This article has been updated since its publication.
Via Entertainment Weekly, Substack have announced tons of new comics from creators like Jeff Lemire, Grant Morrison, Brian K. Vaughan, and many more, namely:
– “The Last Days of Black Hammer,” a 110-page graphic novel by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Stefano Simeone, and letterer Nate Piekos, chronicling the “last days” of the original Black Hammer, Joseph Weber. The comic will be serialized to all subscribers of Lemire’s weekly newsletter. Lemire also announced “Visions,” a series of ‘Black Hammer’ short stories by David A. Robertson and Scott Henderson; a Madame Dragonfly story by Lucy Sullivan; and that a full-length Colonel Weird comic by him, Tate Brombal and Ray Fawkes will begin in March.
– “Love Everlasting,” Tom King’s first creator-owned comic, with artist Elsa Charretier, colorist Matt Hollingsworth, and letterer Clayton Cowles. The comic “moves around in space and time for a deconstruction of the history of one of the form’s forgotten sub-genres: romance comics.” It will be released on King and Charretier’s joint newsletter, Everlasting Productions.
– “Spectators,” a comic reteaming “Pride of Baghdad” writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Niko Henrichon. The creators did not disclose the subject matter of the 300-page book, except that it will explore sex and violence, and the ways we become preoccupied with both. It will be released on Exploding Giraffe (named for a scene from “Pride of Baghdad”).
– “Sirens of the City,” by writer Joanne Starer and artist Khary Randolph, and “A Way from Here,” by Starer and GABO. “Sirens” is “a gritty urban fantasy set in 1980s New York,” about Layla, “a teenage runaway pregnant with a supernatural baby” that she’s trying to get rid of; while “A Way from Here” follows four different teenagers from Vienna in the years before the Holocaust. They will be released on Randolph and Starer’s newsletter, Glass Eye Studios.
– “In Xanaduum…,” by Grant Morrison, which they described as a “high concept sci-fi ghost story with a sting in the tail and a big autobiographical element!” The comic will debut on Morrison’s newsletter, Xanaduum.
– Jonathan Hickman and James Tynion IV announced several new projects, which you can read up on respectively here and here; the first issue of Tynion and Gavin Fullerton’s new horror comic, “The Closet,” is also now available to read here. You can read about even more titles from creators like Rodney Barnes, Jen Bartel, Don Cates & Ryan Stegman, Sophie Campbell, and the Mangasplaining podcast, here.
The deluge of announcements comes several days after it was reported Substack has become a major platform for conspiracy theorists, including anti-vaccinationists, five of whom alone generated $2.5 million in revenue for the site last year. At EW, Morrison commented they joined the site partly because of anti-NFT sentiment: “Substack offers an opportunity to communicate more directly and intimately with my readership,” they explained. “I’m loving the opportunity to create my own artwork for the first time in a long while and see this as a creatively reinvigorating lo-fi DIY return to my earliest days making punk fanzines with scissors and glue. The hands-on physicality of the work I’m making is very much in an anti-NFT spirit too!”
