IDW Publishing's Samurai Jack comic series came to an end last week, a bittersweet moment for fans of the beloved Genndy Tartakovsky animated series. The show ran for four seasons as Jack tried his hardest to defeat the shape-shifting overlord Aku and return to his home in the past, but when it concluded, it didn't resolve the story. It shows the strength of the storytelling that over 10 years later fans are still fervently demanding another season of the show or, better yet, a feature-length movie to give a definitive resolution to the story of our favorite wandering Samurai.

That's where writer Jim Zub and artist Andy Suriano come in. Zub was tapped by IDW to write the continuing adventures of Jack while Suriano, a character-designer on all four seasons of the show, brought it to life. A few other artists contributed to the 20-issue run, but Suriano handled the lion's share. They told both five-party story arcs and single-issue tales that channeled the magical, sword-swinging action of the series.Their crowning jewel was "The Quest of the Broken Blade" where Jack's sword -- which was given to him by his father, who in turn received it from the gods themselves -- is shattered and he must prove himself worthy to receive a blade of his own. We'll say no more on the plot, as it's quite the epic story that you have to experience for yourself.And if you were wondering, Tartakovsky gave the comic his seal of approval and even contributed some of the covers, so you know these stories are legit.Now the comic has come to an end, but fortunately, unlike the show, the creators were prepared to send Jack off with a conclusion of sorts. One look at the cover is enough to give any Jack fan chills down their spine -- an aged, bearded warrior King Jack sitting on a throne. This is a callback to the episode where the big blue portal guardian got a vision of Jack's future -- a vision that many assumed would be the final fate of Jack in the far future. Well, we finally caught up to that moment some 20-ish years after the events of the show, and Zub and Suriano were able to deliver their take on Jack's conclusion.We talked to the duo about their run on Samurai Jack and just how they approached ending the story of one of Cartoon Network's most cherished characters.

I just feel incredibly fortunate. I watched the cartoon when it first came out, and I was really blown away by the quality of it and the feeling it was able to evoke. That show has such incredible range -- everything from this epic action to a cerebral, zen-like feeling to some of the episodes, and then all the way to just silly humor. It's such a broad and amazing concept. It works so well in so many different ways.So to even be a small part of that, to contribute to the overall storyline, it's unbelievable. For me, it's been just a real, wonderful experience, to be able to take something that I enjoyed before and to be able to contribute to it. It's been a true joy, in that way.It's like getting the entire Marvel Universe to play in, more or less.Like Jim said, Jack covered so many different genres and storytelling styles. We played around with so many different techniques, visual storytelling, locations and scenes.It's just such a broad tapestry, and to be able to craft these stories that you want -- like if you wanted to do one that's more futuristic, then we'd do a futuristic story. If we wanted to do one that was more steeped in martial arts and ancient temple, then you could play with that. Like the show itself, we'd be like, "Okay, this is an action episode," "Okay this is going to be more of a goofy, silly episode."Yeah, it's like a genre melting pot, you know?And how fun is that? You get to play with all these awesome toys, which I guess is just based on one character. It's pretty cool.Yeah, I was. All four seasons.My favorite thing I think I got to draw was in this very last issue, issue #20. I got to do a Canadian Cable.[Laughs] I noticed that. Someone sent me a thing of that today.It's of Jim. It's Jim Zub as Canadian Cable. That was probably my favorite thing.But it's been cool just coming back and revisiting the character and doing it from a perspective a few years laters. I've grown as an artist. I cut my teeth on that show as a designer-storyteller, and then obviously I moved on once the show ended -- all the things I've done between then and now. Then just being able to go back to this character that more or less launched my career has been a really profound experience for me. I give everyone involved props, from Jim to IDW to [Samurai Jack creator] Genndy [Tartakovsky] and Cartoon Network for allowing me to do it, stylistically, a little different than the show, while still honoring it.My approach to the line quality was looser and more kinetic, and that was intentional. It was just because we were cranking out a monthly book. It was because, when you're dealing with the show in an animated form, it's moving, and movement was such an