Jim Zub, known for his work on titles like Conan, Avengers, and Thunderbolts, on the launch of his upcoming crowdfunding campaign for Skullkickers: The Digest Edition. This campaign, set to launch on the Zoop platform on today, is a fantastic opportunity for both new and returning fans to experience Zub’s action-packed, genre-crashing story in a fresh and cost-effective format.
Zub has long been a respected figure in the comic book world, not only for his prolific writing but also for his transparency and openness about the business side of independent publishing. Through his blog, he’s shared real-world insights and figures, providing valuable resources for aspiring creators. With Skullkickers: The Digest Edition, Zub is once again innovating, adapting his popular series into a digest-sized format inspired by the classic DC Digest model. with his goal to bring in new readers while offering longtime fans a chance to enjoy the adventures of Skullkickers at a more accessible price.
With its mix of action, comedy, and swords & sorcery, Skullkickers tells the wild story of three mercenaries wreaking havoc in their search for fame and fortune. To dive deeper into the project and its evolution, we reached out to Jim Zub for an exclusive interview to learn more about the inspiration behind this new edition and what fans can expect from the upcoming campaign!
DIEGO HIGUERA: If you’d like to introduce yourself real quick, I’m sure a lot of people know you are but its great for the readers.
JIM ZUB:No for Sure, no problem. So my name is Jim Zub. Sounds crazy to say that I’m a 20 plus year veteran of the comic book industry and probably known best in comic writing. A big reason why people know my work is thanks to Skullkickers, which was a creator-owned comic series that launched in 2010. It’s an action comedy sword and sorcery story. A lot of people know my work now from Dungeons & Dragons and Conan the Barbarian, but all of that fed from Skullkickers, and a lot of people have not had a chance to read it, so thanks to the power of Zoop, we are bringing it back in a brand new format, so people can dive in and get the original Zub sword and sorcery.
HIGUERA: Original Zub sword and sorcery that is for sure a quote that is going in there.
ZUB: It’s true! It’s crazy, I’ve worked on so many different, fantasy and supernatural properties – Pathfinder, Samurai Jack, obviously Wayward was the other creator-owned series I did that had a real supernatural bent. I’ve always loved magic stuff. I love fantasy. I love those kinds of characters in the Marvel Universe and DC and everywhere else, but all that fed from my love of the genre. And Skullkickers was the first, my creator-owned breakout hit. I did other stuff before that, I did a web comic in the early 2000s but that was a different thing. This was the first, for lack of a better term, mainstream book I did, because it was released through Image Comics. So it was me, the artist, Edwin Huang, colorist Misty Coats, and the original designer and cover artist Chris Stevens, and we did that series over four and a half years with six story arcs, 34 issues in total. Over the years, it’s been out there, and I’ve always had it there and slowly but surely, some of the books have fallen out of print, and we finally decided “Okay, we’ve got to bring this to a new audience.
The best way to do that, we’ve been looking at the different possibilities and really that manga form factor along with the compact DC books really inspired me, so let’s do that. Let’s get that out there to a brand new readership, and bookstores and libraries and comic shops.
Higuera: That’s actually something I wanted to get into as well. Skull kickers has always embraced a fun, over-the-top style that blends fantasy action with comedy. I think the closest comparison—at least from that time—would probably be Rat Queens.
ZUB: Rat Queens launched a few years later. Yeah, we pre-dated Rat Queens. It was funny because that was the other fantasy book around the same time. They took more of an adult spin and we took a little bit more of a PG ridiculous sort of approach. The way I describe the book now is it’s like Dungeons & Dragons by way of Deadpool. It’s always irreverent, over the top. We know the genre and we’re playing with all tropes and steamrolling them at every turn. That’s what it felt like when I was a kid playing Dungeons & Dragons with my older brother. We were not the heroes of legend. We were not the greatest. We were not Lawful Good Paladins doing the right thing at the right moment. We were always causing chaos and trying to get gold and just being big goons, and that was where a lot of the fun lay for me in playing the game. I wanted to make a series that reflected that bombast and ridiculousness in all those different ways.
