Tag Archives: casey gonzalez

Tiny Onion hires Sami Demonster as Community Manager and Promotes Harley Salbacka to Events & Libraries Manager

Tiny Onion has hired social media and comic book expert Sami DeMonster as Community Manager in the team’s expansion, which has also included promoting Eric Harburn to Director of Narrative & Editor-in-Chief and a number of recent hires. Seasoned industry veteran Harley Salbacka has been promoted from Community & Events Manager to Events & Libraries Manager.

Sami DeMonster

DeMonster will be in charge of communicating with Tiny Onion’s growing fanbase and expanding the production house’s social footprint. She will run the company’s social media accounts and will be producing original content for their channels, including making weekly New Comic Book Day videos in collaboration with popular Los Angeles comic book store Revenge Of, as well as covering Tiny Onion’s activities at conventions and events. She will also be overseeing community management for the production house, engaging with fans online. 

DeMonster’s extensive background in content creation, strategy, and journalism includes collaborations with many major comic book publishers, including DC, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, DSTLRY, Mad Cave Studios, and creators such as Tynion, Tini Howard, Babs Tarr, Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Stephanie Phillips, Jeff Lemire, Melissa Flores, and Dan Quintana. With an emphasis in comic book and horror coverage, she has cultivated an online community with over 30,000 followers on Instagram, and 40,000 followers on TikTok, with over 1 million likes. She has also partnered with e-commerce giant eBay on social media content, collaborating with their team at New York Comic Con and other events. 

Last year, DeMonster hosted Revenge Of’s globally streamed “Comic Creator Couch Party,” sponsored by Dark Horse Comics and streamed worldwide, which featured interviews with stars like Oswalt and Blum, Nathan Fillion and Heath Corson, Brian Michael Bendis, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Hannah Rose May and Utkarsh Ambudkar, Gerry Duggan, and more. In addition to video content, Sami is an editorial columnist for DC.com; among her many articles, she recently wrote a guide to the world and characters of Tynion and Álvaro Martínez Bueno’s The Nice House series timed to DC’s Vertigo relaunch. 

DeMonster got her start in the industry working at her local comic book shop before collaborating with BOOM! Studios in 2023 as a freelance Content Creator, best known for being their “New Comic Book Day” host. She has been covering Tynion and artist Werther Dell’Edera’s hit series Something is Killing the Children for BOOM! Studios since 2023 and is an expert on the Slaughterverse; for the last couple years, she has been the Slaughterverse panel moderator for BOOM! Studios at conventions like San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic Con, and C2E2.

Tynion and DeMonster have collaborated for several years, inclusive of her work on Something is Killing the Children (SIKTC). In the last year, she has not only partnered with Tiny Onion to create videos about their titles for New Comic Book Day on a weekly basis, but has also shared deep dives on their comics and collections on her channels. She has also hosted several of their panels at conventions and produced short-form video content at events.

Harley Salbacka

Harley Salbacka, the previous Community & Events Manager, has been promoted to Events & Libraries Manager. With the success of Tiny Onion’s convention programming and the Corpse Tour (the global Exquisite Corpses comic book tour with Tynion and the Corpse Crew of creators), the team will be expanding their event footprint; Salbacka will be managing Tiny Onion’s expansion of events and in-person programming even further. In addition to events, Salbacka will also take the lead in launching Tiny Onion’s first ever Libraries program. She will be working alongside librarians to bring Tiny Onion’s titles to more readers, making their books more accessible to the public. 

During Salbacka’s fifteen years working in all facets of the comic book industry, she has gained extensive knowledge of collaborating with librarians. Salbacka started her comic book journey by running one of Los Angeles’ premier comic book shops for five years. She then worked for Humanoids as their Sales & Marketing Representative before moving to BOOM! Studios, where she rose to Sales Lead, handling not only their library market, but also their book and digital market needs, as well as running their booth at San Diego Comic-Con. She managed BOOM! Studios’ library market and ran their booths at the American Library Association (ALA) conference during her time at the company.

“I’m excited to be working with the library market again,” said Salbacka. “Libraries are one of the most important institutions in keeping literacy and comics alive in communities. I’m excited to see what cool things Tiny Onion and librarians will do together!”

“I’ve always admired Harley’s deep understanding and dedication to libraries,” said Tynion. “She has helped Tiny Onion reach new audiences at conventions and our events, and we’re excited for her to help us grow within the library space. We’re so grateful to librarians for the essential work that they do, and we’re looking forward to working with them to make Tiny Onion’s books accessible to more fans and first-time readers.”

In addition to the hiring of DeMonster and the promotion of Salbacka as well as Harburn to Director of Narrative & Editor-in-Chief to reflect their expansion into the multimedia space, Tiny Onion has also recently brought aboard Bryce Gold as Operations Manager for Publishing, Casey Gonzalez as Director of Multimedia Development for Animation, Andra Hermann as Operations Manager for Communications, and Dylan Todd as Senior Designer.

