Sweet Tooth creator Jeff Lemire has announced that he will be making new comics on Substack.
Speaking through his newsletter Tales From the Farm, Lemire explained that he will be using Substack to release new creator-owned content and will be donating all of the money that he earns through subscriptions to Rainbow Railroad, an LGBTQ+ non-profit organization. In addition to exclusive merchandise and variant covers, Lemire will be releasing serialized pages from his next book, titled Fishflies.
Lemire began work on Fishflies in 2020 and already has 120 pages fully drawn, and expects it to be "Probably my longest book since I finished the original Sweet Tooth series." He went on to say, "I'm projecting it to be at least 500+ pages long, and it will likely take me a couple more years to draw." If the trajectory of Sweet Tooth is anything to go by, that should give fans plenty to be excited for. Sweet Tooth was adapted for Netflix earlier this year and was the most-watched series for the second quarter of 2021, earning it a second season renewal.
Lemire will also be using Substack to expand the world of Black Hammer. A new Colonel Weird comic will be coming to the platform, written by Lemire and his Barbalien: Red Planet co-writer Tate Brombal, with fully-painted art by Ray Fawkes. This story will be the first of many from the world of Black Hammer, while other books such as Black Hammer: Reborn continue at Dark Horse.
In a follow-up to this announcement, Lemire ensured fans that his decision to release new work through Substack will not interfere with his pre-existing projects. November sees the release of Robin & Batman, a three-issue mini-series written by Lemire with art by Dustin Nguyen that serves as a "Year One" story for Dick Grayson. Lemire is also writing the sci-fi series Primordial for Image Comics as well as Mazebook for Dark Horse, which he draws too.
Lemire is the latest name to make the move over to Substack, following the likes of Jonathan Hickman, Scott Snyder, Chip Zdarsky and many others. Notably, Batman writer James Tynion IV announced that he will be leaving DC Comics to focus on his creator-owned work, following his move to Substack. Other creators like Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman will be using Substack to create their own comic book imprints. Over 500,000 users have paid subscriptions to Substack, though it remains to be seen how successful the platform will be for those in the comic book industry.
Source: Tales From the Farm