Tag Archives: courtney menard

Tiny Onion reveals a play through of Exquisite Corpses: The Game

Tiny Onion has added a new 40-minute play through video of Exquisite Corpses: The Game to the recently launched Exquisite Corpses: The Game website. The play through video features Eisner Award-winning horror masterminds, James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh, co-creators of the bestselling Tiny Onion and Image Comics comic book series Exquisite Corpsesalongside a “Corpse Crew” of A-list comic book talent.

For the play through video, Tynion and Walsh are joined by Corpse Crew creators writer Che Grayson and artist Adam Hughes, Tiny Onion Director of Production Courtney Menard, and popular ASMR creator ALB, competing against each other. Shot in a studio and directed by ALB, the in-depth video features behind the scenes commentary from Game Master Walsh and the Exquisite Corpses talent. It was produced by Tiny Onion Director of Communications Jazzlyn Stone, shot by Camera Operator Ishkhan Ghazarian, with Aaron Losty as the Script Coordinator.

The Exquisite Corpses: The Game website includes instructions on how to play the social strategy battle royale tabletop card game based on the hit comic book series which has sold over 400,000 copies. The new site has a set of 12 printable Event cards, and fans can get access to a set of 6 printable Killer cards if they sign up for alerts for the Kickstarter. 

Created and developed fully in-house, Tiny Onion’s Exquisite Corpses: The Game will be launching as a Kickstarter campaign in spring 2026 so that fans can not only get the game deck, but also special edition cards and game accessories. Fans can beta test an early version of the game now with cards either collected from the polybagged Variant C editions of the comics (inclusive of the rare foil cards), as well as Event cards found at Tiny Onion’s Corpse Tour. Walsh is no stranger to TCGs; he has illustrated a number of Magic: The Gathering cards.

Exquisite Corpses: The Game is a casual tabletop game perfect for fans of trading card classics like Magic: The Gathering and party experiences like Ultimate Werewolf. Needing only a deck of cards and some dice, a group of 4-12 players each pick their favorite Killer and proceed to attack, bluff, and barter with their fellow Killers until just one remains. This is a widely accessible game with deceptive complexity; each Killer possesses unique skills that can harmonize or clash with the other Killers in play. No two games are alike, so players can immediately play again and again and get different results.

The newly launched website features a section where fans can subscribe to be notified of the upcoming Kickstarter campaign. The site also includes 6 printable Killer cards, 12 printable Event cards, and printable status effect tokens, with a page of information about the dozen Killers in the game. The “How to Play” section includes details about how to get a game going, including a step-by-step guide, information about game actions and status effects, and Event card rules. Under “Resources,” players can find not only the printables, but also a randomizer to determine the order of Killer selection, play order, and whenever an attack, skill, or Event card calls for a roll of the die.

Walsh started designing the game mechanics even ahead of the first story summit in Buffalo, where the Corpse Crew and Tiny Onion team gathered in a writers room to break out the first season. Via dry-erase cards, the Corpse Crew did the first beta test at the summit. To ensure quality gameplay and balance, Walsh has been playtesting the game since early 2024 with a dedicated playtester group, dubbed “The Barn Burners.” The goal was to create a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to put down.

In Exquisite Corpses, every five years on Halloween, the wealthiest families in America play a game. Twelve of the deadliest people in the world are dropped into a small town with just one goal: last killer standing wins. For the citizens of Oak Valley, Maine—this year’s unlucky arena—the goal is much simpler. They must survive the night. The first issue can be read digitally for free on the Image Comics site.

The series came together in a writers’ room led by Tynion IV and Walsh and made up of “Corpse Crew” comics superstars Adam Gorham, Becca Carey, Che Grayson, Claire Roe, Gavin Fullerton, Jordie Bellaire, Marianna Ignazzi, Pornsak Pichetshote, Tyler Boss, and Valentine De Landro. Each issue of the series builds upon the last in a true ‘exquisite corpse’ game style, with a passing of the storytelling baton from creator-to-creator in a collaborative and competitive fashion.

James Tynion IV launches Tiny Onion a new independent multimedia production company

Tiny Onion logo

James Tynion IV has announced the formation of a new independent production house, Tiny Onion, with aggressive plans across the publishing, film, television, and animation industries. Tynion is known for comic series such as Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth, The Nice House on the Lake, and W0RLDTR33.

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, podcasts, and graphic novels.