Higuera: I mean, what D&D campaign ever goes according to plan?
ZUB: That’s what’s great—the randomness of the dice creates its own chaos. But then you’re playing with your friends, so there’s inevitably ludicrousness, inside jokes piling up, and that shared energy. I wanted to capture that spirit and put it into my comic.
Originally, Chris Stevens and I did two stories for The Popgun Anthology at Image. They were these irreverent little tales—the first one was called Two Copper Pieces, and the second was Gotcha. Both followed two fantasy mercenary idiots in these short, self-contained adventures. Those stories ended up catching the attention of Erik Larsen, who was publisher at Image at the time. He really enjoyed them and asked Chris and I if we wanted to do more, which eventually led to what was originally going to be a mini-series.
At the time, Image was going through a creative revolution. The Walking Dead was in production as a TV show, and there was this growing excitement about creator-owned books—this sense of ‘Hey, anything can happen.’ A whole new generation of creators were emerging, with books like Chew and Morning Glories making waves. Those books were selling out print runs and there was this hunger for fresh, different ideas. But there weren’t really any fantasy books on the market then—certainly not fantasy comedy books. Chew was a comedy, sure, but a fantasy-comedy hybrid like Skullkickers? That wasn’t something out there much at the time.
That wasn’t why I made it, though—I didn’t do it to fill a niche. I did it because I wanted to create something fun to read. We got a bit of momentum and it was just a really, really fun ride. Each issue was a way to prove I could tell a story, meet regular deadlines, and put together a professional-quality book that could stand alongside anything else on the shelves. And Skullkickers transformed my career. Without it, none of the other opportunities would have happened—no Dungeons & Dragons, no Samurai Jack, none of my Marvel work. It was the book that showed people that I had something to bring to the table.
HIGUERA: No, no, that’s honestly a fantastic way to put it. I mean, I know fans are opening the first issue, for the first time and the very first thing they see is that fat werewolf—and they’re fighting outside a bar. That is exactly what a campaign feels like.
ZUB: Yeah, those first six pages are kind of our Raiders of the Lost Ark cold open, you know? Here’s what you’re going to get—irreverent action, silliness, over-the-top violence, and ridiculousness. We wanted to hit the ground running. You’re dropped right into the story, you don’t need a lot of information. These two goons are mercs, they’re going to kill monsters, and it’s going to be fun and inventive.
HIGUERA: I know the comics had “100” issues but not really could you explain the process behind that?
ZUB: Yeah, we didn’t actually do 100 issues. We called it the 100th issue. We did 34 issues but we labeled the 34th issue as #100 because we were making fun of a lot of industry trends at the time. For example, in our fourth arc, we released five new #1 issues because everyone seemed to be doing #1 relaunches back then. I somehow convinced Eric Stephenson at Image that we should put out a new #1 every month and issue a press release each time, as if we were constantly relaunching. It actually drove our sales up because everyone was talking about it.
Then, for the final issue, we went from issue 33 straight to issue 100. That was around the time Marvel and DC were playing around with legacy numbering—where they’d stretch the math to make it seem like a book had hit a big milestone. They’d add up every mini-series, annual, special, and one-shot just to justify calling it, say, issue 400. So I figured, screw it, I want to end on a big number. We had a joke in the middle about a bunch of time passing, and we just ripped everything along to the finish line. It felt in line with our sarcastic take on the whole industry.
But yeah—issues 1 through 33, plus #100, will all be included in this collection.
HIGUERA: That’s actually what I was about to say too, because, I mean, you have so much to pick and choose from. I know you’re going to include everything, but I wanted to ask—what inspired you to revisit the series in this new digest format, and how do you think it will appeal to new readers?
