Jeff Lemire is the latest creator to announce he will move his online newsletter to the Substack premium model, with plans to post comics and more through the service.
As part of his premium service, he plans to begin posting his next big project. Fishflies, through Substack, along with short stories set in the world of Black Hammer.
“I don’t even know what to call it really, ‘newsletter’ seems much too limiting for what I hope to do on this platform,” Lemire wrote in his, er, newsletter. “My intention here is to create something akin to an online studio; a new platform to publish new comics and a meeting place to share all my work in progress with you and also offer lots of exclusive new material. I want to create a direct link between me and my readers. So, this will be a place that I can share each step of my creative process with you and a platform to actually create and publish new comics too.”
Fishflies, Lemire said, is his “next major graphic novel.” He’s been working on it since the end of 2020 and has already completed 120 pages, though it could top out at more than 500 pages.
“In many ways Fishflies is a culmination of everything I’ve done in comics,” Lemire said. “I think it combines the best of all by books. It sits right beside Essex County in terms of tone and setting, but also brings in some of the weirder genre aspects of books like Sweet Tooth and Gideon Falls.”
He plans to start serializing it to paid subscribers next week.
In addition, he has some Black Hammer stories planned for subscribers.
“I’m collaborating with a number of exciting creators to create some new Black Hammer short stories that I’ll publish here over the next year,” he said. “There will also be one larger Black Hammer story as well, a full-length Colonel Weird comic co-written by Barbalien: Red Planet and House of Slaughter writer Tate Brombal and fully painted by my good friend Ray Fawkes.”
Paid subscribers will also have access to behind-the-scenes process artwork and scripts, as well as to a store for exclusive merchandise. He’s charging $7 a month or $75 annually for access, and plans to donate his portion of the first year’s subscription money to the nonprofit Rainbow Railroad.
Also, Lemire noted on Twitter that this won’t affect his output at other companies: