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Post by hun on Jan 14, 2024 12:25:39 GMT -5
Excerpt from Jim Zub's blog concerning the challenges writing his 1st Conan short story “Sacrifice in the Sand” for SSoC#1: A Savage StorySpeaking of challenges, this week I finalized my prose piece for Savage Sword of Conan #1. Marinating in Robert E. Howard’s famous fiction before I tried to rock out a short story of my own for the Cimmerian was suitably humbling, in all kinds of good ways. Summoning a scene without an artist to make me look good is a much different prospect and flexes a whole different set of creative muscles.I have never taken any formal writing classes. I did a swack of Creative Writing in high school and learned some script writing when I took a year of Film & Multimedia before I started Classical Animation, but the rest of my ‘training’ has been reading about the craft and putting my own work out into the world; improving story by story and project by project. With my art background, the visual rhythm of animation and comics make the most sense to me. They’re where I feel most comfortable. I love the visual medium and love collaborating with artists.Stripping everything back to the primacy of prose exposes a lot more of my imposter syndrome. I struggle to quiet that inner critic because I can’t point at the great art and tell it to shut up. It’s just my words sitting out there exposed on the page and either it grabs the reader’s imagination or it doesn’t.I can write emails, blogposts, tutorials, curriculum, critique, pitches, ad copy, art notes, informal descriptions, and dialogue aplenty but, you know, that’s not ‘real’ writing. That’s not the power of the written word to weave worlds of wonder.I wrote a Conan short story and, this time, it’s just me.It’s very pulpy and punchy and I like it, even though it felt strange as a process. (Not bad, mind you, just strange.) People who edit this stuff for a living have read it and liked it and I’m being paid for it, so either they’re all lying because they don’t want to hurt my feelings, or I did okay.It’s called “Sacrifice in the Sand”, it’s based on Joe Jusko’s gorgeous cover art and, when the big first issue of our mighty magazine hits stores in late February, readers get to decide if it hit the mark or not.Either way, let me know.Link: www.jimzub.com/zubby-newsletter-44-pull-the-ripcord/Jim's being refreshingly humble.
Look forward to reading it.
I agree.
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Post by hun on Jan 16, 2024 14:54:12 GMT -5
Patch Zircher on writing the icon Solomon Kane in ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ AIPT: You’re helping kick off The Savage Sword of Conan, a truly iconic series. Did you read it growing up? Any favorite memories from the magazine?
Patch Zircher: Oh, absolutely! I bought about 90 issues of Savage Sword over the years. Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga’s adaptation of “Beyond the Black River” always comes to mind. I loved John and Tony’s artistic collaboration. A very atmospheric, shadow-browed, and chiseled Conan.
AIPT: You’re tackling a Solomon Kane story. What sort of tale might we expect?
PZ: I wanted to begin early in Solomon Kane’s life so the first story, “Master of the Hunt,” takes place before he has adventures outside the British Isles. Wales specifically. It’s a story rich in Welsh mythology but also one that establishes the kind of hero Kane is.
AIPT: In your opinion, what makes Solomon Kane stand out?
PZ: Kane is the OG for a lot of characters that have followed in his wake, the hero cloaked in black who pits himself against supernatural forces, reflected in a variety of heroes from the Shadow to the Witcher. Yet it’s his faith that may separate Kane most from other heroes. Though he isn’t sermonic he does believe and he struggles to reconcile his belief with the evil he finds in the world. AIPT: Would you agree Solomon Kane walked so that Conan could run (Since he came first!)?PZ: Hmm. Not exactly. While everything an author writes affects their later work, Robert E. Howard’s Kull is closer to Conan than Kane is. Kane and Conan are fearless fighters but they have different codes of conduct. Solomon Kane is, I think, created out of Howard’s love of [Alexandre] Dumas’ Musketeers, especially Athos, and Sabatini’s Captain Blood and the Sea Hawk.AIPT: What might surprise fans most about your story?PZ: I hope, the humanity of it. In addition to the action and horror, Kane is a multi-dimensional character, confronted with temptation, doubt, and capable of caring.AIPT: If your story was a song, what would it be and why?PZ: Ha! I have two; Nick Cave’s “The Weeping Song,” with a community huddled in terror and Solomon Kane in search of a lost child at the behest of his mother, Cave’s somber “tavern” song fits like a glove. he other, Johnny Cash’s “The Man in Black”, is appropriate to Kane’s persona in general. Cave and Cash, it’s no wonder I love this character.Link: aiptcomics.com/2024/01/16/patch-zircher-the-savage-sword-of-conan/
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Post by Von K on Jan 16, 2024 20:31:18 GMT -5
Thanks Hun! Great to see Patch Zircher on Kane at last. Will be interesting to see a younger Kane a the start of his wanderings.
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Post by salant on Jan 23, 2024 20:56:44 GMT -5
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Post by Monster on Feb 14, 2024 15:52:29 GMT -5
As expected, Savage Sword of Conan #1 is delayed.
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Post by salant on Feb 14, 2024 19:03:59 GMT -5
As expected, Savage Sword of Conan #1 is delayed. Hmm, I see that and CTB #8 are NOT listed on Diamond Distributing's PREVIEWSworld's New Releases for 2/28/24. But it does also say "NOTE: This list of Premier Publisher titles is tentative and subject to change." The individual issue listings still say the 28th ... but that happened last time ... and the time before, until a day or 2 before their release date then. Did you get your info from another source?
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Post by Monster on Feb 14, 2024 22:03:11 GMT -5
Savage Sword was supposed to be 2/21.
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Post by salant on Feb 15, 2024 7:12:59 GMT -5
Savage Sword was supposed to be 2/21. Everything I've seen since the official solicit said 28th. Can you source your info? Post a link to where it's from?
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Post by hun on Feb 15, 2024 12:51:11 GMT -5
Savage Sword was supposed to be 2/21. Everything I've seen since the official solicit said 28th. Can you source your info? Post a link to where it's from? Could be some confusion, the original solicitation for CtB 8 was the 21st of February, it is now the 28th. I dunno if that means both books will come out then though, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Link to solicitation: bleedingcool.com/comics/conan-doctor-who-rebel-moon-in-titan-comics-february-2024-solicits/
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Post by Monster on Feb 15, 2024 18:05:34 GMT -5
Savage Sword was supposed to be 2/21. Everything I've seen since the official solicit said 28th. Can you source your info? Post a link to where it's from?
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Post by danieljames495 on Feb 15, 2024 18:11:16 GMT -5
Yeah. I also heard 21st
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Post by salant on Feb 15, 2024 18:28:43 GMT -5
Well, as Hun directly linked, it was CTB that was solicited as the 21st. SSOC #1 right from solicit was the 28th. Now both are listed individually on Diamond Distributing's PREVIEWSWORLD site as the 28th, and have been for weeks. But the possible problem is that neither are on the TENTATIVE New Releases list for the 28th.
So, we'll see ... yet again.
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Post by kemp on Feb 16, 2024 5:33:48 GMT -5
So just to stay on the safe side we can say with some near certainty that it will most definitely happen by early March kinda.
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Post by garbanzo on Feb 16, 2024 6:18:49 GMT -5
If it is delayed, I will wait.
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Post by danieljames495 on Feb 16, 2024 14:52:58 GMT -5
If it is delayed, I will wait. True. I have no problem waiting longer for quality output
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