#3w3m

Three Worlds/Three Moons: Academy #1 (April 13, 2022)

Three Worlds/Three Moons: Foundations #1 (April 13, 2022)

Jonathan Hickman's 3 Worlds / 3 Moons Substack "The Circle" exclusive prints (2022)

Three Worlds, Three Moons [3W/3M] 001[A] - Fable (August 24, 2021)

written by Jonathan Hickman | drawn by Mike Del Mundo and Mike Huddleston

3W/3M [Three Worlds, Three Moons]

by Jonathan Hickman, Mike Del Mundo and Mike Huddleston, coming from comic book subscription newsletters through digital publishing platform Substack

Jonathan Hickman enlists his team of co-creators for a story titled “Three Worlds Three Moons”, similar to his approach as 'Head of X' for Marvel's X-Men‘s House of X/Powers  line. Hickman revealed his plan to publish comics via the Substack subscription service was in part due to the pandemic.

Back in April, Diamond Comics Distributors halted the shipment of comics, which put a stop to all of comics. That included Hickman’s X-Men line, and in response, Hickman revealed today he had written up an X-line digital plan. Due to Diamond and the market recovering that plan didn’t come to fruition, but it’s now being implemented in some way via his Substack.

Hickman detailed what problems he aims to solve:

“The two biggest problems with the way we make comics now are: 1.) Because of the solicit/previews/pre-order hierarchy we’ve systemically erased surprise from the industry, and… 2.) We’re locked into a static storytelling format based entirely on an existing economic model.”

What is 3W3M [Three Worlds, Three Moons]? he explains on his latest newsletter:

“THREE WORLDS THREE MOONS is a concept universe. And we mean this in exactly the same vein as a concept album, where all of the individual characters/stories/things we create together add up to be part a much larger whole. We also wanted this to be a completely transparent process, where each of you has a front seat — and in some cases, a good bit of input — in the primal process of creating a storytelling universe.  Now, I don't want to sell this as purely a behind-the-scenes or a some kind of process blog. Sure, you can get a lot of that out of this if it's what you're looking for, but the point is to do all of this through story. Whether that's why something is designed the way it is, or how a character looks being a product of their background or environment, or why certain places are located where they are on a map, and all of it will be unveiled narratively.”

“And then, of course, there will be an endless number of comics adding to this unfolding mythology. This is the launch of a new universe in comics, a new and exciting place to tell the best possible stories, with no boundaries. We are going to be telling those stories right here, delivering them directly to you as they're born. A lot of this will be behind a paywall after the first week or so, and will totally be worth it. But in the meantime, we wanted to offer you something of value, and something that would maybe help you understand what this is.”

Hickman offering three tires of payment plans:

$8 a month, $80 annual or $250 Founding Member, with the following incentives:

The first 500 of you who sign up as annual subscribers can receive a Collector’s Card from one of the Three Worlds, signed by me, del Mundo, and Huddleston. Or you can take THE COIN and see what it gets you.

The first 250 of you can receive a Limited Edition Print, signed by me, del Mundo, and Huddleston. Or, you can take THE MAP, and see where it leads you.

The first 100 of you can get, when it’s ready, our very first printed Ashcan, signed by me, del Mundo, and Huddleston. We will only print 100 of these, ever. Or, you can take THE KEY instead, and see what new world opens up.

And for all you who subscribe this week, annual or monthly, you’re going to get THE INVITATION. I’m going to be having a conversation with someone I very much respect and admire about all this, and I want you to be there for it.

I did a bit of work for Jonathan's new thing - I like working with him and I'm always fascinated by his ideas, and the thought of throwing a home-grown vegetable from my own mental allotment into his latest big soup was too much fun to resist. And here it is, being announced!

There've been a few of these today - I signed up for Saladin's new thing (COPPER BOTTLE) and I'll probably get into a couple of other things while I'm at it.