ZUB: It’s two things. First of all, some of the middle volumes had fallen out of print, and that creates an awkward situation. Do you reprint just volume four? Retailers are not keeping up with the series anymore. So if we were going to do it, we needed to take a different approach. There was some talk about doing a big, fat omnibuses, and while I love those books—they look beautiful on a shelf—they’re a huge pain in the ass to read. You put one of these giant, dictionary-sized books on your lap, and suddenly, you’re not actually enjoying reading it. It looks great on display, but it’s not the kind of book you’re going to pass to a friend.
The reality is, I think DC has the compact format figured out. The manga format is what new readers are into—it’s the right size, the right price point. Skullkickers has beautiful animation-influenced artwork, and it will read really well at that size. It’s a complete story, so readers can get everything they need. Releasing it in a format that plays to those strengths gives us the best chance of reaching a new audience and showing them that we have a really cool series that came out 15 years ago! And we can take advantage of the fact that more people are playing Dungeons & Dragons than ever before. Baldur’s Gate is massive, Game of Thrones was the biggest thing on TV. So much fantasy media has exploded since Skullkickers launched and I’ve done so much sword-and-sorcery stuff—I’ve written more D&D comics than anyone else, and I’m the current flagship writer of Conan the Barbarian. It’s an easy sell: ‘Has this guy done anything else?’ Damn right, I have! I have this cool, original, creator-owned series from 15 years ago that should be on your radar.
Then people ask, ‘Well, how do I get it?’ And I have to say, ‘Well… it’s kind of out of print.’ So let’s fix that. Let’s get it into readers’ hands in the best, most accessible format possible. That’s how all the pieces came together.
HIGUERA: That’s fantastic. You know, it’s funny—I actually wanted to follow up on that because I reported on the Comic-Con for the D&D 25th Anniversary panel you were a part of. You’re very upfront, and to me, you come across as a vocal advocate for creator transparency in comics publishing. And that’s a great point—compendiums are cool, they look nice on a shelf, but they can be really overwhelming to new readers trying to get to actually read.
ZUB: Exactly! They’re amazing on a shelf to look at. People love taking photos of their collection and showing it off. But then you ask, ‘Do you actually read them?’ and they go, ‘Well…sometimes.’ And when they do, they have to be careful because they don’t want to break the spine. It’s heavy, it’s unwieldy. I make books to be read. I want people talking about them. Don’t get me wrong—I know collectability is part of the industry. Variant covers, CGC grading, all that stuff—it’s fine. But at the end of the day, what’s between the covers is what matters to me. I made stories to be read. So the question is: How do I get this into as many hands as possible? How do I make it affordable, accessible, and something people will actually enjoy reading?
HIGUERA: 100%. Actually, that leads into something else I wanted to ask. You’re really open about the business side of comics for aspiring creators. You’ve worked with traditional publishers, crowdfunding, and now platforms like Zoop. What insights have you gained from Zoop compared to traditional publishing or previous crowdfunding campaigns, especially with the way they’re handling things now?”
ZUB: Yes, I did a Kickstarter in 2021 for the 10th anniversary of Skullkickers. It was a lot of fun. We created a special book that was basically a brand-new Skullkickers story but also a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure you could role-play through with your friends. It was a way to celebrate both my love of D&D and Skullkickers. It was a blast, and I’m glad I did it. But man, crowdfunding is a lot of work! When you work with a publisher they handle things like editorial, production, graphic design, and all of that. At Image, it’s a more open platform where you can do more of that yourself, but they still manage things like printing and distribution. That takes a ton of time.
In crowdfunding, you have your most ardent fans—people who are the most dedicated to your work—and they’re putting their money upfront, trusting that you’ll deliver what you said you would. You’ve got to take that seriously because if you fail them, those are the fans who have supported you the most, and you’d be letting them down. That’s why a platform like Zoop is so great. They take care of all those logistics, and they’ve got a well-tuned system. They’ve done this many times before and they have the contacts to get everything done and delivered. That takes a lot of stress off my plate and lets me focus on the promotion and the creative side—the stuff I do best.
