September Updates!
PROGRESS
(If you're looking for updates on new projects, cool exclusives to buy and things like that, scroll past this little essay - this first bit is pretty me-focused, tbh. There's some cool stuff after it to make up for all this navel-gazing, though, including a very special Star Wars item from my personal collection, being offered exclusively to you guys)
I make my living by making things up. Writers love to talk about what that's like. Stephen King alone has written like ten books with writer protagonists, as well as a fabulous book about the writing process (On Writing - and if you haven't read it and have any interest in wordsmithing for a living, GET IT.)
I've got a billion metaphors I like to drop when talking about writing stuff. (it's like building a skyscraper! It's like carving a marble sculpture! It's like climbing a mountain! It's like a [insert cliché about something that's really hard and takes a long time to do]!) All rather banal, but I finished the first draft of my fourth novel this week and it has me thinking about process stuff, and how it was particularly difficult to do my job during the pandemic era. (Is eighteen months and counting an era? I'd say so. That's like ten percent of my life!)
This fourth novel is late. I signed the deal to write it before the pandemic hit, just before my second novel ANYONE landed on shelves, around November 2019. I still had LIGHT OF THE JEDI to finish and edit and turn in, but I was confident that I'd be able to do that and get Novel 4 done as well - I had a pretty generous window of time built in for everything I had on my docket.
Generous, that is, in the Old World.
This goes on for a bit - to read the rest, click here. But if you'd rather, just head on to the reason you subscribed: Star Wars and whatever.
STAR WARS AND WHATEVER
As I mentioned in that essay up top which you probably just skimmed if that, I've been working on a huge Star Wars crossover called WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS for a long, long time. It's over halfway through now, with Issue #4 (of 5) coming out this week on September 8.
DO YOU WANT SIGNED COPIES OF ALL SIX ISSUES INCLUDING THE STEVE MCNIVEN-DRAWN ALPHA ISSUE? Once the series wraps in October, I'll send out a few full sets of the entire War of the Bounty Hunters event, all first printings signed by me. I'm currently taking pre-orders for the set, which you can find here! I believe it's five or six sets total. These are my only copies - my personal comps - and I don't think I'll be getting any more, so grab them fast.
WotBH is good stuff. It's Boba Fett-centric, and brings back Qi'ra from the SOLO movie, as well as her criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn.
It's also just the beginning, Part I of a three-part story that focuses on Qi'ra and her ultimate goal. She has a doozy of a plan, and you'll be hearing more about it soon. The second part of the trilogy comes out shortly after WotBH wraps. It's called CRIMSON REIGN, it'll be drawn by Steven Cummings (who did amazing work on the series Wayward among others), and I'm jazzed for it.
The official announcement for CRIMSON REIGN appeared on IGN, which you can check out here!
(Yes, that's Ren of the Knights of Ren, and Chanath Cha, and Deathstick, and Ochi, and and and. Qi'ra has assembled a sort of Ocean's 11 of cool Star Wars folks, and they all have roles to play. Await the Reign.)
(P.S. EYE OF THE STORM #1, which is all about High Republic uber-baddie Marchion Ro, is written and turned in and I am extremely happy with it. Get ready to be creeped out in January!)
GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN
Did you guys hear about the global pandemic? Among other things, it stepped on my appearance schedule AND HOW. I used to be out and about all over the place, but I haven't done any of that for literally years.
So, it's a pleasure to be able to say that for the first time in a very long time, I have TWO appearances coming up! On September 29, I'll be doing a signing with Scott Snyder for Undiscovered Country #16 at Midtown Comics Downtown in Manhattan. I think we'll be signing from 5-7, something like that.
I am also planning to attend New York Comicon from October 7-10. The specifics of that are a little TBD (as is, to be honest, the show itself I'd guess) but I was really pleased to see that they required vaccine proof and masking for attendance. I didn't want to be part of any sort of transmission chain (or obviously to get sick myself), and these policies went a long way toward me being willing to attend. No idea about signing times, panels or anything like that, but as of today, September 6 in the Year of Our Lord 2021... I'll be there.
I was recently a guest on the Inside the War Room podcast hosted by Ryan Ray. You can watch our chat here. I'll also be appearing on an upcoming episode of THE KINGCAST, hosted by Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler, which goes in depth into works by Stephen King and, in particular, their adaptations to film and TV. I did a pretty wild, tricky title, and I'm excited to see it land. Subscribe here (or wherever you listen to your podcasts) so you can listen once the episode drops.
SPEAKING OF NEWSLETTERS
Have you heard about this whole thing about prominent comics creators setting up paid-subscriber-based mailing lists through a platform called Substack as a way to release new work directly to their most ardent and beloved fans? It's very interesting, game-changing, even. A slew of my friends have set them up, and all are worth a look: (James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Jonathan Hickman, Skottie Young, Mollie Knox Ostertag, Chip Zdarsky, Saladin Ahmed, & Donny Cates/Ryan Stegman).
8 BALDING GUMSHOES
Ryan Browne and I are working hard on the follow up to our critically acclaimed series and hugely successful (but infamously cursed once shipping began) Kickstarter, CURSE WORDS. The new book will be out starting in spring 2022, right around the same time we should have more copies of the CURSE WORDS omnibus available to purchase.
I LOVE this book. Ryan and I are operating at the height of our powers, and I think it's a really great evolution of what we do - the BrownSoul brand, if you will. We've been calling it 8BG forever, and soon you'll know what that stands for.
My assistant Tommy has read the first issue and through tears of joy said it was the best thing he has ever read. Don't tell him I said that, he will swear it's a lie.
(Tommy wrote the two sentences above.)
Want to see a bit of art from this bad boy? HERE - HAVE SOME:
COME SHOP TILL YOU DROP
I have quite a few cool things available on my store! You all seem to really love the signed bookplates that I have for sale. This has been a fantastic way for me to indirectly sign all your books in the absence of cons.
I'm also currently selling signed copies of both the HARDCOVER and PAPERBACK editions of my novel LIGHT OF THE JEDI. If you already have a copy they do make a very good gift! There's also the exclusive variant to the #1 issue of my upcoming series HELL TO PAY, which includes signed and sketched versions from Will Sliney and me - not available to the public, just YOU. This series is getting bigger, by the way - some very cool stuff happening in the Hell to Pay world.
Check out the rest of my store too! I have my novels Anyone & The Oracle Year, the Swamp Thing omnibus, and Undiscovered Country trades! Everything is signed by me before it goes out.
SEE YOU IN OCTOBER
Holy hell it's almost Halloween month. THE BEST. See you then, friends!
--Charles