Jim Zub


Jim Zubkavich, known professionally as Jim Zub, is a Canadian comic book writer, artist, and art instructor best known for creating comics Skullkickers, Wayward, and Glitterbomb for Image Comics, writing on the series Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers '', and spearheading the reboot of Conan the Barbarian'' for Titan Comics. As well as writing and creating comics, Zub is the former program co-ordinator and art professor at Toronto's Seneca College.

Early life

Jim Zub is Canadian. He grew up watching Spider-Man cartoons as a kid, and soon after fell in love with comics. He has stated that Stan Lee was a big influence on him, specifically by giving his superheroes flaws.

Career

Jim Zub created his first comic, Makeshift Miracle, in 2001, followed by a nine-year stint at UDON Entertainment as a colorist, illustrator, project manager, writer and editor where he wrote various Street Fighter comic books.
In 2010, Zub launched Skullkickers at Image Comics. A creator-owned sword & sorcery action-comedy, Skullkickers ran for thirty-three issues completing six volumes. The series came to an end in 2015.
In 2013, Zub wrote Samurai Jack comics for IDW and Cartoon Network. Initially intended as one five-issue arc, the comic ran twenty issues, ending in 2015.
In 2014, Zub launched Wayward at Image Comics with art by co-creator Steven Cummings. His first creator-owned book since Skullkickers, Wayward is described as Buffy The Vampire Slayer set in Japan." A teen coming-of-age story injected with Japanese myth and the supernatural. The series spanned 30 issues and six trade paperback volumes before coming to an end on October 31, 2018.
Zub and IDW partnered up for Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur's Gate #1-5 in 2014, followed up by Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows of the Vampire #1-5 in 2016, Dungeons & Dragons: Frost Giant’s Fury #1-5 in 2017, and Dungeons & Dragons: Evil At Baldur’s Gate #1-5 in 2018.
In 2016, Zub and French-Canadian artist Djibril Morissette-Phan launched Glitterbomb at Image Comics, a four-part mini-series about a struggling actress trying to regain fame in a sexist, abusive industry. A second four-part mini-series, Glitterbomb: The Fame Game, launched in 2017.
Zub started writing for Marvel in 2016 with Thunderbolts, followed by Uncanny Avengers in 2017. He created a new hero, villains, and new backstories in the 16-part Avengers: No Surrender in 2018, as well as taking over Champions with #19, and creating a new Canadian Hero, Snowguard. Also in 2018, Zub wrote the four-part Wolverine miniseries, Mystery in Madripoor.
In August of 2018, Zub teamed up with writer Patrick Rothfuss and artist Troy Little to write a Dungeons & Dragons/Rick & Morty crossover mini-series, titled Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1-4. Zub co-wrote, with Sarah Stern and with art by Little, Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Chapter II: Painscape; the follow-up series was published from September to December 2019. The Rick and Morty vs Dungeons and Dragons Deluxe Edition, by Rothfuss, Zub, and Little, was nominated for the 2022 "Best Graphic Album—Reprint" Eisner Award.
In late 2018, it was announced that Zub, along with writers Mark Waid and Al Ewing, would reunite for Avengers: No Road Home, being called a "spiritual successor" to their previous collaboration, Avengers: No Surrender." Art will be done by Paco Medina and Sean Izaakse. The series began in February 2019.
From December 2022 to March 2023, Zub returned to Oni Press to write the Cthulhu Mythos crossover mini-series Rick and Morty vs. Cthulhu #1-4.
Since August 2023, Zub has been the flagship comic writer for Conan the Barbarian, owned by Heroic Signatures and published in English by Titan Comics.

Personal life

Zub and his wife, Stacy King, live in Toronto. In addition to writing comics, from 2004 to 2024 Zub was a professor at Toronto's Seneca College teaching classes in Layout and Design, Character Animation, and Animation History.

