July 2023 - FEELING LIKE YOUR PHONE IN THE MORNING...
...as in, my battery is fully charged!
Why? Because I actually took a real break for once. For the first time in at least a decade, I took an actual non-working vacation. I've traveled plenty over the years, but I would characterize those trips as "still working, just in a new place." This time, though, I worked very intensely *before* the break so that I could get through everything ahead of time, and asked my various editors and collaborators to let me be for a while. They were all very supportive of the idea of me stepping away briefly, often to the level of "yes, dude, PLEASE give yourself a break."
Folks in my business sometimes romanticize constant, intense work - because we're freelancers, and being wildly busy (and talking about it!) signifies to the rest of the field and audiences that we're so good that it's why we're so busy and you should be so lucky to get us someday, prospective future employers...
It's also because creative fields often do require levels of effort and time that go way above and beyond what might be asked in a 9 to 5, and because we often love what we do so much that it doesn't seem like work - until one day it DOES seem like work, a LOT of work, and by then it's TOO LATE!
Anyway, I needed a vacation, and I took one, and holy shit. I read five books. I ate very healthfully. I exercised every day. I responded to essentially zero emails. I actually relaxed. It was incredible, not so much because of the stuff I did but because of the immense sea change in my physical and mental state. For a while, I felt like I used to feel, a way I thought was lost to me - but it's not. Message received, self.
Charles Soule, Exclusive Limited Edition "Relaxed" Variant
If you read on, you'll wonder if I actually internalized anything I said above. This is a massive update, with significant updates on just about everything I'm working on. I'm really starting to think I need to make this bi-weekly, or even weekly - there's just too much happening. (Hear that, prospective future employers???)
Star Wars, Eight Billion Genies, Shrouded College, Endless Vessel, Chronicles of the Lazarene, Novel 6 (!), the next thing with Ryan Browne, appearances... read on. I'll try to keep it as brief as I can.
BOOK TOUR!
My latest novel THE ENDLESS VESSEL (which you can get at any of the links here) is about many things, including a ship that never stops sailing - so it seemed appropriate that I should go on a little journey to support it. I've had signing events in upstate New York, Brooklyn, LA, Portland and Seattle. All were wonderful, with lots of friends and fans in attendance. I love talking about this book, and I had amazing moderators - thank you to Drew Broussard, Alex Segura, Dana Schwartz, Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Schluep for helping to bring this book into the world, and to everyone who attended.
Here, in fact, is indelible proof that I had a signing at one of the greatest bookstores in the land (Powell's in Portland, OR), and that the brilliant Brian Michael Bendis (someone I have known for ages who was central to me becoming a comics writer) was willing to sit and talk with me about it for a while.
If I look impressed and happy, it's because I was! Brian actually recorded the entire conversation and made it available for free over at his wonderful Substack. If you'd like to give it a listen you can get it here.
AND IT AIN'T DONE YET.
The ENDLESS VESSEL tour will keep rolling throughout the summer:
First up, I'll be traveling down the hill to my studio to do a virtual talk with what seems like every library in the country (which is AWESOME), hosted by the Valley Cottage Library. This will be livestreamed this coming Saturday 7/15 at 2PM EST. You can get more info and RSVP to the event by clicking here.
San Diego Comicon is also a massive event for me this year, with a big ENDLESS VESSEL component. The folks at the Mysterious Galaxy bookshop are having me on a sci-fi panel with some other great authors Saturday at 1 PM, and will have me in for a signing just after at 2:30 PM at their booth. Much more to say about my SDCC below.
My last summer appearance will be at the Bryant Park Reading Room event in NYC on August 2nd. I’ll be chatting about my new novel with the event host Lisa Burdig as well as fellow authors Ness Brown (Scourge Between Stars), Daniel Magariel (Walk the Darkness Dawn), and Sandra A. Miller (Wednesdays at One). This one's a real "I've made it" moment for me. If you happen to be in NYC that day, come party in the park with me!
INTRODUCING THE BLOODY DOZEN - THE NEXT TALE FROM THE SHROUDED COLLEGE
One of my big creator-owned series in the past year was HELL TO PAY, created by Will Sliney and myself. It just concluded with the beautiful issue 6. While this book was always a limited series and ends as planned, it's also part of a larger storytelling horror-adventure world, kind of like a supernatural Mission:Impossible series, called THE SHROUDED COLLEGE.
In the back of H2P #6, we revealed the first details about the second story (which is standalone but set in the same universe, and helps to build to a big final story - think IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA leading to THE AVENGERS.) I'd like to chat about it a little here as well.
The title of the second Shrouded College book is THE BLOODY DOZEN, and the quick pitch is "space vampires." A number of deadly vampire bosses were captured many years back and sent up to a prison orbiting the sun - in the comic, a secret mission goes up there to break the vampires out and bring them back to Earth in an attempt to enlist them as allies in a supernatural war. It goes... hellishly.
The artist for this incredible adventure is my long-time friend and collaborator Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque, whose name you might remember from our other series together, LETTER 44. He's amazing, the pages he's drawn look wonderful, and I'm so glad to be working with him again. Here's the first teaser piece!
