James Tynion IV preps for a "big aggressive move" in comics by launching creator-centric company for comics (and movie, and tv) development

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Audiences are familiar with James Tynion IV as the writer and co-creator of multiple hit comic book series, including Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth, The Nice House on the Lake, and W0RLDTR33, as well as the former writer of superhero titles including Batman, Detective Comics, and Justice League Dark. Now, he’s got something new to add to that list: the founder and CEO of multimedia production house Tiny Onion.

No, it's not a publisher. Instead its an independent creative services company similiar in the vein of Robert Kirkman's Skybound Entertainment and Scott Snyder's Best Jackett Press. Tynion has, and will continue to, produce work for a number of publishers including Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, and DSTLRY; Tiny Onion intends to work with creators including (but not limited to) Tynion to produce and package work both inside and outside the comics industry.

That idea is something The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman launched his company, Skybound Entertainment, on in 2010 - and along the way became an Image Comics co-owner/partner, sign a publishing deal with Image, sign a first-look deal with Amazon Studios, and launch an entire games division eventually.

“Over the last 12 years, I've watched the comics industry from the inside, working alongside its best talent and biggest publishers, seeing the exciting ways that it can connect to other media spaces, and I've managed to work my way to some prominence," says Tynion in a statement. "Now I have the chance to take everything I've learned and test out every way to make it work even better. Not just for me, but for the generation of creators coming up behind me.”

To that end, Tiny Onion — previously the name for Tyrion’s Substack and informal line of creator-owned books across multiple publishers — has staffed up with three key hires: Eric Harburn, who worked by Tynion and Werther Dell-Edera to develop Something is Killing the Children at BOOM! Studios, has signed on to become director of editorial at the company, with Z2 Comics veteran Courtney Menard joining the team as director of production, and independent comics communications and marketing maven Jazzlyn Stone becoming the company’s director of communications.

“Being able to support creators in telling the best version of their stories has been an honor and a privilege I don’t take lightly, and is what I plan to pursue for the rest of my life,” Harburn says in his own statement. “James has proven time and again that there is a path in comics to critical and commercial success, without sacrifice — I am thrilled to be joining him in this next stage of his career, and for the phenomenal team at Tiny Onion to become a resource for the most exciting independent voices our medium has to offer.”

Tiny Onion is not limiting itself to comics in its intentions. Tynion says that “the benefit of independence is flexibility."

“I know what my big aggressive move in the comic book direct market next year is going to look like, but there are other ideas we’re cooking that I’m thinking up as medium neutral. We’re going to develop worlds on the scale of what we did with Something is Killing the Children, and then we’re going to decide how to bring them into each of the verticals our company is touching.”

Notably, the company is backed with an investment from Lyrical Media, the company behind the acclaimed movie How to Blow Up A Pipeline, suggesting that there’s a significant basis for the ambitions moving forward - especially with the news in the announcement that the company has already been signed by United Talent Agency for media development.

In a statement released via LinkedIn, Lyrical Media said about the group's investment, "Lyrical's investment in James Tynion's new venture marks our first foray into the graphic novel space. We are delighted to be partnering with one of the most accomplished graphic novelists of all time, and are committed to providing Tiny Onion with tools to become a successful multimedia company."

More about Tiny Onion’s plans will be announced in the coming months; Popverse has an interview with Stone later this month, to offer some more information about the new company. James Tynion IV (and friends!) will be at C2E2 in Chicago this April.

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