Why You Should Order BLUE BOOK #1
Hello Friends!
It’s that very special moment in the life of a comic book. This is the last week for retailers to put their orders in for the first issue of BLUE BOOK, before the Final Order Cut-Off on Monday, January 23rd.
BLUE BOOK was born here on Substack. The first project I brought to life with funds from the Substack Pro Grant, and the first comic project that started releasing regularly from any of the comic book Substackers. It’s the book that finally let me lean hard into my deep fascination with UFOs, and all sorts of “True Weird” stories, in the comic book medium, and the book that captured the attention of Dark Horse Comics and led to us building a partnership that we plan on running over the next several years. It’s also the book that allowed me to partner with one of my all-time favorite artists, Michael Avon Oeming, whose masterpiece POWERS with Brian Michael Bendis is one of the comics that made me want to spend my life making creator owned comics.
If you’re a reader, BLUE BOOK is a series adapted from the real accounts of people who claim to have encountered UFOs. The first season adapted the story of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961 - the first reported case of a UFO abduction, and the story that inspired literally every depiction of alien abductions in science fiction over the last sixty years. It’s one of the bedrock pieces of strange American folklore that we’ve built generations of genre fiction on, but there’s no beating the original story.
If you’re a retailer, you may have already gotten a little missive from me courtesy of Dark Horse, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to repeat some of my points here on my newsletter. This is the very beginning of the Tiny Onion/Dark Horse partnership, which I plan to center on this kind of “True Weird” storytelling. If you have readers in your stores who you know are fascinated by UFOs, Cryptids, and all manner of strange-but-true stories, we want to give you a whole line of fascinating beautiful comics you can put in their hands. Books that are as easy a sell as “Oh, you’re fascinated by UFOs? You should check THIS comic out!” or “You want to know more about BIGFOOT? Have I got the comic for you!”
That’s the biggest thing I want you to understand. Not only do we have a lot more Blue Book coming down the pipeline, we’ve got a lot of these sorts of books cooking behind the scenes here at Tiny Onion. If you help cultivate readers hungry for these books, we’re going to keep their bellies full with a whole array of fascinating “True Weird” stories. Beyond that… If your comic shop has a bunch of readers of THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH, this is the perfect book to add to those readers’ pull-lists while DOT is on hiatus. DOT will be back later this year in a big way, but this is another series that digs deep in the same corner of strange American Esoterica and folklore, and I think there’s a direct one-to-one in the audience.
Speaking of TRUE WEIRD… Over the last year we’ve been running short black and white “TRUE WEIRD” Anthology comics, and they’re going to be running in the issues of Blue Book as back-up stories! The first issue of Blue Book is going to feature the story I wrote with friend and industry legend Klaus Janson about some of the strangest stories from the history of Coney Island.
Here’s a full rundown of what we’re offering on the COVER FRONT! Take special note of the exciting GLOW IN THE DARK Cover F with Art by Dave Johnson!!! Images of the four base covers are above in the newsletter!
Cover A features art by Michael Avon Oeming. This issue and cover can be ordered from your local comic shop. Diamond order code: DEC220411
Cover B features the art from Cover A by Michael Avon Oeming, but with special foil accents. This cover can be ordered from your local comic shop. Diamond order code: DEC220412
Cover C features art by Dave Johnson and can be ordered from your local comic shop. Diamond order code: DEC220413
Cover D features art by Jill Thompson and can be ordered from your local comic shop. Diamond order code: DEC220414
Cover E features art by Tyler Boss and can be ordered from your local comic shop. Diamond order code: DEC220415
Special Variants for Comic Shops
Cover F features the same art from Cover C by Dave Johnson, but includes glow-in-the-dark ink accents against a virgin background (no title, logos, or other text). This cover is a special retailer variant: for every 10 copies of Blue Book #1 (standard covers A-E) ordered, a comic shop can add one glow-in-the-dark cover to their order. Diamond order code (for retailers): DEC220416 (*Note: glow-in-the-dark ink should be "charged" in UV or other light first, so you may need to put your copy on a windowsill or up to a light before you try out the glow!)
Cover G is another retailer special variant that features Tyler Boss' artwork on a virgin cover (no logos, title, or other text). For retailers that order 25 issues of Blue Book#1 (Covers A-E), one issue of Cover G can be added. Diamond order code (for retailers): DEC220417
Cover H of Blue Book #1 is a virgin (no titles, logos, text) variant of Jill Thompson's artwork--a special addition ahead of FOC (final order cutoff for retailers). Diamond order code (for retailers): DEC220418
I’ll also be releasing a cover through ShopTinyOnion.com next month, along with a couple of cool pieces of Blue Book merchandise! I’m also very excited to say that Blue Book Season Two will be continuing to run monthly again here on Substack starting the Friday after Blue Book #1 releases in stores!
Blue Book #1 will be available from your local comic shop on February 22nd! Reach out and put your orders in TODAY to make sure your shop will have a copy on hand for you!!
OKAY FOLKS!
That’s not all I’ve got in store for you this week on Substack! If you’ve been dying to learn more about W0RLDTR33, the new ongoing horror comic by me, Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bidikar… You’re going to learn a lot more this week as we release the cover, and I introduce you to the hit new character of 2023… A terrifying lady named PH34R. I think I’ll probably line that post up for Thursday.
I leave for France one week from today, and now have my official signing schedule. It’s in French, but if you’re going to be at Angouleme, I bet that won’t stop you from deciphering it. I’m going to be with Urban Comics alongside collaborators Alvaro Martinez Bueno (The Nice House on the Lake) and Jorge Jimenez (Batman)!
Now I’m off to finish the crazy amount of shit I need to get done before I get on a plane next Tuesday! With me luck!
AND ORDER BLUE BOOK FROM YOUR LCS TODAY!
James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
1.17.23
Ohhhhhhhh hellll yeaaaaaaa!