation, the two bring pillows and blankets to the living room and settle into a quiet slumber party situation. They play well worn videotapes of cartoons to fill the silence of the house and distract from the frightening and inexplicable situation. All the while in the hopes that eventually some grown-ups will come to rescue them. However, after a while it becomes clear that something is watching over them.”

The film stars Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul and Jaime Hill. It’s executive produced by Edmon Rotea, Ava Karvonen, Bonnie Lewis, Alan Lewis, Josh Doke and Jonathan Barkan.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/cXSUy7oExu8

Paramount Pictures has released a new featurette for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the upcoming big screen adaptation of the hit board game from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, SFFGazette.com reports.

In the featurette, we get to see how the cast embarks on an adventure and are treated to plenty of new footage from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves along the way.

In the movie, a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

The impressive cast includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is set to arrive in theaters on March 3, 2023.

Featurette: https://twitter.com/i/status/1599765715883474945

The pack is back and the wolves are howling once again.

The newly-released trailer for Teen Wolf: The Movie reveals the return of the wolfpack, Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and his long-lost, not-so-dead lover, Allison Argent (Crystal Reed).

Written and produced by Jeff Davis, the movie, a revival of MTV’s Teen Wolf, brings back many of the original stars, including Posey, Reed, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig, Colton Haynes, Ian Bohen, Tyler Hoechlin and Seth Gilliam.

The movie, which was directed by Russell Mulcahy, comes 12 years after the premiere of Teen Wolf on MTV, which ran for six seasons. (via THR)

Teen Wolf: The Movie streams Jan. 26 on Paramount+.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/1y3rflTTjeI

While everyone is still buzzing about Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher after the upcoming third season, Netflix has released the trailer for the four-part The Witcher: Blood Origin spinoff that will include Joey Batey reprising his role as the bard Jaskier. This is likely going to be him telling the story as the tale is set 1200 years before the time of Geralt of Rivia. This will tell the tale of the first, prototype Witcher and will star Sophia Brown, Laurence O’Fuarain, Michelle Yeoh, Mirren Mack, Lenny Henry, Minnie Driver, Francesca Mills, Zach Wyatt, Lizzie Annis and Huw Novelli. The series is set to drop on Christmas Day.     

Amazon Prime Video released a first look trailer for their upcoming The Boys spinoff series Gen V. The very bloody trailer doesn’t give us much about the story, other than it’s set on what appears to be a college like campus for superpowered people (and puppets) run by Vought International. The series will focus on these young, hormonal and competitive Supes as they compete for the schools top ranking all while exploring their physical, sexual and moral limits. The series stars Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Marco Pigossi. It is schedule to air in 2023. 

AMC+ has reversed course and pulled the plug on their dystonic sci-fi series Moonhaven. This news comes four months after the series got renewed for a second season, but AMC Networks has just announced they would be making some major cost-cutting moves as the CEO, Christina Spade, steps down. This includes them laying off 20% of their U.S. staff and doing write downs for up to $475 million in an effort to restructure its business. $400 million is expected to be content-related cuts that the company is calling “strategic programming assessments”. This is a major change of course for Moonhaven that had been considered for a two-season renewal before they decided on a one-season, six-episode return. The show, that focuses on a utopian society on the moon, was their most watched exclusive series. The series, created by Peter Ocko, starred Dominic Monaghan, Emma McDonald, Amara Karan, Ayelet Zurer, Joe Manganiello, Kadeem Hardison and Yazzmin Newell.   

Though insiders consider this a “dull weekend” at the box office, two films did better than expected. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued its dominance at the top of the charts with a $17.59 million haul, $1.5 million above the top end of what was expected in the films fourth weekend. At number two was the new David Harbour, R-rated holiday horror film Violent Night, grabbing $13.3 million after having been projected to do between $10-$12 million. The only film that was comparable to this was 2015’s Krampus which made $16.2 million its opening weekend, but that was a PG-13 film, which opens it up to a larger audience. But overall, movies brought in only $56.4 million for the weekend, making it the eight lowest of the year. Disney’s Strange World continues to disappoint with only $4.9 million in its second weekend, with the horror movie The Menu taking fourth with $3.55 million and Devotion rounding out the top five with $2.8 million. One has to wonder what would have been had Netflix expanded their showings of Glass Onion instead of removing the film from theaters all together. This was their plan, of course, then release it later this month on their streaming service, but the film did incredibly well in a handful of theaters and would’ve likely continued to do so. 

Jonathan Kasdan, creator of the new Willow series, has a desire to return to his other Lucasfilms property, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Kasdan and his father Lawrence co-write Solo, which was directed by Ron Howard who directed the original Willow movie… nice synchronicity there. Kasdan knows that there is fan interest in exploring the area of the Star Wars universe introduced in Solo and thinks maybe they could do something by taking a queue from Marvel. Kasdan told the Hollywood Reporter: “I have been intrigued by the wonderful Werewolf by Night as a potential form of storytelling … So, I would love to see Lucasfilm embrace a short-form novella version for telling some of their stories. That certainly seems like a place where future stories about those characters could live.” The initial reaction to the two Marvel Specials have been extremely positive and we know that Emilia Clarke, who played Qi’ra in Solo has expressed interest in returning to the character, this could be a good way for Kasdan to return to that universe and make fans happy. And maybe get Bryce Dallas Howard to direct so everything comes full circle.