James Tynion IV Is The Latest Creator To Quit DC Comics For Creator Owned Glory

In another big name departure for DC Comics – following his mentor Scott Snyder out the door –  James Tynion IV has announced he is leaving DC Comics to set up his own publishing company, after turning down a new three-year exclusive deal. He discussed it all in his latest newsletter, which has always been a great source for scoops like this one.

“DC had presented me with a three-year renewal of my exclusive contract, with the intent of me working on Batman for the bulk of that time. I was grateful of the offer, but I couldn’t help but look at the success of my original, creator owned titles and wonder if it was the right choice.

And then I received another contract…” – James Tynion IV

That winning contract was from Substack which will allow Tynion IV and his co-creators to create comic book properties they would own out right.

So, the new deal will see him leaving Batman with issue #117 and The Joker with #14, and setting up his new company with Substack. The platform that already produces his newsletters and now seem to be financing this new chapter in his career, allows him to let loose as a creator with minimum to loose:

“I want to make all the cool things in my head that I know should exist without having to ask anybody for permission to make them exist.” – James Tynion IV

And, it would seem Tynion IV has not rested on his laurels with five already in development:

“One of these is a non-fiction comic. One of these projects will be a Prose/Illustration series that will tie into one of my existing books. One of them is a Novella. One of them is a long form horror project (the “White Whale” I discussed above). One of them is a project that I started dreaming up back when I was a student of Scott Snyder in college. Two of them I’ll be bringing on some very talented writers to work on with me. All of them have incredible art… And it would be honest and true to tell you all of those things. And it would be honest and true to tell you that I have EVEN MORE ideas of what I might be able to build in this format that I haven’t started cooking yet, and therefore don’t have catchy operation titles.”

And he even teases a first look at Blue Book, out September:

Blue Book, a planned graphic novel with art by Michael Oeming and lettering by Aditya Bidikar, will tell “stories taken from true accounts and testimonies of people who have encountered something strange, outside the bounds of the order of things. Whether or not their experience happened the way they think it happened is sort of secondary, the story they tell is what enters our collective unconscious.”

Furthermore, Blue Book and all other titles from Tynion IV will be distributed digitally through Substack with three payment tiers available for fans:

“For $7/month, you get access to everything. Every comic. Every post. Early-bird access to special covers and merchandise, etc. 

For $75/year, you STILL get access to everything, but pay 9 bucks less over the course of the year. I’m also going to run a special deal… Everyone who signs up for an annual payment option in the FIRST 24 HOURS is going to get a signed single comic book in the mail that I’m going to pull from my storage locker. I’m going to try and nab you some goodies, some rare covers I have extras of, etc. No guarantees, no requests, no promises that they’re going to be perfect 9.8’s or anything, but I’m going to try to dig up some gems. 

And then there’s something special called The Founders Tier, which I don’t know how long I am going to keep open so nab a spot while you can. This is the super fancy deluxe version. For $250/year, you get access to everything I’ve laid out above (The first 24 hours deal applies here, too)… but you will ALSO receive six extremely exclusive covers from six different projects over the course of the next year that will not be made available to any other sales platform. They won’t be on the webstore. They won’t be available to other paid subscribers, monthly or otherwise. The ONLY WAY to get those six covers from me is to sign up for this option.”

So, a payment plan for all wallets and all digital.