THE BLOODY DOZEN is, once again, a limited series, and you don't have to have read HELL TO PAY to check it out. That's the case with all the Shrouded College books. It will begin in December from Image Comics, and I hope you'll check it out!
THE GENIES GO TO SDCC
I said SDCC was big for me this year, and I was not wrong! In addition to the Endless Vessel panel and signing, EIGHT BILLION GENIES will be making a big showing. Image Comics graciously decided to create a show-exclusive version of the 8BG hardcover in a limited edition of 200, available at their booth.
Ryan and I will be at SDCC signing these (and whatever else you have), we're excited to see you guys out there. We're already starting to work on our next project together, too - we're thinking it's a 2024 book... but time will tell.
That ain't all, though. I am also pleased to announce that the 8BG merch train is finally getting rolling. We're releasing the adorable Genie plushie you can see below, created by our wonderful friends at Skelton Crew Studio. Pre-orders for this little fella will open on Day 1 of San Diego Comicon, Wednesday, July 19, so watch for that. Lots of surprises planned for that show along these lines - this genie might not be alone!
If you can't make it to SDCC to grab the exclusive hardcover, I've opened up orders on my site for the standard cover, also with beautiful foil but in a different design, signed by me! Click the button below to get yours.
STAR WARS!
In addition to everything else, I'll also have a pretty prominent SW presence at SDCC. (Sorry for the acronyms - gotta save space where I can.) There's a big Lucasfilm publishing panel from 1-2 PM on Friday, but I'll also be signing the show's advance release copies of TALES OF LIGHT AND LIFE, which will be available at the show literally months before it's in stores. This is an anthology with High Republic stories from all of the authors who have written for the initiative, including a long one by me featuring Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm, revolving on the search for our beloved, dearly departed Wookiee Padawan Burryaga. The whole book is awesome, and I think fans of the High Republic will loooooove it.
CHANGING COURSE
For those of you who preordered THE ENDLESS VESSEL:
1. THANK YOU!
2. As you know, I previously announced that anyone who sent us proof of their preorder would get a free map mailed to them - created by cartographer Marco Bernardini and tracking the journey in the book. We just got the maps in this week! I'll be signing all of them and we will be sending them out in the next week or so! These came out beautifully and I'm excited for you all to get them.
Also, for those wondering, CHRONICLES OF THE LAZARENE (the companion novel to THE ENDLESS VESSEL that I Kickstarted this past spring) is designed and will be going to the printer very soon. That means the digital versions will be emailed to backers who got it fairly soon, and then the print and audio versions will follow. The book looks like it'll be about 250 pages long - substantial! By the way, if you missed the Kickstarter and want to put in an order for Chronicles, you still can - just click here.
Believe it or not, I'm already working on what I'm calling Novel 6 right now - my next original novel, which will (probably) follow the release of TRIALS OF THE JEDI, which completes Phase III of Star Wars: The High Republic. It's super cool, a bit of a departure for me... but it's very early days. For now, go get Endless Vessel! It's excellent, I swear!
MARVELING AT TEN YEARS
Ten years ago, almost to the day, Thunderbolts #12 came out, written by me with art by a personal hero, Steve Dillon. (The actual release date was July 3, 2013.) This was my Marvel debut, a goal I had been working toward for almost a decade before that. Since then, I have written something like 300 comics for Marvel, probably more. I don't think a month has passed in that decade that didn't see a Marvel book with my name on it come out (barring the quarantine, of course.)
I had hoped I would be able to mark this anniversary with a sort of retrospective - going through all the titles, telling the stories, revisiting how it all happened and continues to... but the truth is, this update is already way too long and I have too many new stories to write to be overly focused on ones I've already written. If I had more time, I'd really do it up - start a podcast or YouTube show going through it all, getting the artists and other collaborators on, really showcase things... but I don't have that time. Not now, at least. The idea is really appealing, but we'll see. Maybe down the road.
In any case, I'm extremely proud of the work I've done for Marvel - I stand by it all, and it's brought wonderful opportunities to me life. Many of you found me through my Marvel Comics, and I wouldn't be the writer I am today without everything I've learned working for the House of Ideas. I am grateful, on many levels.
THE SUMMER OF MAGIC AND ROCK
Speaking of time and where I'm putting it - while the summer's busy as heck, I have carved out a significant space to finish my biggest unfinished thing: the CURSE WORDS CONCEPT ALBUM. Originally offered as a stretch goal reward for a Kickstarter campaign Ryan Browne and I did for an omnibus collection of our series back in 2020, I've been working on it ever since. It's far too ambitious - I'm writing it like a sort of weird rock opera - and while I have the chops to write and perform what I want to do, finding focused studio time has been a huge challenge. That said, everything seems to have aligned, and my hope is that in the next update (or the one after,) I'll be able to let you guys hear some of this. It's coming!
SEE YOU SOON...?
See what I mean? This was maybe too much for one update. I have (fortunately! I recognize that I am very lucky!) quite a lot going on right now. Fitting everything into one easily digestible monthly update is getting to be a bit tough. I'm considering a more frequent release schedule, maybe bi-weekly or weekly, with somewhat deeper dives into some of these subjects. What do you all think? Would you still open and read through my ramblings that way? Let me know your thoughts - replies are open.
Thank you for all the support, and I'll see you soon, one way or another!
--Charles