In the comics space, Tiny Onion is bringing together the brightest minds in behind-the-scenes comic book production to staff up a full-service independent editorial and design team. Following the principles that have brought Tynion’s work success in the comics market, the team will seek to identify creative partners and elevate them, curating and packaging the titles before bringing them to the company’s publishing partners across the industry. Tiny Onion will not operate as a publisher itself, but rather an independent creative services company with a footprint across many publishers, including BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse Comics, DSTLRY, and Image Comics.

Leading Tiny Onion’s editorial team is Eric Harburn, who helped Tynion and co-creator Werther Dell’Edera develop Something is Killing the Children into one of the most successful comic book franchises of the last decade during his time at publisher BOOM! Studios. While at BOOM!, Harburn also served as editor of the Keanu Reeves comic book series, BRZRKR, which launched with one of the most successful comic book Kickstarter campaigns of all time. Joining Harburn are Courtney Menard (formerly of Z2 Comics) as Director of Production, and Jazzlyn Stone (formerly independent) as Director of Communications.

While its roots lay in comics, Tiny Onion has ambitions in other media. The company will manage a significant portion of Tynion’s backlist of intellectual property and is in the process of developing a slate of new projects across the film, television, and animation industries. UTA, who represents James Tynion IV and Lyrical Media, will now represent Tiny Onion in media rights, where it will help the production company grow its producing profile across film and television.

Z2 Comics has announced a New Executive Leadership Team

Z2 Comics has announced a new leadership team to help usher the publisher into the future. Previous CEO Josh Frankel has stepped down to pursue other ventures. Effective immediately, the new leadership team consists of the following: 

Sridhar Reddy: Publisher
Kevin Meek: Chief Executive Officer, Former CFO and General Counsel
Josh Bernstein: President, Former Senior Vice President
Aleksey Zelenberg: Chief Technology Officer, Former Data Scientist 
Courtney Menard: Creative Director, Former Director of Production

Sridhar Reddy, Kevin Meek, Josh Bernstein, Aleksey Zelenberg, Courtney Menard

Z2 Comics has evolved into one of the premiere publishers of comics and merchandise in the world, collaborating with the most innovative and iconic musicians and pop culture storytellers. The above promotions follow a series of announcements featuring new partnerships with Gorillaz, “Weird” Al Yankovic, Elvis Presley, Ice-T, and Tori Amos, with many more to be announced. The publisher’s catalog features collaborations with bands ranging from the iconic classic rock of The Doors and Grateful Dead to metal trailblazers Mötley Crüe and Anthrax to timeless entertainers like Cheech and Chong and beyond. Since 2020, Z2 Comics has grown from three employees to approximately 30. Former publisher Josh Frankel has resigned from the company.

The Last Podcast on the Left Comes to Comics with THe Last Comic Book on the Left

After producing nearly 500 full episodes exploring the darkest corners of humanity and supernatural dread, horror-comedy connoisseurs Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, and Ben Kissel are ushering their Last Podcast on the Left into the strangest realm of all: comic books. The trio has partnered with Z2 Comics to release a new series of graphic novels, beginning with The Last Comic Book on the Left Vol. 1, debuting Spring 2022

The project will pay homage to the storied history of horror comics with a curated, interlocking anthology in the vein of CreepyEerieTales From the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror. Participating creators include the most innovative voices in the genre, including:

  • James Tynion IV (The Department of TruthSomething Is Killing the Children)
  • Rick Veitch (Swamp ThingMiracleman)
  • Bob Fingerman (Minimum WageBeg the Question)
  • Tyler Boss (4 Kids Walk Into a BankWhat’s the Furthest Place From Here?)
  • Ryan Cady (Machine Gun Kelly’s Hotel DiabloSublime: $5 at the Door)
  • Eliot Rahal (Machine Gun Kelly’s Hotel Diablo, the upcoming Cheech and Chong’s Chronicles: The Graphic Novel)
  • Morgan Beem (Swamp Thing: Twin BranchesThe Family Trade)
  • Noah Van Sciver (Grateful Dead Originsthe upcoming Cheech and Chong’s Chronicles: The Graphic Novel)
  • Logan Faerber

Marcus Parks and Henry Zebrowski will also contribute a story to the project, illustrated by legendary artist John McCrea (HitmanThe Boys: Herogasm). Eric Powell (The Goon, Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?), Martin Morazzo (Ice Cream ManHAHA), and Bob Fingerman provide cover art. 

