Issue 181: Jinkies!!!

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Here we are, another Monday, another newsletter. This time, I’m sending this out on Monday morning to gauge reaction. I’ve been hitting send almost exclusively on Sundays for a long while. Last week, because of Tremendicon, I was delayed by a day. Something interesting happened. My reader engagement went way up. I had new patrons join my Patreon. Was this a fluke? Coincidence? Let’s find out together!

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Yesterday was my 19th wedding anniversary, which just doesn’t seem right at all. Has it really been that long since Cindy and I tied the knot? That can’t possibly be true! That would make me…

I can’t say it.

Anyhow, time can be cruel, but I’m so damn happy that I’ve spent that time with Cindy. Through ups and downs, I’m proud of the life we’ve built together. We didn’t really do a whole lot to celebrate. It was a pretty chill day. But we have some dinners and good times planned for this week.

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Jinkies! We’ve got a mystery on our hands!

A couple of days ago, I got an email from “Varys the Spider” or something of the sort. So… anonymously. It was short and to the point. It featured a quick mention of one of my editors, called some of my business decisions into question, and then provided a few quotes (presumably from the editor in question) about a book that was coming out. The quotes were not the most glowing words I’ve ever read, especially when taken out of a bigger conversation and presented in a stand-alone fashion.

You know—context.

A few things of note:

• Whoever sent this knew some details about my business dealings. The quotes all sounded legit. So… they’re coming from inside the house. Either someone who was “in the room” or someone who knows someone who was “in the room.”

• While the comments didn’t look “pretty” sitting out there on their own, I could absolutely see how they might have been spoken in a business conversation about a book.

• The person who sent the message either (A) legitimately thought they were helping me of (B) wanted to cause my stress levels to spike.

• Or (C) knows me well enough to think that I would explode into Rage-Filled Attack Mode (tm) and gleefully attempt to make other human beings cry. Meaning, they know me, too. They know my propensity for anger and wanted me to burn some bridges with the publisher.

• Or (D) all of the above.

• There has never been a secret conversation in the world of comics that remained a secret.

• Comics is not Game of Thrones.

• Comics wishes!

• If comics were the Game of Thrones, I would want to be Sir Davos.

• I love a good mystery as much as the next guy, but this is Scriptpocalypse II. I don’t have time for this. Honestly, I never have time for this.

What did I do when I got this email? I chuckled. I told Cindy about it. I called Brian Hurtt and had a good laugh. (We also speculated wildly over who might have sent the message. We’re both pretty sure we know who it was.) I did not get angry, not at the sender or at the editor in question, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was too amusing. Second of all, I know that I often get too angry too quickly. Third of all, there are times when getting angry is appropriate, but this wasn’t one of them.

I responded to the email:

Well... not sure how to take this... but if you want me to take it seriously, why don't you tell me who you are?

Because I’d love to talk to this person.

And, of course, I brought the questions up with the editor. That has always been my way. I’d rather just cut to the chase. Now, that puts some people on edge. Far, far too many people in comics would rather not directly address any question, concern, or problem. But I’d rather just figure things out and move on.

In this case, the editor was familiar with the comments and we talked them out. As suspected, they were cherry-picked from things said in a business meeting. I don’t feel wronged by what was said. Not a big deal at all. They could have been said to my face and I would’ve been AOK. In fact, they were good questions to bring up in a business conversation.

The question about my business decisions was basically, “Are you really going to work with someone like this?” And, let me make this as clear as humanly possible. There are absolutely people in this business I will not work with. These days, though, make no mistake, I would make deals with a legion of devils to keep my family fed. This is not a devil-dealing scenario in any way, shape, or form. If it were, though, I’d appreciate it if others leave their judge’s robes at home.

This has been brought to you by the “Comics Don’t Need to be Diabolical” News Network.

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Scriptpocalypse II is underway, as I mentioned, and it has been a productive week so far. In the last several days, I’ve completed:

• 90 pages of comic book scripts.

• An outline for a horror novel.

• Several comic book lettering passes.

• Two chapters of a new RAZE novella.

• Several interviews.

• A few Patreon posts.

• This newsletter.

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A couple of new projects were just announced—INVASIVE (formerly PROJECT: SURGEON) and THE MIDNITE SHOW (formerly PROJECT: MATINEE). Subscribers to this newsletter saw those pop up over the last week!

