Introducing: The ComixTribe Dispatch
A New Way To Connect With the 'Tribe here on Substack!
I LOVE this time of year. I always look forward to holiday festivities, time with friends and family, re-watching my favorite Christmas flicks and specials, and catching up on my to-read stack of great comics.
I also always carve out some time to review the year that was and look ahead at the year that’s coming… and I have to tell you, I’m EXCITED about what ComixTribe’s 2024 looks like.
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to be better about keeping our ‘Tribe in the know about all the great projects we have coming, as well as share some of the other amazing stuff that ComixTribe creators are enjoying, and we’re going to be using the growing Substack platform to do just that in this newsletter called The ComixTribe Dispatch.
Here’s What’s Coming! ComixTribe Project Updates, Teasers and More
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes here at ComixTribe HQ. While we tend to hold our cards pretty close to the vest on what we’re working on, we know it’s important to keep you in the loop about what to expect from us in the coming months. So, here’s a round-up of a few things we’re particularly excited about over here…
EPIC Volume 1 Books Expected to Land This Month!
Last month, we shipped about 80% of the packages to backers of the successful campaign to relaunch EPIC, the superteen action comedy from Tyler James and Matt Zolman, and were thrilled to get some great feedback on how swift a turnaround from launch to delivering books was from some backers.
The new issue came out great, and with the launch we actually sold out completely of all previous issues of EPIC.
Knowing that we plan to continue the series going forward, we decided to print a new collection of all previously published EPIC comics into a new softcover volume EPIC: Volume 1.
Because we printed this book overseas, turnaround time these days is around 3 months from file delivery to books landing in our warehouse. We’ve confirmed that the new EPIC trades were shipped and should be in sometime in mid-January. We look forward to shipping out the remaining books and Kickstarter packages to our pre-order backers as soon as they come in, and are excited to have a NEW Epic collection in hand for the 2024 convention season and for future EPIC Kickstarter launches.
SINK: MONSTERS Coming to Kickstarter in Early 2024!
We plan on taking a bite out of 2024 with a big launch for our longest running and most successful series, the ongoing crime horror saga SINK from the award-winning and highly prolific creative powerhouse duo of John Lees and Alex Cormack.
We’re looking to start the year off with an explosive launch for a Sink double-feature, a double-sized deluxe edition pair of connected tales encompassing two eras of Sinkhill, Glasgow’s most notorious neighborhood!
We posted a 5-Page Preview of SINK: Monsters here the other day, so check that out if you haven’t already!
We’re encouraging fans of this series to get on our KICKSTARTER ADVANCED NOTIFICATION LIST so that you don’t miss out on any of the limited edition pledge levels AND score our EARLY BACKER and DAY ONE BACKER BONUSES.
CLICK HERE TO GET ON THE SINK: MONSTERS ADVANCED NOTICE LIST
OXYMORON: KILLING TIME is Finally Happening!
One of our long-gestating projects that I admit has taken far too long to come out is the return of one of ComixTribe’s most iconic villains. We’re doing it friends… OXYMORON: Killing Time, the follow-up to our wildly successful very first Kickstarter launch ever, IS AT LONG LAST HAPPENING.
In this new book, our contradiction-obsessed killer traverses the timestream to wrong the greatest rights of history in this mad-cap deluxe hardcover anthology, featuring the work of 30+ amazing creators.
We won’t launch until this book is 100% complete, and right now we’re sitting at about 90%+… so we’re currently targeting mid-2024 for Oxymoron to make his long awaited return.
The C is for Cthulhu Plush Line Will Expand Again in the New Year!
After this year’s most successful crowdfunding launch to date where we finally listened to our audience and produced plush toys for characters beyond Cthulhu from the C is for Cthulhu Board Book, it’s probably not a shock that our line of creepy and cuddly plush monsters from the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft will expand again in 2024.
AND THEN EMILY WAS GONE Approaching 10th Anniversary!
One of the things that been fun about being a publisher is seeing our line grow and evolve over time. While we initially started our publishing line with three series with unique takes on superheroes, over the years we’re probably more known for our horror titles. The success of And Then Emily Was Gone was a big part of why we made that pivot and never looked back.
This award-winning series by John Lees, Iain Laurie with colors from Megan Wilson and letters from Colin Bell tells the tale of a haunted former police detective who goes in search of a missing girl in a remote island community in Scotland… and finds true evil instead.
If you’re a fan of this series like I am, you may want to check out writer John Lees’ Patreon, where this year he’s posted detailed commentaries on each page of the series, an awesome behind the scenes look at the process from wild idea to finished book!
2024 will mark 10 years since EMILY was first published, and I’ve been in talks with Lees about doing something big to commemorate. One of the other things that ComixTribe is known for is our deluxe, enhanced, hardcover collected editions of our most popular series. EMILY never got that treatment from us, however, so perhaps the 10 year anniversary is a good time to correct that? What do YOU think?
For Comic Book Crowdfunders: This Week on the ComixLaunch Podcast…
For the past eight years, I’ve been podcasting weekly on the ComixLaunch Podcast, sharing the best tips, tactics and strategies for comic book creators, writers, artists, and publishers interested in crowdfunding.
In this week’s podcast, a roundtable of high-performing creators discuss the state of the Comics industry, whether or not the industry is shrinking, and if it is, how we as creators can still thrive in rough economic conditions.
MAKE SURE YOU’RE SUBSCRIBED TO THE COMIXTRIBE DISPATCH!
If you’re new to ComixTribe or a longtime fan re-discovering us here on Substack, we want to encourage you to Subscribe to this new DISPATCH so you don’t miss any of our future updates…
…and just for subscribing, we’re going to hook you up with instant downloads to 5 Free Comics from the ComixTribe Vault!
Thanks for checking out this first official dispatch. The comments are open, so if there’s more you’d like to see from your pals at ComixTribe in future updates, please don’t hesitate to let us know!
Best,
Tyler James
ComixTribe Publisher
Welcome to Substack!
A lot of cool plans for 2024 - excited to see more.