Vicious Shivers (Cullen Bunn's Official Newsletter), Issue 113
This is the 113th 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!
I don’t know if it’s new medication or the stuff I’ve been working on or the stuff I’ve been thinking about or changes in diet or whatever, but I’ve been having the most vivid dreams and nightmares of late. Not dreams and nightmares about monsters or space battles or flying or fantastical realms. These are far, far more realistic. They’re awful, but they are dreams that very easily could be playing out in the waking world. Dreams of mortality and loss and sickness. And they’re so realistic I often wake up and need a few minutes to figure out if they really occurred or not. In other words, they’re no fun at all.
Usually, I write this newsletter on Sunday mornings before I get out of bed, and I just woke from what feels like an all-night dream about Covid ravaging my family. I woke with just the slightest hint of a sore throat, too, so that’s fun. So, I’ve been lying here, reminiscing about the most terrible nightmares I had as a kid. You know. The good ol’ days. Here’s a few that have stuck with me all my life.
—I’m outside our house in Newton Grove, NC. This is the house I lived in when I was in Kindergarten and First Grade. I look into the windows of the house, and there are monstrous shadows moving around inside. They are hulking and hairy—werewolves and I just know it. They are my parents and older siblings, all transformed into terrible creatures, and they are searching for me. The screen door at the back of the house starts to open…
—I’m outside the Newton Grove house again. This time, I’m running around and around the house. Along one side of the house is a dark patch of ground, like a shadow. Every time I get to it, I leap over the shadow. I’m happy, laughing. I leap over the shadow again and again. One time. Two times. Three times. As I reach it for the fourth time, I leap over with skill and grace. Just as I hit the ground on the other side, the shadow rises up. It’s some sort of awful blob monster. It swallows me whole.
—I’m in the living room of the house near Goldsboro. This is the house I lived in from 2nd grade til high school. I’m sitting on the floor, playing with my Micronauts Repto action figure. Repto is a little green lizard with red wings. As I’m playing with the toy, a strange red stripe appears down its face and body. It comes to life and attacks me. It is possessed by some awful malevolent force. Pecking and scratching at me, it chases me around the room until I knock it out of the air with a couch pillow. I hear my mom calling to me from the other room—the kitchen—and when she comes through the door, I see she has a red stripe down the middle of her evilly leering face.
—I’m sleeping on the couch in my college apartment. I feel the couch quake, and I wake. Before I can sit up, the couch slides away from the wall. Under it, there is a dark staircase. Six cloaked figures ascend the staircase and walk silently across the room to exit through the front door. The last one stops at the door, looks back at me, and holds a finger to his lips. Shhhh.
—I’m in a small town. I think it is on Harker’s Island, where my dad used to take us fishing several times a year. It is raining, and the town is flooding. Rats swim in the salt water all around. People are trying to drive out of the area, but the engines of their cars have been drowned out. Sharks—huge great whites—are swimming though the streets of the flooded town, devouring everyone they find.
—I’m at an old warehouse with a bunch of my high school friends. Some sort of competition is taking place there, and we all signed up. The competition, though, is to see if we can survive an attack from a host of animated machines. ED-209 from ROBOCOP, the Hunter-Killer ships from TERMINATOR, KITT (or is it KARR) from KNIGHT RIDER, the robots from CHOPPING MALL—they’re all coming after us as we flee through the warehouse.
Those dreams all scared me when I had them, but I’m a little nostalgic for them now. I’d much rather be dreaming about possessed Micronauts and killer cars than real-world worries of crushing debt and lack of work. But nooooooooo… These days I get Covid dreams.
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Work has been going a little better the last week or so. I’ve been getting some scripts done. Worked on several different books this week.
I’ve also been writing a short story for an upcoming Sword and Sorcery anthology. I should finish the first draft of it today. Then I need to go back and fix all the problems with it. I keep a tab open where I type all the things that need to be corrected in the story later on. That way, I don’t slow myself down by fixing them along the way.
