Tiny Onion is busy, busy, busy. James Tynion IV’s creative studio just announced their NYCC plans – which include a PRINT newspaper – and also a new initiative they’re calling their “Artists in Residence program.” The first rolls for the program are colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Aditya Bidikar both acknowledged masters of their crafts, and both regular collaborators on Tiny Onion projects. But as part of this program, both will also develop their own original series which will be published by Image Comics. More below:
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Tiny Onion stated: “Our goal for this initiative is to build a better version of the “exclusive” contract, and not only provide talent with stability and guaranteed work without all the usual red tape but to also celebrate them as multi-hyphenate creators and crucial members of the Tiny Onion ecosystem.”
Tiny Onion’s Editorial Director Eric Harburn said of the program “We believe comics are a team sport, and that every creator on a book deserves to be treated as the world-class talent that they are, harnessing their skills and passion to drive our medium forward. With the Artists in Residence initiative, we plan to put a spotlight on the unsung heroes of comics creation and give them a platform to produce their best work yet.”
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Jordie Bellaire is an Eisner Award-winning colorist based in Portland, Oregon. Jordie is best known for her color artistry on The Nice House on the Lake, Phantom Road, The Vision, Pretty Deadly, and the Tiny Onion title w0rldtr33, along with guest contributions to The Department of Truth. She is also an accomplished writer on series including Redlands and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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Aditya Bidikar is an Eisner Award-nominated letterer and writer based in India. Aditya’s recent lettering work includes Aquaman: Andromeda, 20th Century Men, and the Tiny Onion titles The Department of Truth, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, w0rldtr33, and Spectregraph.
As for NYCC plans, Tiny Onion will have a double wide booth at NYCC and is launching Tiny Onion Presents (TOP), a print newspaper covering comics available for just $1 an issues. Popverse had more details:
Titled Tiny Onion Presents — or TOP for short — the newspaper is a “celebration of print,” as the studio describes it, mixing comic strips with all-new articles including a retrospective on Tiny Onion to date, a look at the success of indie publisher Silver Sprocket, and an interview with creators Josh Hixson and Tyler Boss…..
“TOP serves a lot of functions,” Tiny Onion founder James Tynion IV told Popverse. “We wanted people to get a feeling for the personality of the Tiny Onion team. We wanted people to have a fun place they can hear about our next big swings before anybody else. We wanted to make a product for comic conventions that feels really exclusive and special. But most importantly, we made TOP to show our readership how much we love the full breadth of the comics medium.”
The edition will also include Razorblades Presents Sunday Scariesfeaturing new horror comic strips by Brian Level, Caroline Cash, Courtney Menard, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Jenna Cha, Josh Simmons, Marie Enger, and Sam Alden.
All this for $1? We’re in!
As we noted earlier this week, comics journalism in print is also getting The Comics Courier, to Tiffany Babb-edited compendium of serious comics criticism. The Kickstarter for that is already double funded, so we’re telling ya, print is back, baby!
