TINY UPDATE 12/6: TIS THE SEASON
“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.
Happy Monday!
It’s one of those rare weeks where I don’t have a book on the stands, but that does NOT mean that it’s going to be a quiet time over here at Tiny Onion headquarters! This week is a big planning week.
I’ve been spending the last couple of months trying to nail down pretty much all of 2022, and my plans for comics, covers, merch, and everything I’m going to be working on next year. This week I’ve got a few marathon meetings set to weave all of those plans together, and put them all in action. The hardest thing over the last few months has been not letting myself share the incredible, incredible artwork that’s filling up my inbox every single day, on all of these projects that you don’t even know exist yet! Next week, I’m going to do a teaser update on each of my unreleased projects (including OPERATION TOPLOCK, and OPERATION NIGHTMARE), and I’ll probably throw a few more project codenames into the mix so I can start hinting directly at the projects I’m working on behind the scenes. Next week is also my Birthday, so I’m thinking about all of the above as my Birthday present to all of you… And I might have a few surprises up my sleeve.
Sam and I finally decorated our tree last night. I’m excited to be staying home for all of December this year, so I actually get to enjoy the decorations. I stayed up a bit last night just sitting by the lit tree and soaking it all in.
And here’s a shout-out to a couple of crowd-pleaser ornaments (they were a gift, found on an Etsy store years ago, so unfortunately I don’t know what direction to point you in if you want copies for yourself)!
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In case you missed it, I unveiled the first of FOUR Tiny Onion Christmas Cards last Wednesday, featuring stunning art from my THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE co-creator, Álvaro Martínez Bueno. With it, I announced a partnership with 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 already got one, stay tuned for the next drop this Wednesday! We’re doing Christmas Cards for Wynd, Something is Killing the Children, and The Department of Truth, and each of the images is absolutely incredible! Grab your copy today!
For those of you who don’t already know, THE ONION CLUB is the premium subscription tier of this newsletter. It’s the ONLY tier of the newsletter that comes with physical comic books! I’ve been working hard to get all of our 2022 offerings together, and it looks like all the stars have aligned. I’m going to be announcing the approach for my 2022 covers in January, but I just got confirmation that I’m going to be able to pull off something pretty special with these.
I’m going to be getting into some of the perks of the program that we have in store for you in 2022 in next week’s Tiny Update, but I wanted to give folks a heads up that an Onion Club email is going to be sent around this afternoon announcing one last gift for all Onion Club members that will be shipping out before the end of the year.
If you’ve been on the ledge and want to find out firsthand what we’re up to a bit early, you should subscribe, or upgrade your subscription to the Onion Club today!
Was excited to see that the LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT Comic Anthology was announced the other week! I’m going to be participating in it! I can’t say much more than that, other than the fact that I’m a huge fan of the podcast, and I’m thrilled to be part of the team.
I really enjoyed going down the guided rabbit hole of Web3 thinkpieces that Max Read laid out in his Substack newsletter earlier this week. I’m still cooking all of my thoughts about web3 and the Metaverse, and whether it’s a bunch of meaningless bullshit, or if it’s actually the bedrock of a new internet, so I appreciated somebody laying it all out (I also really enjoyed and appreciated his write-up about the death of Lowtax a few weeks back - definitely one of my favorite newsletters I’m reading right now). There’s something about DAOs that excites me a lot in principle, but then looking at them in practice really turns me off. I don’t think it’s all bullshit? But I think there’s so MUCH bullshit right now that I don’t feel compelled to do more than just read about all of it.
I really enjoyed the movie LICORICE PIZZA, which Sam and I managed to see last week. I don’t think it’s P.T. Anderson’s best work, but there’s something incredibly human and affecting about the whole piece. I loved how he worked with unknown actors in the lead roles. I loved sitting through a movie that is unapologetically a movie, that is not trying to sell you anything more than itself. If I can get my shit together in the next couple of weeks, I want to be an absolute fiend and see as many of the interesting-looking movies coming out as I can muster before the new year. I’m particularly excited about Sean Baker’s RED ROCKET.
I’ve also been reading and enjoying the Graphic Novel adaptations of Yuval Noah Harari’s SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF MANKIND (about halfway through book two). They’re co-written by David Vandermeulen with art by Daniel Casanave. It’s maybe a little too cute in places, but the ideas it’s playing with are a very interesting lens to look at our species and our history. If you want some good fodder for thinking, I very much recommend them! I wish there were a lot more non-fiction graphic novels in the world.
I still owe you all a final “THINKING BAT THOUGHTS” column, but I want it to be good, so I’m going to hold off another week until I can give myself a full dedicated workday to write it all up. But I didn’t want you all to think I forgot it. Please stay tuned.
Anyways… A lot of comic books need writing. Putting the nose back down to the grindstone. Have a nice week!
James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
12.6.21
International shipping with Cadenace is so expensive. I've bought things from the USA/Canada before, and it's not that expensive. The postage is more expensive than the print. I'm on the Lemire substack and I've not purchased a single item because of it.
Got my first care package from the Tiny Onion Club. Glad I signed up and looking forward to more goodies, you sure know how to care of your fans!