Posted in: Comics, Dark Horse Comics | Tagged: dark horse, james tynion iv, substack

James Tynion IV Takes Three Substack Comics To Dark Horse, Not Image

On his Substack newsletter, James Tynion IV has just announced that his original Substack comic book titles won't be going to Image Comics

Published Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:22:11 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:29:11 -0600

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On his Substack newsletter, James Tynion IV has just announced that his original Substack comic book titles won't be going to Image Comics along with Department Of Truth Wilf Fictions as you might have expected but will be joining his friend Scott Snyder at Dark Horse Comics. This is a massive win for Dark Horse, who will join Image Comics, DC Comics and Boom Studios in publishing the creator-owned titles of James Tynion IV. Previous launches have seen sales hit half a million, with subsequent sales still getting into six figures. Could Dark Horse find similar success?

The three Substack titles that Dark Horse will be publishing are Blue Book, The Oddly Pedestrian Life Of Christopher Chaos, and True Weird, and all coming in 2023. James Tynion IV writes on his Substack:

BLUE BOOK #1 by myself and Michael Avon Oeming will release in February 2023. Each issue of BLUE BOOK will feature one of the TRUE WEIRD shorts we've been running on the site as back-up material, starting with my "Coney Island" short with the legendary Klaus Janson. The first issue has some AMAZING variants from Jill Thompson and Dave Johnson!

THE ODDLY PEDESTRIAN LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER CHAOS #1, based on my original idea, expanded and developed by Tate Brombal, with Isaac Goodhart and Kurt Michael Russell on interiors and Nick Robles on covers will release in June 2023. We'll have a LOT more about this as we get closer to launch date!

Moving forward, the Tiny Onion/Dark Horse partnership will continue to unfold the universe around TOPLOCC, and continue to develop projects by myself and other creators that will explore short-form and long-form True Weird stories. Stories about strange encounters with the impossible that are based on the original accounts of the encounters. Some of those projects will continue to unfold here on Substack for paid subscribers before they land in print, some will be print exclusive… We're going to figure out what works best!

As to James Tynion IV's choice of Dark Horse over what would seem the more natural Image Comics, he writes;

Why Dark Horse? Well, honestly, I've always liked being able to silo similar projects together. I think Blue Book, all the True Weird stories we're looking to tell, and the world of The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos fit very neatly on the shelves next to titles like Hellboy, Black Hammer, Norse Mythology, and a little-known series from Michael Avon Oeming called Powers (not to mention the whole Jinxworld library!). And like I told Dan Chabon and Tim Wiesch early in our conversations… I want a shelf of those gorgeous Dark Horse Library Editions. And as I've said to Tate a few times, now we can refer to the Chaosverse as the queer teenage cousin to the Mignolaverse!

This isn't an exclusive arrangement! As I've already announced, W0RLDTR33 is coming next spring from Image Comics, and we've got big plans for the future of SIKTC and Wynd at Boom! and Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country at DC. But I'm very happy to have found such a wonderful home for each of my series, and it's great to be forging connections at these titans of the American Comic Book Publishing World.

There was a time when Dark Horse was losing things, Buffy and Firefly to Boom, Star Wars, Aliens and Predator to Marvel, Usagi Yojimbo to IDW… but of late it has been getting some of them back, signing up the ComiXology Originals line including Scott Snyder's books and now adding James Tynion IV to their roster. It's a good run to be on for Mike Richardson… who is next?

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