Jim Zub

I love this comic! Funny as hell, exciting, wonderfully written, marvelously drawn, and a lot deeper than the premise would lead one to suspect. I wasn't familiar with the comic, or with Jim Zub, until some web comic (Schlock Mercenary, perhaps?) provided a link to where it's been republished on the web, 3 comic pages per week. Well, I started at the beginning, read up as far as they'd gotten, and I've kept up ever since. Some web comics I'm happy to just read for a while and then forget show more about. Others, like this was for me, are so good that I feel a need to give the author money in some way. When I saw that this book (and volume 2) were available, I snapped them up. And I was happy to read through these stories again.

Volume 2 is up on the (many!) shelves full of unread books at my house; I'm saving it for when I need some laugh-out-loud satisfaction. Or when I get my hands on Treasure Trove Volume 3. Whichever is first. Awesome stuff. show less

This seventh collection of the Heroic Signatures Conan the Barbarian comic begins with issue #25, which is a stand-alone story "The Nomad" featuring a magical visitation to King Conan, supplying a challenge clothed in images of retrospection. The callbacks to known benchmarks from Conan's career felt sort of like a Simpsons "clips" show, but there was no cheaping out here. Jim Zub's original narrative framing and ultimate moral are adroit, and Alex Horley's art in painted oils (also featured show more on the cover) is terrific.

The remaining three issues of the collection are the serial "The Conquering Crown," which covers events never written by REH as a story in themselves, but often referenced and necessary to Conan's biographical arc. The L. Sprague de Camp pastiche novel Conan the Liberator attempted to cover this particular timespan, but Zub does not appear to have relied on it. These three chapters give an account of the downfall of King Numedides of Aquilonia and Conan's ascent to the throne.

The art for "The Conquering Crown" is by Fernando Dagnino, who has definitely hit his stride in depicting Conan and his world. It did not have Horley's painted colors, so it had more of a "comic book" feel to it, but the illustrations were dynamic and persuasive. Page layouts rarely used conventional gutters, and panels spilled across the pages in a rush of action.

I could pick nits. There was one moment in the third chapter where Conan pulled an arrow out of his own shoulder without remark and didn't even seem annoyed by it. Zub was good about focusing on the canonical concepts from Howard for this crucial segment, but he did succumb to referencing "Black Stone Magic" of his own invention at the climax of the conflict with Numedides.

Pulp fantasy historian Jeffrey Shanks continues his end notes regarding the source literature, and the nature of this book's contents makes for unusually axial concerns in his essays here. "Behind the Blood" is four pages of Horley sketches and Dagnino character designs. The covers gallery is kind of silly, with anywhere from five to thirteen variant covers for each issue, shown nine or ten to a page. The next arc will continue with Conan's reign, if the big old "TO BE CONTINUED ..." after issue #28 is any evidence.

It was going to be hard to measure up to some of the work done on the Dark Horse Conan comics from the first decade of the 21st century. But this series has been very solid, with Zub's writing demonstrating a good mixture of invention and fidelity to the pulp-era stories, and an impressive series of artists who also often manage to evoke and surpass some of the finest moods of the 20th-century Marvel Conan and Savage Sword comics. show less

This is the second volume in the Skullkickers Treasure Trove series and collects issues 12-23 of the Skullkickers comics series and includes some additional Tavern Tales at the end of the book.

Our heroes (or anti-heros) have escaped lynching by hopping on a boat full of female pirates. Little did they know that onboard is another Thool egg (and the pretty female elf that caused a heap of trouble in book one). We are treated to a journey into the past which shows us how Rex got his awesome show more gun and a huge battle on the seven seas when the Thool gets out of control. Then our heroes crash into a kind of abandoned island where they find yet another evil Thool egg.

I feel like in this volume the series really hits its stride; the humor was more consistent and well done than in the first volume. There are some arguments between the narrators that are pretty funny (if a bit corny as well).

As with the first Treasure Trove volume there is a lot of action and violence and humor. The whole thing is very tongue in cheek and pays homage to classic fantasy role-playing games everywhere.

I really enjoyed the journey back in time to see where Rex got his gun; this was well done and added some depth to the story. This little aside also provides some backstory as to why Rex is able to talk to nature.

The illustration is fairly cartoonish which isn’t my favorite style of illustration, but there is enough detail that I enjoyed it alright. I loved the full and vibrant colors throughout. The illustration was easy to follow and the characters are easy to distinguish from each other.

Overall this was a good continuation of the Skullkickers series. I enjoyed the action, the fantasy theme, and all the goofy humor. This is a pretty violent graphic novel, so you have been warned. I still enjoy the Rat Queen’s series more, but this has been a consistently good and light-hearted fantasy themed graphic novel series as well. I would recommend to those who enjoy humorous fantasy graphic novels. I will probably check out Treasure Trove 3 when it releases in October of 2015. show less

This is volume three of Zub's "Black Stone" storyline of Conan comics, and while I haven't read the previous two volumes, it doesn't really matter - I'd guess he's had to fight wizards and monsters, flexing his "mighty thews"💪🏼 and killing anyone and anything within reach of his sword 🗡️

That said, it's exactly what I want from a Conan comic, and - Bonus! This one sees him cast back in time 80,000 years to Valusia and an encounter with Kull of Atlantis!
Further fan service with an show more appearance by Yag-Kosha, the elephant-headed alien from Robert E. Howard's original Conan story, "The Tower of the Elephant".

All told, an excellent (if at one point gratuitously sexist) adventure, and I hope my library has more in this series. show less