We got a chance to chat with Jim Zub regarding his current run on Wayward, which is a very good book, The Legends of Baldur’s Gate and more.   If some of you didn’t know, he also could have a career as a comedian. However, we take time to chat with him about some of the great stories he’s currently working on.

PCU: Wayward just dropped its 9th issue this past month. How has the reception been thus far to the book?

Zub: It’s been great! We launched really strongly back in August 2014 and it looks like our readership has stabilized during the second story arc, with new people coming on board thanks to the value-priced $9.99 volume 1 trade paperback.

Our readers are excited and passionate about the story. We get lots of tweets and messages each week a new issue arrives. It’s been really exciting to see people embrace the story Steve and I are putting together.

PCU: With Rori learning a new culture while uncovering her powers and making friends (as weird as they are) how relatable is this book to teens? Especially when someone is trying to find their place and not be an outcast?

Zub: I don’t know, you’d need to ask teens if they find it relatable. tongue emoticon

In all seriousness, I think that the specifics aren’t as important as the core ideas – starting a new chapter of your life, taking on new challenges, trying to figure out who you are and who you’re meant to be. Those are the aspects of Wayward our readers seem to be relating to.

PCU:  How fun was it doing this book and using Japanese myths and legends in comparison to Samurai Jack?

Zub: They’re very different projects, so it’s hard for me to directly compare writing Samurai Jack versus writing Wayward. I love writing snappy dialogue and coming up with exciting action. Jack, the stoic samurai warrior, had a lot less dialogue but it was a really open world full of different genre mash-ups (fantasy, sci-fi, martial arts) to play with.

Wayward is a much different book. It’s more character-oriented and has a much larger cast of characters and creatures to keep track of.

PCU: How fun was it doing Legends of Baldur’s Gate? Do you ever have any time to actually play any D&D? Also any idea when we will see issue 6?

Zub: I’m a lifelong tabletop RPG/D&D fan so getting a chance to contribute an official D&D story that tied in with the launch of the new 5th edition rules was an absolute thrill. 11 year old me would have been amazed.

I’m hoping I’ll be writing more D&D comics in 2016. Fingers crossed.

PCU: Have you and Chip Zdarsky ever considered doing more Drink and Draw events as a regular show?

Zub: It’s not something we’ve discussed, no. It was tons of fun doing that event in Annapolis but I don’t know if we’d have the energy to make it a regular thing. A “Zub-darsky Tour” would probably kill us. On top of that, Chip’s meteoric rise to fame is keeping him crazy-busy. Not that I’m not busy. We’re both stupidly busy. It’s a busy time.

Bonus: If you and Chip ever teamed up to do a super heroes comic and could do whatever you wanted…what kind of insanity could we expect?

Zub: I can’t speak for Chip, but it would probably involve awkward moments and a lot of butts.

To see more of what Jim is up to go to www.jimzub.com for updates!

Thanks again Jim for the opportunity and we look forward to the next Wayward issue!