New Years Resolutions And A Reminder That It's Your Last Chance To Get In On THE ONION CLUB 2023
Hey Friends!
I hope the holidays have been treating you nicely. I’m finally back in Brooklyn, and ready to be on the other side of holiday madness and get back into a bit more of a routine. Well… About 24 days of a Routine for me, until I fly to France for Angouleme, but that’s almost enough time to get a life in proper order, right?
I started a new bullet journal just before Christmas. I fell out of the habit after about 9 months of sticking to it religiously, because I was in the middle of a break-up and a move last summer and those “to do” lists became pages long and it was stressing me out more than organizing me. Honestly, doing a full breakdown of the shit I needed doing helped me see that it’s all actually pretty manageable right now. I ordered a nice piece of furniture that I’d put off ordering for the last several months, and put together a bit of a check-list of what I need to do to effectively “finalize” the apartment for the year. I’ve upgraded a few of my travel bags and stuff to help make working on the go a bit easier. Just trying to take care of as many of the little tasks that I perpetually put off to “tomorrow” as I can before all the publishers and production studios I work for wake up from their holiday slumber.
I’m not a big resolutions person, because nobody ever lives up to resolutions. I am working on improving my health but I’m glad I started on all of that stuff back in August, and got back into weightlifting back in November, so none of it feels tainted by resolution status. I signed up for beginner French Classes since I’m going to be spending more time over there over the next few years. I also put together a list of restaurants I want to hit up here in Brooklyn over the next year, because I keep hitting up the same places and I live in one of the best corners of one of the best food cities in the world and that’s stupid. I’d also like to go to the theater a bit more often because I miss it being a bigger part of my life.
Work wise, I’m glad to have the whole year mapped out right now. I’m sure it’ll change because it always changes, but I am very excited about the future. Really the promise I want to make to myself and to all of you is that I’m going to keep challenging myself, and I am going to keep centering “play” in the creation of this books. I like fucking around with a story and see what happens, trying to lean in directions where I don’t know my way out and see if I can find my way out. I caught myself in love with a little banter scene the other day and it was just so fulfilling. I was just playing with cadence and character, and I fucking loved every minute I was spending at the keyboard, and I lost all sense of time. People ask me all the time how I’m able to work on as many projects as I do, and honestly, I don’t rightly know. But it feels to me that I just like playing in these word documents, and seeing what shapes out of it, and the second that it stops being fun to do that is the second I’ll stop.
It’s going to be a big, exciting year in Tiny Onion Land. I’m excited to show you all what goodies I have up my sleeve. But first, let me shill a little.
THERE’S ONE MORE DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE ONION CLUB 2023! Let me go over what that means again…
The Onion Club is a special offering that I used to make available here on the Substack, but am now running fully through my partnership with Third Eye Comics. This is a limited offering. All sales will close at Midnight ET on December 31st.
The Club Package includes:
Membership Card and Lanyard
Six Exclusive Variant Covers by InHyuk Lee (In Gold Foil)
Convention Benefits
Double the Number of Free Signatures per signing session
One Graded Signature Fee waived per signing session
Monthly email giving early access to each Onion Drop in 2023, giving you first pick of the exclusive variant covers, apparel, and merchandise I’m selling on ShopTinyOnion.com
One Year Complimentary Subscription to “The Empire of the Tiny Onion” newsletter on Substack
Opportunity to sign up and participate in a private off-site Q&A and signing at NYCC 2023, location in New York City TBD
Spaces will be limited based on the venue, but Onion Club members who plan on attending will be given ample time and notice to secure their place at the event.
Working to provide a live stream and mail-in component for members who cannot attend, details TBD
This is no longer a “membership” or “subscription” program. There are not going to be any mid-year sign-ups, and your position in the Onion Club will not automatically renew at the end of the year. Once memberships close for the year, they will stay closed. Then, if we’re all having fun with it, I’ll unveil the Onion Club 2024 Package at the end of next year.
For this next year, we will need to charge shipping. If you live within the United States, the total cost will be $300 for six packages over the course of 2023 (Base cost of 250 + 50 for Shipping). If you live internationally, the cost will be $350 for the six packages. Unfortunately, due to high international shipping costs, we weren’t able to make this work at a lower price point.
Current Onion Club members who are curious about how we are making good on partial year memberships from this last year, you should search your spam for a few emails from onionclub@thirdeyecomics.com which detail our plans. If you don’t see an email there, please reach out to tinyonionorders@thirdeyecomics.com.
NOTE: IF YOU RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL IT IS NOT LIKELY WE’LL SEE THE RESPONSE COME IN, SO PLEASE REACH OUT TO THE ABOVE EMAIL ADDRESS WITH ANY QUESTIONS/CONCERNS.
We have a really great group of people already onboard for the second year of The Onion Club, and once sales close at Midnight ET tomorrow night they will close for good! The print runs of all the covers we’ll be making will lock, and we won’t be making any exceptions.
A couple of separate points:
If you’re in the group of Onion Club “Founders” who were charged for a Second Year at the full $250 rate, you are going to be grandfathered into the new system, but only if you don’t get it refunded. A couple folks in that group challenged the charge through their credit card to get a refund, and that’s going to mean they are booted from the list, and won’t be able to sign back up. If you want out, that’s totally cool, but please email tinyonionorders@thirdeyecomics.com, and we’ll be able to process those refunds properly now that we’ve gotten through the holidays. Big thanks to everyone who has gone about this through the correct channels.
If you WERE a member of the Onion Club in 2022, and have decided not to re-up for 2023, you are still signed up as a paid subscriber at the standard annual tier for the paywalled material here on Substack, and at the one year mark you will be charged $75. That is the regular annual subscription rate and does not entitle you to any of the Onion Club offerings. If you don’t want to get charged again, you have to log-in on Substack.com and unsubscribe manually. I’ve hit this point a LOT over the last six months. So please, take it to heart. Folks in the FB collector groups, if you could bang the drum about this one for me, I would really appreciate it, because I think some folks have missed it.
Anyways! I’m glad that we’ll have this all squared away by EOD tomorrow. At that point, the Onion Club will be fully moved off Substack, and the rest of you won’t have to hear me banging the drum for it until I try to get you all to sign up for the 2024 edition next winter.
Starting next week, we’re going to unveil some of the cool new pay features we’re going to be running here on Substack over the next year. There’s one in particular I’ve been dying to show you all. But first off, have a very Happy New Years! Lots of love you to you all. I hope you all start 2023 off on a wonderful foot.
James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
12.30.22
James, I love to hear you refer to “fun” as being a priority for you as you approach your work. “Fun” is also a HUGE priority for me in all things. The way I see it, if I can’t find the “fun” in the things that I do then they probably aren’t worth doing. And I strongly believe that if you are having fun doing your work, then that “fun” will come through your work to the people who engage with it and they will have fun, too! And “fun” is FUN, so more of that please!!! 😊
There is one Onion Club/Substack thing that I’m still confused about. I understand that Onion Club 2023 includes a Substack subscription. However, I am currently signed-up for Onion Club 2023 (I renewed back in August as a Founder) but my Substack subscription states “Trial period: ends Aug 9, 2023.” Will my Substack information change to “Trial period: ends Dec 31, 2023.” once my Onion Club 2023 membership becomes “official” on Jan. 1, 2023 or is there other action that needs to take place? Thank you.
Shit yea! 2023 is the year of the Onion!