APE WARS

LegalDispatch 0.84

Howdy.

We just got an influx of new readers this week. Welcome. I suspect many (if not all) of you came to us through Ben Blacker’s most excellent and informative Substack, Re:Writing.

Yesterday, Ben published my answers to six really well thought-out questions. You can check them out here:

6 Questions with Marc Guggenheim

Thanks for subscribing. I hope you’ll stick around.

STAR WARS: D-SQUAD (BEHIND THE SCENES)

Last week saw the release of Star Wars: Dark Droids - D-Squad Issue 4. In that issue, Artoo-Detoo infiltrates the Palace of Jabba the Hutt by donning a “disguise.” Here’s how that moment was scripted:

A snippet of the script for D-Squad #4.The color coding is how I indicate revisions between drafts.

However, the idea of how to pull this off with just the right amount of disguise is a bit difficult to articulate in words, so I mocked up what I was thinking:

Pretty lame (and don’t get me started on my handwriting). But here is how it was brought to life thanks to the brilliant Salva Espín and Israel Silva:

BEWARE THE PLANET OF THE APES

Speaking of wonderful artist/colorist collaborations, my partner in crime on Beware the Planet of the Apes, Álvaro López, recently shared two examples of his collaboration with colorist Alex Guimarães over on Bluesky:

I’m really loving how this book is looking. I can’t wait for it to come out in 2024.

Oh, and I just saw that the cover for Issue 3 has hit Twitter. It’s simply too good not to share. My second-favorite of the whole series

Cover to Beware the Planet of the Apes #3 by Taurin Clarke.

STAR WARS: REVELATIONS (2023)

Closer to publishing, however, is Star Wars: Revelations (2023), this year’s preview of what you can expect from the Star Wars line of comics in 2024. I’m honored to have a (pretty fun) story in this one. You can check out a preview below (courtesy of Bleeding Cool):

I’m particularly proud of the dad joke title…

Like I said, the book drops on Wednesday. You can find it at your local comic shop or pre-order a digital version here.

STAR WARS: YODA

Speaking of Star Wars and next week, on Tuesday, the trade paperback edition of the Yoda series written by Cavan Scott, Jody Houser, and yours truly. I know I’m not objective, but it’s a truly wonderful story about the origins of some of Yoda’s most famous teachings like “size matters not.”

It’s available for ordering on Amazon and Bookshop.

MORE COMIC BOOK SHOPS

I really love that folks have been sounding off in the comments about their favorite comic book shops. Here are a few more recommendations from other Dispatch readers.

From Craig Byrne:

I saw your earlier post mentioning Galaxy of Comics and their cats; whenever I end up in that area, I have to pass by and buy something. Everyone there is so nice and Pugsley and Shuri are always fun to see.

I find it interesting and cool that your update mentions A Shop Called Quest -- I'd often travel all the way there to Claremont to go through their very well stocked selection of Epic Collections. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I discovered Pulp Fiction in Culver City - also mentioned on your list - where I found a bunch of out of print Epics at 30% off!

My regular comic shop is House of Secrets. They're good to me and reliable, plus, at least as far as I'm concerned, they're very close by.

From KentL:

Haven't been to Dr. No's in years, but it used to be pretty awesome. Large and well-stocked. It's about an hour from me now, though, so I can't just hop over there. If you are like me and live in the northeast part of the Atlanta suburbs (ie Gwinnett county), you should check out Galactic Quest. They have two locations, one in Lawrenceville and one in Buford.

116 E Crogan St, Lawrenceville, GA 30046

4264 Sudderth Rd, Buford, GA 30518

Excellent kids/all-ages selections, and they go all out for Free Comic Book Day. The one in Lawrenceville is off of the downtown square and has started to get other businesses around to square to participate. This past year, they basically made it into a little mini-festival.

Sounds awesome. Thank you, both!

ANOTHER COMMENT

Chris Baldit was kind enough to write in a comment about my public toying with ending the newsletter as part of the now-infamous (well, infamous-adjacent) post, “No Good Deed”:

Mr. Guggenheim, I am pleased you have not killed off the newsletter. If I may be so candid, this is about as close to "Stan's Soapbox" from the days of olde (damn, I'm old) that we may get from someone in the industry. I always enjoyed reading those and I do enjoy reading your material as well. I am very pleased to see an email in my inbox informing me the latest Legal Dispatch has been published. Your humor, candor and willingness to take the time to type out a few words for the fans are refreshing in these trying times. I have not bought a new comic book in over 10 years because I found the stories were very light on substance and heavy on crossovers to sell other books I did not buy. But now, the comics you have worked on (Star Wars, X-Men, Star Trek, among many others) and now, Too Dead to Die, have interested me enough to buy these titles because YOU wrote them. Keep up the good work and keep on writing the newsletter. It may be therapeutic in a sense and we all need that. We can live vicariously through you, if that's OK, and if it dips a bit into the Negative Zone, I'll send Thing and the Torch to bring you back.

Thank you, Chris. I am sincerely humbled. And appreciative. The truth is, the comparison to “Stan’s Soapbox” alone is enough to put me on Cloud 9. Thank you for your kind words and encouragement.

WHAT WOULD THIS LOOK LIKE IF IT WERE EASY?

This is shaping up to be a pretty long one, but there’s one more thing I’d like to write about.

I’ve been taking piano lessons off and on for about 30 years now, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that I made a real go of it. And for the past few months, I’ve been taking lessons with an instructor. We’ve been working on Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen using a lead sheet arrangement.

Like most pieces, this requires near-total independence between the left and right hands, a skill that has completely eluded me. But recently, I was given cause to consider the question that Tim Ferrriss says he often asks himself: “What would this look like if it were easy?”

My interpretation of this question is something along the lines of, “What if I’m better at this than I think?” So, I tried playing Hallelujah as if I, well, could. And y’know what? It didn’t sound half-bad. I mean, yes, the rhythm is probably completely off and I have a tendency to add extra notes, but… damn if it doesn’t sound good.

And it’s got me wondering lately: Does this approach work for things other than the piano? Turns out, it does. The combination of shutting of the inner critic and executing with the swagger that comes with confidence can be a very potent thing. I’ve found that my tennis serves have also benefited from this approach. As for my writing, I’m willing to settle for that aforementioned inner critic taking a day or two off from time to time.

Just something I’m currently giving thought to.

Like I said, this edition is running long, so this is a good place to end. Speaking of endings, I’ll be back with next week with the last Dispatch of 2023, running down this year’s deliverables and maybe including a list of things I’m looking forward to in 2024 (hint: Trump faces 4 indictments).

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

12.15.23