Tiny Onion Christmas Card 04: THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH

So, when I last left you, I was standing in what turned out to be a three hour outdoor line in front of a MedRite Urgent Care in Brooklyn.

At the end of that line, I’d take a test, and a few hours later I’d learn that what I was already suspecting was true. I, like seemingly half of New York City, had Covid. A nice little birthday present from the universe to me. The middle of last week sucked. I had a 102 degree fever, and then a sore throat that gave me a full on Harvey Fierstein voice. It also seemed like a rip-off that I was getting time off from my punishing work schedule, but I didn’t have the focus to sit down and knock out any good books, movies, or TV shows. But thankfully, by the weekend my symptoms had virtually passed, and by the start of this week I was feeling fully myself. Still need to wait another couple days before I re-enter society, but such is the way of things.

But anyways… That’s all to say that the holiday season hasn’t been exactly what I had in mind from the outset. I had a few more holiday street markets I was hoping to hit up, and a few more nights with hot cocoa and friends in mind. But these little Holiday Cards have been a particular joy that has kept Christmas alive in this house. And I’ve been waiting to debut this final one for a few weeks now. When I started messaging with Martin, he’s the one who came up with the idea of The Star-Faced Man as Rudolph pulling The Fictional Woman along in a sleigh. Because I have a single-track mind, and that single-track is “UFOs,” I suggested a UFO instead of a sleigh.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Cadence Comic Art is offering each of these Christmas Cards as limited edition 11x17 prints! Each print is only $25 plus shipping. Limited One Per Person. Signed and Numbered by me and the artist. Each design will be on sale for one week, until the next design drops the following Wednesday at 2PM ET. Fulfillment will be handled by the amazing people at Cadence, and they can combine shipping if you’re planning on ordering multiple prints (use the code TINYONION at check-out). This is available to all subscribers to The Empire of the Tiny Onion, free and paid!

This is going to be a big Department of Truth year. Martin and I have a few very big cards up our sleeves that we’re very excited to play. I’m trying to see if we can get our hands on a particular piece of subject matter that is going to unlock a whole arena of DOT storytelling for us, in a big and exciting way. We’re also going to be continuing the DOT: Wild Fictions feature through next year, with the goal of creating a beautiful art book with all of the illustrations. We’ve been lining up the illustrators for the first half of the year, and they are all really incredible. And I’m pleased to report that things continue to move forward in exciting ways with the Department of Truth adaptation, thought I can't say much on that front. Just know that we’ve got some really fucking good comic books coming your way in the next year, that tap into all of the weirdest corners of conspiracy lore. We want to keep playing in the world of DOT for years to come, and I hope you want to keep walking down this weird fucking road with Martin and myself.

I’ve been trying to keep all of these a bit themed, title to title, but I also wanted to give a shout-out to the fine people at Scott’s Collectables. I’ve been doing variant covers in partnership with them for a while now, and they’ve got one coming out this week that I wanted to help promote, for House of Slaughter #3. This is a wraparound cover by the incredible Alan Quah. It’s a new take on an incredible cover we had done for SIKTC #15 with Erica Slaughter in the key spot… And now we’re featuring Aaron Slaughter.

Amazingly, this cover connects with the original Erica Slaughter Cover! So if you have that one, you better get your hands on this one, too!

Sales Link Goes Live at 4pm ET, on 12/23. That’s Tomorrow! Here’s the link to keep handy. Set an alarm and snag a copy for yourself!

Anyways… If you’ve been trying to get a hold of me, I’m starting to catch up on emails and stuff. Please bear with me, It’s going to take me into next week to get back on top of everything. I’m doing my best! We’ve got an INCREDIBLE Wild Fiction in store for you this Friday, and then next week we’re going to take the whole week off our regularly scheduled posts… I still might sneak a couple of posts in there in my classic meandering essay format. I’ve got a bit of an end of year reflection cooking in the back of my head. Let’s see what I can get on paper.

Lots of love and holiday cheer to you all!

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
12.22.21