Kelly Thompson (“Black Widow,” “Spider-Man”) is now the latest comic creator to begin digitally releasing their new creator-owned works exclusively on Substack. Per her newsletter ‘1979 Semi-Finalist,’ Thompson will be syndicating sci-fi fantasy detective comic “Black Cloak” with artist Meredith McClaren (“Adventure Time,” “Hinges”) in 2021, and the dark fantasy adventure “The Cull” with Mattia De Iulis (“Jessica Jones,” “The Mighty Valkyries”) in 2022. Both titles will be edited by Charles Beacham with design by Rian Hughes.
“Black Cloak” is set in a technologically advanced world built on a backbone of magic, where a diverse population of fantasy creatures clash in secret, and the comic will follow the detective who has to pick apart their conceited motives. Thompson and McClaren first collaborated on the Dark Horse comic series “Heart in a Box,” which was Thompson’s debut. The series will be lettered by Becca Carey.
“The Cull” follows a group of teenage filmmakers who head out to a remote beach for their short film, but when they get there they find themselves transported to an unfamiliar and sinister world. Even their return to the real world is unfamiliar, when they discover their days in the fantasyland equated to years back home. Iulis and Thompson previously collaborated on a “Jessica Jones” series, which marked the character’s first ongoing not created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, and Iulis’s first series at Marvel.
“While all the ‘exciting new comics content’ is the obvious star here, I’m pretty excited about some of the posts I’m planning as well,” said Thompson. “I made a huge list of all the stuff I wanted to share with you guys through this experiment and I don’t want to say it’s like a return to my blogging days… but it sort of is! In a good way!”
Comics will publish weekly on 1979 Semi-Finalist in five-page chunks, with the entirety of “Black Cloak” set to have been serialized by the time “The Cull” begins publication. Both series will eventually be published in print at Image Comics. In addition, Thompson will be writing a weekly free newsletter and subscriber-only posts with “world building documents, process stuff, scripts, interviews, exclusive giveaways, rare discounts, and cool behind the scenes stuff.”
“I genuinely hope you guys will join me on this weird new adventure,” Thompson concluded. “I’m truly excited by the comics creators already announced on Substack, and I’m excited for the ones I know that are still coming. I’m excited for the first time in my life to see money funnelled directly to comics creators to allow them to CREATE. It’s exciting stuff and I hope you’ll join me on this adventure.”
Subscriptions are available for US$7/month or $70/year, with annual subscribers being entered into giveaways for exclusive sketches, signed comics and more. A $200/year Founders Level is also available where subscribers will receive prints from each series, exclusive physical variant covers, and signed covers.
