James Tynion IV is going to start running his own comics press. Monday, the fan-favorite Batman writer announced a new partnership with Dark Horse Comics which will see the writer’s Tiny Onion Studios become an imprint of the indie publisher. Tiny Onion Studios has served as the home for Tynion’s self-published work since first launching it on Substack last year. While the writer and his collaborators will continue publishing comics digitally on the service, Dark Horse will handle physical sales and distribution.
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“I started picturing an ad for Blue Book in the back pages of an issue of Hellboy, and something just clicked for me,” Tynion said in the company’s announcement release (via THR.) “Dark Horse is home to some of the best creator owned comics that have ever been published, and it’s a real honor to join their ranks of creative talent.”
The imprint will officially launch in February 2023 with Blue Book, a series from Tynion, Michael Avon Oeming, and Aditya Bidikar previously released on the Tiny Onion Substack. The second series in 2023 will then hit shelves in June, featuring the first time The Oddly Peedstrian Life of Christopher Chaos will make it to print. Christopher Chaos, again, first debuted on Substack from Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodharts, Kurt Michael Russell, and Bidikar.
“Blue Book and Christopher Chaos are just the beginning. There’s a whole universe of characters and concepts around the Christopher Chaos title I’m hoping that Tate, Isaac and I get to explore in our time there,” Tynion added. “Beyond that, there are so many stories in the ‘True Weird’ genre that I think are ripe to be told in the comics form. And that’s not counting all of the fun we’ve got in store for readers in the pages of Blue Book itself. We’ll be deciding title by title what makes sense to debut first in print, and what will make a fun addition to the comics I debut in my Substack newsletter.”
While the first two series first debuted on Substack prior to a physical printing, some series in the future will receive a physical printing first before being added to Substack.
Tiny Onion’s also not the first creator-driven imprint Dark Horse set up this year. In addition to its years-old Berger Books imprint, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash Press has set up shop at the publisher, as have Eric Powell’s Albatross Funnybooks and Matt Kindt’s Flux House press. Last year, Brian Michael Bendis’ Jinxworld also made the leap to Dark Horse.