In addition, I’ve been rewriting/writing a story set in the world of THE SIXTH GUN. It was originally started, but never finished, in 2014. I’m working on it now and serializing it on my Patreon. It’s been fun to revisit those characters.
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Lots of Tremendicon work this week. I think I’ll have my list of panels to share with you in the next week or so. I think it’s going to be a great deal of fun.
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As you’ll see below, GODZILLA VS. THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #1 comes out this week! Here’s a video discussion/interview artist Freddie Williams II and I did in honor of the comic’s launch!
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I saw this pop up on Twitter, and it is awesome to see the Harrow County board game (still in test phase) out there in the wild! I’ve played it a few times, and I think it is a lot of fun.
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As most of you know, I’m doing more and more prose in the coming months. One of the anthologies I’ll be a part of was just announced, and I’m so excited to be writing something in the DEADLANDS universe!
Outrider Publications Announces New Deadlands Anthology – Outland Entertainment — outlandentertainment.com Outrider Publications, the newly announced imprint from Outland Entertainment and Pinnacle Entertainment Group, is delighted to announce its first new Deadlands project: a star-studded anthology edited by New York Times Bestselling Author, Jonathan Maberry.
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Some covers of upcoming issues of TALES FROM HARROW COUNTY: LOST ONES have been released! Check out the sneak peeks of these covers to see what the Abandoned has been up to.
Second Issue Set to Build Suspense in 'Tales from Harrow County: Lost Ones' - Horror News Network — www.horrornewsnetwork.net Cullen Bunn is no stranger to keeping comic readers filled with terror. His upcoming book from Dark Horse Comics, Tales from Harrow County: Lost Ones,
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Are you in the mood for an underground horror story? No, I’m not talking about uber-indie comics. I’m talking about horror tales that take place in the depths of the earth. Book Riot did a list of 10 Horror Novels Set Underground, and UNEARTH made the list! Lots of good stuff here, so check it out!
Scared Six Feet Under: 10 Horror Novels Set Underground | Book Riot — bookriot.com Ever thought about what lurks underground? These 10 horror books— featuring everything from body to space horror— suggest that you should.
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.
Patron-only posts from the past week include:
Moment of POW: Morlock Must Be Destroyed - Some thoughts on the amazing Atlas comic, MORLOCK 2000.
Commentary Track: Shadowman #7 - A look behind-the-scenes of the latest issue!
Commentary Track: Basilisk #8 - A look behind-the-scenes of the latest issue!
Commentary Track: The Last Book You’ll Ever Read #6 - A look behind-the-scenes of the latest issue!
Mama Raptor, Part 3 - The Sixth Gun short story continues!
Mama Raptor, Part 4 - The story continues!
Mama Raptor, Part 5 - The story continues!
NEW COMICS THIS WEEK…
GODZILLA VS. THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #1 (of 5)
When Rita Repulsa uses an ancient artifact to transport herself to a universe without Power Rangers, she finds herself in a world with aliens, kaiju, and… Godzilla! Hoping to annihilate this new foe, Rita hurls her own terrible creatures into battle. But she never expects that the Rangers have followed her to this alternate reality, pitting the Dinozords themselves head-to-head with the King of the Monsters!
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.
And here's a new announcement!
I'll be attending Memphis Comic Expo!
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
SEPTEMBER 24 - 25, 2022 - Memphis Comic Expo, Memphis TN
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:
409 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…
Did I say I was scattered last week? Because I’m really scattered this week! That said, I managed to get a few things accomplished, and I’m thankful for that.
If you enjoy reading about all the nonsense I’m up to, I hope you’ll consider throwing some support toward my Patreon. I post something almost every day, and all the funds earned on that platform go directly into funding more and more comic book work!
If you want to keep the conversation going throughout the week, follow me on Twitter or join my Discord server! Thanks for joining me!
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.