Vicious Shivers (Cullen Bunn's Official Newsletter), Issue 120
This is the 120th 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!
First of all, a very happy Mother’s Day to Cindy Bunn! She’s a terrific, loving mom to a teenage son, which means (even though he’s a great kid) she doesn’t get anywhere near the appreciation she deserves. Yet. One day he’ll fully realize just how lucky he is to have such a loving and supportive mom. Hopefully, she does realize how much I appreciate and love her. We’re going to spend most of the day in the swimspa, maybe have a few cocktails, maybe have a couple of steaks, and take it pretty easy.
To all the other moms out there, I hope today is amazing for you!
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Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, and I set up camp at The Little Shop of Comics in Cuba, Missouri. Little Shop is owned and operated by my longtime pal and co-writer JimmyZ Johnston. Little Shop has a comics area, an open gaming area, and a full restaurant called Audrey’s Eatery that offers some amazing food. Jimmy just moved his shop to a new (much cooler) location, and I know it’s been a tough, tough few weeks on him, both in terms of business and in terms of physical exhaustion. I think yesterday was a really good day for him and the store… tiring but good… so I’m thrilled to hear that.
If you’re ever in the Cuba Missouri area… if you’re ever passing through that area… you owe it to yourself to stop in and check it out.
I DID manage to convince Jimmy to step away from the shop for 15 minutes and have a drink with me. Then, he went straight back to working way too hard.
I had a few books with content in them out for Free Comic Book Day. A couple of them, I didn’t know about until the day was over. BLOODBORNE I knew about. I hope folks grabbed a copy! But I didn’t know that I had a short story reprinted in the Red Sonja book and I didn’t know I had a preview of Legacy of Violence in Nottingham. If I had, I would have been pointing folks to them all day!
Of course, I picked up some comics and games myself. I didn’t take a photo of them, and they’re still in my car, but I grabbed a handful of free comics, a couple of Titan hardcover editions of the Corum stories, some old Charlton and Dell horror comics, and the board game Mysterium.
This was my first Free Comic Book Day in several years, and I’ve missed it.
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On the awesome comic news front—PARASOMNIA is back! PARASOMNIA is the story of a family who has lost the most important thing to them. Their son has been abducted. This event destroyed the family. The mother and father have become estranged. The father, feeling helpless, has become a homeless wanderer.
But in his dreams, he has become a ruthless hunter, stopping at nothing to find a missing child. Along the way, he endures strange and horrific adventures.
The original series has been collected, and you can buy it from your favorite comic book store or order it here.
The new series continues the adventure, but introduces several new characters and some new dreamscapes. What you might expect from the first series really gets turned on its ear in this book.
You can read the Comics Beat story here:
Bunn & Mutti’s PARASOMNIA returns with new series, THE DREAMING GOD — www.comicsbeat.com Cullen Bunn & Andrea Mutti's supernatural horror series PARASOMNIA is back in August with a new series, THE DREAMING GOD.
And I don’t think I’m allowed to show you many of the covers and variant covers, but this one by Ben Dewey is pretty rad.
I stumbled across some old photos in the past week and, not wanting anyone to think I’ve been perpetually old and and bald, I thought I’d share them on Twitter.
Author Brian Keene also shared an old pic of James Futch and me from the 2002 World Horror Convention.
And this all makes me think of…
***
I’m still going back and forth in terms of how to handle this newsletter. I like this platform much better than I liked MailChimp, but I see a lot of features on Substack that I really like. I guess the good thing is that I’m too busy to worry about changing it up right now anyhow.
COMICS THIS WEEK…
This Wednesday, we’re returning to the world of Harrow County!
TALES FROM HARROW COUNTY: THE LOST ONE #1
Harrow County is back! The award-winning, Eisner-nominated southern-gothic horror series returns with a brand-new story.
Ten years have passed since Emmy left Harrow County. Since then, a lot has happened in town, but what happened to Emmy herself, and what adventures has she gone on since she forfeited her magical powers and left town with the Abandoned. In this epic and essential tale, find out where life has taken Emmy and what dangers lurk in the shadows waiting for in this story that takes place outside of Harrow County for the first time.
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.
The current Patreon Index can be found here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/64469540
Patron-only posts from the past week include:
Mama Raptor, Part 9 - A continuation of the Sixth Gun story!
Script - The Sixth Gun 8 - Continuing to build the script library.
My Convention Experience, Part 3 - Discussing the Gross-Out Contest.
Work Update 5-26-22 - A detail account of the things I’m working on.
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.
JUNE, 17 - 19, 2022 - Tremendicon, Springfield MO
JUNE 24 - 26, 2022 - HeroesCon, Charlotte NC
JULY 29 - 31, 2022 - Scares That Care, Willamsburg, VA
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.
July - BOOK OF SHADOWS, the Valiant Universe supernatural team book.
August 2022 - UP TO NO GHOUL, a sequel to THE GHOUL NEXT DOOR.
August - PARASOMNIA: THE DREAMING GOD, a story about dreams and loss and adventure.
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 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:
595 pages of comic book scripts (938 in 2021)
0 feature length screenplay (1 in 2021)
1 half-hour comedy pilot (0 in 2021)
1 short film script (0 in 2021)
4 short stories (13 in 2021)
0 novellas (0 in 2021)
20 new comic book series proposals (25 in 2021)
0 podcast proposals (5 in 2021)
1 essay (0 in 2021)
1 foreword for upcoming graphic novels (0 in 2021)
1 television series proposal (0 in 2021)
FINAL THOUGHTS…
As soon as I hit send on this newsletter, I’m writing up a “pitch” for a new series that came to me last night while driving home from Cuba, Missouri. Sleeping didn’t erase it from my mind, so it might have legs. We’ll see.
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.