ONE FOR SORROW #1 F.O.C. (Finally!), Variants, Pins and More.
Hello! A quick newsletter from me to you, the people who subscribe to my newsletter.
ONE FOR SORROW #1 IS OUT IN NOVEMBER
Next Monday (30th September) is Final Order Cutoff for ONE FOR SORROW #1. This is the last date comic book stores can place orders for the book before it’s released on 6th November. If you want to guarantee yourself a copy, you have this week to ask your retailer to get you one.
The more people ask a retailer for a comic, the more demand the retailer knows is there, and so they will be more confident in ordering more of the book! Everyone wins, except people who hate comics, and honestly, screw them.
OFS is obviously much delayed from when it was first announced, and so we’re a long way from the initial hype. So, letting retailers know there is demand for the book is ESPECIALLY important in this case. I hugely appreciate anyone who is able to do so.
But yes! ONE FOR SORROW is finally on the way! And I can honestly say it’s the best work I have ever done. The team around me is incredible - editor Katie West, designer Cecile Richard, letterer Ariana Maher, co-colourist Courtney Vokey and flatter kai Ellis have all gone above and beyond on this book. It’s everything I wanted it to be from the start, and more.
You may have forgotten the premise of the book - if so, here’s the solicit for #1 again:
London, 1900. The capital hums with the energy of the new era, but something darker lurks beneath the surface. A monstrous figure stalks the city's criminal underworld at night, leaving a trail of bloody corpses in its wake. Rumors about the mysterious killer spread like wildfire. It's a demon. A phantom. An angel of vengeance. Nothing can kill it. Nothing can stop it. And once it picks a new target, well, he better have a coffin picked out, because he's already dead.
The only clue that a baffled police force has to work with is the black and white feather left on each corpse, leading the press to dub the killer The Magpie. Is the Magpie killing at random, or is there a pattern that no one else can see?
Three individuals, strangers to each other, might together have the answer. Madame Hendrikov, the Russian medium with an upper-class clientele desperate for the secrets of the dead. Bess Turner, the East End barmaid caught up in the schemes of an organized crime gang. And Ignatious Thorn, the world's most famous consulting detective, brought to ruin by horrific tragedy.
The artistic mastermind behind THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, CAPTAIN CARTER, and CATWOMAN: ONE BAD DAY is back with a new comic unlike anything he's created before. ONE FOR SORROW is an intensely stylish, supernatural suspense thriller, full of kinetic action, bloody revenge, and ghostly mystery.
THINGS LOVELY PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT OFS #1
“I don’t know if this is indeed a passion project, but it sure as hell reads as one.” - GREG RUCKA
“it is (unsurprisingly) phenomenal—the tension!! the eeriness!” - PREETI CHHIBBER
“it is GOOD. Like, instantly addictive good.” - NICK HARKAWAY
“Just absolutely hooked, completely delighted by it” - AMAL EL MOHTAR
“A great cast of characters, a killer hook at its core, and period details that make you wanna run to the library and find out everything about a different place of time.” - EVAN NARCISSE
“Gang I don’t want to big time you but I absolutely did read this and it whips ass” - BENITO CERENO
THESE GORGEOUS COVERS (AND MINE TOO)
As well as my two covers, A and B, we have some beautiful variants from Tulay Lotay (C), Becky Cloonan (D), JUNKO MIZUNO!!! (E), and just announced today, Annie Wu (F)! I am so lucky to have some of the best artists in comics doing covers for this book.
Cover A by Jamie McKelvie
Cover B by Jamie McKelvie
Cover C by Tula Lotay
Cover D by Becky Cloonan
Cover E by Junko Mizuno
Cover F by Annie Wu
Any stores that order 5 or more copies of covers B or F can also get hold of this limited Magpie pin.
We’re running daily character spotlights on Instagram and Bluesky this week, if you want to check those out too.
OTHER STUFF
Becky Cloonan has put together a veritable coven of comics talent for a COME FIND ME: AN AUTUMNAL OFFERING, a collection of spooky tales, just in time for Halloween. FOC is TODAY so you'll need to get on that ASAP. It's out 30th October and is the perfect thing to get you in the mood for ONE FOR SORROW the week after.
If you haven't been reading THE POWER FANTASY by old colleague Kieron Gillen and art magician Caspar Wijngaard, you need to get on that! #3 is up for FOC next week, and there are various printings of the first two issues around, so you should be able to catch up and say you were there from the start. It's Kieron in full KIERON GILLEN mode, and you know how good that is. Caspar is doing the work of his career here, too.
Also out on 6 November (wow it's like we all planned it) is FML #1 by comic book geniuses Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez, bringing the mighty Captain Marvel team back together once more. Comrade Gillen calls it "a brilliant, personal, funny book."
Buh-bye!
Jamie