TINY UPDATE 2/6: VIVE LA FRANCE!
“Tiny Update” is a monthly 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 woke up this morning in a beautiful Paris apartment overlooking the Seine, and I have to say this is a very nice life that I am living. The French Tour has been incredible. Exhausting to be sure, but getting to meet fans and sign comics all over this beautiful country has been a dream. The Urban Comics team took incredible care of us, and THEY MADE WALTER GLASSES TO PROMOTE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Urban Comics makes such unbelievably beautiful editions. Hardcover is the standard in France, with most of their comics in the oversized Bande desinée format, and for Nice House they made the decision to launch the book in Deluxe Format from day one, to try and capture some of the BD audiences who usually don’t sample much work from the American Market. From what we were hearing, the beautiful first volume you see above was already flying off the shelves in its first week of release. Let’s cross our fingers that we can keep it up.
I was joined on the tour by my Nice House co-creator, Alvaro Martinez Bueno and his partner Ici, and honestly it was just really fucking nice spending time with great humans who I usually only ever get to see in fleeting moments on a chaotic convention weekend. There was plenty of chaos here, particularly in Angouleme, but also one of the nights we were out dancing until three in the morning and it was fucking incredible. It was cold enough that we were all in our winter coats on the dance floor, but that was a big part of the fun. Comics is such a weird, wonderful, and global community and I love dancing with a bunch of you nerds. (Those Walter glasses are REALLY fucking fun to dance in, too)
Alvaro and I also got to do a lot of creative groundwork on the next project we’re working on together that I both keep more or less acknowledging, but hasn’t been officially announced yet. I texted one of my good friends about it saying that I had figured out what emotional wounds I was going to stick my fingers into to make the book good, and boy did I ever. These comics are going to HURT, but that’s part of the fun right? RIGHT?!?!
Beyond all of that… There is very fascinating movement in all the shadowy parts of my job that I’m not going to shine a light on here in the newsletter. The next few years are taking shape, and they are taking shape on my terms. I have amazing comic projects in motion and amazing projects in motion outside of comics. These international trips have been incredible because they’ve really re-centered my perception of what comics looks and feels like as a global market. I have a stronger feeling than ever of what the next ten years of this business are going to look like, and I’m going to make the most of it, so I can keep writing the comics I want to write, with the creators I want to collaborate with, in the formats I find the most exciting.
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Wanted to give a very special shout-out to a very special volume that’s on Final Order Cut-Off today, despite not coming out for a few more months…
Martin Simmonds and I are releasing the first Deluxe Hardcover of THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH. It’s fucking gorgeous, thanks to a phenomenal cover by Martin, and an inspired design by series designer Dylan Todd (I can’t wait for you to see all the interior touches on the volume).
This has the equivalent of the first three trade paperbacks inside, presented in release order, rather than moving all the interstitial “Deviations” to the third volume.
Tell your LCS you want a copy today!
THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: THE COMPLETE CONSPIRACY VOLUME ONE DELUXE HARDCOVER
(W) James Tynion IV (A) Elsa Charretier, Tyler Boss, John Pearson, David Romero, Alison Sampson, Jorge Fornes (A/CA) Martin Simmonds
Cole Turner has studied conspiracy theories all his life, but he isn't prepared for what happens when he discovers that all of them are true: the JFK Assassination, Flat Earth Theory, Bigfoot, Mothman, and so much worse. One organization has been covering them up for generations, controlling the narrative for what they claim is the greater good.
What is the deep, dark secret behind the Department of Truth-and will learning it destroy Cole's life from the inside out?
The first three arcs of the critically acclaimed series by Eisner Award-winning writer JAMES TYNION IV (Something is Killing the Children, The Nice House on the Lake) and superstar artist MARTIN SIMMONDS (Dying is Easy) are collected here for the first time in deluxe hardcover format. Experience...THE COMPLETE CONSPIRACY.
Collects THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1-17
In Shops: Apr 26, 2023
February 15th
HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #12
W: James Tynion IV & Tate Brombal / A: Werther Dell‘Edera & Antonio Fuso / C: Miquel Muerto / L: AndWorld Design / E: Eric Harburn & Ramiro Portnoy
Alone after barely surviving a monster's massacre, Sunny is elusive to Jace-but not the White Masks!
Caught up in the business of the White and Black Masks, will Sunny join Jace's former house, or be left in the woods to face the same horrors again?
February 22nd
BLUE BOOK #1
W: James Tynion IV / A: Michael Avon Oeming / L: Aditya Bidikar / E: Greg Lockard, Daniel Chabon / P: Dark Horse
From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning cocreators of Something is Killing the Children, The Nice House on the Lake, The Department of Truth, and Powers comes an ambitious, nonfiction comic book experience depicting true stories of UFO abductions with an eye to capturing the strange essence of those encounters.
