Welcome to the Empire of the Tiny Onion
Hello Friends. My name is James Tynion IV. I am an Eisner Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and publisher of comic books of all shapes and sizes. I am probably best known as a writer of horror comics, co-creating SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN with Werther Dell’Edera for Boom! Studios, THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH with Martin Simmonds for Image Comics, and THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE for DC Black Label. I also write manga-infused genre stories for teens, like the fantasy epic, WYND, co-created with Michael Dialynas for Boom! Studios.
For the last ten years, my day job was writing superhero comics for DC, culminating in a bestselling, award-winning run on BATMAN with Jorge Jimenez, where we created exciting new characters like Punchline, Ghost-Maker, Clownhunter, Miracle Molly, and Peacekeeper-01. But in Summer 2021, I was offered a Substack Pro grant that allowed me to step away from my day job and move full time into writing and publishing my own comic book projects through my personal Tiny Onion Studios label, and I’ll be documenting that process and releasing those comic books digitally through this Newsletter. You can subscribe by hitting the button below…
Between now and late summer 2022, I will be launching a series of digital-first projects by myself and many members of the extended Tiny Onion Studios family as an exclusive offering to paid subscribers to The Empire of the Tiny Onion.
These projects will include the following…
BLUE BOOK
BLUE BOOK is an original comic series in what I call the TRUE WEIRD genre — the strange cousin of True Crime, that focuses on true stories of the unexplained. This project, co-created by myself and Michael Avon Oeming, and lettered by Aditya Bidikar, is going to adapt first-person accounts of famous UFO Encounters in the comic book form, looking not to sensationalize the events, and trying to capture the essential weirdness of the real encounters that often get washed out in adaptations. The first chapter is available to read for free here on Substack, and paid subscribers will each new entry in their inboxes twice a month.
THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS
THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS is the second ongoing feature here on my Substack, spinning out from the pages of my hit Image Comics series THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, co-created with Martin Simmonds. Another entry in the “True Weird” genre, every case file we post will feature an original illustration of a notable cryptid by one of my favorite comic or horror artists, and a case file from the Field Office of the DOT getting into the history and folklore behind each cryptid. The first case file will be free to read here on Substack, and paid subscribers will get new entries in their inbox twice a month.
THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS
The third ongoing feature is a series I created with Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodheart, M. Kurt Russel, Aditya Bidikar, and Nick Robles. Christopher Chaos is a Teenage Mad Scientist and he tumbles sideways out of his ordinary world into something extraordinary! Every chapter of this story will be FREE to read for ALL subscribers! The Prologue has been released and it introduces another main character, Adam Frankenstein.
THE CLOSET
THE CLOSET is a horror novella told in three acts by myself, Gavin Fullerton, Chris O’Hallaran, and Tom Napolitano. In a tale of existential horror, Thom is moving cross-country with his family and dragging the secrets of his past along with them. His son, Jamie, is seeing monsters in the bedroom closet and they just might be real…
TRUE WEIRD
An anthology series debuting in April 2022, featuring non-fiction comic book stories by a variety of exciting creators. TRUE WEIRD is a new anthology feature here on my Substack, which will drop standalone black-and-white stories of paranormal phenomena, medical oddities, cryptid encounters, and strange stories that defy all classification. Think of this as the mad lovechild of RAZORBLADES: THE HORROR MAGAZINE and BLUE BOOK. Debuts with a story by myself and the brilliant Klaus Janson!
“OPERATION DIAL-UP”
ANNOUNCING SUMMER 2022 - Stay Tuned!
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU TELL US?
All of the above projects will find their way to print over the next few years, but paying for a subscription to the Empire of the Tiny Onion will give you a front-row seat in watching us take these new properties and develop them into their final forms. This is a rare look at seeing the process of starting a comic book from scratch, and you get to be there right on the ground floor and read these comics long before everyone waiting for hard copies. If you’re interested in reading these comics on day one, you should Subscribe to the Empire of the Tiny Onion today for $7 a month, or a discounted rate of $75 a month!
Even if you’re not sure about signing up for a paid subscription today, I recommend you sign up for the Free version of the newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news and thoughts from me about my projects on Substack and off of it. Free Subscribers will get the weekly TINY UPDATE newsletter, covering which of my books are coming out in comic shops any given week, and find out about my latest merchandise offerings through the Tiny Onion Webstore, where you can buy exclusive enamel pins and comics not available through any distributor.
Speaking of Merchandise… Paid Subscribers are also going to get early access to purchasing exclusive variant covers, enamel pins, and much more. We are aggressively expanding the merch operations here at Tiny Onion Studios and I’ll be able to get into the details there very soon… But if you want cool, limited edition shirts and pins and prints from Department of Truth, Something is Killing the Children, and much much more, and you want to be able to get those things before they sell out, you should subscribe today!
THE ONION CLUB
Formerly known as the “Founders Tier” option, members of THE ONION CLUB will receive SIX exclusive variant covers over the course of the next year (these covers may be to my existing print projects, or to as of yet unannounced projects). These covers will not available to purchase ANYWHERE else, and will be mailed directly to your home. This offering is currently available to international customers, though shipping costs may make this a domestic US offering in the near future (though all members who sign up now will be grandfathered in). I am also making an exclusive ONION CLUB card that I will send to all members that will allow you to purchase exclusive merch from my table at conventions not available to anybody else. It costs $250/year to be a member of the Onion Club, and I am going to do everything I can to make this a really exciting group to be a member of.
Existing Onion Club/Founders Tier members will be receiving a private email in the next few weeks to get your shipping information, around the time that we announce the first Onion Club exclusive cover. Sign up today!
Join the Tiny Onion Community!
Paid Subscribers are able to comment on all posts here at the Empire of the Tiny Onion! I am no longer using my old Twitter profile and will be shutting it down over the next few months (though you should follow @ReadTinyOnion if you want to keep up to date with the comics I’m releasing each with). If you want to interact with me, this newsletter is the place to do it! We’re exploring some cool options to expand the community offerings, and create more discussion threads where I can interact with you all, but I’m already grateful to the growing community here. As I discussed in a recent Tiny Update, I’ve already started reading your book recommendations!
And More To Come!
The most exciting thing about this whole experiment is that it will grow and evolve over the course of the year. I’m already playing with a bunch of possibilities of what I might be able to build for you here on Substack. I’ve got plans to continue my behind-the-scenes essay series as we gear up for big new arcs of SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN and THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH. This newsletter is going to be the best place to get extra content about all of your favorite books that I write and the place to go to learn about my next big series releasing in print in 2022 and beyond.
I’m staying busy, and I’m freaking THRILLED to be making all of this cool stuff for all of you. I can’t wait to let you know more about everything we’ve got in store for you.
If you have any other questions…
Please ask them in the comments! We’ll keep this About page a living organism, trying to answer any and all questions you have about how this process works. Thanks again for checking out The Empire of The Tiny Onion.
Much more to come!
James Tynion IV
Last Edited
3.8.22
