Vicious Shivers, Issue 151
Vicious Shivers is the official newsletter for fans of my work. Thank you for subscribing. Please share it with others if you think they might be interested!
As I write this, I am sitting in a darkened hotel room, waiting to go downstairs and catch a cab to the airport, and my stress levels are impossibly high. Traveling, especially this time of year, is an event, and the looming possibility of the thousands of things that might go wrong… on the trip… at home… in the world in general… is crushing. It was that way for me before we left home. When we reached our destination, I felt better. But the anxiety is back for the next little bit.
Cindy, Roman, and I have been on a vacation trip to New York City this week. No writing (well… except for this newsletter). No work meetings, no conventions (although I just realized there was one in town, just up the street from where we’re staying). The trip is something of a Christmas gift for Roman, as we came to see Itzhak Perlman perform at Carnegie Hall. The performance was awesome, as expected. We also hit the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, which was… spectacular; Beetlehaus, which was really cool but paled in comparison to the spectacle of the LA Beetlehaus; and Little Shop of Horrors. And, of course, a bunch of shops and restaurants.
We stayed at the hotel where Marvel and DC used to put us up whenever they brought us into town for a creative retreat. That brought back a lot of memories for me. I wonder if, in the era of post-Covid, those publishers still do retreats like that. I mean, having 10 - 20 writers sitting around a room with editors was interesting. I’m not sure it ever created a great story, but it was entertaining. It definitely created a forum for scrabbling over books like hungry dogs going after scraps of meat. Ah, the good ol’ days!
While I said I wasn’t doing any work meetings, I did get to spend a few hours with Heath Amodio from Hustle and Heart. We only talked a little about work, though. The rest of the time, we were just shooting the breeze. And Heath came to understand my firm stance that nachos should never be neatly organized. They should always be served as a messy heap.
All in all, a really great trip, though I miss my pets (even the annoying ones), it was very cold and wet at times, and the flight was every bit as much of a holiday nightmare as the movies have made holiday travel out to be. But it was still awesome to spend time in New York with my two favorite people.
The campaign for DEMOCRITUS BRAND AND THE ENDLESS MACHINE has wrapped up and I’m happy to say it has successfully funded. Just barely! But a win is a win. I most certainly wanted the campaign to do a little better. We didn’t get has many supporters as we did for our previous campaign. There could be many reasons for that, including:
The economy. Folks just don’t have as much money to spend as they usually do. Especially if they’re spending money on the holidays or struggling to make ends meet in general.
The time of year. Supporters might not have the energy for another Kickstarter here at the end of the year.
Readers who backed the previous campaign simply didn’t connect with the material. It happens. Not every story is for every reader.
Product offerings. We didn’t do many items like shirts and the like. I wanted to keep this campaign as simple as possible.
The problems I had with delivery of my previous campaign came back to bite me. I’ve set up new fulfillment, but I’ve got some trust to earn again.
International orders. I know this is a big one. We didn’t do them this time around. But shipping costs are insane right now. We undercharged significantly for international shipping last time around, and it hurt, especially when a number of international packages didn’t make it to their destination. We were looking at rices of $25 - $50 just to ship, and I simply didn’t feel good about charging that.
Marketing could have been stronger. This is always the case, really, and not just for crowdfunding. I could have tried to get a lot more interviews and cross promotion going.
Any number of other reasons.
In some of the cases above, time was working against me. I wanted to get the campaign going now because of a lot of schedule considerations to come. But that meant launching the Kickstarter at an already busy and crazy time… for me and for backers.
Now it’s time to get the books printed and delivered! And that shouldn’t be long. The issues are almost ready. Some final design and lettering needs to be done. Originally, I had hoped to send them to the printer before the campaign wrapped, but I didn’t do that this time, because it all came down to the wire. But I’ll be getting everything going as soon as I get home!
I’ve got several other crowdfunding campaigns on the horizon, some with Kickstarter, some with other platforms such as Zoop. I really appreciate all the people who supported the project, and I hope even more folks will be excited about the next project I launch through a crowdfunding site!
As Twitter, where I dedicated so much of my time, grows from a trash fire to a trash inferno, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what’s next for me in terms of social media. I’ve used Twitter as a direct communication and marketing platform for years. It was my favorite way to interact with readers online. That, I’m afraid, has changed forever. And I don’t know if any of the social media platforms really hold any interest for me.
I have this newsletter, which means a lot to me and I hope folks are enjoying.
I have my Patreon, which is a great place for me to share a ton of content and, if I’m being honest, has pulled my fat out of the fire financially on more than one occasion.
I have my Discord channel, which I’ll be focusing a little more attention on.
I’m also on writer Brian Keene’s new message board, which reminds me of the great horror message boards of the days of old.
Cindy and I have The Bunngalow, which allows us to talk about all sorts of nonsense.
I’m not leaving Twitter just yet, though I’m spending much less time there. I want it to be what it once was, but “progress” waits for no one. And so, my account becomes something of a tombstone.
I did sign up to be on the waitlist for Post, which sounds at least a little interesting. I’ll check it out. You can sign up for it here if you like. Maybe we’ll see each other there, too!
For the rest of the year, I’m running a wild sale on my web store. 25% off everything you order (and no extra charge on signatures) will be applied to anything you buy on the store. The discount will be taken at check out! This is a great chance to stock up on some really cool books!
https://cullen-bunn.myshopify.com/
Interviews…
Tyler Crook, Brian Hurtt, and I did an interview about all things MANOR BLACK with Mark Tweedale from Multiversity.
And I did a fun interview about my new ComiXology series RETROVERSE with The Daily Dead.
New Books This Week…
A LEGACY OF VIOLENCE #3
The doctors try to make sense of the serial killer's motive with help from the town sherriff. As Nick wanders the streets of Disante, in search of something that might connect him to Unit 731 and the serial killer, he makes a wrong turn and finds more than he bargained for.
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.
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.
PROJECT: GHOST - A horror maxi-series exploring a side of horror you might not expect
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: 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:
1697 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)
9 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)
Events…
Keep in mind, these days, "finalized" doesn't mean as much as it once did. All events are subject to change. I hope to be adding more conventions in the near future! Stay tuned!
FEBRUARY 4, 2023 - ArtCon, Neosho, MO
MARCH 17 - 19, 2023 - Planet Comicon, Kansas City MO
JULY 7 - 9, 2023 - Tremendicon, Springfield MO
Weekly Obsessions…
Because we’ve been traveling, I haven’t really had the chance to dig too deep into any of the usual weekly obsessions.
I started reading SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SERVANTS OF THE DEVIL by Paul Kane, and it’s interesting so far. I expected a Holmes story set in the Hellraiser universe, but I didn’t expect a kind of retelling of THE HELLBOUND HEART. The “voice” of a Holmes adventure is there, though, and I’m really interested to see where this goes.
My son did introduce me to a new game on my phone called SURVIVOR.io which reminds me a lot of the old coin-op game ROBOTRON 2084… so you know I like it!
Where to Find Me Online…
THE SHOCK SHOP - My online store, where you can find exclusive covers you can only get directly from me!
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.