TINY UPDATE 5/30: Kicking Off A Chaotic Summer

“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 Memorial Day, friends. Welcome to Summer.

The next few months are going to be filled with a lot of life changes. Most of them are going to happen on a personal front that I’m not going to get into much over here. There’s also a whole bunch of very exciting things happening on the Hollywood front (that document I turned in the other week went over very well). And I still write roughly eight million comics a month. So it’s going to be a hectic few months.

I’m still recovering (in a few ways) from Megacon. I feel a bit like I’m calibrating and bracing myself for a lot of things happening all at once. I’m crossing my fingers that I can find a genuine rhythm for myself in all of it. It’ll be difficult, but not impossible. I struggle the most with uncertainty, but the next steps feel more tangible to me than they have in a while. Now it’s just about not tripping over myself as I take those steps.

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This Friday on Substack, we’re going to be dropping the complete first issue of THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS. To whet your appetite, I wanted to show off Nick Robles’ amazing wraparound cover to issue one, and the great pin-up cover he’s got to match it.

TOPLOCC is going to be released every two months here on Substack. It’s going to be FREE to read for all subscribers. The series is based on an idea I’ve had in the back of my head for years. I brought my House of Slaughter Arc One partner, Tate Brombal to develop and script the series, Onion Club Gold cover artist Nick Robles to tackle covers and character designs, the amazing Isaac Goodhart on interior art, the phenomenal Kurt Michael Russell on colors, and the spectacular Aditya Bidikar on letters. This is going to be a fun one. We’ve got a big mystery we’re going to be peeling back over the course of the series. Teen characters with strange powers, horror monsters, and the original Frankenstein Monster live at the heart of this series. I’m excited for you all to meet Christopher Chaos, teen Mad Scientist later this week.

Next week, I’ll be dropping the last Tiny Update until July, and we’ll be doing the June Onion Drop (read more about the Tiny Onion Summer schedule here). Some items connected to that drop actually might be connected to the release of my first Substack title in print! THE CLOSET by me, Gavin Fullerton, Chris O’Halloran, and Tom Napolitano is going to be coming out from Image Comics over the next few months. THE CLOSET is a horror novella, being released in three 30-page issues. It’s a tight human horror story, and if you haven’t checked it out here on Substack, I hope you go pick it up in stores!

THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE #9

W: James Tynion IV / A: Alvaro Martinez Bueno / C: Jordie Bellaire / L: AndWorld Design / Cover A: Alvaro Martinez Bueno / Cover B: Kelley Jones & Dan Brown / E: Marquis Draper & Chris Conroy

All Arturo wants is for his partner, Sam, to be happy—so why isn't he? What is scratching at the edge of Sam's memories that keeps him restless and unsatisfied? As a journalist, nothing can keep Sam from the truth—no matter what that truth could cost the man he loves…

THE CLOSET #1 (of 3)

W: James Tynion IV / A + Cover A: Gavin Fullerton / C: Chris O’Hallaran / L: Tom Napolitano / D: Dylan Todd / Cover B: Michael Avon Oeming + Chris O’Hallaran / Cover C: Declan Shalvey / E: Greg Lockard / P: Image Comics

A tale of existential familial horror by JAMES TYNION IV (THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, RAZORBLADES) and GAVIN FULLERTON (BOG BODIES, Bags). Thom is moving cross-country with his family and dragging the past along with them. His son, Jamie, is seeing monsters in the bedroom closet and will not let them go.

This Saturday, I’m going to be signing copies of it over at Midtown Comics! This is my only real appearance for the next couple of months (still figuring out the degree to which I’ll be at San Diego), so if you’re in the neighborhood, come on over!

• Had a chance to check out the first issue of MINDSET by Zack Kaplan and John J. Pearson over at Vault, and it’s a really cool book! John was the artist of Department of Truth #14, and I think this is his best work yet. Good sci-fi thriller stuff. Add it to your pull list!

• Comic book people of the world! What would you recommend if a person were looking for a few high-quality portfolio books that can fit an original comic art collection, keep it safe, and look good on a shelf? I’ve moved beyond wanting to get everything framed (or having the space for it, I should say). Looking for a little larger than 11x17 to fit some European pieces with different dimensions. Any thoughts from you fancy art collectors out there would be appreciated.

• I’ve been watching THE OFFER, which is light but entertaining (Matthew Goode is incredible as Bob Evans), and it got me on a kick where I watched THE GODFATHER, THE GODFATHER PART II, and APOCALYPSE NOW all in the last week, which was great. Sometimes you really do just need to check in with the classics and let them seep into your brain. Movies are something special. I’d love to get up close to the process and make one of them. I can’t tell if a decade of spinning a million plates in comics would make me well-suited for it, or not. Maybe someday I’ll find out.

• I have not seen the new TOP GUN yet, and admittedly have not seen the original TOP GUN, but I think I might have to pull that trigger based on everyone seems to have a great time seeing a big-budget blockbuster like this. Even though it’s a franchise film, it feels markedly different from the aggressive 2010s MCU-style blockbuster. Like there’s value in a spectacle that is designed to be a well-crafted satisfying spectacle, and not like… a company trying to entrap you into an infinite cycle of movies where none of them are particularly contained. All that said, MEN and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE are still higher up on my personal “to see” list. Hoping to get out to the theaters before the end of the week in any case.

See you all on Friday for THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS, and stay tuned for some fun Onion Drops this week.

In the meantime, if you pick up The Closet this week and love it, and want to show your love to the world, you should head on over to SHOP TINY ONION and pick up some cool Closet Merch!

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
5.30.22