In addition, I got an email a couple of days ago that a prose anthology I’m part of was stealth released and is now available! SWORDPLAY: TIMELESS TALES OF WIZARDS AND WARRIORS features stories by CLIFF BIGGERS, DAN BRERETON, CULLEN BUNN, MICHAEL BURKE, RICHARD DANSKY, CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN, STEVEN GRANT, TONIA LAIRD, BRACKEN MACLEOD, JAMES A. MOORE, ALLISON PANG, LINDA ROBERTSON REINHARDT, and CHARLES R. RUTLEDGE.

The stories feature illustrations by Dan Brereton.

I really like the story I did for this book—“The Girl With Downcast Eyes.”

As Charles Rutledge told me, with this book and SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS, this is a mighty fine year for Swords and Sorcery.

I’m not sure… but I would suspect one more announcement in the next few days, this one for a project that came together VERY quickly… one I’m calling PROJECT: BODY BAGS.

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The Kickstarter campaign for THE SIXTH GUN has about 10 days left!

We just reached the $150,000 stretch goal… and there has been a new stretch goal announced!

The Secret SDCC Stretch Goal for THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY campaign at the $160,000 level... If and when we reach that mark, we'll automatically add a free INVASIVE ASHCAN to every physical complete set backer's order at the Tier 3 level or higher!

Featuring a 16-page sneak preview of the disturbing and downright terrifying events of INVASIVE, we'll be releasing these to backers digitally in advance of INVASIVE #1's December 2023 ship date, and then the physical editions will fulfill alongside the rest of this campaign's orders and rewards in March 2024.

(And, yes, BOX SET OF FATE backers will be getting an extremely rare PURPLE variant of this very same ashcan, exclusive to their tier!)  

Please check it out if you have a chance!

We’ve got more surprises ahead!

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Brian and I did some more interviews, including:

• A fun podcast discussion with the Comic Book Yeti for Cryptid Creator Corner.

• A return to Multiversity’s Haunted Trails.

And there’s a bunch more to come!

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This week, the comic book multitudes will be heading to beautiful San Diego for SDCC. Not me, though. This year, I cannot afford the trip or the time away from work. I’d love to go, but it’s just not in the cards. God willing, next year will be different. I will be hanging out quite a bit (between script-writing sprints) on my Discord channel, which is a lot like a comic convention. If you’re not gonna be in San Diego yourself, come and join me.

Cindy, Roman, and I started watching BETTER CALL SAUL together. I’ve never seen the series. As a huge BREAKING BAD fan, I started to watch it when it first came out, but some of the scenes with Jimmy’s brother Chuck struck just a little too close to home at the time, so I stopped. I’m feeling a little better about it now, though, and I’m glad. It’s a great show.

I watched SHIN ULTRAMAN and enjoyed it. After SHIN GODZILLA, I might have been expecting something really wild, but I got a solid ULTRAMAN flick.

And I rewatched the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ, THE WORLD’S END) and PSYCHO GOREMAN.

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.

Thanks to a couple of corrections and a couple of new announcements, I’ve made a couple of adjustments to The NecronomiBunn visual timeline!

JULY 2023

• 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

• DISPLACEMENT

• MAGIC: THE GATHERING - NOTORIOUS

• REANIMATOR: THE ETERNAL LIE, Part 2

SEPTEMBER 2023

• BLOODBORNE: THE BLEAK DOMINION #1

OCTOBER 2023

• REGRESSION: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

• BLOODBORNE: THE BLEAK DOMINION #2

• THE MIDNITE SHOW (formerly PROJECT: MATINEE) #1

NOVEMBER 2023

• LAMENTATION TPB

• THE MIDNITE SHOW #2

• BLOODBORNE: THE BLEAK DOMINION #3

DECEMBER 2023

• INVASIVE #1

• THE MIDNITE SHOW #3

• BLOODBORNE: THE BLEAK DOMINION #4

JANUARY 2024

• BEYOND MORTAL Trade Paperback

• THE MIDNITE SHOW #4

• INVASIVE #2

THE UNKNOWN FUTURE…

• PROJECT: JUMP, a new comic book series in the Beyond Mortal Universe.

• PROJECT: HEX, a supernatural/horror thriller.

• PROJECT: HORROR, a licensed horror comic.

• 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: 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

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

• PROJECT: ARCANA - a dark fantasy series

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

• PROJECT: HOAX - a horror limited series

• PROJECT: DEAD - a short comic story

• PROJECT: VARIANT - a really cool one-shot project

• PROJECT: G - a new ongoing series

• 1090 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)

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

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

• 0 podcast proposals (0 in 2022)

• 0 essays (0 in 2022)

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

• 0 television series proposal (0 in 2022)

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

AUGUST 19, 2023 - Signing at Distant Planet Comics, Columbia MO

SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 - Signing at B&B Collections, Jonesboro AR

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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