Read the Exquisite Corpses Ashcan

The event comic of the year!

Hola Lil’ Onions,

I come to you with a gift. If you didn’t get a chance to grab a copy of our Exquisite Corpses ashcan at ComicsPro or ECCC, you have not had a chance to read the first 10 pages of issue #1. Let’s rectify that! You can read the Exquisite Corpses ashcan, including the first 10 pages, here. Exquisite Corpses issue #1 features an impressive 60 pages of story and will be available May 14th for just $4.99. In this economy?? Enjoy!

"Issue one is a promise of absolute mayhem to come."
- Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars, Know Your Station, Just Like Home)

We’re quickly coming up to the Final Order Cut-Off for Exquisite Corpses #1, April 21st. Have you pre-ordered it with your local comic shop yet? Pre-orders help shops know what is going to be a hit. They also help publishers and printers make enough copies, without over-producing. It’s the simplest, easiest way for you to contribute to the sustainable health of the comics market. Personally, pre-orders feel like gifts I’ve gotten for my future self. Every time I pick up my pull I thank past-me for looking out. If you haven’t started a pull with your local shop, now is a good time.

So, this newsletter is going to be a round-up of sorts. Announcements, pull quotes, covers, killers. It’s a lot. We have a lot to discuss. Let’s hop into it with an announcement.

Have you heard? James and the crew are going on a signing tour this year, aptly named Corpse Tour ‘25! Our first stop is in LA, with our launch party at Revenge Of! Gory details and full tour schedule to come soon.

"From content to execution, this is a big concept at every level, and is going to take over the world. For a story about a whole lot of murder, this feels feral and alive."
-Kieron Gillen (Die, The Wicked + The Divine, Immortal X-Men)

There’s a lot happening in the Tiny Onion offices right now.

The final push before Final Order Cut-Off is always a beast, but this has been something else entirely. And it’s because EXQUISITE CORPSES is something else entirely.

We’ve been calling EXQUISITE CORPSES our first big swing. This is the first project conceived since Tiny Onion went from my personal brand to a company that now has 11 employees. I knew the first big thing we built in this new era had to be the kind of project I couldn’t have pulled off alone. I knew it had to be ambitious. I knew it had to have weight. From the start, my dream was to bring the kind of creative energy I missed from developing superhero event comics into the creator-owned horror space.

With the help of my co-creator, Michael Walsh, and the incredible Corpse Crew we assembled to bring this machine to life, I think we’ve delivered that ambition and weight. On May 14^th, comic shops will get their hands on the first issue of EXQUISITE CORPSES. A 60-page first issue for $4.99. Alongside that issue, readers will get their hands on the first card in the incredible social strategy card game that Michael Walsh has spent the last year building and playtesting. Inside that issue you’re going to meet twelve insanely dangerous killers. You’re going to meet the terrifying families that hired them. And you’re going to meet the civilians of Oak Valley, Maine – whose lives are about to be upended by a cruel and dangerous game that doesn’t care about leaving them in the crossfire.

I’ve been calling this a Serial Killer Fight-Em-Up. A little bit The Purge meets Fortnite, with a healthy dose of Battle Royale and The Hunger Games. This is the launch of an entire action horror universe of storytelling we hope to be working in for years. We have art in for the first six issues. We have scripts in for the first ten. This book is going to be coming out monthly for the foreseeable future. We have so many big plans here, I keep deleting sentences because I can’t even hint at the scope of everything we’re talking about. But let’s just say that the comic and the card game are only the beginning.

So that’s my final push. Get in right at the beginning. Join us in an ambitious burst of comic collaboration and play. There’s a game at the heart of this story concept. There’s a literal game we’re building. We want you along for the ride. We want you to play with us.

Image Comics has been an incredible partner on the book. I think this is going to be a big year from Image. Even outside the always staggering and inspiring work from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound, titles like ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS, WE’RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US, and YOU’LL DO BAD THINGS are crackling with energy and demand your attention. I’m so honored to be launching this book next to them on the shelves.

