Issue 183: The Dungeons Are Calling
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The Kickstarter for THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY wrapped up this week, and the project was (as far as I’m concerned) a remarkable success! The campaign raised more than $200,000, all the prelude issues have been greenlit, and these gorgeous editions of the books are moving forward. Now, the aforementioned prelude issues need to be written and drawn, as does a new THE SIXTH GUN prose story. It feels amazing to be playing in that world again.
And, of course, the most exciting news that whirled out of the campaign—In 2025, we’ll be releasing a new series set in THE SIXTH GUN universe! Much more on that in the days to come.
To everyone who supported the campaign and helped spread the word—you have my heartfelt and eternal thanks. We couldn’t do it without you. Wouldn’t even want to.
I have often said that THE SIXTH GUN is the absolute best DUNGEONS & DRAGONS comic you’ll ever read. No, no, no. It’s not based in one of the established D&D campaign settings. It doesn’t feature beholders or displacer beasts or mind flayers. (There are dragons and knights and magic swords, though.) But the book is full of epic adventure and magic and heroics, strange catacombs and hideous creatures and mysterious locales. Every page has ideas a greedy Dungeon Master could steal for their game if they wanted.
As you know, role-playing games have long been important to me. In elementary school, sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria, I first heard about D&D. My friend Vardell had borrowed his older brother’s copy of the TOMB OF HORRORS adventure, and he showed it to me as I ate a bologna sandwich and Cheetos. I was instantly mesmerized by the idea of a soul-eating skull with crystal eyes. I was hooked.
Back in those days, my parents would take me to the mall a couple of times a month, where I could use my allowance to buy Matchbox cars or STAR WARS figures. The next time I set foot in K&K Toys, though, I went to the D&D section. I didn’t get a D&D rulebook. I had to save up later for those. But I grabbed a little boxed set full of miniatures, paints, a paintbrush, a six-sided die, and a solo fantasy quest. It was called THE CLERIC’S QUEST, published by Heritage Games. I took it home and painted and played through the solo adventure again and again. The hook sank deeper into my flesh.
I went over to Vardell’s house a little while later, and we rolled up a character for me and he ran me through CASTLE AMBER, an adventure based on the works of Clark Ashton Smith. (I didn’t know that at the time. I just knew it was weird and I loved it.) A lifelong fan was born.
I invited my friends over to play once a week at my house. I played every afternoon on the bus ride home from school. I played at the library, which had a large D&D club, and I founded a D&D society (alas, we didn’t have a cool name like Hellfire) at the Boy’s Club.
Those were great days.
As I got older, I tried (and loved) many, many other RPGS. CALL OF CTHULHU, VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE, GURPS, DEADLANDS, VILLAINS AND VIGILANTES, and KULT spring to mind as favorites. But I always returned to D&D.
I played 2nd edition D&D throughout college and beyond. I played 3rd edition at least once a week when it was in its prime. I fell off quite a bit when the ill-fated 4th edition was released. And I tinkered with 5th edition before I moved and realized I had no one in my new area who wanted to commit to a regular game.
In the last couple of years, I started playing 5th edition again, this time over a Virtual Tabletop program, and it’s been a lot of fun and a much-needed distraction from the hustle and bustle of daily life. While I miss sitting around a table rolling dice, it’s pretty amazing that in my current campaign, I game with a couple of guys I’ve only known for a couple of years, a guy I was playing 3rd edition with 20-something years ago, and a fellow I used to play D&D with on the bus rides from school 40-something years ago. It’s wild. So… wild.
When I think about D&D, I realize that I learned so many tips and tricks that have helped my own writing by playing that game. I learned to plan stories. I learned to think on my feet. I learned to problem solve on the fly. One of the reasons I think I don’t get locked up on story problems for too long is because D&D taught me to navigate those kind of issues immediately. I mean, if I didn’t, I’d just be sitting around a table, faced with the withering stares of my players.
This week is GenCon, the premiere role-playing and board game convention. I’m not attending. Too much work to do. Not to mention, I have a convention of my own where I’ll be setting up. But so many of my friends will be there… and I am so jealous! It would be a great time to just hang out and geek out over games.
Here’s some info on that convention I mentioned! I’ll be at Fountain City Con in New Century, Kansas this coming weekend! If you’re in the area, come and see me!
Brian and I did a fun interview with Geek Network. We talk about THE SIXTH GUN, THE MIDNITE SHOW, and a bunch of other stuff. You can give it a listen here:
If you follow my Patreon, then you know the last week of Scriptpocalypse hasn’t gone so well for me. I’ve done a lot of prep work and outlining, but not a lot of scripting. Why I’m not sure. Stress? Excitement over the end of the Kickstarter campaign? Too many things going on in my day-to-day life? Anyhow, I am calling Scriptpocalypse off for now and getting back to… writing scripts!?!
Wait a minute!
Is every day a Scriptpocalypse?
Was the magic inside me all along?
Here’s the final score for this time around:
170 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.
A couple of issues of this newsletter.
DEATH OF THE VENOMVERSE #1
THE END OF THE VENOMVERSE IS HERE! CULLEN BUNN and GERARDO SANDOVAL reunite to bring the symbiotic ax down on the VENOMVERSE! CARNAGE has been building his powers up, extracting unique abilities from many villains throughout the MARVEL UNIVERSE to the point of traversing the Multiverse with ONE GOAL: KILL ANY AND ALL VENOMS!
As you can probably guess from the rest of the newsletter, I’ve been thinking a lot about DUNGEONS & DRAGONS this week. I even pulled out my entire collection and started cataloguing what books I have and what books I need. I dragged boxes of old DRAGON magazines into my office and organized them. I tinkered with maps and encounters on the Virtual Tabletop software we use to play. I paged through volume after volume and remembered the good old days.
My family continues to watch BETTER CALL SAUL, and it continues to be terrific.
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.
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 #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
1170 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.
Congratulations on the successful campaign! That was a fun interview with Geek Network, a Sixth Gun tabletop game would be so cool. Thanks for another great newsletter!