Kickstarter is amazing; it’s been transformative for so many industries, especially independent comics and gaming. But it’s a whole system—like running a miniature business. Thankfully, I’m at a point in my career where I’m busy enough that I don’t have time to manage all of that. So teaming up with others who do it better than I do makes the whole process easier and ensures that the final product will be better. It guarantees that those people entrusting their money to the project will get what they paid for.
It’s wild, right? The great thing now is that we’re not promising something that hasn’t been produced. It’s just a format change, but the content is all there. I have all the print files ready to go. It’s just a matter of doing some graphic design, putting together new covers, deciding on how we’ll present the chapter breaks, title pages, and credit pages. It’s a lot of work, but it’s not the hardest stuff. The toughest part was already done—we made a series, it was popular, and we had a lot of fun doing it. Now, it’s just about getting it out to a new audience.
Every creative project is like a time capsule of who you were when you made it. I remember exactly where I was when I was making Skullkickers, especially the first few issues. Without trying to sound dramatic, I can even pinpoint who I was back then. One of the craziest things is that when issue two came out, it was the same month I got married. We were finalizing wedding plans while I was trying to get this brand-new creator-owned book out the door. It was one of the most stressful and amazing times of my life. It was a new chapter in both my personal and creative life, and they were both moving forward at the same time. The fact that we pulled it off is incredible, and now, 15 years later, my career is in such an amazing place. The things I’ve worked on and the people I’ve collaborated with have made it even more special.
HIGUERA: I know we touched on this a little while ago, but I wanted to ask a bit more about it. You mentioned that the DC digest format was a staple of many readers’ early comic experiences. What drew you to this format for Skullkickers, and do you see this as a viable model for more creator-owned projects in the future?
ZUB: Yeah, I just think that we’ve got to be honest with ourselves—the standard floppy is totally valid and works in comic book shops, but in bookstores right now, and particularly with younger readers, that manga trade dress, that format, is killing it. It’s the right price point, and the amount of material they’re getting in one volume feels hefty. It’s what the readership is looking for. So, it may or may not be the format for new stories, but there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t reprint stuff in that format. Especially with the kind of artwork Skullkickers has—a nice open, animated look. It’s colorful and vibrant, and pops really well. The action is clear. It just marries itself well to that format. I think it’s going to make for a really nice package.
And what we want to do is have that manga-style trade format, but because we’re doing this crowdfunding campaign, we’re going to make it extra special. The cover is going to have some really nice treatments, and we’re going to have a slipcase that you can get. So, we’ll have the complete series in a nice slipcase format in three volumes. There will also be all kinds of extras you can only do in a crowdfunding campaign—original artwork, sketches, and signatures. You can just get the books, buy it for yourself, or get it for someone else as a gift. Buy it for the D&D fan in your life or the Conan the Barbarian fan who may have never read this stuff, or you can make it extra special, get it signed, get limited edition prints or sketches, so you’ve got something more unique.
That’s what’s cool. It’s something we can do that regular books just can’t. If you order a book off Amazon, sure, you can get it cheap. But mine’s signed, or mine’s one of a kind. And you know that the money is supporting this project directly. Those are unique things we can do and we need to do. It’s more than just getting this thing out cheap. We can make it both accessible and a nice looking finished package.
HIGUERA: Skullkickers has often been compared to Deadpool meets Dungeons and Dragons, like you mentioned. With your extensive experience writing both D&D comics and superhero stories, how did your approach to writing Skullkickers differ from those other projects?
ZUB: It was one of my earliest books. It was sort of like figuring out what I like, how I like pacing a story, how I like working with an artist, collaborating with them—all the skills that I would later use on future projects to be a better writer. I figured those out on Skullkickers. Thankfully, I had someone like Edwin Huang, who’s such a phenomenal artist. He was really young in his career, just getting started out of school, and we were both full of excited energy and figuring it all out.
