November 2023 - SOMETIMES YOU DON'T GOT IT

I've been working on the follow-up book to EIGHT BILLION GENIES (a comic any reader of these updates has heard a LOT about) for almost a year. Ryan Browne (my co-creator on that book, as well as CURSE WORDS (which has a new softcover compendium out in December hey hey!)) and I had our first big meeting about what to do next last winter when we were both in Detroit for a signing.

We've been talking about it ever since. Ryan and I had actually had a specific retreat to talk about the next thing here in NY, and there have been MANY phone calls and convention hangouts during which we focused on how the hell to follow up one of the most successful books of either of our careers. We kicked around a lot of options - should we just do more genies, or make something new? Make something ludicrous but easy (we have a LOT of ideas like that,) or try to follow 8BG with something different but equally ambitious, something that would make people think and feel and would take both of our A+ games (again) and would even have people make knockoff bootleg Christmas sweaters that steal our IP.

We chose the third one, and starting around May/June I really began hammering away on a few ideas. Ryan and I settled on one we liked the most, and I began pouring idea fuel into it, really lighting it up and filling in the blanks. I got a special Moleskine for the project (that's when you know it's real) and even paid an extra $2 for them to emboss the cover with a "code word" that was a nod to the subject of the story. Let me say it right now - this story is AWESOME. Ryan has kickass designs, the story has an amazing ending, the characters are unique and real. I had the first issue completely broken out, which means I was planning to type "Page One, panel 1" and go to town... and then I called Ryan and said "I don't think this is it." Ryan said, "Same."

It wasn't that the project wasn't great - it just wasn't RIGHT. The "not rightness" was more due to this particular time in the comic marketplace and the way we thought our next story should feel more than any issues of quality. I'm 90% sure I/we'll do it eventually. Just not now.

What that meant, though, is that I turned to idea #2, which I'd had at the same time as idea #1. It was poking at the back of my brain the whole time, and it was a relief to let myself go to town on developing it. The only frustrating thing is that I wasn't going to buy a whole new Moleskine. All that embossing gone to WASTE!

Anyway, you'll see it next year. First script is written, Ryan's got yet *more* incredible designs cooking, and it's just the business. The BUSINESS, friends. 

That's not the point. The point is that we'd have been dumb to keep pushing on something we both knew wasn't the play. The thing about projects-in-development is pretty much the Heat principle: "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner." It's as true for bank robbers as it is for creative types. There are always more ideas, but there's never more *time*. The minute you know something is wrong, maybe give it a little bit to be sure... and then you stick it in a drawer and move on.

Speaking of which, let's get on with the update, eh? Plenty more to talk about. Such as...

NYCC, NYCC. THE CON SO NICE, I SAID IT TWICE.

New York Comicon was really REALLY intense this year. I had six books out that week, a four-day convention, a lot of parties, a lot of press, family in town, and a book release event for the Star Wars kids book I wrote with my daughter, JEDI BRAVE IN EVERY WAY. The book came out the week of the show, got great reviews and was just overall an amazing time. But really, what a special thing to have been able to do.

I mean, come on. So cool. (And also, hey there, John Jackson Miller! The Living Force sounds super cool!)

I got to hold a very cool lightsaber - more about that below.

Met a frequent collaborator.

And met a trillion people (literally) at my table in Artist's Alley. I had two new show-exclusive releases this year - a brand-new issue set in the EIGHT BILLION GENIES world and one in the SHROUDED COLLEGE universe I've been building with Will Sliney. We released them online at the same time as the show, and still have some left (though the Shrouded College one in particular is running low.) If you'd like to pick up a copy of either (or some of the other cool things I've made), click one of the covers below to head on over to my store!

NOTE THAT MY ASSISTANT WANTED ME TO INCLUDE: "if you're still waiting on a store order, we appreciate your patience! We got hit with quite a lot of orders and have been working to get them out as quickly as possible. If you got a confirmation email after putting in your order, assume it will be going out ASAP! Once it is in fact out, you should be getting an automatic email from Squarespace with tracking info." I can vouch for the fact that he's been working incredibly hard to get these out the door. 

That said, if you'd like to edit or cancel your order, feel free to reach out to him at souleassistant@gmail.com. We're almost done with all pending orders, so if you haven't gotten that confirmation email, just hang tight a little bit longer!

THE BLOODY DOZEN

My *next* big release (other than the constant flow of ongoing stuff I can't seem to stop making) is the second miniseries set in the Shrouded College world. It's a vampire prison break in space story (as you do), Apollo 13 meets Blade, and called THE BLOODY DOZEN. It's out from Image next month, and this Monday is the *last day you can tell your shop you want it*, particularly the very rare Cover D which comes with a special individually-nnumbered coin, much like the one we did for the first Shrouded College series HELL TO PAY. I'll tell you right now, it is weird and scary in the creator-owned comic market, and a lot of retailer orders are driven by their customers coming in and saying they're interested in stuff. If you want your own BLOODY DOZEN #1, let them know. If you don't, there's a chance they won't have it (or won't have very many) on the shelf. We don't want that, do we? (NO, we don't.)

For more info on the series, watch this adorably lo-fi video effort from me, Shrouded College co-creator Will Sliney and movie superstar in the making and Bloody Dozen artist Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque (seriously, he just explodes off the screen!)

The first issue drops on December 13th. We're doing four variants, which you can view below, including the ultra cool HELLCOIN VARIANT!

In my last update I shared a rendering of The Bloody Dozen's coin, but now we have them in-hand! They're real and real cool!

