From Savage Swords to Painted Masterpieces: Inside the Book of Jusko

If you grew up haunting comic shops and newsstands, you probably remember the exact moment Joe Jusko’s art first caught your attention. For me, it wasn’t the colorful world of superheroes—it was the visceral, blood-and-thunder grit of The Savage Sword of Conan.

I was already a massive Conan fan, devouring every novel and comic book I could get my hands on. The covers of that era were consistently splendid, each issue adding a new piece of art to my collection. Jusko’s Savage Sword of Conan debut on the cover of issue #63 was a worthy addition to his predecessors’ contributions; Jusko showed a talent for reflecting Conan’s savagery in his eyes, gritted teeth and corded muscles. You could feel the desert heat on the Cimmerian’s skin, and the frozen action depicted in the painting came to cinematic, savage life in the reader’s mind.

Here was a new Conan artist who brought a unique style to the magazine’s covers. It was a revelation that immediately cemented his name alongside legends like Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, and the other absolute greats who contributed to The Savage Sword of Conan

Now, Image Comics is celebrating that legacy with The Book of Jusko, arriving on June 16th.

Long before digital coloring became the industry standard, comic art was a highly tactile, physical medium. Jusko didn’t just draw characters; he painted the humid jungles, the blood-soaked battlefields, and the sweeping, dramatic lighting of classic pulp fantasy.

His work on Conan and his stunning covers for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and John Carter novels proved that he understood the assignment perfectly. He knows how to blend classical painting techniques with the explosive, dynamic action required for comic books. Looking back at those early Savage Sword covers, you can see the foundation of an artist who knows how to paint the musculature, the atmosphere, and the sheer epic scale of high fantasy.

When the classic black-and-white magazine format was resurrected as a brand new Savage Sword of Conan #1 in February 2024, Titan Comics made a great call by using Jusko as one of the cover artists. His visceral painting for that first issue is one of the modern pieces that can hold a candle to the legendary Boris Vallejo cover for the original Savage Sword of Conan #1 that defined the original Marvel run when it launched back in August 1974.

Beyond the battlefields of Hyboria, Jusko has also left an indelible mark on Vampirella. He possesses a unique ability to capture the brooding, gothic atmosphere essential to the Daughter of Drakulon. A perfect example is his stunning 2007 piece featuring Vampirella bathed in moonlight, flanked by fierce black panthers amidst twisted, gnarly branches. The way he renders the ethereal glow of the moon hitting the sleek fur of those jungle cats is a masterclass in mood and lighting. It is the kind of mesmerizing, atmospheric pulp art that practically demands to be framed and proudly hung on a wall.

It is also impossible to discuss his fantasy output without bowing to his renditions of Red Sonja. We have certainly been spoiled by over twenty years of gloriously provocative, pin-up inspired covers during her incredible run at Dynamite Comics—the kind of unabashedly alluring art that fans crave—but there is an undeniable, special thrill in seeing Jusko’s signature style applied to the Red Goddess.

Jusko has always had a way of making the character undeniably sexy without leaning into the overt, exaggerated style seen on many modern Dynamite covers. His piece gracing the cover of the upcoming Book of Jusko was also featured on the cover of Dynamite’s Red Sonja #2, and it remains one of my favorite covers of the Dynamite era of Red Sonja. It is a loving homage harking back to the classic Marvel Comics days where her legend began. He captures the fierce regality and raw power of the She-Devil with a Sword with a classical weight that feels like a breath of nostalgia.

While fantasy fans knew his worth early on, the rest of the world caught up in 1992. It is impossible to talk about Joe Jusko without bringing up the legendary Marvel Masterpieces trading card set.

Jusko undertook the Herculean task of painting over 100 original pieces in a matter of months. He took characters that were usually rendered in flat, four-color printing and brought them into the real world. His fully painted, hyper-realistic style elevated trading cards from cheap, disposable novelties into premium, highly sought-after collectibles. For an entire generation of fans, ripping open a foil pack of those cards was the closest they had ever come to holding museum-quality fine art.

Arriving as a massive 240-page hardcover, The Book of Jusko is a 40-year retrospective of his entire career.

While official preview galleries are still tightly under wraps, early glimpses promise a comprehensive collection bridging his iconic superhero trading card art with the dark, moody fantasy illustrations that started it all. For those of us who believe nothing quite beats the tactile weight of a premium hardcover and the smell of fresh ink on glossy paper, this is a must-have addition to the library. It is a monument to an artist who helped define the look of a generation.

The Book of Jusko hits shelves on June 16, 2026.

Disclaimer/Copyright Notice:All artwork and characters mentioned or featured in this article—including, but not limited to, Joe Jusko’s original paintings, properties associated with Marvel Comics, Red Sonja (Dynamite Entertainment), Vampirella (Dynamite Entertainment), Conan the Barbarian, and the upcoming ‘The Book of Jusko’ (Image Comics)—remain the intellectual property of their respective owners and copyright holders. This piece serves as a journalistic review and retrospective of Mr. Joe Jusko’s professional career and upcoming publication. We hold the utmost respect for all creators and publishers whose work is highlighted herein.

About the Author

Jules-Pierre Malartre currently lives on a small island west of Montreal (Quebec), which is as close to the Great White North that he will ever dare go, but still cold enough to save him from big-ass spiders, alien abductions, undead dinosaurs and tourists who find his French accent charming. In 2005, he quit a promising aerospace engineering career to go into freelance writing, which was a very, very bad idea according to his mother. Since then, he has become considerably poorer, but he has grown much happier. Along the way, he adopted cats—lots of cats! When he is not writing technical manuals, newspaper articles, press releases or blogs on anything from comic books to yoga, he is busy working on his first novel, a semi-autobiographical fictional account of his life that dares to ask the question, “where did God go wrong with me anyway?” His first short story, “The Rest Was Easy,” was published by the online literary magazine Amarillo Bay in 2013. The five people who read it liked it. He’s well aware that it took him over a decade to publish another one, so he’d really appreciate it if you'd cut him some slack about it! He loves coffee, cats and reading, mostly because those three things go very well together.