Issue 166: I’m Never Getting My Office Back

Vicious Shivers is the official newsletter for fans of my work. Thank you for subscribing. Please share it with others if you think they might be interested!

Before we join our regularly scheduled programming, I wanted to talk just a little about SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS.

The Kickstarter for SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS and RAZE, the first publications under my Outer Shadows imprint, is still ongoing.

SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS is a collection of twenty-two stories with a bloody stake driven into the heart of both the horror and fantasy camps. Herein, you will find fantasy worlds, brave warriors, fabulous creatures, wondrous magic. But you will also uncover bloodcurdling chills, spine-tingling horror, and an examination of those things that truly terrify.

RAZE: MAIDEN, MOTHER AND CRONE, a dark fantasy/horror novella written by yours truly! It’s the perfect companion piece to SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS!

We have about $6,300 left to reach our goal. Not impossible at all. I just had high hopes that we would have funded before now. At the current average backer level, that’s 210 more backers, a little over $500 a day, 17.5 new backers a day.

This project… along with all the horror books, comics, role-playing games, and boardgames that are planned under the imprint… means a lot to me. I hope you’ll look into the campaign and offer us some support.

If you’ve already backed us, thank you!

And, please, tell your friends.

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Now, on with the show!

As you know if you’ve been reading this newsletter, we took in a stray cat… who has been living in my office… and who was pregnant. The cat has had several names, including Jumpscare, Emmy, and Mewmew. Mewmew seems to have stuck, so for the purposes of this newsletter, that’s what I’ll call her.

Early Saturday morning, in the shadows of a spinner rack filled with Famous Monsters and Fangoria magazines, Mewmew gave birth to five kittens. There was definitely a runt of the litter, and we’re a little worried about them, but we’re doing what we can to help them push through. The other four seem happy and healthy. I have no idea how 5 cats that size were actually inside such a small mama cat.

Anyhow, for the near future, they are camping in my office until they get bigger and we can find them loving homes. I don’t think it’s our place to name them, since they won’t be living with us in the long run, but I’m gonna strongly recommend “Forey” for one of them in honor of Forrest J. Ackerman, founder of Famous Monsters.

What is the name for a group of cats? A clowder? That sounds right, but also… what is a clowder? I think a group of cats might best be described as a “disruption” of cats… because my workspace has definitely been disrupted.

You ever notice that baby kittens kind of look like Critters as they band together to create an all-consuming ball full of Critters?

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Want to hear about a new book? Of course, you do!

I’m returning to Marvel, maybe for the last time, for DEATH OF THE VENOMVERSE!

In this series, illustrated by Geraldo Sandoval, Carnage embarks on a vicious bloodbath across all of reality. But he has more than mere murder on his mind. He has a terrible agenda, the completion of which might mean death and destruction for all reality. A small group of Venoms from various universes teams up to stop Carnage. The series was originally meant to be called VENOMVERSE 2 or something, but I lobbied hard for DEATH OF THE VENOMVERSE, and I’m not going to let that be an empty promise.

The series (formerly referred to as PROJECT: V in this newsletter) will be published weekly in August!

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Over on my website, I’ve started writing “Horrible Thoughts”—blog entries about comics, writing, horror, and more. This week, I dropped a piece on “How to Support Your Favorite Writer!” I hope you dig it!

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The Danny Luckert variant for NIGHT WALKERS #1 is currently available on my web store. This is a cover you can only get directly from me. Check it out! Don’t miss out on this amazing issue!

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The Kickstarter for REANIMATOR: THE ETERNAL LIE, PART 2 is still ongoing! In this tale of terror, Herbert West’s infamous reanimation serum has been stolen, and a terrible cult plans on using it for a cataclysmic purpose. If you missed the first part of the story, you can still grab it as part of this campaign. Jump on over to Kickstarter and check it out HERE!

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Overall, this week was a rough one for me. I’ve been wallowing in self-defeat and self-pity, obsessing over all the many bad decisions and mistakes I’ve made over the years, feeling very much like a total failure.

Part of this comes from just being weary. I haven’t been sleeping well in general. I drove all day on Monday coming home from a convention weekend. I had a sleep study to see if I’m breathing at night on Tuesday, and that wasn’t restful. I’ve been worried about the stray cat.

Another part of it comes from a tough few days in terms of work and business. That convention in Cleveland was not a success in terms of money. At all. If it had been solely about finances, I would have been much smarter to just stay at home and script books. I got some harsh feedback about my work that really knocked me down a peg or two… even though in retrospect I think the feedback doesn’t hold much water at all. I’ve not been actually writing (mainly because I’ve been so tired and because I had so much busy work to catch up on).

This is a vicious cycle.

I worry about all my mistakes, I stay up obsessing over it at night, I’m too tired to work the way I want, I stress over my finances and career, I eat poorly and ignore my health, I feel like a failure, I worry about all my mistakes… and so on and so on and so on.

These damn negative thoughts have set up in my brain like a disruption of kittens!

I’m all right, though. At least, all right enough. I’m going to need to force myself to sit at my desk and do a lot of actual writing in the next few weeks. I’ve even been considering going on a kind of writer’s retreat for a few days. I know that will help. I just need to remind myself who I am from time to time.

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Here’s a two-sentence sword, sorcery, and horror tale for you! I hope you dig it. I wrote it just now. Now being 3:30 in the morning. (I still haven’t figured out that “get a restful night of sleep” thing.)

