Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dynamite, entertainment, jim zub, Pathfinder: City of Secrets

Jim Zub Talks About Pathfinder: City Of Secrets In Stores Today

Published Wed, 29 Oct 2014 05:00:56 -0500

Aaron Gillespie, writer of Purgatori #2, talks with Jim Zub about Pathfinder: City of Secrets #6, both on sale Oct. 29

AARON GILLSEPIE: What is your history with Pathfinder? Have you played and/or run the game? How much knowledge did you have of Golarion before you got this gig?

JIM ZUB: I'm an old school gamer and was quite familiar with Pathfinder when I took on the gig. Right off the bat I felt that Pathfinder had a really well thought out world full of possibilities. Getting the chance to build some new stories there has been a thrill.

The whole thing actually came about because of my ties to the gaming industry. I used to work at the UDON Studio as Project Manager, organizing and Art Directing client projects and one of our clients was Paizo back when they were running both Dungeon and Dragon magazines for Wizards of the Coast. Erik Mona was the Editor in Chief at the time and we struck up a friendship.

When I started really digging in to write comics and Skullkickers came out, Erik read it and really liked it. Paizo had moved on to start Pathfinder and he mentioned to me that if they ever did a Pathfinder comic he should give me a call. Almost a year later that's exactly what he did. (smiles)

AG: How much direction to you get from Paizo? Are you left to your own devices or are you asked to cover certain storylines, characters or locales?

JZ: The Pathfinder team is really interactive, but not in an overbearing way. Working on the comic has been really smooth actually. They wanted to start the story off in Varisia (which is the typical starting area for most new campaigns) and I was happy to oblige. I would usually explain to them the overall character stuff I wanted to cover and then we'd brainstorm the setting and foes they'd have to deal with along the way. I really wanted the stories to work within their established world so, whenever possible, I'd use pre-existing material rather than just making up things for the heck of it.

AG: Are the game mechanics important to the writing of the comic? Do you keep an archetypes specialties and attributes in mind when plotting?

JZ: I never want the stories to feel ham-stringed by the game mechanics but I also want them to make sense given the relative power level of the party. I have stats for the characters and make sure that I don't have them doing things they couldn't feasibly do in the game. My hope is that players read the comic and see the kinds of cool things their own characters are capable of.

AG: The last story arc took place in the small town of Sandpoint. This time it's the city of Magnimar. Will the party move on for the next arc? Korvosa maybe? Can I beg for Korvosa?

JZ: I'm not actually sure where the story will head from here. I'm stepping down from regular Pathfinder writing duties at the end of City of Secrets, so it'll be up to the next team to decide where the group heads. It's been an absolute thrill expanding the personality and history of the Pathfinder iconics and I hope whoever takes over has as much with it as I did.

AG: Any other projects you want to talk about?

JZ: I'm writing up a storm right now. At Image I have two creator-owned series rolling: Skullkickers (entering its last story arc in 2015) and Wayward (which just launched in August). Over at IDW I'm continuing Samurai Jack (issue 13 just came out) and recently launched Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur's Gate. For Marvel I'm writing comic tie-in stories for the Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors cartoon. Last, but certainly not least, I'm co-writing the upcoming Conan/Red Sonja mini-series with Gail Simone for Dark Horse.