Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Image | Tagged: comicspro, james tynion iv

James Tynion's Department Of Truth #0 For Tiny Onion's 5th Anniversary

James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds' Department Of Truth #0 for Tiny Onion's fifth anniversary at Image Comics

James Tynion IV took to ComicsPRO last weekend to talk about his publishing imprint-across-publishers, Tiny Onion. But, James, what exactly is Tiny Onion? come to the stage and tell us all, please"

"What is Tiny Onion? It is a little complicated, you know, like there is the line that we have in our fancy pitch deck when we're talking to investors, a million different things. But what Tiny Onion really is, because what comics are, is people. And I have surrounded myself with some of my favorite human beings in the comics industry because I want to make it easier for all of you to buy my comics. I wanted to make it easier for all of you to sell my comics, and I want to make lots of really fun and interesting things in the comics business, both in terms of comics as a culture but also the actual books themselved."

"So yeah, you know, we do a little bit of everything. A lot of it is in the horror space, and I'm not going to try to run through every title in our library, but one thing that's important about Tiny Onion is we are not a publisher. We are an independent production studio. Basically, we work with a whole bunch of different publishers, one of the benefits of longtime working in the comics industries that I have really good relationships with comic book publishers. We've done a really phenomenal work with a whole bunch of our publishing partners. On this is just a smattering, we're talking, you know, we're always up to more stuff.

But amongst all these publishers, James, is there a first among equals?

"Today we're gonna be talking a bit about one of those publishing partners, that's Image. You know, this year, will be a really big year for Image and a very big year for Tiny Onion at Image. Five years ago, we launched Department of Truth #1, and Department of Truth was the first title that actually had the Tiny Onion logo on the inside front cover."

Quick check… and yes, there it is.

"I was back when it was just my own personal brand before I had an amazing team to help me with it, but it is—it's a really, really deeply personal book for me. And, you know, we came back after a brief hiatus from me and Martin Simmonds working on a Universal Monsters Dracula story, which we had an absolute blast doing, and it's been amazing to go back to this series, and unfortunately, it's amazing to go back to the series at a moment that feels more relevant than ever."

"You know, this is the book that I sort of channel all my frustration and anger at the world, a very bizarre comic book that stretches the possibility of reality, asks what it would be like to live in the world where the more people believe something, the more true that becomes. And the Department Of Truth focuses on a secret department of the United States government that prevents conspiracy theories from becoming reality. And they're doing a bad job at it because conspiracy theories are coming more and more powerful in the world. So we're going to be amping that up this year, and this  book has some sharp teeth, and I think they're going to only get sharper in the face of what's happening in the world right now."

"And we have an amazing storyline starting in just a couple of issues with 31 that is going to bring on Letizia Cadonici. It goes back to the origin story about a supporting character in the series called Frank. And Frank is our tech whiz, and it's the story of her facing, you know, basically living through a creepypasta storyline in 2014 right as the world is starting to change in some pretty big ways. It kind of bleeds together elements from W0rldtr33, Department of Truth, Something Is Killing The Children, some of my favourite comics that I've written in the last year. So I'm really, really excited about the storyline. It's an easy storyline to jump onto, but at the end of the year, we are going to be kicking off our next Martin Simmonds story arc with The Department of Truth #0."

"That is going to be how we celebrate our 50th anniversary, it is going to set up the next story arc. So it is actually an in-universe thing. It's a forward-moving story, but you should check it out. I am really, really proud of what we're doing, but that's not all Tiny Onion's up to because, like I said, Tiny Onion is people. And some of those people are the amazing creators that we are working in collaborating with. Back in the fall, we announced our artists in residence program—our AIR program. The first two people in that AIR program were amazing colourist Jordy Bellaire and amazing letterer Aditya Bidikar. And what we wanted is to bring them on, work on a bunch of our projects, but then also give them the ability to work a project of their own, something that we take no IP stake in but help them with the startup costs that are sometimes so onerous in starting a creator-owned project.

"You'll Do Bad Things—is a f****** amazing comic book. It is a slasher comic, is if you are a fan of the Deviant, you'll absolutely love this, you're going to see a lot more from Tyler Boss at Tiny Onion, including in the next project we're going to talk about. but this is a stunning book you are not going to want to miss.

"Exquisite Corpses is Tiny Onion's first big swing, it is meant to be a horror event in the comics industry. That first issue is going to be $4.99, but it's 60 pages of story. It is going to kick off this huge bloody events story. Essentially, what the high concept is: the 13 wealthiest families in the United States every five years each select a very, very dangerous killer—and then they unleash that killer in a small town in America, and whoever wins that battle gets to rule the country for the next five years."

"Here are some of the killers: we have the Fox Mascular, we have Rascal Randy, we have Recluse, these are all designed by the phenomenal Michael Walsh, who co-created this series with me, and we have an incredible roster of creators working. It starts with me and Michael, and Michael and I are going to have a footprint in every single issue, but we brought on this incredible roster of comic storytellers, including Pornsaak Pichetshote, who's here in the room with us today, but Tyler Boss, Jordie Bellaire also working on this book. We have Che Grayson, Claire Roe, Gavin Fullerton, Marianna Ignazzi, Adam Gorman, and Valentine Del Landro. We have a killer team that absolutely destroys every issue we do.

"The other thing that I'm very excited about is I've made the crazy decision to try to go to a different comic shop for the release of  every single issue over the first year. I've spent a lot of yearsI think a lot of comic creators, it's easy to prioritise comic book conventions part of the comics industry, but we wanted really prioritize this year.

"We are starting to line up this  incredible lineup. I want you guys to know these people and talk these people. Tiny Onion is up to a lot of stuff, and we want you excited  about that. I want to explain a lot more than seven minutes can allow, talk to Harley. Help us help you and have an amazing ComicsPRO.

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