Tiny Onion’s big week continues with the announcement of their own publishing imprint, Crying Eye Press. This will be a small, bespoke direct to consumer line, run by Courtney Menard, Tiny Onion’s director of design and print production.
Their first project will Crumbs: A Very Bad Elf, an expanded version of a short story by James Tynion IV and Jensine Eckwall, originally published by DSTLRY. Publishers Weekly has all the scoop:
“This was definitely something we had always tinkered with doing,” Menard tells PW about moving into publishing. “But we wanted to figure out a way where we could live outside of the direct market and not compete with ourselves or, to be blunt, to take on the publishers’ burden of dealing with printing costs, shipping costs, and all of that. So we landed on this: Bespoke, indie-style comics with direct-to-consumer publishing.”
…“What makes [Crumbs] a good candidate for a Crying Eye book was that it could be adapted in such a cool way. It’s not just reprinting what was in the Dstlry book. It feels more like a gift book,” Menard says. “It has gold foil stamping on the cover and the back cover. It has gold edging on the pages because we wanted it to have this classic Christmas children’s book feel.”
Via PR: more on the imprint:
Managed by Tiny Onion Director of Design & Print Production Courtney Menard, Crying Eye Press will be in charge of new titles that are not only produced by Tiny Onion but also published in-house and sold directly through Shop Tiny Onion, acting as a small press outlet for the company. Crying Eye Press is a celebration of physical books, newspapers, and more, with the goal of producing and publishing high-quality original indie print projects under the Tiny Onion umbrella.
“Back before Tiny Onion, I got my first taste of self-publishing with Razorblades: The Horror Magazine during the early years of the pandemic,” said Tynion, CEO & Founder of Tiny Onion. “It remains a career highlight, and I’ve been wanting to find more ways for our incredibly talented team to build weird new projects that don’t fit cleanly into any of the usual boxes. Enter Crying Eye Press. Led by Courtney Menard, CEP is a new imprint of Tiny Onion dedicated to the lost art of physical media, and I can’t wait to show you what we have in store.”
“Crying Eye Press is a place for us to get weird – to tap into the more indie and experimental side of comics, and to flex our design muscles in a space outside of the direct market,” said Menard. “I’m excited for the Tiny Onion team to run amok and push the boundaries of the print medium.”
“DIY is at the heart of what we do at Tiny Onion, and Crying Eye Press is the evolution of that ethos,” said Eric Harburn, Director of Narrative & Editor-in-Chief at Tiny Onion. “From Tiny Onion Presents to Acheron, Courtney and her team have produced some of the most interesting, experimental, and beautiful printmaking of the past few years. And as you’ll see with Crumbs and the rest of the Crying Eye Press slate, they’re just getting started.”
Tiny Onion itself will remain a production house for founder James Tynion’s projects at Boom, Image and elsewhere.
Crumbs will be sold via Tiny Onion’s online shop – and perhaps appear at this weekend’s BEC fest? As for future projects, Menard hinted at more specialized zine like projects, perhaps dealing with cryptids in line with Tiny Onion’s spooky interests. Sounds good to us!
