MARCH ON
WHAT A MONTH!
Welcome back, pals and friends and readers and colleagues and dastardly enemies just trying to keep an eye on my doings so as to properly formulate countermeasures! Many things have transpired since we last chatted, a number of which will be covered in this month's update - I went to Florida for a gigantic Star Wars creative summit (some of which took place in SPACE! (or what sure looked like SPACE!), many many pages of story were written, and I came back to something I used to do as a kid that has been gone from my life for ages. I'll cover all the writing stuff further down, but the thing I've brought back to my life, which really surprised me... is skiing!
Yes, that's your humble correspondent, hitting the slopes for the first time in a distressingly large number of years. I grew up in Michigan for a while, which is not known for its mountains but IS known for its snow, and so I used to ski a fair amount as a kid at a place called Cannonsburg (more of a hill with aspirations than a mountain, but it's what we had and it's where I learned.) Then, one day, I smashed into a fence at pretty close to full speed and broke my leg and almost lost an eye. TWIST!
That put the kibosh on my alpine aspirations for a very long while. I tried a few times as a grown-up, but never really got it feeling great again. I went last month just because there's a place not far from me and I figured "why not?'" and it was GREAT. Perhaps it's because skis have changed their design since I last went, or I just have muscle memory or who knows... but it all came back VERY quickly, and it gave me something I think I've been missing for a while. I left my troubles at the bottom of the mountain, I suppose. Anyway, I've been several times since, and it's made me happy. (Sorry, dastardly enemies!)
(And yes, I got a helmet. That's also something that's changed since I last went. Everyone wears helmets! For the best, for sure.)
So, enough of this lengthy intro. You don't care about some random dude revisiting childhood joy and freedom! BORING. You want STAR WARS and PROJECT UPDATES and SO ON and SO FORTH! Well, read on. I got plenty.
THE MOST GENIE-OUS COMIC
VARIANT OF ALL TIME
If you've read these updates before, you already know about my upcoming project with my CURSE WORDS co-creator, super-artist and great pal Ryan Browne, a little bit of comics masterpiece called EIGHT BILLION GENIES. It's an eight-issue series coming from Image Comics starting in May, about what happens to the world when everyone on earth gets a genie and one wish at the same moment. Each issue covers an increasing increment of time in the Genie-pocalypse (The First Eight Minutes... The First Eight Hours... etc.) leading up to The First Eight Centuries. We're very excited for you to see it.
These days, when you launch a creator-owned comic, it's pretty common to do variant covers of the first issue - the same story inside but with a different cover on the outside. Just a fun thing for collectors - and it helps to bump the numbers up too. Ryan and I decided to do something very special for EIGHT BILLION GENIES #1 along these lines. We put a REAL DEAL, ACTUAL GENIE on the cover!
It's true! We reached out to the Wishmaster himself, Andrew Divoff, star of stage and screen and portrayer of the evil Djinn in Wishmaster 1 and 2. He graciously agreed to allow us to use his distinctive image as the centerpiece for one of our variants. Here, now, for the first time anywhere... the WORLD PREMIERE of the best comic book cover of all time: EIGHT BILLION GENIES #1 - DIVOFF VARIANT.
It's a thing of beauty, is it not?
If you want your own Divoff variant, (of course you do!), you can let your local comic shop know. It will help out the book a bunch if they know you're interested.
I've also added versions of the standard cover for 8BG #1, signed by both Ryan and me to the store. Click here to pre-order yours! Those will ship shortly after issue 1 is released on May 11. You can also pre-order a standard, non-signed version here. But please, please tell your shop you want this book so they know to order big!
BACK FROM THE HIGH REPUBLIC
Last month, the writers of Project Luminous (which you might now know better as Star Wars: The High Republic) gathered in Florida for a creative summit, during which we worked on future plans for High Republic stories and celebrated the success of everything we've done so far. Phase I of the High Republic's massive mega-story (LIGHT OF THE JEDI) just finished, and Phase II (QUEST OF THE JEDI) will start in October. We spent time working on Phase II, Phase III... just all kinds of stuff.
To achieve the proper mindset, we took a special trip to space!
We got up there via exciting spaceships! This one was mine.
We saw extraordinary, otherworldly landscapes and bizarre creatures! We also ate space food and drank space drinks, and let me tell you, that was some WILD SPACE STUFF.
There was also a huge space battle! Like HUGE.
Anyway then we all came home from space.
Beyond the story stuff, it was so good to see everyone. I haven't seen the Luminous crew in person since just before Covid dropped on us all like a ton of bricks, and it was amazing to be with Daniel Jose Older, Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Cavan Scott, Michael Siglain (and some esteemed members of Lucasfilm Story Group and their editorial team.) We're all very close after working on all this stuff day in and day out for three years, and it felt a bit like a family reunion. Really nice.
A LOT was accomplished up there - among other things, I know what I'm writing for the rest of the initiative (might end up being more, but I can't imagine it'll be less.) It's a good amount. If you like the High Republic stuff you've gotten from me so far - LIGHT OF THE JEDI (the novel that kicked it off) and EYE OF THE STORM (the comic series that explores Marchion Ro, the story's main villain), then I think you'll be happy.
Also - if you want signed versions of either of those works, or plenty of other stuff I've done, check out my store here.
STAR WARS #25
I've been hinting about something special happening for the upcoming twenty-fifth issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic series, which I've been writing since 2020. It's a milestone in many ways. First, getting to 25 issues on any series is a big deal. This is also the 100th issue of Star Wars published since the big relaunch in 2014. It is also the 100th Star Wars script I've written, between all the various titles I've worked on: (Lando, Obi-Wan & Anakin, Poe Dameron, Darth Vader, The Rise of Kylo Ren, Star Wars, War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign and Eye of the Storm.) That's a lot of stories!
In order to mark the occasion, Star Wars #25 will feature new stories set in the worlds of some of those signature tales, including the creative teams for most of them, and variant covers from artists who worked on them with me. I want to leave a little mystery for now, so I'll hold off telling you what I'm doing and who's drawing what, but I think you'll be happy. It's been amazing to work with these artists again, and to tell new tales in these worlds. I'm also grateful that Marvel and Lucasfilm and the artists got on board with doing this - everyone's crazy busy, and this was outside the normal range of the stories we're telling right now. Feels really good.
You won't be able to read SW #25 for several months, but I've got plenty of comics out in the meantime, including today's Crimson Reign #3, with art from Steven Cummings, which gives you the backstory of the mysterious Sith Archivist (whose design is based on the iconic Ian McCaig unused Sith Witch design for Episode I!) Very proud of this issue, and I hope you'll check it out.
In other Star Wars news, something big with those folks has been in the works for a while, and it finally all came together since the last update. Still a little early to talk about it, but it feels great. More soon? Ish? When I can talk about it.
GET SOME BOOKS
I'll wrap it up - this has been a long one. As always, there are some awesome things available on my store, if that interests you. Some highlights:
I also have a ton of signed bookplates available, which you can find here!
Also - I know some of you are waiting on orders. My assistant and I are working hard to get those out as soon as possible. If you have an order in the store, it's being tracked by us and the second it's sent, you'll get an automatic email with tracking info. If you have any questions, reach out to my assistant Tommy at souleassistant@gmail.com.
MARCH ON
That's it for this update! If you want to see me in person, I'll be at Fan Expo Philly on April 8th-10th and Star Wars Celebration from May 27th-29th (I'm considering a meet and greet for newsletter subscribers - so subscribe to my newsletter and stay tuned!) Replies for this are turned on, too, so if you have comments or questions go for it.
See you on the slopes! Whooooosh!
--Charles