Vicious Shivers (Cullen Bunn's Official Newsletter), Issue 114
This is the 114th 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!
Late last week, I spent the day at Odd Con, a pretty cool event put on by the “Odd Squad” at Carver Middle School. The Odd Squad is a large, enthusiastic group of kids who get together to share their love of books, comics, movies, role-playing games, and more.
Once a year, they take over the school gym and invite all the other middle school kids to share in the excitement. They also bus in all the 5th graders from the feeder schools around the area! Many of their clubs set up booths, and the Odd Squad invites area vendors, artists, writers, and others to set up as well.
I’ve aways attended the event when they had it. This year, I was there with my friends at Tremendicon, an upcoming convention for which I’m coordinating the Writers Track. Even though the kids can spend money at the show, I don’t sell anything. I just bring comics and give them away. I ended up giving away five short boxes worth of comics over the course of the day. So… 800 to 1000 comics? It was also Tolkien Reading Day, and David Stanfield, the president of Tremendicon, is a big time Tolkien fan. He had a prize box kids could get random cool stuff from. Several kids ended up getting boxed sets of The Hobbit and LOTR paperbacks! I hope the kids enjoy the books and comics.
One of the things I always think is fun about Odd Con is the questions I get from the kids. Questions (with my answers) like:
Are you Stan Lee?
No, I’m not and—sadly—Stan passed away a bit ago. (I have gotten this question three or four times at every Odd Con.)
Have you met Stan Lee?
Only once, briefly, at San Diego Comic Con. He high-fived me, clapped me on the shoulder, and moved on. He also sent me one of my comics—an issue of MAGNETO—that he signed, telling me to keep up the good work. It is a treasure.
Are you famous?
If you have to ask that question, the person famous.
How much money do you make?
There is only one good answer to that question: not enough.
Anyhow, it was a fun, fun day. I’ll always be at the show as long as they invite me. Every time I attend, I think to myself, I wish my middle school had a club and event like that.
Here are a few pics from the event!
Now, though, it is time to get back to work writing! You’ve heard me talk about Scriptpocalypse before. Well, this week is Mecha-Scriptpocalypse! I’ll be avoiding almost everything that is not writing scripts. Patreon posts and my newsletter will happen, but I’m not going to be attending meetings, responding to most emails, or doing phone calls throughout the week. I have some pretty crazy script-writing goals in mind for the week.
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: Bring on the Bad Guys - Discussing one of my favorite comic villains!
Fandom Journal: Micronauts - Summarizing my re-read of this influential comic book series.
Commentary Track: Godzilla Vs. Power Rangers #1 - A look behind-the-scenes of the latest issue!
Mama Raptor, Part 6 - The story continues!
Mama Raptor Part 7 - The story continues!
Work Update - A detailed look at what I’ve been up to.
NEW COMICS THIS WEEK…
THE HEATHENS #5
With Bumpy and Sofia captured, Billy and Shih dead (again) and Lucky all alone, will the Heathens bring down the Ripper or face Stalin's wrath?
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
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:
431 pages of comic book scripts (938 in 2021)
0 feature length screenplay (1 in 2021)
1 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…
Before I go, I want to give a shout-out to my pal Anton. Along with Matthew Garbutt, he has has a Kickstarter running right now. DUNGEON CHAMPS looks like an amazing fantasy adventure card game, and I hope you’ll check it out! You can find it HERE.
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.