James Tynion IV and his Tiny Onion Studios have signed a deal with Dark Horse Comics to publish what the writer calls his “true weird” comics, stories of monsters, aliens, and other strange phenomena. The new line will include both new material from Tiny Onion Studios and comics that were previously published digitally in Tynion’s Substack newsletter.

The first new series, Blue Book, focuses on true stories of encounters with aliens and the supernatural. The first five-issue arc, with art by Michael Avon Oeming, is based on the story of Betty and Barney Hill, who claim to have been abducted by aliens in 1961. Every issue will include a short comic called “True Weird,” starting with “True Weird: Coney Island,” by Tynion and artist Klaus Janson, in issue #1. Twelve issues of Blue Book have been published digitally on Substack. The Dark Horse edition will launch on February 22, 2023, and will have three variant covers: A foil variant by Oeming and variants by Dave Johnson and Jill Thompson.

Next up will be The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, written by Tate Brombal based on a concept by Tynion, with art by Isaac Goodhart and colors by Kurt Michael Russell. (Brombal also writes House of Slaughter, a spinoff of Tynion’s Something Is Killing the Children.) Christopher Chaos is a LGBTQ+ story about a teenage mad scientist fighting monsters and a killer cult. Three issues have appeared on Substack so far; the five-issue print series will launch in June 2023.

Tynion was the lead writer on Batman but announced last year that he had turned down an exclusive contract with DC to focus on creator-owned work published through Substack (see “James Tynion IV Leaves Batman for Substack”). Earlier this year, Image published his three-issue horror miniseries The Closet, which was first published on Substack (see “Image to Publish Tynion and Fullerton’s ‘The Closet’”).

Click Gallery for covers!