TINY UPDATE 5/9: Doctor James and The Tiny Onionverse of Madness

“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

Hello Friends,

How was your week? Are you doing well out there? I hope so. I’d give the last week a B/B- on my end. I got a lot of things done I needed to get done, but there’s still plenty left to do. Ain’t that always the way?

I managed to do some human-ing in the last week. I’ve got more on the books for this week. Which is very good. I feel like I’m almost starting to get the hang of human-to-human interactions again, after a few months of being a deranged feral beast. I don’t feel like I’ve fully transitioned back into sanity, but I’ve got one foot in the door. So that’s a good start. We’ll see if I can sneak part of the next foot in over the next week, or if I just go fully wild again. I should probably go get a haircut and beard trim. That way, I can at least keep the illusion of sanity up.

One thing I need to work on is giving myself some better inputs. I feel like I’ve been listening to a bunch of mediocre audiobooks, watching a bunch of mediocre TV shows, and seeing a bunch of okay to terrible movies. I definitely need to kick my ass a bit and inject some better creative fuel into my brain. I feel like a pipe up there is clogged, and I need to flush the system out with some really really good writing. I want to sink my teeth into something that lights up all of the different corners of my brain. What I think I REALLY want is to dive into a multi-volume creator-owned comic book series. Something meaty where I can just get so swept up that I barely notice time passing. I had that a few weeks ago with my Mike Carey Lucifer reread, but a reread is never as powerful as a first-time through a great story. I read a LOT so unfortunately there are a lot fewer of those kinds of projects left in the wild for me to discover.

I’m open to recommendations in the comments if you have any. Please, no Superheroes. It’s going to be a minute before I can do superheroes again.

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We’ve got a fun surprise in store for you today. You should all expect another email from me in just about an hour, with the launch of a new comics project here on Substack. I’m not going to say anything else until it drops, but I’m excited. Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox. This will be for all subscribers, paid and unpaid alike. Paid subscribers can also expect a Wild Fiction in their inboxes by the end of the week!

But we’ve got plenty more for you to chew on in this here Tiny Update! Keep on reading to see what’s happening in the Tiny Onionverse of Madness.

Hey Gang! The time is now!

THE CLOSET #1 has its Final Order Cut-off today from Image comics! THE CLOSET is a three-issue horror series I’ve been running here on Substack the last few months, and it’s going to be the first Substack comic to make its way to the stands! I’m really curious to see how it’s going to do out there.

This is a big moment, the one where I see how these books I’m building in this here test kitchen live in the wider direct market. It’s going to shape a lot of how I proceed here on the platform.

Tell your LCS if you want a copy of this book! I’m pretty sure Image is still in its “No second printing” mode, so if you miss your shot here, you might not get another to pick this up in single issues. In addition to the standard cover from Gavin, We’ve also got a killer 1:25 cover from Michael Avon Oeming, and a 1:50 cover by Declan Shalvey!

THE CLOSET #1

W: James Tynion IV / A + Cover A: Gavin Fullerton / C: Chris O’Hallaran / L: Tom Napolitano / D: Dylan Todd / Cover B (1:25): Michael Avon Oeming + Chris O’Hallaran / Cover C (1:50): Declan Shalvey / E: Greg Lockard / P: Image Comics

Our Substack digital exclusive is in print for the first time! Final order cutoff is today, May 9th! We’re showing our main cover by artist/co-creator Gavin Fullerton above and below we have the eye-popping debut of two variants, one by BLUE BOOK’s Michael Avon Oeming with colors by Chris O’Hallaran and the other by Declan Shalvey!

The items from last week’s ONION DROP are now available for anybody to pick up! We’ve got some brand new DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH t-shirts, enamel pins, and patches! And we’ve still got a VERY FEW copies left of this great Michael Dialynas HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #6 variant!

Head on over to SHOPTINYONION.COM and pick yourself up some great Tiny Onion products!

THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE: NIGHTMARE COUNTRY #2

W: James Tynion IV / A: Lisandro Estherren & Andrea Sorrentino / C: Patricio Delpeche & Jordie Bellaire / L: Simon Bowland / Main Cover: Reiko Murakami / Variant Cover: Andrea Sorrentino / E: Andrea Shea & Chris Conroy

With the Corinthian loose in the waking world, it's no surprise that people are turning up dead… although this time, they're not the nightmare's doing. (Well, most of them). The Corinthian is following a trail of bodies to the mysterious Mr. Agony and Mr. Ecstasy… but what's their game? And even more pressing—whose tracks are they trying to cover?

IMAGE FIRSTS: THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1

W: James Tynion IV / A: Martin Simmonds / L: Aditya Bidikar / D: Dylan Todd / E: Steve Foxe / P: Image Comics

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. What is the deep, dark secret behind the Department of Truth? This premiere issue is offered at an introductory $1 price as part of the IMAGE FIRSTS program!

Hey Floridians! I’m coming to your state this month to SIGN SOME COMIC BOOKS!

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

Next Monday, I’ll post my full signing schedule, and what benefits Onion Club members can expect at the show. Excited to see you there and sign your comics!

• I recorded an OFF-PANEL with David Harper, which should be up over on SKTCHD sometime today! We talked about my brutal schedule, the way I write my comics, and some of my thoughts about the industry at large. David is probably my favorite interviewer in the comics space, and it’s always a pleasure to have a nice long talk with him. I hope I said a couple of halfway smart things.

• I saw THE NORTHMAN and DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love either. THE NORTHMAN felt like it was missing some extra element to push it over the top, despite being beautiful and well-acted. DOCTOR STRANGE was something else entirely… Now, this might just be my overall burnout on superheroes, but it kind of feels like the MCU is taking on all of the worst habits of continuity-driven superhero comics. It’s incomprehensible as a standalone feature film and wasn’t designed to be one. It is more of a sequel to WandaVision and the last Spider-Man movie, though its connections to both are messy… It’s the first MCU movie to fully capture that comic book experience where it expects you to know things but not remember the details, because when the way the movie explains those details contradict what you DO know. I’ve always resented when people say that stories with magic have no stakes, but this movie seemed determined to prove them right. There is always a solution that just involves ignoring a rule established earlier in the film. My thoughts on the Illuminati portion of the movie had me wishing I had some anon account on a comic book message board like I did in my teen years. I was angry text-messaging friends for a good long while after I got home from the film. Definitely one of my least favorite entries in the MCU. I was expecting to have the reaction I did to the last Spider-Man, where I wouldn’t think it all added up and ultimately thought the whole thing was kind of hollow, but I’d still get emotional while watching the movie itself. This just left me frustrated and cold every minute. The demon hand cape is probably the only visual in the thing that’s going to stick with me, and it’s in the trailers.

• Over the next couple of months, I’m very eager to see MEN and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE. I am crossing my fingers one or both of them are very good. I would very much like to see a very good new movie on a big screen sometime soon.

• RIP Neal Adams and George Perez. Absolutely gutting to lose two giants of our industry in such a short timespan. I had the chance to meet both of them but didn’t know either well. On the other hand, their work has been formative to me my entire life and career. I’m going to do myself a favor and pull my BATMAN: TALES OF THE DEMON and WONDER WOMAN OMNIBUS collections off the shelf and treat myself to some good comic book reading.

This past Saturday was Free Comic Book Day.

Today, we’re going to be delivering the Substack comics response. Expect something to drop in the next hour, launching my latest Substack comics project, and other cool stuff to come on your other favorite comic Substacks. More to come very soon.

See you then. Be good to each other out there!

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
5.9.22