James Tynion IV on Exquisite Plans Beyond Comics at Thought Bubble

Comic book writer behind Batman: Joker War and Blue Book, House Of Slaughter and Department Of Truth, Something Is Killing The Children, and Wynd, James Tynion IV, is at Thought Bubble in Harrogate this weekend, and he is bringing his Tiny Onion team en masse. He is even sponsoring the mid-con party, which will take place in a couple of hours. He also addressed Diamond Retailer Day by talking about his big plans. And including the working title for his next big horror project, Exquisite, with Michael Walsh. I spoke to Tynion IV in the bar last night as well, and he talked about the origins of Tiny Onion publishing comics through Substack's newsletter and how they have moved on from there. "Turns out the best use for a newsletter is as a newsletter". Now, it is a full publisher in its own right; he is planning what's next. At the Retailer Day, he talked about the merchandise he is making available to retailers and encouraged retailers to sign up for the Tiny Onion retailer-specific mailing list (QR code below). And now he is "driving creative development into other media".

However, James Tynion IV also doesn't want to vanish into other media and maintains that comics remain his main focus; he just wants a bigger and bigger say as to how they are adapted. He had previously crowdfunded the short film Room Service and sees that as the start of how he intends to build projects "in the Hollywood space". That it's all a "matter of scale and cost" but now that Tiny Onion has financial backing, they can take control over the development process itself, rather than rely on other studios. And he confirms that, yes, Something Is Killing The Children and Department Of Truth adaptations are in development. While he can give scant details, he stated that there have been "very exciting" developments for the Department Of Truth in the last few months. For those, they are working with a partner, and he is enjoying getting studio notes that make the project better for a chance… but it sounds like in the near future, Tiny Onion is going to be their own studio.