Tiny Onion Kicks Off a Slate of Adult Animation with The Woods and Brings Casey Gonzalez on as Director of Multimedia

The Woods

Led by CEO James Tynion IV, Tiny Onion is kicking off the production house’s robust adult animation slate with an adaptation of Tynion’s The Woods, based on the award-winning comic book series published by BOOM! Studios. The acclaimed sci-fi horror comics were co-created by Tynion and artist Michael Dialynas. To launch the animation slate, Tiny Onion is bringing aboard Casey Gonzalez as Director of Multimedia to oversee development for the company’s animated projects.

GLAAD Media Award-winning comic book series which debuted in 2014, The Woods tells the story of an ordinary high school in suburban Milwaukee, WI, which is suddenly transported into the midst of an alien forest in an uncharted corner of the universe. With no sign of why they were taken there, or what threats lurk in the dark woods surrounding their school, the story follows a group of students determined to figure out how to survive, and more importantly, how to get home. Tiny Onion has optioned the property from BOOM! Studios. The animated series will see Tynion and Dialynas executive producing for Tiny Onion. Stephen Christy and Mette Norkjaer will executive produce the series for BOOM! Studios.

The Woods will be Gonzalez’s first project as Director of Multimedia at Tiny Onion since joining the team in December. Previous to Tiny Onion, she spent a decade working alongside animation industry legend Fred Seibert (Adventure Time, Bee and Puppycat) as his VP of Development at FredFilms, where she developed original cartoons, including the viral short The Summoning, which is being adapted into a three book series for Oni Press. 

Casey Gonzalez

Gonzalez began her career in publishing, editing bestselling graphic novels for First Second and helping launch the acclaimed Science Comics series while shepherding New York Times bestselling titles such as Eisner Award winner Battling Boy, Hugo Award nominated book The Divine, and Green Book Award winner Coral Reefs. She later transitioned into the role of Head Writer and Producer at Frederator, where she launched the popular anime vertical Get in the Robot, and subsequently at Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime streaming service. At Tiny Onion, Gonzalez looks forward to uniting her love of comics with her experience shaping top tier shows.

The Woods is a part of an expanding adult animation slate that also includes an animated adaptation of Tynion’s Image Comics horror sci-fi series W0RLDTR33 in development at Netflix. Co-created by Fernando Blanco and colored by multi Eisner Award-winning colorist Jordie Belliare, W0RLDTR33 tells the story of a dark evil within the internet that may destroy humanity. Tynion and Blanco will serve as Executive Producers on the series with Ashley Cardiff (Fear The Walking Dead) set as Showrunner and Executive Producer. Sean Buckelew of Green Street Pictures (Common Side Effects, Scavenger’s Reign) will also serve as Executive Producer and the team has just brought on Guillaume Dousse of Æsten studio (Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, Flee) to lead visual development and art direction for the series.

W0RLDTR33

Additionally, Tiny Onion is developing an adult animated comedy series The Tipsy Dragon with production company Irony Point. The series is being developed by Daniel Powell (Ugly Americans). RJ Fried, Mike Leech, and Zach Smilovitz (Our Cartoon President) are attached to write and help produce. An original concept from Tynion, The Tipsy Dragon is set in a tavern in a world where the age of heroes and legends is long past—and its barkeep and patrons couldn’t care less about their supposed role in an ancient battle between good and evil just outside their doorstep. 

Tynion and BOOM! Studios are also teaming up with iconic horror production company Blumhouse for an adult animated television series and a live-action feature film based on Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera’s record breaking, award-winning, and global best-selling series Something is Killing the Children. Set in a world where children can see monsters, but adults cannot, Something is Killing the Children tells the story of Erica Slaughter, a monster hunter from a mysterious organization more concerned with keeping the secret of monsters from the world than saving their victims. The animated series will be adapted and executive produced by Tynion, with Dell’Edera serving as Co-Executive Producer and visual development consultant. Stephen Christy will executive produce the series for BOOM! Studios, with Mette Norkjaer and Adam Yoelin serving as Co-Executive Producer.

Tiny Onion is backed by a seed investment from Lyrical Media, the Los Angeles and New York-based company that develops, produces, and finances unique stories across multi-media formats, including film, television, video games, and graphic novels. It was recently announced that Lyrical Media has launched Lyrical Animation to tap into global demand for adult animation, with an emphasis on animated features. Lyrical Animation is headed by seasoned Animation industry veterans Jacob Robinson, Daniel Dominguez, and Brad Graeber, and has many projects in development including an adaptation of the video game Death Stranding. Tiny Onion will be working closely with Lyrical Animation on its animation slate.