The executioner’s blade, they say, has claimed one thousand heads. Covered in the blood of my enemies, I can hear a thousand shrieking pleas of innocence with every cleaving swing of the sword.

A LEGACY OF VIOLENCE Vol. 1

When Dr. Nicholas Shaw joins a humanitarian medical outfit in Honduras, he hopes to recover from a recent traumatic event and actually help those in need. But something sinister has followed Dr. Shaw here, something that wants to put his medical skills through a ghastly gauntlet. There's something connected to this young doctor's past and the untold horrors that occurred long before he was born… Collects issues 1- 4 of this twelve issue horror series by Cullen Bunn and Andrea Mutti.

Besides kittens?

Picard, Picard, Picard.

I “liked” the first two seasons of this series but didn’t love them. But the third season? I LOVE it in a big way? It is everything I could have ever wanted from a Star Trek show. It hits on all the right levels, a fueling of emotion and nostalgia that simply cannot be beat!

Here is a quick and dirty list of upcoming projects. In most cases, I’m only listing projects that are definitely on the schedule with a published. Oftentimes, I will not be able to share much information, but I can at least tease the future! Everything here is, of course, subject to change.

In trying to be a little more “on top of it,” I’m changing the format here just a little. Hope you like the new format.

APRIL 2023

• NIGHT WALKERS #4

• DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT #5

• THE CULT OF THAT WILKIN BOY #1

MAY 2023

• LAMENTATION #1

• GHOSTLORE #1

• NIGHT WALKERS #5

• DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT #6

JUNE 2023

• LAMENTATION #2

• GHOSTLORE #2

• SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS

• RAZE

• REANIMATOR: THE ETERNAL LIE, Part 2

JULY 2023

• LAMENTATION #3

• GHOSTLORE #3

• DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT #7

• DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT TPB

AUGUST 2023

• DEATH OF THE VENOMVERSE 1 - 5 (weekly)

• GHOSTLORE #4

• DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT #8

SEPTEMBER 2023

OCTOBER 2023

• REGRESSION: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

NOVEMBER 2023

• LAMENTATION TPB

• PROJECT: MATINEE #1

DECEMBER 2023

• PROJECT: MATINEE #2

THE UNKNOWN FUTURE…

• I’LL KILL YOU LAST - An 80s action/horror fiction anthology I’m editing.

• PROJECT: GALLERY - An RPG project I’ve been quietly developing.

• PROJECT: PREHISTORY - More kaiju craziness

• PROJECT: MEGA-BATTLE - Even More kaiju craziness

• PROJECT: SURGEON - a very dark horror tale

• PROJECT: BOT - A sequel to a story of robotic mischief

• PROJECT: WATER HEATER - An apocalyptic horror/fantasy maxi-series

• PROJECT: RUSH - A horror prose anthology I’m editing

• COPYCAT - A new limited series from Todd Garner, Heath Amodio, and myself.

• BLOODBLADE - An action/horror story of destiny and demonic blood

• BEYOND MORTAL - Finishing up the horror/superhero epic

• PROJECT: DUNGEON - A new licensed horror comic series

• PROJECT: CONVOY - A horror/thriller I’m co-writing

• PROJECT: CARD - A magical one-shot

• PROJECT: ARCANA - a dark fantasy series

• PROJECT: MONSTER - a new horror/action/comedy series

• PROJECT: HOAX - a horror limited series

• 437 pages of comic book scripts (1710 in 2022)

• 0 feature length screenplay (0 in 2022)

• 0 half-hour comedy pilot (1 in 2022)

• 0 short film script (1 in 2022)

• 0 short stories (9 in 2022)

• 0 novellas (0 in 2022)

• 5 two-sentence horror stories (10 in 2022)

• 0 new comic book series proposals (29 in 2022)

• 0 podcast proposals (0 in 2022)

• 0 essay (0 in 2022)

• 1 foreword for upcoming graphic novels (0 in 2022)

• 0 television series proposal (0 in 2022)

Keep in mind, these days, "finalized" doesn't mean as much as it once did. All events are subject to change. I hope to be adding more conventions in the near future! Stay tuned!

APRIL 28 - 30 - Oz Con, West Plains MO

JUNE 16 - 18, 2023 - Heroes Convention, Charlotte NC

JUNE 24, 2023 - Route 66 Toy and Comic Convention, Lebanon MO

JULY 7 - 9, 2023 - Tremendicon, Springfield MO

AUGUST 5 - 6, 2023 - Fountain City Con, New Century KS

SEPTEMBER 16 - 17, 2023 - Extremicon, St. Roberts MO

SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 1 - Cowtown Comic Convention, Fort Worth TX

THE SHOCK SHOP - My online store, where you can find exclusive covers you can only get directly from me!

TWITTER - This is the best place to interact with me online. My handle is @cullenbunn

TIKTOK - A fun spot for quick videos about writing, comics, and collecting

PATREON - Here, I post a serialized novel, a serialized comic book, short stories, and other cool materials.

THE CULLEN BUNN DISCORD SERVER - A place for fans to hang out and talk about comics, books, movies, games, collecting, and whatever else strikes their fancy.

THE BUNNGALOW - Cindy and I talk about life, hot button topics, pop culture, being married to a comic book writer and EVERYTHING in between.

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