BACK ON SCHEDULE

LegalDispatch 0.50

As you know, I don’t normally put this newsletter out twice a week, but I wanted to get back on the Friday schedule. Plus, a few things got announced since Tuesday’s edition…

TIRED

Last night I did a TV pitch and today I’m turning in a new draft of Too Dead To Die. I am Tie. Red. I’d love to take a break, but I’m almost finished with the new draft of PROJECT ARTERY, I owe a follow-up document on the aforementioned pitch, and the second issue of PROJECT HOURGLASS is due on Monday.

This week I also did notes on the lettering for Star Wars: Jabba’s Palace. I’m really pleased with the way this book came together. It’s an interesting and subtle (for Star Wars) story about how the droid that See-Threpio and Artoo-Detoo being tortured/disintegrated when they first come to Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi came to find himself in that precarious position. I’m looking forward to folks checking it out.

TORRENT

This past Wednesday, we released the first issue of Torrent. The reviews have been glowing — some of the best of my comic book career. But this one from comicbook.com is easily my favorite:

Torrent is bad and it is bad on every level. The story itself is built on bad tropes, the stereotype mom putting work first, who passes off store bought muffins as homemade and feels mom guilt about making dinner from ingredients of convenience instead of scratch who, because of her career-first—her career, in this case being a superhero—focus ends up watching her family die and then goes on a violent quest for bitter revenge we'll call justice. Add to that she's gruff and unlikeable and you have a cardboard cutout of a person with no discernible personality in the rambling and overly-quippy writing that simply does not fit and you have just, well, bad. It's just one bad trope from cover to cover.

(And that’s 90% of the review.)

Ah well. Can’t please everyone.

I’m thinking about including the quote — “Torrent is bad and it is bad on every level.” — on one of the covers.

No, really.

PROJECT RAMBLE

PROJECT RAMBLE was announced earlier this week. I’m excited to say that it’s a five-issue Star Trek (“ramble” being another word for “trek,” get it?) mini-series set shortly after the events of The Motion Picture.

My new friends at IDW and Paramount were kind enough to share the text of the announcement:

The U.S.S. Enterprise Faces Familiar Terrors in IDW’s 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture—Echoes

Marc Guggenheim Takes the Helm with New Comic Book Miniseries, pitting Star Trek’s Seasoned Crew Against Deadly Doppelgängers

SAN DIEGO, CA (February 15, 2023) – IDW is excited to announce that acclaimed screenwriter, producer, and comic book writer Marc Guggenheim (CW’s television series Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca) will assume the captain’s chair for an all-new, five-issue comic book series, Star Trek: The Motion Picture—Echoes, set immediately after the events of the momentous 1979 film.

Featuring spectacular artwork by Oleg Chudakov and colors by DC Alonso, Echoes pits the venerated Captain James T. Kirk and his crew against enemies both terrifying and shockingly familiar! When a space anomaly thrusts a criminal mastermind—pursued by a very determined pilot on a mission—into our universe, the Enterprise must stop them from unintentionally starting a war with the Romulans and unleashing a superweapon of foreign technology into the system. But things get infinitely more complicated when these newcomers to our reality remove their helmets, revealing that they’re doppelgängers of our beloved heroes!

“Despite watching the occasional fragment of a Star Trek episode here and there with my father, my true introduction was going to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture with my grandparents—I was entranced. I’m thrilled that IDW and Paramount[MC1]  Global have allowed me to revisit that time period, which was so impactful to me and my love of Star Trek,” says Guggenheim. “Almost all Trek stories are told from the point of view of the Enterprise crew, but I was interested in telling a story from the perspective of an outsider as a means of recapturing how it felt for me when I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”

“What does it mean to draw this new Star Trek adventure? It’s like revisiting my childhood, but at the same time learning something new. It’s amazing!” says Chudakov.

“When everything in life feels like it’s moving too fast towards the future, it’s always important to step back and revisit where it all came from. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with this comic focusing on the Star Trek: The Motion Picture time frame,” says series editor Heather Antos. “No one knows more about this period in Trek history than Guggenheim, we’ve learned…and we could think of no one better suited to take Captain Kirk and his crew on this wild adventure. Paired with Chudakov’s energetic, character-driven inks, this is one mission that the crew of the Enterprise soon won’t forget. Oh, and did we mention that there are possible easter eggs to some of our other Trek books, too?”

Arriving in stores this May, Star Trek: The Motion Picture—Echoes #1 will be available with multiple cover variants for retailers and fans to enjoy, including Cover A by Jake Bartok, Cover B by series artist Oleg Chudakov, and retailer incentive variants by Luke Sparrow and Rod Reis.

For information on how to acquire copies of Star Trek comic books, please contact your local comic shop or visit www.comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you.

I’m three scripts deep into this project and having the time of my life with it. Here’s the amazing cover by Jake Bartok:

ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT

And this news just dropped this morning:

And this…

Of course, the book is not “upcoming” as THR wrote, but you, my dear readers, already knew that. You can check out the actual article here. And here’s the one that appeared in The Wrap.

One thing neither article mentions, unfortunately, is the involvement and contributions of producer Guy Danella. Guy and I worked together on Prophet back when he was with Studio 8 and I sent him Too Dead To Die when he moved over to 87North. He’s the one who helped me craft the perfect pitch to Universal and delivered out A-list movie star to play the lead. He’s also been extremely brilliant and instrumental in the development of the script. I rarely, if ever, sing the praises of someone giving me notes, but his always, without fail, make the thing better.

And today is an appropriate day for all this news to come out because I’m sending Guy the next draft of the screenplay as soon as I get it back from my proofreader.

Well, that’s plenty of news — and bad reviews — for one week. Next week, I have a simply terrific story about PROJECT FROST.

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

2.17.23