James Tynion IV Launches Tiny Onion– An Independent Multimedia Production Company
by Tony Thornley
In a move that is unlikely to surprise anyone, today superstar comics writer James Tynion IV announced the official formation of Tiny Onion, a multimedia production company.
Tynion’s Tiny Onion Studios has been the home of some of the most innovative stories in comics over the past decade. In partnership with publishers such as BOOM! Studios, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics, Tynion has published science fiction and horror hits like Something Is Killing The Children, The Department of Truth, Blue Book and The Nice House On The Lake with some of the biggest artists and rising stars in the comics industry. This news expands that creative powerhouse across the entertainment industry.
“Over the last twelve years, I’ve watched the comics industry from the inside,” said Tynion IV, CEO & Founder, Tiny Onion, “working alongside its best talent and biggest publishers, seeing the exciting ways that it can connect to other media spaces, and I’ve managed to work my way to some prominence. Now I have the chance to take everything I’ve learned and test out every way to make it work even better. Not just for me, but for the generation of creators coming up behind me.”
Providing financial backing is Lyrical Media, a Los Angeles and New York based company that finances and develops unique properties across all forms of media- television, film, animation, comics and more. The company is represented by UTA, where it will help the company grow and develop all of its intellectual assets across all media types.
Tynion is joined by editorial director Eric Harburn who helped develop Something Is Killing The Children at BOOM! Studios. He’s joined by Courtney Menard as Director of Production, and Jazzlyn Stone as Director of Communications.
“Being able to support creators in telling the best version of their stories has been an honor and a privilege I don’t take lightly,” said Harburn, “and is what I plan to pursue for the rest of my life. James has proven time and again that there is a path in comics to critical and commercial success, without sacrifice — I am thrilled to be joining him in this next stage of his career, and for the phenomenal team at Tiny Onion to become a resource for the most exciting independent voices our medium has to offer.”
“The benefit of independence is flexibility,” said Tynion. “I know what my big aggressive move in the comic book direct market next year is going to look like, but there are other ideas we’re cooking that I’m thinking up as medium neutral. We’re going to develop worlds on the scale of what we did with Something is Killing the Children, and then we’re going to decide how to bring them into each of the verticals our company is touching. It’s incredibly exciting to be able to think and move that way.”
This is a huge undertaking and big step for Tynion and his team, but his career has been unconventional for some time. It’s also important to note that Tiny Onion is not a comics publisher, but is rather an independent creative services company with ties to most major publishers in the industry. How that will play out is probably one of the more exciting parts of the announcement.
Watch for more news from Tiny Onion in the near future.
