TINY UPDATE 12/14: Another Year Older, Another Year Weirder

“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

Sorry for the one day delay here. I came down with a bug and am just wrapping myself up in blankets and waiting until tomorrow comes. THANKFULLY, I already wrote up most of what I wanted to post here over the weekend….

Last week, I spent a couple of days coordinating with my editors, laying out all of 2022, week by week, month by month, in stores, and in newsletters. I’ve got a lot of comics coming your way over the next year. Honestly, seeing it all together in one calendar really ought to freak me out a lot more than it does. Instead, I find it all very steadying.

There is something so profoundly calming about knowing all of the comics I’m going to be working on over the next year. It means I can start working ahead, banking the covers we need drawn, breaking the story that needs broken, and not worry about so many of the last-minute panics that defined a decade of working on comics that I don’t own. I’m so used to. My goal is to try and let the spirit of Jeff Lemire possess me, work through what’s on my plate, and start actually getting ahead.

Today is my birthday. I’m turning 34 years old. This year is going to be my tenth anniversary as a professional comic book writer. I’m going to wax a bit more poetic about that as we hit the actual ten year mark in April. I was going to write a bit more on all of this, but my desire to go hide back in my blankets is overwhelming. Do me a favor and do something fun for my birthday this week, because I have a feeling I’m going to end up sleeping through most of mine.

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In case you missed it, I unveiled the second of four Tiny Onion Christmas Cards last Wednesday, featuring amazing art from my WYND co-creator, Michael Dialynas. Like we did last week, we’ve partnered with the fine people at Cadence Comic Art to make some exclusive 11x17 prints of these amazing holiday images. These prints are going to be available, one at a time. Each print is going to drop on Wednesdays, at 2pm ET, and then will stop being available the following Wednesday when the next print drops!

The above print is going to be available until 2pm ET this Wednesday, so if you want a copy for yourself, you should snag one now! And if you’ve already got the first two, stay tuned for the next drop this Wednesday! We’ve got prints coming from Something is Killing the Children, and The Department of Truth, and they are both incredible!

I also wanted to give one last big push toward my premiere subscription level before the end of the year, because we’re shipping out a very special present for all subscribers just in time for the holidays! A few months back I said I was going to create a physical membership card for all members of The Onion Club, and I debuted a picture of one for current Onion Club members last week.

Now I’m ready to show it off to all of you!

Here’s a better look at the incredible design from Dylan Todd.

Okay, It’s all a bit goofy, but I’m having fun!!

I also wanted to let you know that folks who upgrade before the end of the year are going to get a set of physical greeting card-sized Christmas Cards from me featuring each of the designs I’ve been debuting over the last few weeks. The Christmas Cards and Membership Cards are going to start shipping out from my colleagues at Third Eye Comics over the next couple of weeks. Little gifts like that are only a small part of the Onion Club membership package.

Here’s everything you’ll get in 2022 with an Onion Club membership:

• Onion Club members will receive a special membership card perfectly sized to fit in your wallet, which will unlock special offerings at comic conventions. Those offerings include:

  • If you present your Onion Club member card at a convention signing, I will waive my signature fee for one graded signature per signing session.

  • If you present your Onion Club member card at a convention signing, you can get double the limit of free ungraded signatures per signing session (ie: if I have a limit of 3 free ungraded signatures, you can get 6 free ungraded signatures).

  • I’m going to make a special gold variant of both the SIKTC Order of St. George, and Department of Truth logo enamel pins to bring to comic conventions, which will only be available to purchase if you are a member of the Onion Club.

  • If you forget your Onion Club Card, you can also show a logged in membership page on Substack that shows you’re a subscriber at the $250 Onion Club level to receive the same benefits.

• Onion Club members will receive six exclusive variant covers over the course of 2022, available only to Onion Club members, that will never be put on sale to the public. Shipping costs included in membership.

• Onion Club members will receive some other special “gifts” (like the Christmas Cards) at various points over the year. Shipping costs included in membership.

• Once my new web store opens in 2022, Onion Club members will get access to all three “drops” for Merchandise and Variant Covers (The first drop only available to Onion Club Members, the second available to all paid subscribers, the third available to all subscribers) - Three chances to get these rare exclusive items, so you don’t miss the ones you’re most excited to snag for yourself!

