Vicious Shivers (Cullen Bunn's Official Newsletter), Issue 111
This is the 111th issue of Vicious Shivers, a (mostly) weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Thank you for subscribing. Please share it with others if you think they might be interested!
My first professional short story sale was to Eldritch Tales magazine. It was for a short story titled “The Followers of the Serpent,” which was a cosmic horror weird western about “Evil” Ed Ripley battling Yig-worshipping cultists in the town of Crescent Junction, Utah. It was a pastiche of “Dead in the West” by Joe Lansdale.
I don’t remember how long ago I wrote it, but it was while I was in college, maybe around 1991 or 1992. Officially “a long damn time ago.” I know this because I was working at Waldenbooks at the time. The Waldenbooks where I worked had the bestselling horror and role-playing game sections, company-wide. This is because the manager let employees curate and build those sections. I took care of the horror section. Another employee, Robert, took care of role-playing. And we rocked at our jobs.
Anyhow, we would have author signings quite frequently, and employees were always chosen to be the author ambassador. One such signing was with Ron Dee, who wrote tons of horror novels around that time. He also wrote under the pseudonym of David Darke. He wrote a ton of vampire novels.
Ron and I struck up a bit of a friendship while I sat with him as he signed books. I remember him telling me, “Cullen, if I want to feed my family, I have to write at least one novel a month.” When I told him that I had been submitting short stories to various horror magazines, but had yet to make a sale, he suggested I send a submission to Eldritch Tales. “Tell them I sent you,” he said.
I did just that the very next day… and I received a response just a couple of weeks later with an acceptance.
Now, the story was never published by Eldritch Tales. The magazine collapsed and vanished before “The Followers of the Serpent” saw print. But that first sale, with a little help from Ron Dee, energized me as a writer, and I started submitting short stories to magazines with even more ferocity.
By the way, my first short story to find publication was “Night Lessons” in Heliocentric Net Magazine in 1994.
I think of all this because, while I love writing comic books, I really miss writing prose. I think folks forget that short stories were where I got my start, where I cut my teeth when it came to submitting to publishers. In the last few weeks, I’ve been invited to several prose anthologies, and it’s a really exciting feeling. A little scary, too, because I have plenty of fans who read my comics, but I don’t know if they’ll follow me into prose. I hope so, but who knows?
So, I’ll be writing a bunch of short stories in the coming months. Stories of the undead and the weird west and sword and sorcery. I’ve also been writing a new serialized novella (maybe a novel) that will begin posting on Patreon soon. It’s a good feeling. I like stretching these muscles.
I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
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Now… for some cool news!
THE SIXTH GUN is going back into adaptation! As Variety reports, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is adapting the comic as a television series!
Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Signs Overall Deal With UCP, Will Adapt Graphic Novel ‘The Sixth Gun’ (EXCLUSIVE) — variety.com Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has signed an overall deal with UCP and will adapt the Civil War graphic novel "The Sixth Gun" into a TV series.
Yes, we’ve gone down this road before. Around 10 years ago, a pilot was made for NBC, but it was not picked up. But we’re hopeful for this adaptation and excited for what Selwyn is cooking up!
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In honor of the adaptation announcement, Oni Press has offered a helluva discount on their THE SIXTH GUN collection! Visit the link below and use the code BIGSCREEN to get 25% off all the SIXTH GUN books you could ever need! It’s a great time to read the series if you never have!
The Sixth Gun – Oni Press — onipress.com During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun, the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retriev
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How about some cool art?
Sean Northridge did this awesome image of Emmy Crawford from HARROW COUNTY. I love how folks like Sean say, “This is a warm up” and its something so awesome I could never conceive of drawing it myself!
PATREON...
I publish quite a bit of behind-the-scenes material, serialized comics, short stories, scripts, and much more on Patreon. I try to post at least five new items every week. I use money generated from Patreon to fund the creation of new material. I hope you’ll consider checking it out.
Here are some of the posts from the past week:
Comic Book Retrospective: Bride of Nine Spiders, Part 3 - Continuing the saga of my first Marvel work, which was greatly changed from the original concept.
What is the Far Shore Society? - A sneak peek at a new project.
Moment of POW: Don’t Call Them X-Babies - a look back at the Demon Bear Saga.
Commentary Track: The Last Book You’ll Ever Read #5 - thoughts on the most current issue.
Commentary Track: Manor Black: Fire in the Blood #2 - thoughts on the most recent issue.
More from the Far Shore - Another sneak peek at a seeeeecret project.
Work Update 3-5-22 - A detailed look at what I’m working on.
THIS WEEK’S OBSESSIONS...
This week, my son has gone all-in on THE CONJURING, so we’ve been watching those movies. We’re also listening to THE DEMONOLOGIST as an audiobook.
I watched (and loved) the first episode of PICARD.
I watched NIGHTMARE ALLEY, which I thought was beautiful, haunting noir.
I played D&D for the first time in a few months. Some family stuff took me away from the game for a bit, but I’m glad to play again. Tonight, I’m running CALL OF CTHULHU, which I’m looking forward to.
EVENTS…
Here are the events I have finalized for the coming days. Keep in mind, these days, "finalized" doesn't mean as much as it once did. All events are subject to change.
APRIL 22 - 24, 2022 - Planet Comicon, Kansas City
JUNE, 17 - 19, 2022 - Tremendicon, Springfield MO
THINGS TO COME...
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.
March 2022 - GODZILLA VS. THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, a big crossover comic that no one will be expecting but that makes complete sense.
May 7, 2022 - BLOODBORNE kicks off with a Free Comic Book Day issue!
May - TALES FROM HARROW COUNTY: LOST ONES
July - BOOK OF SHADOWS, the Valiant Universe supernatural team book.
August 2022 - UP TO NO GHOUL, a sequel to THE GHOUL NEXT DOOR.
A LEGACY OF VIOLENCE - A horror maxi-series about a mysterious town and mysterious experiments that have played out there.
A sequel to a story about dreams and loss and adventure.
A sequel to a story of robotic mischief.
A horror OGN where reality and surreality clash in a murderous way.
An action/comedy thrill-ride. unlike anything else I've ever written.
An apocalyptic horror/fantasy maxi-series.
A horror one-shot about loss and grief and guilt.
A new action/horror series I can’t tell you much about just yet.
A new series that will allow me to spin many, many horror stories.
WORK UPDATE…
So far this year, I wrote:
277 pages of comic book scripts (938 in 2021)
0 feature length screenplay (1 in 2021)
0 short stories (13 in 2021)
0 novellas (0 in 2021)
17 new comic book series proposals (25 in 2021)
0 podcast proposals (5 in 2021)
1 foreword for upcoming graphic novels (0 in 2021)
1 television series proposals (0 in 2021)
FINAL THOUGHTS…
That’s it for this week! This newsletter is, for me, a Sunday morning ritual, right along with trying to keep the dogs from getting out of bed and waking the entire house and wondering how early my son’s guinea pigs will start “peeping” for food. Thanks for being part of it.
If you want to keep the conversation going throughout the week, follow me on Twitter or join my Discord server (see below)! Thanks for joining me!
See you next time!
WHERE TO FIND ME ONLINE...
WEBSITE - If you haven’t been there lately, you should check it out. I’ve started posting a lot more content and news on the site.
TWITTER - This is the best place to interact with me online. My handle is @cullenbunn
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.