Presenting what James Tyion IV has coined as "True Weird" stories. Tales of ordinary people encountering the strange and the impossible. Teaming with artist Michael Avon Oeming, they retell some of the most popular UFO and alien encounter accounts starting with the infamous Betty and Barney Hill abduction--the widely publicized and very first abduction that went on to shape and influence all future encounter stories.
*Also includes the short for our Substack anthology, "True Weird: Coney Island" by James Tynion IV, Klaus Janson, and Aditya Bidikar!
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #29
W: James Tynion IV / A: Werther Dell'Edera / C: Miquel Muerto / L: AndWorld Design / Cover A: Werther Dell'Edera / E: Ramiro Portnoy & Eric Harburn
It's the final hour for Erica as she has no choice left but to face the Duplicitype and save Tribulation from its reckoning.
But Cutter's looming arrival isn't the only thing competing for the rogue Black Mask's attention… and Gabi has her own plans-ones that put her in grave danger.
OKAY, so I don’t have news yet, but I do have news coming soon.
Let’s just say I have a fun event in store for folks in mid-March in the Pacific Northwest, I have a signing in early April, and I’ve got my first US conventions of the year shortly thereafter. You’ll have information on all of these as soon as I am free to share it.
So, I had the very great pleasure of reading Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips upcoming graphic novel, NIGHT FEVER before I went to Paris. It’s phenomenal. It’s a powerful thriller that sees a man unleashing long sublimated parts of himself while at a book festival in Europe. Which… hit pretty close to home I have to say. There’s also an incredibly strange sequence in the middle of the book that made me giddy, I don’t want to spoil it for any of you but it gave me flashbacks to reading SLEEPER. Ed and Sean are the best storytellers in the American Comics Market. Sometimes a multi-volume tale like Reckless can be intimidating to dive into, but this is standalone and fucking GOOD. We’re only one month into the year, and I suspect this is going to be one of my favorite titles of the year. It’s a hardcover, out in June, and because of the weird way these things work, its FOC is TODAY! So tell your local comic shop right now to add it to your list, or do what I do, and let them know “Whenever there is a new thing by Ed and Sean, put it aside for me.”
My audiobook travel companion for the trip has been LISEY’S STORY by Stephen King, and it was really marvelous. I’ve always been in awe of how King builds character, and this one felt really rich on that front. The relationship between Scott and Lisey in the series and the holes they filled in each other’s lives hit me very powerfully. This as my follow-up to NIGHT FEVER has kind of shone a spotlight on the way I’ve been dealing with some of my own most sublimated bits of myself. Sometimes we lock pieces of ourselves away to protect ourselves, and then down the line, what we did to protect ourselves in a moment ends up doing more damage over time. I’m bringing a bit too much of myself into both of these reads, but I think that just speaks to both of their quality.
I think I might do a boxing class? That sounds fun, right?
Calling all beardos. Can I get some recommendations for a nice beard trimmer that’s fairly easy to use? I’m ready to go back to a short neat beard for a bit, I think, and all my trimmers are BS. I have a good electric shaver if I want to be clean-shaven or if I’m cleaning up my neck and cheeks (Norelco One-Blade! It’s Great!), but not like “I want to cut off one half to two thirds of my beard and still look nice.”
Okay, so tomorrow is going to bring the second round of SKTCHDxTINYONION, my new monthly interview series with David Harper. That’s going to live behind the paywall, but we’ll have a free bit up to whet your appetite. This entry is going to deal a bit with my creative process and priorities, so if you want to know how a new project evolves from a kernel of an idea in my head to something on the page, you should check it out.
Wednesday will see an Onion Drop for paid subscribers, with a focus on this month’s big debut, BLUE BOOK #1! We’ve got a variant cover, a new T-Shirt, and a new enamel pin ready for you. So be sure to check your inboxes at Noon on Wednesday, if you want to get any of this neat stuff while it lasts.
Next week I am going to hit you all up with a bit more about my new Image Comics series, W0RLDTR33, and reveal all of the available covers for Issue #1. We have some real beauties in store for you.
Alright. Time to fly back to Brooklyn. Love to you all.
James Tynion IV
Paris, FRANCE
2.6.23
Ohhhh helll yeaaa James! I ordered and pre-ordered all the things!
Beardo advice: don't trim it yourself. Find a barber that you like (look for straight razor certifications) and have them trim and line up. Typically it's very cheap for beard trims ($15-$20 range) and its better than spending hundreds on a really nice trimmer on your own. I did my own trimming for awhile and also couldnt find a good enough trimmer. Trust me, file this under the "treat yourself" tab :)