I’ve spent the week on the phone with retailers around the country. It feels like there’s momentum here. On our end, we’re not resting until Final Order Cut-Off hits at the end-of-day Monday. (And that’s not all – we’re crazy enough to be launching a Kickstarter for Ian Betram’s artbook ACHERON on Tuesday, the day after FOC. Have you signed up to be notified on launch yet?)

If you’re excited about EXQUISITE CORPSES, the best thing you can do for us right now is call your local comic shop and tell them you want the book added to your pull list. Let’s make this a big success together.

Because this is only the FIRST big swing. Tiny Onion is just getting started.

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EXQUISITE CORPSES: James Tynion IV Is Bringing Blockbuster Energy To Horror Comics

In one article, FANGORIA manages to reveal our first Exquisite Stealth Variant (Cover E featuring Fox Mask Killer by Jenny Frison!) and interview James about how he and Michael went about creating the event comic of the year.

“There are killers that we thought would die off in the first few issues, but they end up lasting towards the end of the game. I fully believe that the best superhero events come from that kind of profound creative energy in the room with creators working together, and that the creative collaborative power of a bunch of really cool people making cool stuff together translates to a book that reads like an event with the scale and power of anything that the Big Two are putting out.”
- James Tynion IV

This beautiful Cover E is now available for pre-order with your Local Comic Shop.

"Exquisite Corpses has everything you could possibly want from a horror series and THEN some. Twelve of the most twisted serial killers battling it out in a series made by comics' most exciting creators? This book is easily the horror event of the year. My favorite read of 2025!"
- Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman, Wytches)

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In case you haven’t heard: we’re releasing a card game! And you’ll be able to collect the cards if you pick up Cover C of each issue of Exquisite Corpses.

"Each issue of Exquisite Corpses will offer a polybag variant, which contains both a special variant cover and a unique playing card featuring a new killer. If fans collect all 13 polybag variants, they will have assembled the full roster of killers from Season 1 of the comic series, and will be able to play an early version of the game."

The game is so much fun. We’ve been playing for the last 18 months. It’s changed and grown over that time, but it still feels raw in the best way. We can’t wait to start playing it with y’all at cons!

"Exquisite Corpses reads like the greatest Blumhouse movie never made. Allow Tynion and Walsh to invite you to a fascinating world of enthralling characters that gets you instantly hooked. You won't regret it." - Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible)

We’ve talked about Cover C, Cover E, it’s a lot to keep track of. May I present a little cheat sheet of all of the covers you can get at your local comic shop

Find your LCS here. Don’t have a local? Pre-order it on Shop Tiny Onion!

• Cover A by Michael Walsh

  • Price $4.99

  • Code: 0325IM247

• Cover B by James Stokoe

  • Price $4.99

  • Code: 0325IM248

• Polybagged Cover C, with Killer Card by Michael Walsh

  • Price $6.99

  • Code: 0325IM249

• Cover D, Blank Sketch Cover

  • Price $4.99

  • Code: 0325IM250

• Cover E by Jenny Frison

  • Price $4.99

  • Code: 0325IM251

"Chillingly brutal, hauntingly insightful, and unnervingly beautiful, but the most disturbing thing about Exquisite Corpses? How much fun it is. Let's fucking hunt."
- Matthew Rosenberg (We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us, DC vs. Vampires)

Every week leading up to Exquisite Corpses #1, we will be showing you a new Exquisite Killer. This week, we would like to introduce you to Rascal Randy:

NEW JERSEY selects RASCAL RANDY to wield THE HANDS.
Kill Count: 19
Height: 5' 11"

There is a man inside the RASCAL RANDY costume, but that man doesn't matter. That man has never mattered. He was no one until he put the mascot head on for the first time, until he felt the life leave someone's body through the thickly furred gloves of the suit. The man inside the suit will wear any disguise if necessary, but his true skin is RASCAL RANDY, and god help anyone who sees him coming toward them on a dark night.

