James Tynion’s Tiny Onion To Open Film, TV, and Animation Studio

Acclaimed comic book writer James Tynion IV today annoucned that he has teamed with Lyrical Media to expand his media empire from the page to the screen. Tynion, the New York Times bestselling author behind comic book industry sales giants Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth, The Nice House on the Lake, and W0RLDTR33, today announced the formation of a new independent production house, Tiny Onion, with plans to expand across the publishing, film, television, and animation industries.

Tiny Onion is backed by a seed investment from Lyrical Media, a company that develops, produces, and finances stories across multi-media formats, including film, television, video games, podcasts, and graphic novels. As of today, there are only plans to bring Tiny Onion stories to movies, TV, and animation.

“Over the last twelve years, I’ve watched the comics industry from the inside, working alongside its best talent and biggest publishers, seeing the exciting ways that it can connect to other media spaces, and I’ve managed to work my way to some prominence,” James Tynion IV said in a statement.. “Now I have the chance to take everything I’ve learned and test out every way to make it work even better. Not just for me, but for the generation of creators coming up behind me.” 

According to its announcement, Tiny Onion is trying to bring together the brightest minds in behind-the-scenes comic book production to staff up a full-service independent editorial and design team. Following the principles that have brought Tynion’s work success in the comics market, the team will seek to identify creative partners and elevate them, curating and packaging the titles before bringing them to the company’s publishing partners across the industry. Tiny Onion will not operate as a publisher itself, but rather an independent creative services company with a footprint across many publishers, including BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DSTLRY, and Image Comics.

Tynion is best known for his work on the Batman franchise at DC Comics, his DC Black Label series The Nice House on the Lake, and his creator-owned comics The Department of Truth, Something Is Killing the Children, and Wynd. He has won five Eisner Awards, and has been nominated ten times for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book – the most nominations of any writer – winning once in 2017. Tynion has also written for DC’s Detective Comics and Justice League Dark, as well as the New York Times bestselling Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover series. 

“Being able to support creators in telling the best version of their stories has been an honor and a privilege I don’t take lightly, and is what I plan to pursue for the rest of my life,” Eric Harburn, Director of Editorial, Tiny Onion, said in a statement. “James has proven time and again that there is a path in comics to critical and commercial success, without sacrifice — I am thrilled to be joining him in this next stage of his career, and for the phenomenal team at Tiny Onion to become a resource for the most exciting independent voices our medium has to offer.” 

Harburn helped Tynion and co-creator Werther Dell’Edera develop Something is Killing the Children into one of the most successful comic book franchises of the last decade during his time at publisher BOOM! Studios. While at BOOM!, Harburn also served as editor of the Keanu Reeves comic book series, BRZRKR, which launched with one of the most successful comic book Kickstarter campaigns of all time. Joining Harburn are Courtney Menard (formerly of Z2 Comics) as Director of Production, and Jazzlyn Stone (formerly independent) as Director of Communications.

Tiny Onion will manage a significant portion of Tynion’s backlist of intellectual property and is in the process of developing a slate of new projects across the film, television, and animation industries.

“The benefit of independence is flexibility,” said Tynion. “I know what my big aggressive move in the comic book direct market next year is going to look like, but there are other ideas we’re cooking that I’m thinking up as medium neutral. We’re going to develop worlds on the scale of what we did with Something is Killing the Children, and then we’re going to decide how to bring them into each of the verticals our company is touching. It’s incredibly exciting to be able to think and move that way.”