• All Onion Club members who sign up in 2021 will get ALL of the benefits of membership in 2022, even if they signed up in August 2021 and decide not to renew at the one year mark. (More directly - Folks who got The Onion Club variant of House of Slaughter #1 will get SIX additional exclusives over the course of 2022, not the FIVE previously promised).

• All Onion Club members who sign up in 2021 will not be held to the international restrictions that we may start setting in 2022. (Unless we figure out a more cost effective solution, Onion Club membership moving forward will likely only be available in the United States)

You can upgrade to the Onion Club level if you hit the subscribe button below!

The Joker #10

W: James Tynion IV & Matthew Rosenberg / A: Francesco Francavilla / L: Tom Napolitano Cover A: Guillem March & Arif Prianto / Variant Cover: Francesco Francavilla / Variant Cover: James Stokoe / Variant Cover: Jay Anacleto & Rex Lokus / AE: David Wielgosz / E: Ben Abernathy

Following the harrowing events of Batman: The Killing Joke, the course of James Gordon’s life—and that of his family’s—was forever changed! But what happened when Gordon’s path again crossed with the Joker’s…

Punchline Feature: W: James Tynion IV & Sam Johns / A: Belen Ortega

Harper Row has successfully gotten Punchline’s former friend, Kelly Ness, out of Blackgate. What Kelly reveals about Punchline’s past and true nature will change her criminal case forever, but will Harper and Leslie Thompkins be able to protect her from Punchline’s loyalists?

AND IN STORES NEXT WEEK, on DECEMBER 22nd…

House of Slaughter #3

W: James Tynion IV & Tate Brombal / A: Werther Dell‘Edera & Chris Shehan / C: Miquel Muerto / L: AndWorld Design / Cover A: Chris Shehan / Cover B: Werther Dell'Edera / 1:25 Cover: Toni Infante / 1:50 Cover: Gabriel Hernandez Walta / E: Eric Harburn & Ramiro Portnoy

As the House leaders discuss the fate of "the Last Butcher," Aaron and Jace escape the watchful eye of Helen and the White Masks to sneak into the forbidden outreaches of Chicago.

Then, in the present day, Aaron finally comes face-to-face with the monster that he's been tracking... which is much more powerful than expected.

• Looper listed THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH as one of the best comics of the year! IGN listed THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE as one of the best comics of the year! Not being on twitter means I’m sure to miss a few of these, so if you see one of my books on a list, do a favor and sound off in the comments! I also just like the lists so I can see what cool stuff I’ve missed over the last year!! Enable my list consumption!

• I got to see an advance screening of THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH by Joel Coen over the weekend and it was absolutely phenomenal. The Weird Sister sequences in particular are probably the enduring horror images of the year. It’s been a while since I’ve gone head to head with a work of Shakespeare, and there’s so much power in every single word, every single moment of it all. The piece also got me thinking a lot about the power of artifice in storytelling. The film is shot on a soundstage, and it leans into that fact, rather than trying to pretend at any realism. The stark settings make the words and the performances leap off the screen. Overly literal realism can be such a dead end in art, and it’s invigorating seeing more and more creators lean away from it. You can say something powerful with every deliberate step you make away from the real world.

• The passing of Anne Rice a few weeks after Stephen Sondheim feels like a direct attack on my 15 year old self. If you haven’t done the original Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned, I can’t overstate how much of an impact her work had on mine.

• No spoilers, but SUCCESSION is a really fucking good TV show. The finale might be the first episode of a thing I’ve wanted to rewatch only a day after watching it the first time around. “Man likes popular TV show” might not be the most controversial take in the world.

Quick note! Premium Razorblades subscribers, I know you’ve been very patient with us. I’m working on getting the last stragglers out the door and in folks hands this month. Things are moving, just a bit more slowly than I anticipated.

This is going to be the last TINY UPDATE of the year. I’m going to try and sneak in an End of Year Wrap-Up post, and my overdue “Thinking Bat Thoughts” finale between Christmas and New Years. We’ve still got Christmas Cards this week and next, and a few more doses of True Weird for you between Blue Book and Wild Fictions.

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
12.14.21