You didn’t honestly think we heard the last of the Substack announcements did you? Today superstar comic creator Jeff Lemire announced that he has signed a deal to move his “Tales from the Farm” newsletter from its existing TinyLetter home over to Substack in order to expand it into something more akin to an “online studio.” One of Lemire’s first projects through the platform will be Fishflies, a graphic novel he will be writing and illustrating.
Here’s how Lemire described the project
FISHFLIES is a project I am both writing and illustrating, and I’ve been working on it since I finished Mazebook and Sweet Tooth: The Return at the end of 2020. At the time of writing this I have about 120 pages fully drawn, and the entire story is plotted out. It’s going to be a BIG book. Probably my longest book since I finished the original Sweet Tooth series. I’m projecting it to be at least 500+ pages long, and it will likely take me a couple more years to draw.
Lemire plans on publishing approximately five pages each week through the service and then providing digital copies so subscribers can essentially read and watch him create Fishflies in real time.
Additionally, Lemire will be publishing new Black Hammer short stories through Substack, as well as a new full-length Colonel Weird comic co-written by Tate Brombal and fully painted by Ray Fawkes. This comes on the heels of the recently-launched Black Hammer: Reborn limited series, currently being published in print through Dark Horse.
Lemire will also be opening up the proverbial vault and share his sketchbooks, scripts and process material from his various collaborators including om Andrea Sorrentino, Dustin Nguyen, Dean Ormston, and Caitlin Yarsky. Additionally, Lemire will be partnering with his art dealer at Cadence Comic Art and working with Dark Horse to offer exclusive merchandise such as variants, prints, commissions, and much more.
Lemire closed the announcement by addressing the controversy surrounding Substack and many of the other (non-comics) personalities who have lucrative deals with the platform. Lemire said that he will donate “[his] portion of this year’s subscription money” to the non-profit Rainbow Railroad, similar to donations being made by other Substack comics creators.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Jeff Lemire is one of the busiest creators in the comics industry right now. Between his Mazebook limited series from Dark Horse and the upcoming Image Comics Primordial limited series, the Netflix adaptation of his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth was renewed for a second season.
Lemire joins the growing list of creators making the move to Substack that includes James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, and Jonathan Hickman, Chip Zdarsky among others.
You can read the full announcement from Lemire here. Time to start taking bets on the next creator to join Substack!
Multiversity’s poll on the substack migration showed overall readers are not impressed. The creators’ will bring their core group of fans over, but will limit growth. That is a business model if you can get those die hards to keep ponying up cash, but you can’t afford any duds.
I guess I could see more of a risk in that way if the material they were creating was limited to Substack: the comics will all be published in print eventually. I can’t imagine a Lemire fan that didn’t care enough to describe turning their nose up at new print material only because it first appeared serialized on SS. It seems like gravy to me.
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