important thing about the TV series. I worked really hard to develop a loose, kinetic line style that would evoke a sense of movement and speed, while hopefully staying true to the heart of what Samurai Jack is. It's not on-model verbatim.He got to see it. I mean, he read all of Jim's scripts, and everything got approved through him. And then he contributed those amazing covers with him and the art director of Samurai Jack, Scott Wills. They painted these amazing retail incentives for the covers that just put me to shame.Oh, whatever! [Laughs] They were amazing, they were totally amazing.They were amazing. It's funny, I would turn in sketches, my ideas for the covers, and Carlos Guzman, who's our editor, was like, "Oh! Yeah, sorry, man. Genndy's doing that." And I'm like, "Ahh! Alright."Yeah, it was amazing, honestly, just watching all the artists, but Andy in particular. I'd come up with an idea for a story, or some of them -- I feel so fortunate because almost every single story idea that I pitched in the original outline where I said, "Okay, I think this would make a really fun story," showed up at some point or another in some form. We used everything.So some of the weirdest stuff that I know, when I originally pitched, Cartoon Network wasn't crazy about -- there was a story we did for issues #6 and #7 where Jack meets up with the Scotsman again and gets turned into a woman, they get cursed by these Leprechauns. I just had this funny idea that I thought would be really hilarious. I think at first they were like, "Yeah, no, we can't do that," and by the time we got to finishing issue #5 and they said, "We're going to do more stories," I sort of said, "No, this would be fun!" And they were like, "Yeah, okay," because we had built up trust with them. That was really what was cool, was that we had built up this -- we knew what we were doing with it, and we were going to do right them. They just kind of let us cut loose and go crazy with it.Yeah, I think that freedom really allowed us to push ourselves. We're professionals, we've been doing this for awhile. So I think sometimes when editors and publishers back off a little bit -- or in some cases producers and studios -- and just let artists be artists and storytellers be storytellers, you get the best work.Genndy was actually notorious for pairing up the right artists for the right episodes, so I would always get the ones where with the monsters or robots, things like that -- they would be more my episodes. Same with the storyboard artists. I think it's just that trust of, okay, knowing who your artists are and then IDW knowing Jim and myself and just trusting us to deliver. I think that freedom really enabled us and inspired us to produce our best work.Yeah, I kind of looked at that five-parter as basically a movie. I wanted to say, "Okay, if we're going to do this two hour-long movie, what would it be? What is the story that would really push Jack to the limits that we've never seen before?" So trying to come up with something that big.I mean, "Threads of Time" was like that too, but we were just sort of getting rolling. So in some ways I think I was a bit more tepid with "Threads of Time," where I was still sort of getting my feet wet and afraid that someone was going to tell me I was doing it wrong.By the time we got to Broken Blade, I was kind of all-out, like, "I'm just gonna go for broke."I told Jim, I think we were up in Seattle, like, "You know what? This was the one, man. We are firing on all cylinders on that." I think we were a really cohesive team, Jim, myself, [colorist] Josh Burcham and Shawn Lee the letterer. We had a couple guest artists that would fill in and do different segments, which were great, and I think we all felt comfortable with each other and, again, the trust with each other, of just knowing what each of us was doing and allowing us to just do what we do.Yeah, all cylinders were firing. It was intense and so much fun, too. Initially, I thought, "How bad can I make it?" [Laughs] You know, for Jack, like, "What terrible things can I continue to do to this character?" It was just sort of like, "Well, he can't get out of that! He's screwed there."Yeah, I was like, "Aw, no way! No way are they going to let Jim do this." And they did. I was actually surprised.Yeah, me too, honestly. I think we had this weird moment of -- and again I think it was just something where I sort of said, "Okay, I just want to see what they come back with." And I have no problem taking notes. I like doing work for hire, and I know that it's not my property, but I thought, "If I don't try to do this crazy story, I'll regret it later."I mean, if we had to do stories that never change the status quo of anything, we'd just be placeholders, you know? There's no ownership of it whatsoever. So I think that really gave us the ownership, to put our own stamp on it and just take it further.Broken Blade's just my pitch to Genndy, and then he should animate it.