Further embracing the podcast’s marriage of the sinister and silly, deluxe editions of The Last Comic Book on the Left will also come bundled with a series of prints, revolving around suspiciously erotic cryptids and other spooky surrealism. Artists and subjects include: 

  • Ian McGinty, Detective Popcorn
  • Sean Von Gorman, The Jersey Devil
  • Noah Van Sciver, Bigfoot
  • Jenna Cha, Mothman
  • Norzine, Aum Shinrikyo
  • Martin Morazzo, John Wayne Gacy
  • Logan Faerber, Black Death
  • Courtney Menard, The Rendlesham Forest Incident

The Last Comic Book on the Left Vol. 1 will be available this Spring.

The Last Podcast on the Left

Z2 Comics Announces New Executive and Senior Staff Changes

Just four days into the new year, Z2 Comics has announced a new wave of hires ahead of plans to more than double the company’s output in the coming year.

As a recent addition to its executive team, Z2 has hired Kevin Meek as Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel.  Prior to joining Z2, Meek practiced corporate law at the national law firm Robins Kaplan LLP, where he represented clients in several multimillion-dollar transactions and earned recognition from The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. 

After six years of freelance design work for Z2, Tyler Boss officially joins the team full time as the Design Director. Boss is best known for his comic “4 Kids Walk into a Bank” which is set to be made into a motion picture, with Boss attached to executive produce.

Rebecca Cicione joined the Z2 Comics team this summer, as Senior Digital Marketing Associate. She’s focused her career in the entertainment and nonprofit worlds, most recently coming from the festival marketing team at Danny Wimmer Presents.

Courtney Menard joins Z2 Comics as the Director of Production Design, focusing on elevating the production value and quality of each book project. Previously she worked as a print shop technician at the School of Visual Arts and spent two years as the Programming Coordinator and Co-Curator of the Comic Arts Brooklyn Festival. 

Chris Robinson is the editor behind Marvel’s biggest and most beloved initiatives like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther, Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men, the Grand Design line of graphic novels, the Marvel Hip-Hop variant program, and the expansion of Marvel’s Voices. He has edited fan-favorite runs for characters like Ghost RiderDomino, and Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur. Robinson joins Z2 as a senior editor, overseeing multiple tentpole projects to be announced for 2021.

Please join us in congratulating the newest members of the Z2 Comics team, who come to the organization following the company’s initial hires of Jeremy AtkinsRantz HoselyAnthony Laulletta and Dominique Roses earlier this year.

Preview: Eternal

ETERNAL

Illustrated by: Eric Zawadzki
Written by: Ryan K Lindsay
Colored by: Dee Cunniffe
Wallpaper Design by: Courtney Menard
DCD# NOV171290

A group of isolated shieldmaidens protect their village against a tide of men who think they can seize land from them.

Vif takes her band of women off viking to quell the advances of a loitering mystical scumbag, Bjarte. But some battles rage on inside us long after the field is empty, and some opponents won’t ever stay down.

Eternal is a haunting story of how vulnerable you make yourself when trying to protect everything around you.

This oversized bande dessinee-style graphic novella is a love letter to brutal violence and eternal emotions.

Illustrator Eric Zawadzki (The Dregs) delivers a heartbreaking and beautiful world of brutality and legacy underscored by the emotional narrative engine developed with writer Ryan K Lindsay (Beautiful Canvas, Negative Space) and laid out with a delicious palette by colorist Dee Cunniffe (The Dregs) and elegant book designs by Courtney Menard (4 Kids Walk Into A Bank).

This self-contained story is a dream project for the creative team in how it connects with the reader, and what it shows the comic medium is capable of producing.

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #3 Stops for some Charity Work

The third issue of 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #3 will hit comic shop shelves on December 21st, but a few folks will have the chance to get it a bit early. The 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank team are continuing their tradition of trying to raise money for charity and having books with a lot of different covers.

This exclusive edition, limited to 105 copies, features a brand new cover by series wallpaper designer Courtney Menard and some bonus process pages that will not be featured in the regular issues. All of the proceeds from this edition will be donated to The National LGBTQ Task Force.

Instead of just doing a variant, the creators will actually be donating money from the sales of the comic.

Written by Matthew Rosenberg, with art by Tyler Boss, lettered by Thomas Mauer, cover by Menard, and flats by Clare Dezutti will have 3 different version on sale direct from Courtney Menard’s webstore.

The first version is just the comic for $10, second is comic + sketch for $20, and third is comic + sketch + script + original page for $300.

The regular edition will be in stores December 21st.

4-kids-walk-into-a-bank-3-charity