Vicious Shivers (Cullen Bunn's Official Newsletter), Issue 144
Vicious Shivers is 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!
WELCOME TO ISSUE 144…
It’s almost time, kids! One more day ‘til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! It’s almost time!
Here we are, Halloween again! Once upon a time, this was my favorite holiday. Of course, it was! I’m a horror guy! Halloween is horror Mardi Gras!
Then, last year happened.
A couple of nights before Halloween last year was the worst night of my life. Hands down. No questions asked. Number One with a bullet. A night so bad, I wasn’t sure I’d recover.
And Halloween… October in general… has had a cloud over it this year.
But I’m trying to get the ol’ Halloween mojo back.
I’ve been watching horror movies. My list for the month is posted below.
Roman and I have attended three haunted houses over the last few weeks, and we had a great time at all of them.
Cindy, Roman, and I carved pumpkins carved pumpkins a couple of nights ago.
There they are! And… yes… mine is the small, super simple Jack-o’-lantern. Can’t help it. I’m a triangle eyes kind of guy. Roman’s, as you might imagine, is the violin. Cindy’s is what I call Mournful Running Makeup pumpkin.
I’ve also been attending horror-themed trivia (as you know if you’ve been reading this newsletter) for the month. Our last trivia night was just a few evenings back. We changed our team name from “The Last Trivia Table on the Left” to “Shakma 2000” in honor of one of Josh’s favorite horror movies and my trivia night battle cry of “DRACULA 2000!” The theme for the night was horror TV shows, and we didn’t expect to do so well. We ended up winning, though, despite some tough questions.
My biggest contribution to the night? A question came up about True Blood, which I only watched one season of… back in 2008. “What was the name of the town in which True Blood was set?” None of us knew. I threw out an answer. Just a guess. But somehow… it was right. I guess the answer was nested in the deep recesses of my brain. And now I want to go back and rewatch that show.
Do you know the answer? I’ll post it at the end of the newsletter.
Here we are—champions—in front of the Myer’s House.
And, while I haven’t decorated much this year… haven’t even found the proper cords to turn my Halloween Village on… we are going to open up the Garage of Horror tomorrow. We’ll pass out candy, scare some kids, and hang out with some dear friends.
Even with all this awesomeness, it’s tough to resuscitate the pure joy I used to feel for the season.
In the end… I’m trying.
Which is all anyone can really do.
I want all of you to have a happy, safe, spoooOOOOooooooky Halloween!
THE BUNNGALOW…
And speaking of spooky… Cindy and I recorded a new episode of The Bunngalow… just in time for Halloween! What is our favorite candy? What movie scared the Hell out of us both when we were kids? Who is Joey Cocaine? Listen and find out!
The Bunngalow Ep 29: MUDDLING OUR WAY THROUGH THE NUTS — nerdylegion.com Cindy and Cullen are back with their Spooktacular Halloweenie edition of the Bunngalow. Listen in and join the fun!
20% DISCOUNT AT THE NEW STORE…
I’ve been working on switching my store from Big Cartel to Shopify. Shopify just has some great features and great organization. It is not, however, very intuitive, so it has taken me a minute to figure it out.
To those people who place orders in the next couple of days to help me test out the store, I’m offering a 20% discount on your purchases! Just use the Discount Code TESTCASE to save some sweet, sweet cash.
I’d love to know what you think of the new shop in general!
Here it is!
Cullen Bunn's Shock Shop – Cullen Bunn's Shock Shop — cullen-bunn.myshopify.com Cullen Bunn's Shock Shop
HARROW COUNTY: THE BOARD GAME…
It was just over a year ago that we announced the HARROW COUNTY board game! Well, this week the crowdfunding campaign wrapped up successfully! 2,701 backers have helped to bring this amazing game a reality! Over the next few months, I’ll share updates on how final production of the game is coming together! Thanks so much to everyone who helped bring this thing to life!
HARROW COUNTY AUDIO DRAMA…
On Halloween, GraphicAudio will be releasing Part 2 of the HARROW COUNTY Audio Drama. These are full cast productions of the story with music and sound effects. They offer a completely new way to experience HARROW COUNTY!
