Welcome to Copper Bottle!

Hello, I'm Saladin Ahmed and I've done alright as a writer. 

My stories have been translated into a half-dozen languages, anthologized by George RR Martin, performed by LeVar Burton, and cited in the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. My first novel THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. My first comic BLACK BOLT, a collaboration with Christian Ward, won the Eisner Award. My creator-owned book ABBOTT, a collaboration with Sami Kivela, was nominated for the Bram Stoker award. Working across fiction, podcasts, television, and comics I've written for Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Apple TV, and many others. It's been a wild journey and I've both worked very hard and been very lucky.

Today, though, I'm announcing the biggest project of my professional life: COPPER BOTTLE, a pop-up imprint that will serve as the first home for all of my creator-owned work.

There’s a lot of that work on the way! I’ve earned wonderful fans all over the world telling stories in universes readers know and love, and I don’t plan to give that up. But with COPPER BOTTLE I — along with an array of amazing artists — have a unique opportunity to create new worlds for readers to visit. Alternate dimensions of possibility and perspective that aren’t always present in traditional comics. Worlds you’ll want to come back to every week.

And while buying comics can sometimes be confusing, the model here is simple: Each week, paid subscribers will get digital drops of my creator-owned comics — delivered right to your inbox or readable on this site. All of my new creator-owned work will debut here, available exclusively to COPPER BOTTLE subscribers.

Future posts will feature individual announcements for each forthcoming COPPER BOTTLE title. But I can tell you that I am having the time of my life writing these books. Telling stories I've waited years to tell, partnering with brilliant artists at the top of their game. I couldn't be more thrilled to have finally found the right venue to share my best work directly with you!

What’s more, in addition to an unfettered home for new storytelling, COPPER BOTTLE will allow me a space to just talk. Thoughts about process and craft, glances back at crucial influences, capsule reviews about what’s out there now. In general, it will be a place to communicate directly with my dedicated readers that's less toxic than social media. 

But why "Copper Bottle?" 

My entire life has been shaped by stories, but one of the earliest I can remember is "The Fisherman and the Djinn," which I first heard from my great-grandmother. In the tale, a 'simple' fisherman uses working class wit to trick a vicious djinn back into its copper bottle - a battered, everyday object. That combination of the workaday and the magical, that centering of regular people facing unfathomable forces, is at the heart of every story I tell. 

And if this Copper Bottle contains strange magic and a bit of danger, it also hopes to show that human beings can sometimes stand against seemingly unstoppable powers.

You can subscribe to COPPER BOTTLE by clicking the link below. And please tune in tomorrow for a tease of our first project, TERRORWAR!