“Every now and then there’s a piece of horror fiction that feels so real, so prescient, so about-to-oh-my-fucking-god-happen-in-real-life, that you hope the creators are completely full of shit. I have read Exquisite Corpses. I hope James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh are completely full of shit." - Patton Oswalt (Minor Threats)

ICYMI, here are some of the press hits about the event comic of the year!

• Forbes | Tiny Onion’s ‘Exquisite Corpses’ Turns Creators Loose On A New Horror Franchise

• Off Panel |Corpse Crew with James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh

• Polygon | Exquisite Corpses’ assassin TCG aims for the sweet spot between Magic: The Gathering and Ultimate Werewolf

• Comics Beat | INTERVIEW: James Tynion IV on the making of Exquisite Corpses

• Comics Bulletin | Advance Review: ‘Exquisite Corpses’ Is A Brutal, Killer Battle Royale

• Popverse | Image Comics and Tiny Onion's Exquisite Corpses is built with the future (and the past) in mind, teases co-creator James Tynion IV

• AIPT | ECCC ’25: James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh on Exquisite Corpses- The brutal new world of ‘Exquisite Corpses’ is coming, and its creators have no plans of it ever ending.

• Popverse | James Tynion IV & Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses is like a Stephen King book - despite the horror elements, you'll want the civilian characters to survive

• Gate Crashers | Exquisite Corpses Spoiler Free Review- Tiny Onion’s New Nightmare

• Fangoria | EXQUISITE CORPSES: James Tynion IV Is Bringing Blockbuster Energy To Horror Comics

• Daily Dead | [Exclusive] EXQUISITE CORPSES’ Stitch-Covered, Knife-Wielding Killer Reveal: “The Congregation”

• SKTCHD | “It’s a Big Swing”: Tiny Onion’s Director of Communications Jazzlyn Stone on Bringing Exquisite Corpses to Life — and Market

• ICv2 | JAMES TYNION IV, MICHAEL WALSH, AND 10 ARTISTS TO CONSTRUCT 'EXQUISITE CORPSES' Horror Event Series from Tiny Onion and Image

• Kieron Gillen’s Newsletter #326 | interview with James about building Exquisite Corpses

• Kieron Gillen’s Newsletter #327 | interview with Michael about designing Exquisite Corpses

"Had the pleasure of reading the first issue of Exquisite Corpses from James Tynion IV & Michael Walsh. A hell of a debut and will entertain as much as it's going to terrify with this secret history of America in Late Stage Capitalism. Pre-order it and thank me later."
- Gerry Duggan (X-Men, Falling in Love on the Path to Hell)

• 4/21 - Exquisite Corpses #1

• 5/5 - The Department Of Truth #30

• 5/26 - Exquisite Corpses #2

• 4/30 - The Department Of Truth #31

  • Something is Killing the Children #41

  • You’ll Do Bad Things #2

• 5/7 - Let This One Be a Devil #3

• 5/14 - Exquisite Corpses #1

  • W0rldTr33 #14

• 5/28 - The Department Of Truth #30

“Lyrical in its brutality and mesmerizing in its chaos, Tiny Onion’s EXQUISITE CORPSES transforms a quiet town into a stage for elegant carnage, as a wonderfully twisted menagerie of killers descends like a fever dream, blending Battle Royale with The Silence of the Lambs.”
- Geoff Johns (Geiger, Green Lantern)

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We’re getting ready to launch the Kickstarter campaign for Acheron, a collection of Ian Bertram’s private sketchbooks into one beautiful tome. We’ll have an early backer tier for the first 24 hours, so make sure you sign up to be notified of the launch here.

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And that is some of the news that is fit to print. You know us, there will always be more. What are you most excited about? How did you like the ashcan? Who’s your favorite Killer?

TTYL,
Jazzlyn | Seattle | April 17th, 2025