Hello Friends!

Today, Substack is rolling out its brand new app for phones and tablets. It’s debuting on the Apple Store with an Android version releasing soon. Now it’s going to be easier than ever to make sure that you don’t miss out on any of the weekly posts, across all the comic Substacks I hope you’re following. You can read more about it here. Here’s a quick glimpse at how it looks.

I wanted to pull together a comprehensive index for all of the incredible comics and illustrations we’ve been developing here on Substack over the last few months. This will be a living document, updating as the series develop, and always available, pinned to the front page of jamestynioniv.substack.com.

A quick reintroduction to me… My name is James Tynion IV. I am the Eisner Award-winning, New York Times bestselling writer and co-creator of the hit comic book series THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE, SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN, and WYND. I cut my teeth working at DC Comics, primarily on comics featuring BATMAN, where I co-created characters like Punchline, Ghost-Maker, Clownhunter, and many more. Last fall, I stepped away from working full-time on Superhero comics to dedicate myself to making my own comic books, both here on Substack and in print publishing.

Here at The Empire of the Tiny Onion, we’re publishing comics across the spectrum of my interests, from non-fiction comics in what I call the “True Weird” genre (True Crime’s odder cousin covering “true” stories of encounters with the unexplained - UFOs, Cryptids, and Paranormal Phenomena - As seen in our series BLUE BOOK, THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS, and the upcoming TRUE WEIRD anthology series), to human-driven horror stories (like our critically acclaimed series THE CLOSET), and high concept coming of age monster comics (like our new series THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS).

Since the start of the current iteration of this newsletter in August 2021, we've already created 200 pages of comics and illustrations for our paid subscribers, with many more comics and illustrations to come in 2022 and beyond. We’ve also recently announced THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS, which be released free to read for ALL subscribers, paid and unpaid, later this spring.

Paid subscribers also get early access to exclusive Tiny Onion variant covers and merchandise sold through the Tiny Onion webstore, powered by the amazing people at Third Eye Comics, which you can check out at ShopTinyOnion.com. And we’ve got a premium subscription tier we’re calling THE ONION CLUB, which you can read more about here. Reader support will allow us to keep the Tiny Onion team making more comics through 2022, into 2023, and beyond. The best way to stay up to date on all of these amazing comics and features is by subscribing at the link below!

We’re now offering a 7-Day Free Trial if you’re interested in giving it a shot, but want to read some of the comics first! Hit the link below and sign up to access that offer!

Subscribe now

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
5.19.22

With BLUE BOOK, I am indulging in my life-long curiosity with what I call “True Weird” stories. Stories of ordinary people having encounters with the strange and the impossible.

In BLUE BOOK, I’m teaming with artist Michael Avon Oeming (Powers), and letterer Aditya Bidikar to retell some of my favorite stories of UFO and Alien encounters. This is a non-fiction series in that we are adapting every season from the stories of people who claim to have had an encounter with a UFO. We started last fall with the story of Betty and Barney Hill and the first widely publicized story of an Alien Abduction, which would go on to influence all future abduction stories.

This series will go on a brief hiatus following the release of Chapter 10 this March and will return later this summer with the start of a whole new story of a UFO encounter. AVAILABLE FOR ALL PAID SUBSCRIBERS!

SEASON ONE: Betty and Barney Hill

Chapter 1 (FREE TO READ)
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10

Blue Book Bulletins

Bulletin 1
Bulletin 2
Bulletin 3
Bulletin 4

Behind The Scenes

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THE CLOSET is a horror comic, based on a series of recurring nightmares I had when I was a child. It is also a story of a man who knows he needs to be a better husband and a better father, who keeps failing every step of the way. This is a short-form horror novella, released in oversized issues. I partnered with the incredible Gavin Fullerton on art, Chris O’Halloran on colors, and Tom Napolitano on Letters. AVAILABLE FOR ALL PAID SUBSCRIBERS!

THE CLOSET: A HORROR NOVELLA IN THREE ACTS

BEHIND THE SCENES

Looking Inside THE CLOSET (FREE TO READ)

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A spin-off project from the world of the hit Image Comics series, THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, co-created by myself and Martin Simmonds. DOT: WILD FICTIONS gives subscribers to this newsletter a glimpse into the case files of the department’s Field Office, which monitors the existence of Cryptids and Urban Legends in the wild. Each file features art by a phenomenal comic book artist or illustrator and features the history of each cryptid as recorded by the Department of Truth. AVAILABLE FOR ALL PAID SUBSCRIBERS!

Case File 001: Bigfoot (FREE TO READ)
Case File 002: Chupacabra
Case File 003: Black-Eyed Children
Case File 004: Flatwoods Monster
Case File 005: Bloody Mary
Case File 006: Santa Claus
Case File 007: Sewer Alligator
Case File 008: Champ
Case File 009: Beast of Bray Road
Case File 010: Jersey Devil
Case File 011: The Hook
Case File 012: Skunk Ape
Case File 013: Mokele-mbembe
Case File 014: Dover Demon
Case File 015: The Yeti

BEHIND THE SCENES

Introducing THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: WILD FICTIONS

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This is the story of Christopher Chaos, a teenage Mad Scientist, as he stumbles into the secret history of monsters and horror on the streets of New Briar City.

An idea I’ve been developing behind the scenes for years, I brought on board Tate Brombal to expand my thoughts and script the series, Nick Robles to handle character designs and covers, Isaac Goodhart on interior art, Kurt Michael Russell on colors, and Aditya Bidikar on letters.

This series will be FREE TO READ, and will be released in five oversized comic issues over the course of the year, with the first full issue releasing in May 2022.

SEASON ONE

Prologue (FREE TO READ)
Issue 1 (COMING SOON)
Issue 2 (COMING SOON)
Issue 3 (COMING SOON)
Issue 4 (COMING SOON)
Issue 5 (COMING SOON)

BEHIND THE SCENES

Introducing Christopher Chaos (FREE TO READ)
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TRUE WEIRD, is a monthly black and white anthology series available only for paid subscribers to my newsletter.

Every anthology story we tell is going to be based on a real account of an encounter with the inexplicable, with minimal fictionalization and exaggeration. The key thing we’re trying to capture is the genuine weirdness at the heart of each story, no matter how unsettling or logic-defying it might be. The anthology stories are going to be one-and-done, with a different creative team on each chapter. To help capture the feel of old-school “STRANGE BUT TRUE” comics, and to help mark this as the spiritual cousin of BLUE BOOK, we’re going to be doing these stories in black and white. Our hope is that each of these stories makes you look at the world a little differently, that they make you wonder, and that they make you eager for each new chapter.

Coney Island

The Empire of the Tiny Onion

Where To Start Reading THE EMPIRE OF THE TINY…