I think one of the weirdest things about writing a comedy book is trying to explain jokes in your script. You’re trying to tell the artist, “This is what’s going to make it funny.” We need this moment to be exaggerated or violent, or cartoonishly over-the-top. This moment-to-moment transition will be funny if barely anything moves, except for this one horrific, violent thing. It’s almost like you’re taking the humor out by explaining the joke, but it comes back in when the art arrives. If that makes sense.
When you read the script for a Skullkickers issue, it’s the strangest thing because I’m explaining funny stuff in a very technical manner to make sure Edwin gets the joke. It’s like choreographing the dance moves, you know? If we do it right, it looks really elegant and it’s funny, but when you read the technical notes, it doesn’t sound funny. I think it will be if I imagine it in my head.
And sometimes Edwin was like, “I don’t get it.” And I’m like, “I know, but just keep drawing the same thing at the bottom of every page, and it’ll be funny by the time we get to the end.” And he’s like, “Okay, man. This is the 18th or 19th issue, I trust you.” We do the whole issue, and it’s one of the best gags. People have said over the years, “Man, it’s so funny.” but at the time, Edwin was like, “I’m just confused. I don’t know why we’re doing this.” I said, “It’s okay. It’ll work.” It’s like when you’re filming something and you tell people, “We’ll fix it in post. It’s gonna be great in the edit. You’re gonna love it.” Just trust me, bro. There were so many jokes that we did, and some things I didn’t realize would be as funny as they were until we saw the artwork. Then I was like, “Oh, not only is that a good gag, but we can do that again in a different way a few issues later. The same, but weirder.” And so, the scripts got weirder. The further we went in the series, we started doing more callbacks to ourselves. We’d be like, “Oh, this is that joke from issue two, but now we’ve inverted it,” or “Now it takes on a whole new meaning.” That’s what made it so fun. The book was kind of my calling card and I always assumed I would do more comedy books, but then I got into Marvel and all these other publishers, and they wanted me to do standard superhero stuff or more dramatic storytelling. I can do that too, and I love it, but every so often I throw in goofy things, and I think the editors are surprised. They forgot that I started with Skullkickers. There’s always something irreverent and dumb rolling around in the back of my mind.
HIGUERA: No, that’s fantastic! And you’ve answered a lot of my other questions too. Now, with your work across some of the biggest franchises, like Avengers, but also championing your own creator-owned works, what advice would you give to writers balancing these projects with their own original stories?
ZUB: Honestly, I love doing both. It’s like flexing different creative muscles. Working on established properties is exciting because you get to play with the toys and contribute to lore. It’s thrilling to tell people, “I’m writing the Avengers,” or “I’m writing Iron Man,” or whatever. But with creator-owned stuff, there are no rules. You’re unleashing your biggest, broadest ideas, and those ideas are often what people love about you. When people tell me that Skullkickers or Wayward got them back into comics, I feel so fortunate because those books wouldn’t exist without me coming up with them and collaborating with amazing artists. But when you’re working on a big franchise, eventually the baton gets handed off to someone else. With creator-owned work, you hold onto the baton. It’s yours. It’s your vision. Even if it’s not the most commercially successful, it’s creatively fulfilling, and that’s worth celebrating.
HIGUERA: Lastly, any last things you want readers to know about what’s coming up or releasing?
ZUB: Well, we’re working on a Skullkickers animated series, and now this Zoop launch is coming up soon. I’m excited about that! If you’ve read the series before but don’t have a copy, now is the time. It’s going to be a great gift for anyone who loves fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, Conan, or just chaos. If you know someone who’s into Critical Role, they’ll love this series. We predated all that, and I think it holds up to anything out there now. The audience for fantasy is bigger than it’s ever been.
With his innovative approach to crowdfunding and a fresh take on a beloved series, Jim Zub is sure to bring even more excitement to Skullkickers fans, old and new alike, as the campaign kicks off on Zoop!
