This week marked the anniversary of the passing of my friend Kevin Watkins. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. Often, I’ll find myself reaching for the phone to shoot him a text message. He meant a lot to a lot of people, and I don’t know if he ever really realized that. I miss you, Kevin, and every day I think about the contributions you made in the lives of all the people who knew you. I’m also humbled by your efforts to promote literacy and the arts in our community, and I hope to follow your example in a more active way in the days, months, and years to come. 

I’ll warn you now. I almost never send more than one newsletter a week, but on Tuesday you’ll be getting a bonus issue. That’s because on Tuesday BEYOND MORTAL will launch on Kickstarter, and I want to make sure you all see it. It’s an important book for me, one I’ve been trying to get together for a long, long time. Artist Danny Luckert and I have been working toward this moment since 2017, and I’ve been trying to make it happen since long before that. It’s a superhero/horror comic. We’ve created our own superhero universe and our own set of heroes. We’ve also created a pantheon of elder gods set on claiming that universe as their own. 

Think of it as the Avengers or JLA versus Cthulhu. 

The first issue launches on Tuesday. It’s a whopper at 64 pages! And we’re following it up with two more issues. But we don’t want to stop there. We have numerous tales to tell in this world. We see it as becoming a massive shared universe.

In order to make that happen, of course, this first campaign needs to be a success. So... yeah... expect to hear me talking about it a lot. 

If you want to get an alert from Kickstarter when the campaign goes live, you can head to the campaign preview page and select “Notify me upon launch.” https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/beyond-mortal-1-by-cullen-bunn-and-danny-luckert

This week, PHANTOM ON THE SCAN issue 1 hits the stands! I hope you pre-ordered the first issue, because these days (maybe more than ever) pre-orders are vital to the success and longevity of comics. But, even if you didn’t pre-order it, you can still get the first issue from your local comic shop!

This is a psychic horror story in the vein of SCANNERS and FIRESTARTER and. THE DEAD ZONE. 

It features amazing art by my good pal Mark Torres. It also includes links to a soundtrack Mark composed!

And speaking of PHANTOM ON THE SCAN... Cindy helped me put together a Spotify playlist for the comic. 

While reading some of my upcoming comics this week, Cindy asked me why I write about such terrible events. She wasn't referring to the supernatural elements of a story as much as the real world horror inflicted upon these characters. I told her that I write these stories as a way of coping with my own fears. These tales are about monsters and magic and alien beings, yeah, but at the core of every one of them, there is a bit of real world terror that keeps me up at night. 

I want my work to entertain first and foremost, but if it helpes readers deal with whatever bad things are going on in their heads, all the better.

I hope you're all well.

Take care of yourselves.

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.

New listings or newly revealed information will appear in RED.

• THIS WEEK! - PHANTOM ON THE SCAN - a new horror limited series with Mark Torres. A tale of psychic powers and the terrible price that comes with them.
• APRIL 2021 - SHADOWMAN from Valiant. Shadowman is the Valiant Universe’s premier supernatural hero, protecting mankind from the Deadside.
• MAY 2021 - EDEN, a horror/romance one-shot.
• JUNE 2021 - PARASOMNIA, a dark fantasy/horror story that takes place in both the waking world and the realm of dream. It features swordplay and ghosts in the night and strangers with no name.
• JUNE 2021 - BASILISK, A horror maxi-series about a group of mysterious figures with awesome, frightening abilities. It’s a story of revenge where an average person makes a desperate stand against powers she cannot comprehend. 
• JUNE - BEYOND MORTAL, a story of the world's greatest heroes battling elder gods from beyond our reckoning. 
• JULY 21, 2021 - THE GHOUL NEXT DOOR, a middle reader horror graphic novel from HarperCollins. It’s about a kid who befriends a ghoul in the cemetery near his house.
• A one-shot issue in the world of BLACK HAMMER.
• A horror/comedy story about possession and the power struggle between infernal and celestial forces that catches mankind in the crossfire. 
• A horror maxi-series about the falsehood of civilization. What happens when the illusion is ripped away?
• A horror maxi-series about a mysterious town and mysterious experiments that have played out there. 
• A horror one-shot inspired by one of Grimm’s fairy tales. 
• A return to a world of haints and folk magic. 
• A return to a world of magicians and family intrigue. 
• A new endeavor involving an indie comic that I’ve loved since I was a kid. A new shared universe that I have a stake in.
• A new horror/adventure series featuring some of the world’s most famous villains. 

This year, I wrote--

299 pages of comic book scripts (1468 in 2020)

1 feature length screenplay (0 in 2020)

2 short stories (15 in 2020)

0 novellas (2 in 2020)

1 new comic book series proposals (13 in 2020)

5 podcast proposals (0 in 2020)

0 forewords for upcoming graphic novels (2 in 2020)

0 television series proposals (5 in 2020)

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

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 - A regular podcast in which my wife Cindy and I talk about comic books, our lives, and just about everything in between. 

THIS NEWSLETTER - If you received this e-newsletter via a forward, you can sign up for it yourself at this link. You can also read archived editions here.