Inside the new comics and hybrid publisher PUG Worldwide with editor-in-chief John Barber

There’s a brand new publishing entity in town, and it comes with quite a pedigree. Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide, or PUG Worldwide, is a new publisher formed by John Nee (fomer Marvel Comics publisher), John Barber (former editor-in-chief at IDW), and Nate Murry (co-founder, Clover Press).

For the launch of PUG Worldwide’s first project, Conan the Barbarian: Colossal Edition, the publisher is partnering with Zoop. But as exciting as this “amazing assemblage of Cimmerian steel” may be, that’s just the beginning of the plans PUG Worldwide has in store.

Here at Popverse, we know an exciting venture when we see one, and we certainly couldn’t resist the opportunity to speak with Barber, PUG Worldwide’s editor-in-chief. Read on to learn all about the origins of PUG Worldwide, to find out more about Conan the Barbarian: Colossal Edition, and to get a hint of what’s in store for the new publisher in the not-too-distant future.

Popverse: John, Your resume includes webcomics, Marvel and IDW. Can you tell us a little bit about the road that led to PUG Worldwide?

John Barber: I always loved comics. I grew up loving comics. When I was in high school, one of the things that really appealed to me was that idea of being able to go out and tell your own stories in comics. Which you couldn’t really do in that many mediums, then… You could write novels, but it’s not like you could make a movie at home, the way you can now.

I was into a wide range of comics. Then when webcomics started becoming a viable thing, I read Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form. I love Scott. That’s not widely regarded as one of the best of his books, but that was definitely the one that changed my life. He was talking about how you could use the internet to tell comics stories, and different ways of formatting comics. So I got really into that and spent a couple of years doing experimental webcomics.

My background is mostly in art and graphic design, with a little bit of English as my minor in college. After I finished grad school and graphic design, I said, 'I want to work in comics, so I’m either going to find a job in comics or find a bag of money under a tree.' I’m still looking for that bag of money.

But my now-wife and I moved to New York, and I applied for random jobs, and one of them was a job at Marvel, which I literally forgot about. And then Bill Jemas called me and I thought it was my friends messing with me. I actually had to go home to my computer and find the cover letter, and I