Yesterday, Image Comics and Tiny Onion announced Humbucker, a new original graphic novel written by Tiny Onion’s Editor-in-Chief, Eric Harburn. Harburn makes his graphic novel writing debut alongside Eisner Award-nominated artist Simon Gane, Eisner-winning colorist Jordie Bellaire, and prolific letterer, Aditya Bidikar. Humbucker is a crime thriller that follows an indie record label dodging loan sharks and betting it all on an underground musician. This new OGN releases later next spring.
Harburn joined the Tiny Onion team last April as the Director of Narrative & Editor-in-Chief. This marks his first writing credit after 16 years in comics publishing. Previously, Harburn was an Executive Editor at Boom! Studios where he helped develop titles such as Something is Killing the Children and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. Harburn gave this statement in the press release,
“As an editor, I’ve been lucky enough to work with the best creators in our medium, on incredible projects that have always scratched the creative itch, but during a recent visit to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an idea struck me like a power chord: a pressure cooker of crime and creative ambition, Martin McDonagh meets Elmore Leonard, all set within a legendary recording studio. This was a story I had to tell, and I’m still pinching myself that Simon, Jordie, and Aditya agreed to join the band. Humbucker is a debut album twenty years in the making, and I sincerely hope you’ll give us a spin.”
Gane also had this to say about the book, “The characters were so fleshed out and alive, I just knew—as an artist—that I would feel for them and want to spend time with them. We hope readers will too. Yes, the story moves from coast to coast and there is drama and tension, but it’s also intimate and personal. It covers themes surrounding creativity. Putting your head above the parapet can leave you exposed and vulnerable. As our characters will find out, very, very vulnerable.”
You can read the synopsis from the official press release for the book here,
Humbucker follows Denny, the owner of a new indie record label who is drowning in debt trying to make his music dreams come true. He tracks down the influential underground musician Connor Markes, who fell into obscurity decades ago, and bets all he has left on finally recording the musician’s mythical debut album. He sets up a session at a fabled NYC studio where everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Blondie to The Rolling Stones made hits, but tensions rise quickly as Connor struggles to perform. And when Denny’s loan shark crashes the session, all bets are off, and it’s sink or swim for the two troubled leads.
Harburn’s writing debut, Humbucker, goes on sale in comic shops on April 14th with the book market release following May 11th. You can read a preview of the OGN below:
