July 2022 - WELL.

The last month has been what I call “event-heavy.” From time to time, things start rolling in on many different fronts, and the pace of it is too much for me to do much more than surf the eventide and see where it takes me.

That’s the last four or five weeks. It’s a lot - a lot to process, a lot to get my head around, a lot to understand. It’s part of why I like these updates, honestly - it’s a chance to reflect on the things that have happened in the last little while, and get my own head straight on where I am with stuff. 

This probably sounds like it’s bad stuff - it’s not. It’s all pretty overwhelmingly great, and I’m glad I get to share it with you. With no further ado... let’s get into it!

EIGHT BILLION GENIES MOVIN' AND GROOVIN'

On June 29, Borys Kit at the Hollywood Reporter wrote an article announcing that Ryan Browne and I made a deal with Amazon Studios for them to get the rights to our series EIGHT BILLION GENIES. We’ve been working on this deal for *months* - since April 13. We talked to a lot of people, heard a lot of really great takes on an adaptation - it was invigorating and exhausting at the same time.

(It was also extremely fun to meet many of the people we met through the process - you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Totally head-spinning.)

Ultimately, we went with Amazon Studios because they very clearly see the story potential in 8BG. "Every person on earth getting a genie and one wish at the same moment" is not just one story - it's eight billion stories. We all have one. Ryan and I really wanted to find a way for as many of those to be told as we could, knowing that (a) Ryan and I are merely two simple (but hard-working and devastatingly handsome) creators, and there are limits to what we can do personally and (b) Ryan and I are merely two simple (but hard-working and devastatingly handsome) creators with our particular backgrounds and so there are limits to what we *should* do personally. There are stories he and I can’t tell, won’t see, wouldn’t be able to - but we want them told too.

Amazon presented an approach to us that would - in success, as they say out there - allow a LOT of those stories to be told, allow a lot of people to see themselves in this weird world Ryan and I created.

As of today, the idea is to start with a movie, while simultaneously building out other stuff - TV, etc., with many other approaches on the table. It's incredibly exciting to think about, and while a very true rule in Hollywood is "nothing ever gets made," we're going to give it our best shot. Ryan and I are both executive producing, which means our voices will be part of it too.

The comic was doing well before the announcement, but the Amazon deal seems to have brought it to a new level of attention. Lots of response on social media, lots of great media coverage: Book & Film Globe wrote up a fantastic review and recap of the series. We've even broken through to the youth; there's also some great coverage on TikTok which you can see here and here. There's plenty more than those two, of course. But I can't spend all day hyperlinking! (And... I just lost the youths again with my late 90s internet terminology. See you later, youths, it was fun while it lasted.)

It was also pretty wild to see what happened from a sales perspective - every single copy and variant of this book sold out immediately for both issues 1 and 2 at the distributor level. That's a LOT. People are even trying to track down the "misprint" variant of Issue 2 that Ryan and I recalled - the one that printed too dark so we pulled it before it hit shelves. A few made it out into the world, and those are hot items. It's weird to think about, but I don't really mind. My view is that the vast majority of comic readers will never care about a sales rush on the reprinted #2, but they *might* be in a shop someday and look at a hardcover of 8BG and think "oh, I've heard of that, I'll check it out." Anything that contributes to that particular event happening down the road is good in my book.

Ryan and I both maintain pretty robust online sales operations via our websites (as longtime readers already know) - and our own stock of 8BG has been flying off the virtual shelves as well. If that's interesting to you, you can grab a signed copy of 8BG HERE. We have every single variant of issue 1 still available (and for much better prices than you'll find on eBay) as well as all versions of issue 2, which released on June 29. You can get them unsigned too, if that's your bag.

And especially for you, since you're a loyal supporter, I wanted to give you an advance chance to buy the NEXT issue of EIGHT BILLION GENIES - Issue 3! It won't be on store shelves until this Wednesday, but you can buy it ahead of time, and signed, from me! (Note - you'll still get it after the 7/13 street date of Issue 3, but it's still fun to be able to buy it early.) Click here if you'd like one of those, or on your preferred cover below (Cover A by Ryan Browne, Cover B by the wonderful James Harren!)

Something else pretty wonderful - because Issue 1 sold out, Image Comics is doing an extremely rare and unusual thing these days and sending it back to press. There will be a second print of EIGHT BILLION GENIES #1 available in your local comic shop, probably right around the same time as Issue 4 lands in August. We're thrilled about this - the idea is for the book to find as wide an audience as possible, so this is really exciting.

Speaking of my growing body of work with my pal Ryan Browne, Image Comics just released a beautiful omnibus edition of our series CURSE WORDS! This is a full, complete version of the series with all 28 regular issues plus the secret 29th issue, telling the story of evil wizard Wizord as he comes to our world and (sort of) has a change of heart. You should be able to grab it at your local comic book shop, but I also have them available on my store! You can get one here!

The book will come sealed, but we are going to include a sketch card that features a BEAUTIFUL sketch from Ryan and a... well, a sketch from me.

RETURN TO THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY!

I'm not just about genies and curses these days! I also have a long-running ongoing series I created with my friends Scott Snyder and Giuseppe Camuncoli called UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. It's about a future US that sealed its borders for thirty years, letting no one in or out. Total radio silence. And in that time... things got weird. The series is a sci-fi/horror/craziness mashup that explores the new America in all its strange flavors. We're all really proud of it. The fourth arc begins this week with Issue 19, and as we've done with each arc so far, we made "postcards from the Undiscovered Country" for several states to promo it. The latest three are GEORGIA, NEW YORK and OREGON. See those below, and pick up Issue #19 this week. If you want the three collected editions so far you can get them at your comic shop, or grab signed versions directly from me here.

BOBA IS *SO HOT* RIGHT NOW

I've been known to tell the occasional Star Wars story. A recent tale that landed with a splash was a big event that ran through the Marvel comics titles called WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS. (If you haven't read it, you can buy a signed trade paperback from my store here.)

As part of that event, mega-artist Steve McNiven and I came up with a version of Boba Fett wearing all-black armor. That seems to have percolated out a bit into the world, generating two extremely cool pieces of merch (so far!) We've got the "Nowhere to Hide" Boba Bust from Gentle Giant (they sent me one!) and the extremely badass 1/6 scale articulated figure from Sideshow Collectibles / Hot Toys (they have not sent me one yet but hopefully will!)

UPDATE ON NOVEL 4

I'll make this quick, since this update is getting crazy long. I spent the last several weeks whipping the next draft of my fourth novel into shape. (This is my next original novel, along the lines of my books THE ORACLE YEAR and ANYONE.) It was an incredibly intense process, which left me ravaged in body in mind - but it's with my editor now, so we'll see what sort of feedback comes back. I think there's one more cleanup draft to go, but I want this one off my plate like nobody's business. I've been working on it since the fall of 2019. That's insane! Current publication is slated for Summer 2023... but we'll see how long it takes to whip into its final form. More on this when I can!

WHERE I'LL BE, IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE THERE TOO!

I currently have four appearances scheduled for the rest of the year:

Saturday, August 6 at C2E2 Chicago (signing at Ryan Browne's table)
August 12-14 - Fan Expo Boston
October 6-9 - New York Comicon
October 28-30 - MCM Expo in London

Keep an eye on the appearances page on my website for my panel/signing schedules for all of those shows. I might do one or two more in the fall... but it's hard to say. Still have lots of writing to do (and my non-comics stuff is keeping me really busy too.)

And that's it for this update! This one's been long - as I said, event-heavy, but all good. I hope you're all having a nice summer, and see you in August!

--Charles