Awards and nominations

BOOM! Studios

  • Adventure Time Comics #4
  • Munchkin #1-4

    DC Comics

  • Batman: Urban Legends #20
  • Legends of the Dark Knight 100 Page Super Spectacular #1
  • Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault #1
  • Suicide Squad: Amanda Waller #1
  • ''SFX-Pop! ''

    Dark Horse Comics

  • Conan / Red Sonja #1-4

    Dynamite Comics

  • Li'l Sonja #1
  • Pathfinder #1-12
  • Pathfinder: City of Secrets #1-6
  • Red Sonja and Cub #1
  • Unbreakable Red Sonja #1-5

    IDW

  • Samurai Jack #1-20 collected as:
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • * Volume 3
  • * Volume 4
  • Dungeons & Dragons limited series:
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur's Gate #1-5 collected in Volume 1
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows of the Vampire #1-5 collected in Volume 1
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Frost Giant's Fury #1-5 collected in Volume 1
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Evil At Baldur's Gate #1-5 collected in Volume 1
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker #1-5 collected in Volume 1
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1-5
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Infernal Tides #1-5
  • Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons #1-4 collected as
  • * Volume 1
  • Other collected editions:
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Days of Endless Adventure which collects Legends of Baldur's Gate, Shadows of the Vampire and Frost Giant's Fury
  • * Dungeons & Dragons: Best of Minsc & Boo which collects Legends of Baldur's Gate #1, Shadows of the Vampire #2, Evil at Baldur's Gate #1, and Evil at Baldur's Gate #5

    Image Comics

  • Skullkickers #1-34 collected as:
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • * Volume 3
  • * Volume 4
  • * Volume 5
  • * Volume 6
  • * Skullkickers Super Special
  • Wayward #1-30 collected as:
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • * Volume 3
  • * Volume 4
  • * Volume 5
  • * Volume 6
  • Glitterbomb #1-4 collected as:
  • * Volume 1
  • Glitterbomb: The Fame Game #1-4 collected as:
  • * ''Volume 1''

    Marvel Comics

  • Thunderbolts #1-12 collected as:
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • Uncanny Avengers #26-30 collected as:
  • * Volume 5
  • Avengers:
  • * Avengers #675-690 collected as:
  • ** Avengers: No Surrender
  • *** The following year, Marvel released a "spiritual sequel" by the same writing team in the form of a weekly 10-issue limited series that introduced Conan the Barbarian into the Marvel Universe:
  • **** Avengers: No Road Home #1–10 collected as Avengers: No Road Home
  • * Marvel's Avengers: Road to A-Day collects:
  • ** Marvel's Avengers: Hulk
  • ** Marvel's Avengers: Iron Man
  • ** Marvel's Avengers: Thor
  • * Avengers #1.MU
  • * Avengers Unlimited Infinity Comic #14-16, 27-32
  • * Avengers: Child Life #1
  • * Avengers: Tech-On #1-6
  • Alpha Flight: True North #1
  • Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #1-8
  • Champions Vol. 2 #19-27, Vol. 3 #1-10 collected as:
  • * Champions Volume 4: Northern Lights
  • * Champions Volume 5: Weird War One
  • * Champions by Jim Zub Volume 1: Beat the Devil
  • * Champions by Jim Zub Volume 2: Give and Take
  • Conan the Barbarian #13-25
  • Conan: Serpent War #1-4
  • Devil's Reign: Omega #1
  • Empyre: Avengers #1-3
  • Figment #1-5
  • Figment 2 #1-5
  • Heroes Reborn: Young Squadron #1
  • Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #1-4
  • Infinity Countdown: Champions #1-2
  • Infinity Warps #1-2
  • Investing in Each Other! #1
  • Life of Wolverine #1
  • Marvel Comics #1000 collected in Marvel Comics 1000
  • Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #3
  • Ms. Marvel #38
  • Murderworld collects:
  • * Murderworld: Avengers
  • * Murderworld: Spider-Man
  • * Murderworld: Wolverine
  • * Murderworld: Moon Knight
  • * Murderworld: Game Over
  • Predator: Black, White & Blood #3
  • Savage Sword of Conan #7-9
  • Secret Empire: United #1
  • ''Secret Warps: Arachknight Annual''

    Oni Press

Rick and Morty limited series:
  • Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1-4 collected in Volume 1
  • Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Chapter II: Painscape #1-4 collected in Volume 2
  • Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: The Meeseeks Adventure #1
  • Rick and Morty vs. Cthulhu #1-4 collected in Volume 1
Other collected editions:
  • Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Deluxe Edition which collects Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1-4 & Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Chapter II: Painscape #1-4, and Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: The Meeseeks Adventure
  • Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Adventures which collects Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1-4 & Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Chapter II: Painscape #1-4, and ''Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: The Meeseeks Adventure''

    Titan Comics

  • Conan the Barbarian #0-present
  • Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #0-4
  • Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #0-4