TINY UPDATE 11/1: Dispatch From the Walled City
Hello Friends!
I come bearing greetings from the far off land of Italy, where I’m currently spending my evening catching up on emails and writing newsletters for your reading pleasure.
Lucca has been fantastic (I was trying to take the above photo incognito, so don’t judge the expression on my face, hahaha). The experience is hard to describe to someone who has never been to the convention before. Imagine a show with almost 100,000 more guests than either Comic Con International in San Diego or New York Comic Con that takes place in a series of exhibition tents placed in plazas around a Medieval walled city. I was told to imagine that in the years before making the trip, but I don’t think I quite grasped the scale of it all. I keep telling friends to imagine Batmans and Anime Characters posing in front of ancient churches, and doing the kind of slow shuffling walk you expect from the central aisles of San Diego down the old stone streets past outdoor cafes and restaurants.
It’s been overwhelming and exhausting at times, but I’ve had my amazing SIKTC co-creator Werther Dell’Edera as my guide through the madness. The show actually extended through Monday and Tuesday of this week, with my last signing tomorrow morning bright and early at 10AM. The series’ Italian publisher Edizione BD put on quite the show here at Lucca. They had a few cosplayers dressed up as Erica Slaughter passing out a black and white print to guests of the show, a huge booth decked out with bad-ass art from the series, and we’ve been moving copies of all five Italian volumes of the series from the moment we opened the doors. It’s been wonderful meeting so many of my Italian fans for the first time. The food and wine has been particularly phenomenal.
Werther and I have been able to circle up and lay out some very exciting plans for the next few years of Erica Slaughter and all of the comics we’re building in the Slaughterverse. It’s been incredible to see the international support for this series, and it was particularly wonderful to find out when we woke up on Sunday Morning that SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN won the Ringo Award for best series, and that SIKTC #20 won the Best Single Issue award. We’re so grateful for the support we’ve gotten on the series so far. It’s wild to think that with all our plans considered, this is really only the beginning.
I keep thinking I’ll head home in a couple of days, but this is just the first leg of my European adventure! I’ll travel to Florence on Wednesday and then fly to Madrid early Thursday morning. I’m so excited to spend this next part of the trip with my Nice House on the Lake co-creator, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, my W0RLDTR33 co-creator Fernando Blanco, and my former partner in Batmannery, Jorge Jimenez at Madrid Pop-Up Con this weekend. And then onwards to Britain and Thought Bubble where I’ll get to see Martin Simmonds and he can make fun of me for thinking three consecutive international conventions was a good idea.
I haven’t had a lot of bandwidth to work on this trip so far, but I’ve had time to think about the next few years. The whole Room Service Kickstarter has been REALLY fascinating. I have a lot of thoughts coalescing about the role of this newsletter and the lack of the role of my twitter profile in getting that project over the finish line, and I am going to be letting those thoughts gestate a bit and write you all a bit of an essay on what I’ve learned and how I might apply those lessons. But as my gameplan for 2023 starts to take shape, I have a clearer vision of what I want out of this Substack, and what I want out of my social media, and I think I have the tools to put it all in action.
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In case you haven’t checked a newsletter in a minute… Elsa Charretier, PK Colinet and I are making a horror short film, a comic book, and an art book, and with your help we’re funding the dang thing on Kickstarter! We funded the whole campaign on its second day, but we’re going to stay ambitious all the way through the end of the project! Every dollar we raise that doesn’t go directly into the production of the art book and the comic is going to go into the movie itself. We’re determined to make something really special, and with your help we can pull it off. Please go check out all the incredibly cool stuff that we’ve got cooking for you. And as my schedule relaxes a bit over the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a little more behind-the-scenes about the project.
OKAY, Here’s where to find me at the MADRID POP-UP COMIC CON this upcoming weekend in (you guessed it), Madrid! I’ll be signing each day at the ECC Ediciones Booth with my Nice House on the Lake co-creator, Alvaro Martinez Bueno.
Friday, November 4th
5:30-6:30PM - Signing at ECC Ediciones Booth
Saturday, November 5th
12:30-1:15PM - NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE Panel with Alvaro Martinez Bueno
4:30-5:45PM - Signing at ECC Ediciones Booth
Sunday, November 6th
1:00-2:00PM - Signing at ECC Ediciones Booth
The following weekend I’m going to be at Thought Bubble in Harrogate in the UK, and I’ll be circling back at the start of next week with all of my panels and signing times. I can’t wait to see a bunch more of you before I head back to New York City.
That’s all from me this week! It’s after midnight here in Italy, and I need to get up early to catch the shuttle to my last signing of Lucca. I want to get a bit of walking around in, soaking up the beauty of the city before I say goodbye.
This Friday, we’ll be releasing the next issue of THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS. I’ll be checking in next Monday with a more robust Tiny Update featuring my full November comic releases, and my appearance schedule at Thought Bubble. Onion Club members will be receiving their monthly email with advance access to the November Onion Drop (we’ve got some AMAZING SIKTC goodies for you), and news about how we’re going to approach Onion Club 2023.
And then the week after that, you all get to find out my last bit of big news of the year. Very excited about this one.
James Tynion IV
Lucca, ITALY
11.1.22
Has there been an update about those of us who were in the Founder’s Tier (onion club) but renewed at the $75 level?
Will there be an opportunity to rejoin the Onion Club?
Keep up he great work.
Thinking of going to Thought Bubble. Would be cool to meet again since you've done so much since the Scottish one you did a few years back