TINY UPDATE 10/4: New York, New York
“Tiny Update” is a weekly free newsletter that keeps you up to date on the latest news, comic book projects and merchandise offerings from James Tynion IV and Tiny Onion Studios.
Hello Friends, I hope you all had a nice weekend.
This week is going to be a bit of a beast, so I’m going to stop myself from prattling on too long, and get to the point. New York Comic Con is this weekend, and somehow I forget every year that despite the fact that I live in New York City, this show is always a bit of a fucking logistical nightmare. Even moreso when I’d been keeping my eyes on the news for months to see whether or not it was going to happen. BUT, I will be at the show this weekend, and have my schedule laid out below. I can’t wait to see you all there. I will be using hand sanitizer liberally all weekend.
ONION CLUB (Formerly Founder’s Tier) and DAY ONE subscribers should have received an email late on Friday Night, where I requested your shipping information. In the first of those emails, I goofed on the dates, and stated that Day One subscribers are folks who signed up on 9/9 and 9/10, instead of 8/9 and 8/10, but most of you seem to have figured that one out for yourselves. I ended up expanding the qualifications for “DAY ONE” Subscribers through the entirety of August 10th (United States Eastern Time), because trying to hammer in the noon deadline was going to have me up all night and I still probably would have goofed it up! So cheers to the few hundred extra folks who snuck in!
I’ll have more information on shipping soon, but it is not too late to get in on the exclusive Onion Club House of Slaughter #1 cover that we’ll start shipping out late this month. You just need to sign up for the premium Onion Club membership below! You get access to all the comics and comic related projects I’m releasing here on Substack, and I’ll be shipping some hyper-exclusive variants to members over the course of the year!
On Friday, we launched the first entry in our new recurring feature… THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS. The first entry is available now for free, but all future entries are going to go up behind the paywall! DOT: WF is going to run on alternating Fridays, with chapters of BLUE BOOK. Chapter 3 of which is going to be dropping this Friday! This week is also going to bring you a new THINKING BAT THOUGHTS… I wanted to announce that TBT is now going to be a feature that runs every other Wednesday through the end of my Batman, rather than weekly. That’ll give me the time to make each entry nice and meaty without it absolutely destroying my schedule…
I’m up to some pretty cool top secret stuff right now. Some of it you’ll find out about soon, and some of it you won’t… But it’s all very exciting.
Batman #114
W: James Tynion IV/ A: Jorge Jimenez / C: Tomeu Morey / L: Clayton Cowles / Cover A: Jorge Jimenez / Cover B: Jorge Molina / 1:25 Variant: Dylan Teague / AE: David Wielgosz / E: Ben Abernathy
Okay, so over the last few issues, we’ve set the stage of what’s happened to Gotham City. This is the issue where everybody starts punching each other real good. I think Jorge Jimenez does some of the best fight scenes in the business, and it is an absolute thrill to step back and let him take central stage… This issue has a pretty brutal twist, and the stakes are only going to go up from here.
The Nice House on the Lake #5
W: James Tynion IV / A: Alvaro Martinez Bueno / C: Jordie Bellaire / L: AndWorld Design / Cover A: Alvaro Martinez Bueno / Cover B: David LaFuente & Miquel Muerto / AE: Marquis Draper / E: Chris Conroy
So… This issue is where shit starts BREAKING. The Nice House pals have started figuring out how to break out of the system that Walter has built for all of them, and Walter is not going to sit idly by and let them happen… Everything is going to start to come together here. This issue also features an absolute stunner of a cover by David Lafuente, which I’m throwing up here because it’s real pretty and you should all see how pretty it is.
It’s time! New York Comic Con is THIS WEEKEND. Sam and I will be attending, though admittedly I’m going to have a relatively light footprint at the show.
I’ll be at Artist Alley Table A-11. I’ll be signing once on Thursday and Sunday, and twice on Friday and Saturday. Sam Johns will be at the show Saturday and Sunday at the table next to mine.
Ungraded Signatures are free, with a limit of 5 signatures per signing. Graded signatures will cost $20/each, and we will have somebody on hand who can take in graded books.
THURSDAY
Signing - Artist Alley A-11 - 4-6pm
FRIDAY
Signing - Artist Alley A-11 - 12-2pm
Signing - Artist Alley A-11 - 4-6pm
SATURDAY
Signing - Artist Alley A-11 - 11:30am-1:30pm
Panel - Conspiracy Theories of “The Department of Truth” with James Tynion IV (Room 406.2) - 2-3pm
Signing - Artist Alley A-11 - 4-6pm
SUNDAY
Signing - Artist Alley - 2-5pm
Also: I am going to be bringing 30 sets of the extremely rare first print Tiny Onion exclusive foil covers from THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1, which I haven’t put up for sale since I put up 75 of each cover back in October of last year! I said back then that I’d save a batch of copies for when conventions started back up again, and they have officially started back up again!
The five first people in line for each signing will be able to purchase a set of the two covers for $50. That’s six opportunities over the course of the weekend. You are limited to one set per person all convention long, even if you’re the first in line for all six signings. I’ll be repeating this process at Thought Bubble in November, and at my 2022 shows until I run out of copies.
Over the weekend, 3W3M started a new recurring feature called “Worlds Worth Watching” which consisted of a live watch-through of CHILDREN OF MEN, with everyone chatting in the comment section. I started the movie about an hour after everyone else, but holy crap is that some hard-hitting science fiction. Even moreso given how much closer we’ve gotten to the world of that movie over the last 15 years.
But honestly, it just felt like a really good community feature with a bit more of a focus than an open-ended Q&A and I wanted to ask the audience if folks would be interested in doing movie nights with me here on my newsletter. I could pick movies that helped inspire the books I’m writing, or the ones that I’m watching as research for unannounced projects… So I wanted to ask the audience if that’s something that folks would be interested in if I started doing over here? Wanna watch some movies with me?
I’m rereading THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES by John Keel to prep for the next issue of The Department of Truth, and I will say that if you haven’t read it… Keel’s breakdown of the Ultraterrestrial concept in the book really is the closest to capturing the mechanics of how “Tulpas” work in the Department of Truth universe. I have THE EIGHTH TOWER sitting on my shelf calling out to me…
I watched the first couple of episodes of SQUID GAME yesterday and am desperate to watch more (mostly this is a time problem). Between that and MIDNIGHT MASS, I am extraordinarily grateful that two of the biggest genre things happening this October are fully original stories, not adaptations or remakes. Original horror always hits harder than reinterpretations.
Okay. That’s enough for this week. Happy October to all my fellow weirdos. Make sure you give your Pumpkins a nice big kiss from me.
James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
10.4.21
Hey folks! I'm going to get to the bottom of the folks who haven't gotten their emails. I see all of you posting below. I'm a bit underwater with pre-NYCC preparation, but I will check each of your memberships and see what the problem is. Commenting on this post is the best way for me to check each of your memberships and pass along the sign-up link if you are in fact eligible.
Thanks for your patience! I wish I could clone like six of myself to make this easier.
Hi James, how does a Day One subscriber who didn’t get an email for shipping address report it?