You can still purchase one of the Hellcoins from the first Shrouded College tale, HELL TO PAY. Click the button below to sell your soul- uh, I mean buy a coin...

If you didn't know already, if you see Will or me at a convention, you can redeem your coin for the ULTIMATE gamble. We will roll a six sided dice, if you get a ONE you get an original piece of art from Will Sliney. If you roll a two, three, four, or five you get your coin back and breathe a sigh of relief that you didn't roll a six. Which I only say because if you roll a dreaded six, you lose your coin.

So far we've had several people win original art, but only one person has lost their coin. (That was awful, by the way, and made me really question my choices with this whole thing - but I gave that guy a rare variant and my deeply-felt personal condolences to make up for it.) Will we be doing something similar for the Bloody Dozen coin? Yep. Will there be more coins for each of the five series that will follow up these first two? Yep. Will there be something even more amazing you can "buy" with the seven coins if you happen to have them all once we're done? Yep.

Just so you know.

STAR WARS-ING IN THE LAND OF THE STARS

I was out in LA a few weeks ago for a top-secret mission for the, uh, the Resistance I guess, and Daniel Jose Older and Tessa Gratton were there too, and it was very lovely. We were there to shoot some promo for the new Star Wars High Republic lightsaber they'll be selling at Galaxy's Edge and the Disney Parks shop very soon - 11/17, I think, Life Day! It's based on the saber used by High Republic Jedi Stellan Gios, and it was very cool to get to mess around with it inside Dok Ondar's shop at Galaxy's Edge - especially to be able to be there before the park opened. Our call time was 4:45 AM, and we rolled in at 5. Two things to know, if you ever get a chance to do something similar: first, there is no coffee at Disneyland before 8 AM. Second, it's incredibly magical to be there as dawn opens up the sky. Wow.

Anyway, also got to see fellow Star Wars author Marc Guggenheim (who got me into Club 33 which was super cool, for the Disney Adults out there), went to a very very groovy one-day comicon put on by a super slick shop I liked a lot called Revenge Of, where I hung out with many awesome creators and people including Jody Houser, Marc Bernadin, Ben Blacker (pictured, on our Star Wars panel) and Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Shawn DePasquale, Brian Lynch and others I'm feeling like a jerk for forgetting. It was a lot, and I was very tired. 4:45 AM call time, remember?

If you want to find out some more info on that VERY cool saber that I'm holding, click the button below!

But even better (seriously!) was getting to see one of my oldest friends, Andy Deemer, perform his new set at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. The Castle was all done up for Halloween, and had a costume requirement - so I naturally bought a bunch of Jedi stuff at Galaxy's Edge and went as Jedi Master Selrahc Eluos (iykyk). Ran into Krystina Arielle there too out of nowhere, which was amazing.

If you ever get a chance to do any of the things I did in LA a few weeks ago, I recommend them all.

And finally to wrap up this section from a galaxy far, far away... I just wanted to mention that my foray into Star Wars horror, involving a Scourge of the Droids that turns the galaxy upside down, has just two issues left! Issue 4 will be out NEXT WEEK on 11/15, and the big finale will be out on 12/27.

I just proofed Issue 5 last week - it's awesome, and I'm very proud of it. That said, a little something to be aware of. Star Wars #41, which is telling a parallel story deeply connected to the main event, will be out the first week of December. It... completely spoils the ending of the main Droids event series. I  strongly recommend you get it, wait three weeks, read Droids 5 first, then read SW #41. How did this happen? Well, comics is a complicated business, and sometimes things like this just slip through. There's a disclaimer at the front of the issue, but if you care about such things, my vaunted "authorial intent" would say you should read them in the order I mentioned above - Droids 5, then SW #41. I apologize for any inconvenience!

A LITERARY TREAT FOR YOUR EARS

And finally, I know a lot of you listen to books via the impressively produced audiobooks that have become de rigueur for a huge percentage of novel and non-fiction titles in the last decade or so. HarperCollins did wonderful audio versions of all three of my original novels, but until very recently they were pretty much just available through Audible (which was great! I'm happy they were gettable in that format at all!) But now, I'm excited to say that they're now on Spotify as well. Spotify recently launched an audiobook service as part of their premium subscription service. Every subscriber gets 15 hours a month of free audiobooks through the Spotify app. There are over 200,000 audiobooks on the platform right now, but I specifically want to call out three books that I think are pretty rad: THE ENDLESS VESSEL, ANYONE, and THE ORACLE YEAR. 

Just type "Charles Soule" into the search box and they should all come up. If you haven't had the time to read one of my original novels, please do check them out. I think THE ENDLESS VESSEL is the best thing I've ever written, and I really think you'll dig it too.

SEE YOU WHEN I SEE YOU

We're entering the "appearances dead zone" phase of the year - I don't have anything official scheduled until MegaCon in Orlando on February 1-4. (Should I not have announced that yet? Oops.) Honestly, that's fine by me, though. I've got a lot of writing to do, and could use some focused downtime - among other things, I need to get back into the studio to finish that Curse Words Concept Album! I'm also officially kicking off writing TRIALS OF THE JEDI this month - the final novel in the High Republic publishing cycle that started with my LIGHT OF THE JEDI back in 2020. Wild to think about. NO PRESSURE.

Anyway, I'll spend more time on future projects in the next update or so. I know I've been talking about breaking these into multiple installments for a while - this is a LOT for one month, and honestly I could have added plenty more. Two per month feels right, but we'll see. One of my big resolutions for 2024 is revamping how I communicate with you guys.

Replies are open if you have questions or comments!

Enjoy Thanksgiving if you celebrate, and see you next month!

--Charles