Hey, everyone—
It’s been apparent to me for a while now that there have been too many fractured ways of spreading word about comic projects and other cool things but until now, I’ve not really sought out a proper source to best consolidate all of those things.
Which is why we (Syzygy, my comics imprint with Ashley Wood but in the case of this newsletter, it’s really just me) are launching this Substack that shares a name with a new comic series our imprint is launching via our publishing parent, Image Comics, this June.
This newsletter will be wide-ranging but largely focused on comic books — past, present, and future. In it, I’ll regularly share word about and images of upcoming comics, and will use this space to break news, show exclusive art, talk to creators involved with Syzygy’s projects, and try to offer various tips and tricks from my near-two decades of comic-publishing experience.
So, much more to come. But for purposes of kicking this off in the way I mentioned, the above image represents the “past” — it’s a collage of titles released under our Syzygy imprint in its first year of existence.
We launched in January 2022 with the debut of Joe Hill’s Rain, a masterfully created adaptation of Joe’s short story by writer/adapter David M. Booher, artist Zoe Thorogood, colorist Chris O’Halloran, and letterer Shawn Lee.
From there, we did a number of other titles, all seen above. Which brings me to the “present” in terms of comic-publishing: this week sees the release of the finale of All Against All, issue 5. In that one, writer Alex Paknadel, artist Caspar Wijngaard, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and designer Ian Chalgren (who also created the above collage image) wrap things up in fine fashion. The issue carries on with the amazing covers that’ve adorned every issue of this series. You can see ‘em here, and can’t go wrong with any of them. They’re by Caspar, Locke & Key and Onyx co-creator Gabriel Rodriguez, and Orc Stain creator James Stokoe.
Both Rain and AAA — and really, everything else we’ve put out so far — perfectly represent what I hoped this imprint could be.
I’ll get into that more down the line, too, since I’ve had a number of people ask me what kinds of content we might be looking for along the way. For now, I’d just say that the above collage image is a pretty perfect encapsulation of what we’re trying to do.
But for now, since this is just the first Tales of Syzpense, no need to try to do too much or ask you to read anything to lengthy. So here’s a quick look at Syzygy’s near future, in the form of this poster that just hit comic shops, for the aforementioned Tales of Syzpense, a new split-book we’re launching this June. The poster art is by Ashley Wood, my Syzygy partner and creator of one of the two stories in this comic. The other half of the comic will present the tale of “Dreamweaver,” a new creation by artist Nelson Daniel and me. More about the comic itself next time but just know that if you want to check it out in June, comic shops are currently taking orders for June titles so let your local shop know to pull you one in order to ensure you get a copy.
Thanks for reading! I’ll close with one recommendation, the recently released Marvel Value Stamps collection that Abrams ComicArts put out recently. newly crowned ACA EiC Charlie Kochman and writer Roy Thomas created something really cool, a visually dazzling way of presenting this nostalgic material.
Be back soon with more Tales of Syz — both the comic and this newsletter are planned as ongoing series — including more about the array of big announcements we made at the recent WonderCon convention, how and why Francis Ford Coppola got involved in comics, and some stories and art from never-published comic books, too.
I have ordered the poster. Can't wait to have it framed. Absolutely stunning.