January 2022!

IT'S ALL NEW AGAIN

It's 2022, a brand new year, after... well, let's charitably call 2020 and 2021 a tough time. We're not quite out of it yet, either - but I’m sure you’ve heard enough about that from other sources. I mean, you don't read this for actual news. That's what the news is for!

I've been doing this job professionally for a long time. March 2021 marked twelve years since my first published work. (The long out-of-print luchador graphic novel Strongman. Will 2022 be the year I Kickstart a gorgeous hardcover of it and its never-published 148-page sequel? Probably not! But maybe!)

This year included incredible career milestones for me, things I've dreamed of since well before I was a professional writer. In fact, some of them pre-date being a professional anything at all. We're talking lifelong business right here. As is my wont for the first update at the start of a year, I want to take a look back at the things I managed to pull off in 2021, and tease some things coming in 2022.

So, sit down with whatever you choose to use to push back the hangover 2021 gave you and read on.

In 2021, these things happened in my life:

  • I became a New York Times #1 Bestselling Author for my novel Light of the Jedi. Still can't believe this happened, or that it stayed on the hardcover bestseller list for 4 weeks straight, or that it's since gone on to sell, no joke, hundreds of thousands of copies. It's been translated into more languages than I can remember, and I get messages every day from folks who enjoyed it. This is a book about light in the darkness, and I'm so happy I put it into the world at this particular time. We are all the Republic.

  • Light of the Jedi also kicked off the Star Wars: The High Republic mega-story for Lucasfilm, a huge new era of interconnected storytelling created by me, Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older and Cavan Scott under the guidance of Michael SIglain and many awesome people at Lucasfilm. It's since gone on to generate multiple bestsellers, other big projects in the era we created (TV, games, animation, etc.) and a LOT of fan love. I'm so proud of my part in it.

  • I wrote my fourth novel. It was incredibly challenging, but I don't regret choosing to write about the things it's about. It's a strange, cool story, about things we're all thinking about. Current plans have it out in early 2023, which would be great. That said, we know what this time does to "plans" - it'll be out when it's out, but it's the most ambitious thing I've ever tried to do, and I want it to be right. If that takes a little more time, it does!

  • I co-wrote the screenplay for the Undiscovered Country film with my co-writer for the comic series, Scott Snyder. It wasn't easy to wrestle this into shape, but we're really happy with where it’s landing.

  • Continued bringing Undiscovered Country the comic into the world! We finished our second arc and completed our third - the last issue of which will be in stories very soon. We love this comic, and to see the continuing support is amazing.

  • Two of the adaptations of my creator-owned stories moved to networks, and all five currently in-play are moving forward pretty well. We'll see, but it's not impossible that something or other could be on a screen in the next year or two.

  • I completed the screenplay for the pilot of the TV version of my second novel ANYONE.I think it is good!

  • I ran over 500 miles, which kind of surprised me too, but I added it up, and yeah. (Not all at once.)

  • I wrote a lot of comics for Marvel Comics. Mostly in their Star Wars line. People seemed to enjoy them! As part of this, I oversaw a massive crossover event centered on Boba Fett called War of the Bounty Hunters. Thirty-four individual issues across four ongoing titles, a central miniseries and some one-shots! It was a bear, but I love how it went, especially that it launched a trilogy of stories - Crimson Reign and the upcoming Hidden Empire.

  • Ren, a Star Wars character Will Sliney and I created as part of The Rise of Kylo Ren appeared on television in the Star Wars Haunted Halloween Special on Disney+. I even got a special thanks in the credits!

  • Omnibus collections of my work on Curse Words, Swamp Thing, Daredevil and Darth Vader were released (one for Letter 44 was supposed to come out but has been pushed to 2022 - that's okay tho!)

  • I attended two comic conventions! NYCC and C2E2. This is two more than I attended in 2020, so I call that progress.

  • I wrote and banked many issues of my next series with Will Sliney, the super cool Hell to Pay.

  • Did the same with my next book with Ryan Browne, the spectacular Eight Billion Genies. (More on these later in the newsletter.)

