A Memory of Daydreaming (Cullen Bunn's E-Newsletter, Issue 77)

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This is the 77th issue of Vicious Shivers,
a (mostly) weekly newsletter for fans of my work.

BEYOND MORTAL launched a few days ago. If you haven’t checked out the campaign, I hope you will. With this book, Danny Luckert, Simon Bowland, and I are unleashing a brand new superhero universe—dozens of new heroes and villains, a pantheon of elder gods, the potential for endless stories.

And it all starts here.

As with many of my stories, I’ve had this idea for a long, long time. To give you an idea of how long... the concept of superheroes battling cosmic gods came to me while listening to Joe Satriani’s “Crushing Day” while cruising around in my car.

Listening to it on cassette.

At the time, I just had this idea that “Crushing Day” would make a great opening theme to an animated series about badass superheroes. I envisioned fast-paced flashes of action, 80s style, as the heroes came onto the scene along with the pulsing music. And, of course, those old cartoon introductions always introduced a bunch of awesome villains to go along with the heroes. I thought... wouldn’t Cthulhu make an awesome enemy for these new heroes?

It’s so clear in my mind, the memory of driving around the backroads near my home in Goldsboro, listening to that song, imagining superheroes locked in a futile battle with old ones. The memory of daydreaming. Or daydreaming about memories.

The concept was like a wave in the dark for decades, rushing in every now again, then retreating for years. After I started actually working in comics, though, when the idea came to me again, I latched onto it and didn’t let it go. It’s taken a while to pull it together. There have been a few artists involved in the project. But once Danny Luckert teamed up with me on this, I knew it was finally becoming a reality.

The campaign funded within 24 hours of launching, and it has been doing well since. It has been selected as a “Project We Love” by Kickstarter. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the idea. It’s a great feeling, knowing that something that’s haunted me for so long is finally rising out of the depths. As we bring the book to life, we can’t help but think about how much more we want to do with this new comic book universe. We have big, big plans.

And they all started with me listening to Satriani and thinking about cartoons.

Here’s the campaign link, by the way - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/beyond-mortal-1-by-cullen-bunn-and-danny-luckert

While we're at it, here are the first four covers we've revealed for BEYOND MORTAL. There will be six in all (barring any stretch goals). You can get your favorite cover, all the covers, or mix and match them using add-ons.

Did I mention you can support the campaign here?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cullenbunn/beyond-mortal-1-by-cullen-bunn-and-danny-luckert

I tried to load a bunch of cartoons intros into the newsletter here... MIGHTY ORBOTS, GALAXY RANGERS, M.A.S.K., GI JOE: THE MOVIE... but for some reason the software isn’t cooperating.

Also... It’s very easy to fall down the rabbit hole of cartoon intros.

I’d love to know which old cartoon inspired you as a kid... or as an adult.

Hell, they still inspire me.

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF ALERT - BYTE-SIZED

The final order cutoff for the BYTE-SIZED trade paperback is April 26th! This is a great book for kids or for the young at heart. If you haven't had the chance to read it in single issues (or... hear me out... even if you have) here's your chance to order the trade paperback! It's only $10!

EDEN PREVIEW

Want to read the first five pages of EDEN?

Well, here's your chance. A preview has been posted online! I hope you dig it!

https://monkeysfightingrobots.co/cullen-bunns-eden-read-the-first-five-pages-of-the-horror-romance/

And Cindy has helped me put a playlist together for EDEN!

You can listen to it while you read the preview!

https://open.spotify.com/user/1229749739/playlist/5cwKccId5gddyD9oFvhYfI?si=fLyySKFnQbu6IIV-ADeIlg

THE DISCORD SERVER

I’ve been talking up the Discord server for a few newsletters now. That’s because I’m super excited about it. Our membership is growing steadily, and I think there is some cool content and discussions being posted. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, here is just SOME of what you’re missing!

- An ASK ME ANYTHING section for members to ask questions about writing, comics, gaming, movies, or whatever else they want
- Daily updates on what I’m working on
- Movie, TV, book, and music suggestions
- Regular image posts of collectibles and comics
- An interactive play-by-post role-playing adventure with posts every day
- A Creators’ Corner, for writers and artists to connect and discuss their work
- And dozens of other cool categories and sections!

I want this to be a great place to hang out and communicate, so I hope you’ll consider signing up!

Here’s the link!

THE CULLEN BUNN DISCORD SERVER

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.

New listings or newly revealed information will appear in RED.

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.
An insane story set in one of the most recognizable comic universes around.
A horror OGN where reality and surreality clash in a murderous way.

WORK UPDATE

This year, I wrote--

321 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)

WHERE TO FIND ME ONLINE

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.

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