Harrow County 2 : Omnibus Volume 2 — www.graphicaudio.net The second half of the highly acclaimed, Eisner-nominated horror fantasy tale. While Emmy has been focused on dealing with supernatural threats from the outside world; a much bigger problem has been brewing at home, leading to an epic confrontation tha
And just in case you haven’t listened to the first part of the story…
Harrow County 1 : Omnibus Volume 1 — www.graphicaudio.net The first half of the highly acclaimed, Eisner-nominated horror fantasy tale. Emmy always knew that the woods surrounding her home crawled with ghosts and monsters. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is connected to these cr
INTERVIEWS…
I joined the folks from Watch If You Dare to talk all things HELLRAISER in honor of Halloween!
Episode 99: Hellraiser w/ special guest Cullen Bunn — watchifyoudare.podbean.com To wrap up 2022's Season of Spoop about
NEW COMICS THIS WEEK…
BLOODBORNE: LADY OF THE LANTERNS #3
Enter the city of Yharnam through the eyes of its citizens, when new hunters take to the streets to fight against the cruel and unusual epidemic that has gripped the city. In the black of the night, families and faith will be tested...
WEEKLY OBSESSIONS…
I’m deep into THE SCARLET GOSPELS by Clive Barker, and I’m loving every page of it. There is so much great world building in that book, and you know I love world building!
With Halloween rapidly approaching, I’m entrenching with horror movies aplenty. There’s little rhyme or reason to my viewing choices. It’s whatever strikes my fancy at the moment. So far, I’ve watched the following (in this order):
Phantasm 2
Hellraiser
My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Crawl
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Poltergeist
The Cabin in the Woods
Halloween
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Werewolves Within
Hellraiser (2022)
Friday the 13th
Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon
Phantasm 3: Lord of the Dead
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween Kills
Halloween Ends
Deadstream
Halloween 4
Halloween 5
Malignant
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Hereditary
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Hellraiser 4: Bloodlines
Werewolf by Night
Nightbreed
Nope
Barbarian
EVENTS…
Keep in mind, these days, "finalized" doesn't mean as much as it once did. All events are subject to change.1
FEBRUARY 4, 2023 - ArtCon, Neosho, MO
MARCH 17 - 19, 2023 - Planet Comicon, Kansas City 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.
DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT - A horror/comedy series about a door-to-door sales team that moonlights as monster hunters.
A FOULNESS IN THE WALLS - A horror one-shot about loss and grief and guilt.
NIGHTWALKERS - A survival horror series that sets up a whole world of apocalyptic nightmares.
RED ZONE - An action/comedy thrill-ride. unlike anything else I’ve ever written.
BLOODBLADE - An action/horror story of destiny and demonic blood
PROJECT: BOT - A sequel to a story of robotic mischief.
PROJECT: MASK - A horror OGN where reality and surreality clash in a murderous way.
PROJECT: WATER HEATER - An apocalyptic horror/fantasy maxi-series.
PROJECT: DUNGEON - A new licensed horror comic series
PROJECT: GHOST - A horror maxi-series exploring a side of horror you might not expect
PROJECT: CONVOY - A horror/thriller I’m co-writing
PROJECT: MATINEE - A horror limited series I’m working on with one of my best friends and long-standing collaborator
PROJECT: SWORD - A horror prose anthology I’m editing
PROJECT: V - A return to a fan-favorite character I haven't written in quite a while.
PROJECT: PREHISTORY - More kaiju craziness.
PROJECT: MEGA-BATTLE - Even More kaiju craziness.
PROJECT: LAST - A horror prose anthology I’m editing.
PROJECT: RUSH - A horror prose anthology I’m editing.
PROJECT: GALLERY - An RPG project I’ve been quietly developing.
PROJECT: CARD - A magical one-shot.
WORK UPDATE…
So far this year, I wrote:
1489 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)
7 short stories (13 in 2021)
0 novellas (0 in 2021)
8 two-sentence horror stories (0 in 2021)
29 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)
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
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.
THE ANSWER…
…to the trivia question was Bon Temps, Louisiana.