  • Got back into music production after a long hiatus, as I work on my magnum opus, the Curse Words Concept Album. (Coming soon-ish to a hifi near you!)

  • And last but very much not least...

I WAS INTERVIEWED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

Many of you reading this are fans of Star Wars, which is possibly how you found my work. As such, you may be aware of a little TV show that just debuted on Disney+ called THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT. Well, in connection with that show appearing, the New York Times (the American paper of record, the Old Grey Lady herself) interviewed me (via their great reporter David Itzkoff) for some thoughts on the character, since I've been able to tell a number of big stories with him in my comics work. I was quoted a number of times in the article alongside some much more impressive folks - it felt pretty awesome, a true "I've made it" kind of moment. Really nice way to end the year.

The article is here - it might be paywalled, but it’s the first day of the month, so odds are you have some free articles left. Give it a spin!

BUT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME *LATELY*

Yeah, I get it. 2021 is, literally, old news. You want to know what's coming up next! What do I have on deck for 2022? Well... here's my list, at least the things I can talk about, in roughly chronological order:
 

  • EYE OF THE STORM - the two-part origin story comic for Star Wars: The High Republic uber-baddie Marchion Ro. Art by Guillermo Sanna, issue 1 out Jan 12.

  • Issues 2-5 of CRIMSON REIGN (the second part of my Qi'ra trilogy, art by Steven Cummings). Runs through April.

  • THE HIDDEN EMPIRE (the final part of said trilogy) - five issues, runs from June-November, I believe.

  • EIGHT BILLION GENIES - the eight-part series from Ryan Browne and me, which debuts from Image Comics in May. (We brought 500 limited-edition copies to C2E2 earlier this month and sold them online simultaneously - the full run was gone in hours. Feeling pretty good about this one.)

  • HELL TO PAY - six-issue supernatural adventure limited series from Will Sliney and me, out in the summer from Image Comics. This one is the start of something big. If you want to pre-order a special version of the #1 issue, and/or get it signed and sketched, you can do that here.

  • There's another Marvel comics thing I've been working on for literally years, not Star Wars. It might see the light of day in 2022, it might not. I call this the Ice Book.

  • Something very, very, very neat that I've been involved with should drop around mid-year. I am very excited about it, but also NDAed up the yin-yang. We'll chat it when we can.

  • I am continuing to write the Marvel Star Wars flagship comic for the foreseeable future (unless they know something I don't!) I have stories planned through the year, for sure.

  • I am writing more stories for The High Republic. Some you'll find out about soon, some you won't, but I'm not going anywhere. I was deeply involved in story-architecting Phase II and beyond.

  • OTHER BIG THINGS THAT I CANNOT CURRENTLY DISCUSS. You'll hear when and if I can talk about them - but they are all cool.

CHIP 'N' CHARLES CHUM CHAT

Back on December 9, I participated in a lengthy, hard-hitting interview with noted artsy scribe Chip Zdarsky. I was in a hotel room in Chicago. Chip, much to his chagrin, was not. We talked about Daredevil, Star Wars and all sorts of awesome stuff, and even had another special guest appearance in the form of another Daredevil writer - which means on this one YouTube you have nearly 20% of the people who've written the character! Amazing!

Anyway, it was really fun, you should check it out.

AND THAT'S THAT!

There you have it. 2021 feels like a microwaved marshmallow of a year, but I managed to get some good work done, told some good stories. Here's hoping it continues in 2022, for me as well as you and yours. Thank you so much for the ongoing support and interest. If you'd like to purchase any of my work (including signed editions and rare items), you can:

VISIT MY SITE STORE HERE.

If you have any questions on outstanding orders from my site store, reach out to my assistant at souleassistant@gmail.com and he can help you out!

As always with anything you get from my store, you'll get an email with tracking information once it’s been sent - for example, the Eight Billion Genies #1s should go out early next week. 

That's it from me! Have a wonderful weekend and start to your year, and see you next month!

--Charles

Thomas Stella