Heroic Signatures Editor, Chris Butera, joins David and John to talk about all things Conan the Barbarian! They get into Jim Zub’s mastery of Conan lore, the expansion of the Howard-verse, the importance of a good writer-artist pairing, and fitting stories into a modern context, and David learns about comics without pictures.

Timestamp Segments

• [01:14] This is the Barbarian.
• [02:51] How Chris fell into comics.
• [04:15] Jim Zub is made for success.
• [08:37] Starting on Conan.
• [11:47] Into the Howard-verse.
• [16:38] Finding new artists.
• [17:37] The Rob and Roy comic magic.
• [21:51] Why writer-artist pairings are so important.
• [28:12] Dealing with Solomon Kane.
• [37:35] Robert E. Howard’s prolific output.
• [39:34] Staying true to Conan while gaining new readers.
• [43:46] How Conan stands the test of time.
• [47:17] What’s in-store of Conan in 2026?

Notable Quotes

• “Prose is comic books without pictures.”
• “Let the artist cook.”
• “We have this goldfish memory, culturally, sometimes, where we forget how acceptable certain things were, how recently, and then cast back 100 years from that, and expect those values to have been in place 100 years earlier…”

Relevant Links

www.ChrisButera.com

www.HeroicSignatures.com

Books Mentioned

• Alter Ego, by Roy Thomas & Ron Harris.
• Conan, Shadows in Zamboula, The Dark Man, by Robert E. Howard.
• Conan the Barbarian.
• Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone, by Jim Zub & Jonas Scharf.
• Conan the Barbarian: Frozen Faith, by Jim Zub & Doug Braithwaite.
• Conan the Barbarian: Scourge of the Serpent, by Jim Zub, Ivan Gil, & Joao Canola.
• Corto Maltese, by Hugo Pratt.
• Dungeons & Dragons.
• The Frost-Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard & Raymond West.
• Head Lopper, by Andrew MacLean.
• The Invincible Iron Man (2004-2007).
• Popeye.
• Savage Avengers (2019-2022). 
• Savage Sword of Conan.
• Transformers.