The Cull: Exclusive Sneak Peek #1

Hi Everyone!

Quick post with something VERY exciting today. Mattia and I have been hard at work for a few months now, and the first issue is shaping up to be something truly spectacular. I’m hesitant to tease too much too soon as we’ve got a ways to go before we start releasing issues, but I just couldn’t keep all this beauty to myself any longer.

And actually, I’m giving you this incredible bonus panel of Wade Quan as well — for two reasons — #1. It is one of the most beautiful comic book panels I’ve ever seen in my life and #2. I used a cropped version of it on our THE CULL page tab anyway (more on that below). ;D

Panel of Wade Quan from The Cull #1 - art and colors by Mattia De Iulis

And here is an unlettered final page from THE CULL #1 by me and co-creator/artist Mattia De Iulis:

Unlettered page from THE CULL #1

Just gorgeous. But also evocative and mysterious and creepy. Mattia is the whole package and I am so excited to be working on something like this with him and so thankful to you guys for helping make it possible! <3

For those that don’t know or may have forgotten, here is a quick write up about THE CULL:

The Cull is a fiction comic book about five teens who set out in the middle of the night to shoot a short film the summer before they all go their separate ways... but nothing goes as intended. Written by Kelly Thompson. Art/colors by Mattia De Iulis. Lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Edited by Charles Beacham. Cover design/logos by Rian Hughes.

And this is the original promo page image from when we first announced the book:

Will, Kaite, Wade, and Lux plus…”something else” featured in this Promo Page for The Cull by Mattia De Iulis.

Ahh! I’m so excited!

Oh! While I’m here I also wanted to mention — and some of you may have noticed already since it’s been active for a week or two — that we have switched to a “magazine format” and we’ve introduced some navigation tabs. Especially since we are going to be doing THREE different books (that are at least for a little bit probably going to run at the same time), it seemed like having tabs for each book (and a few other main categories) might make things a bit easier to navigate. As always let me know what you think. And if you all hate it we can re-assess, but so far I think it’s very good.

For example you can see all the posts filed under THE CULL here, and all the BLACK CLOAK posts here, and all the PROCESS JUNKIE stuff here, etc. When we announce our third book that will get its own tab too. You can still access EVERYTHING from the main landing page and this won’t change how you receive newsletters or anything, it’s just a way to help folks navigate, if they want.

That said, lots of 1979 “General” posts include sneak peeks of those books (and more) — so if you want ALL the available information it’s still a good idea to read all the posts. How much of a completionist are you I guess is the question. ;D

And any of you free subscribers interested in subscribing to a paid tier to help support this work can learn more about what’s still on offer for the paid tiers here:

Wordles, Heardles, and Framed?

Okay, that’s really it now. I hope you all have lovely weekends, or get lots of work done, or sleep it all away, or whatever it is YOU really need right now. Hang in there! <3

~Kelly