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| Author Jim Zub |
David: After your short story in Savage Sword #1, you went the other direction and did a poem [“Call Thee To Crom”] in Savage Sword #3.
Jim: Yeah, after I met that challenge, Chris Butera [at Heroic Signatures] was like “All right, we’ve got another one for you.” They [Marvel’s Savage Sword magazine] would do these old war poems. Howard actually wrote over 200 poems! Most of them weren’t published in his lifetime. He was constantly playing with lyricism, the way words interplay, and with the visuals they summon in your mind. I thought, “I've never done this before. I've written short fiction and I've written prose. I've never done poetry. Wow, I'm really stepping into it trying to make this work!”
I'm sure [in terms of] hours versus output--because it's so short--I don't even want to imagine how much time I spent playing words back and forth and trying to get a flow to it while also summoning up a little statement about what it is to be a warrior and the sacrifices in battle and all that kind of stuff. And then, when you've got the artwork of Roberto de la Torre you can't really lose. The guy’s phenomenal. And it just has that feel. It [Rob’s art] summons that Bronze Age energy so effortlessly. Although I'm sure he would tell you it's not effortless, right?
The Savage Sword Of Conan #3 Cover A
David: Oh yeah, he does an incredible job.
Jim: It's stunning work.
David: Both he and the other artist.
Jim: Doug Braithwaite, yeah. They're both wonderful to work with, and it pushes me to live up to that. The visuals that they're putting on the page! Like, if they're putting out their best, how could I do anything less than put my heart into it? I think the readers really feel when they're reading along that we love this stuff. That this is bone deep. Sometimes when you're finished with something you can be too precious, and you don't want to push too hard. You're like, “Well I don't want to break it.” And then you're like, “Man, Conan’s tough. You can push him real hard!” We can do all sorts of crazy stuff!
David: That's kind of what you did though with Savage Sword #2. In your comic story [“Leaving The Garden”] you kind of broke him. Conan was so vulnerable and reliant.
Jim: Yeah, I love those stories where the characters are wounded and fighting on. That's a very Howardian thing. Robert E Howard’s characters fight to the finish. They'll die on their morality. I really wanted that feeling that Conan is broken, that he’s a wounded animal. How far can we push that with you still believing he could come out the other side? With all these characters, these icons, we know that whatever happens, they're going to continue onwards. But in the moment, I want you to doubt. I need you to doubt to keep turning those pages.
David: I like the notion of him having a social conscience in the first story [“Sacrifice In The Sand,” Jim’s prose story in The Savage Sword Of Conan #1] and then with this story he's telling the boy, “You don't have to embrace this way of life.”
The Savage Sword Of Conan #2 Cover A
Jim: Not only that. There’s the boy [Pesach’s son] who dies in the opening pages [of “Leaving The Garden” in The Savage Sword Of Conan #2]. That boy wants Conan to tell him his [life] stories and Conan never gets the chance to tell them to him. Then Conan gets the chance to tell this other boy [Tarif], only to lose him. It’s the tragic, cyclical nature of conflict. Yeah, those are fun and interesting things to explore as well.
I wish we could have spent more time discussing Jim Zub's terrific story in The Savage Sword Of Conan #2. While we mentioned Roberto De La Torre and Doug Braithwaite, the artists who contribute interior art to Titan's Conan The Barbarian series, many more worthy artists contribute to the success of Savage Sword. In my next post, we'll be shifting the discussion to Jim's stories in the Conan The Barbarian series.
Thanks again to Titan Comics for arranging my interview with Jim Zub, and the press office at Comic-Con International for granting me the opportunity to speak with the author bringing Conan back to comic readers! I'll share more of this interview soon!
For more on Jim's poem "Call Thee To Crom" see my review of Savage Sword of Conan #3.
For more on Jim's comic story "Leaving The Garden" see my review of Savage Sword #2.
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