I am back home in Brooklyn.

I had a really nice time out in San Francisco and Kansas City, but am extremely, extremely grateful to be spending the next couple of weeks at home. There’s a shit ton of work that needs doing, but there’s also quite a bit of human-ing I desperately need to get done alongside it. Two sides of the coin that are much more deeply interconnected than I usually let myself see. First I need to try and shake off the time difference. This is not going to be the week I need it to be if I’m waking up at 1pm in the afternoon.

It’s May now. I know most folks usually mark the start of the summer as Memorial Day, and the barbecues that come with it, but I think the combination of Convention Season gearing up, Sam wrapping their Spring semester at Columbia, and a bit more sun helps it all feel a whole lot like summer to me already. It’s going to be a busy one. I’ve got Megacon and San Diego, what’s looking like a trip to Europe, and my Stepsister’s wedding. Then there’s finishing the current slog of script-writing (Somehow I managed to arrange it so that all of my series are off-hiatus simultaneously, which kind of kills the point of having breaks in each of my series), and I’ve got some big Hollywood stuff to get done in the next couple months. But the to-do list is less daunting today than it was a month ago. Maybe it’s not so much that there’s less to do and more that there’s a little less psychic weight on it all, but you know what? I can live with a little less psychic weight.

The first half of the year has been a gauntlet in a way I can't let happen again. The second half of the year is going to be dedicated to helping make sure it doesn’t happen again. Steps are already being taken, but there’s certainly more to do on that front. I’ve been talking about that a bit more abstractly over the last few months, but I think over the summer I’m going to be more upfront about the ways I want to change my workflow, and talk a bit more concretely about my personal goals and my output.

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Onion Club members can expect an email in their inboxes right at Noon ET today, revealing the next Nick Robles gold foil Onion Club Exclusive, AND giving you early access to this week’s Onion Drop. We’ve got TWO variants going on sale this month, one of which is a 1/1000 Cover, and one is a 1/500. That second one is likely to go QUICK, so don’t miss your chance to go pick it up! I’m going to be reiterating this with the larger Onion Drop post on Wednesday, but my pals at Third Eye are designated the last week of each month as the designated ship dates for Onion Drops and Onion Club shipments. We just want to be clear about expectations, so you’re not sitting and waiting for the comics to be delivered.

This month is going to be really busy here on Substack, we’re going to see the launch of TRUE WEIRD and THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS in earnest. We’re also going to be announcing a reshuffling of the regular schedule here, just in time for summer. I’m rethinking the weekly Tiny Update and might try out a bigger update at the top of each month with my full release calendar, and then if I have other little thoughts or updates or an important FOC on the horizon, I can pipe in with a separate dedicated post when the mood strikes me. Onion Drops, Wild Fictions, and comics will continue to come out weekly on Fridays. More to come on this before we kick it into motion… But as always, the best way to get the most out of your Tiny Onion experience is to subscribe!

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TODAY is the Final-Order Cut off for the first issue of the next arc of The Department of Truth, and I wanted to show off some of the fancy variants we’ve got in store for you. First off, we’ve got the standard DOT 18 Cover A, by co-creator and series artist, Martin Simmonds!

We’ve also got an open-to-order Blank Cover variant! Have you seen the incredible sketch covers that Martin does at conventions? This is probably the only time we’ll do an open-to-order sketch variant like this so now’s the best time to order up!

Next up, we’ve got a phenomenal cover by House of Slaughter Arc One artist, CHRIS SHEHAN. This one is available as a 1:25 cover.

Then we’ve got another great MARTIN SIMMONDS cover, the dark mirror of our cover A, since this arc will reveal the secret history of the DOT’s Cold War rivals, the Soviet Ministry of Lies! This is a 1:50 cover.

Finally, we’ve got the show-stopper of a 1:100 cover by the legendary TODD MCFARLANE, with colors by our very own MARTIN SIMMONDS!

Get your orders into your LCS TODAY! This issue is in stores at the end of the month, on 5/25!

My one public appearance in May is going to be a DOOZY!

I am appearing at Megacon in Orlando, FL, alongside DOT artist and co-creator, Martin Simmonds, SIKTC artist, and co-creator, Werther Dell’Edera, NHOTL artist and co-creator, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, HOS Arc Two writer Sam Johns, HOS Arc Two artist Letizia Cadonici, and Batman Variant artist Francesco Mattina!

CONVENTION - MEGACON - Orlando, FL - May 19-22

More details about my schedule at the convention to come as we get closer to the date, along with the perks offered to members of the Onion Club at shows.

I have not seen THE NORTHMAN yet, but I am determined to get to it sometime this week. I have a great yearning in my soul for it.
Really great article from David Harper over on SKTCHD last week, on how the mid-tier comic publishers have been faring in the middle of the pandemic and everything else. As always, I think SKTCHD is delivering the most considered reporting on the comics business. If you haven’t paid for membership over there, I highly recommend it. I’m overdue an appearance on Off-Panel and should get to work trying to get that on the calendar.
I had a great time at Comix Experience in San Francisco last Wednesday and had a really in-depth conversation with Brian Hibbs for his book club that ended up running about 2.5 hours. I’ve always found Brian a really fascinating thinker about the comic book industry, and even where I disagree with him in a big way, I find his point of view really fascinating. You should consider joining the Comix Experience Book Club! And if you’re local, I signed a SHIT TON of stock for them, so they’ve got signed books by me on hand! Go buy them!
The vibe shift is getting more palpable. Everything happening with Twitter and Hollywood over the last month is really fascinating and deeply unnerving. I’ve been reading more business news, and I thought I’d shout out a non-Substack paid news site, Puck.news, which has been doing some really stellar reporting throughout all of the upheaval. The cultural winds are blowing hard in a different direction than they have in a while and I think it’s going to be really destabilizing for a lot of people. I’m trying not to be fatalist about it, but if you’re a creative person I’d say now is the moment to protect yourself, and your ability to do the sort of work that matters to you. If you’re working in a system that’s trying to appease higher corporate masters, I think we’re going to see that those corporate masters are going to be changing their tastes very quickly, and they might not give you the leeway they were willing to give you in the recent past. It’s already happening. I have guesses on how it’ll hit the comics business, but given the state of things, I think comics will be a bit of a lagging indicator on all of this. Our biggest publishers are too separate from the central nervous system of mass-market culture, and the kind of big money that can force rapid change. But that definitely doesn’t mean we’re immune to the vibe shift.

Okay, that’s all from me this morning.

Onion Clubbers, check your email in about 30 minutes, at Noon ET. If you’re an Onion Club member and don’t get the email, you should reach out to tinyonionorders@thirdeyecomics.com and they’ll get you the password to the May Onion Drop.

Be good to each other out there.

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
5.2.22

The Empire of the Tiny Onion

TINY UPDATE 5/2: Home Again, Home Again