COVID NEGATIVITY

LegalDispatch 0.27

Howdy.

I’m writing this during a brief — like, a few hours — stop in Manhattan before traveling on to Connecticut and Massachusetts to look at colleges with my oldest. This is a somewhat surprising turn of events as I would swear on a stack of bibles that I drove her home from the hospital just last week.

My view as I write this…

Yesterday, I (finally) tested negative for Covid. After 11 days. Ugh. But it’s allowed me to travel with my wife and daughter, so that’s something. However, I don’t really recommend getting Covid. I’m vaxxed and boosted and I still had several rather unpleasant days I’d rather not repeat.

While I consider myself pretty Covid risk tolerant, I was surprised by how, well, relieved I was to finally get the thing. I didn’t realize how much of my emotional bandwidth was going to stress about whether the Vid was going to get me. It was a surprising epiphany.

HOUSEKEEPING

I’ve gotten some nice feedback on this newsletter over the past couple of weeks which has inspired me to do a better job of getting it out on its originally-planned weekly basis. If there’s anything you’d prefer I’d cover — or not cover — please sound off in the comments.

And if you’re reading but haven’t subscribed, please consider doing so. The subscriber count isn’t only good for my self-esteem, but it helps me track just how many eyeballs this thing is getting.

STAR WARS

This was a big Star Wars week. In addition to reviewing the completed pencils for Yoda #7, revising the script for Han Solo & Chewbacca #8, starting the script for Han & Chewie #9, the fifth issue of Han & Chewie hit the stands.

This is the end of our first arc and the official halfway point of the series. (I know we were originally vague about its length, lending to the impression that it’s an ongoing, but the plan has always been for 10 issues — two 5-issue arcs.) You can check out the first few pages here.

Yesterday also saw the announcement of a new Star Wars project from me, Star Wars: Revelations. This is going to be a 40-page one-shot written by moi and drawn by such luminaries as Salvador Larroca, Paco Medina, and others.

Artwork by the incomparable Phil Noto (who also did the cover for Han & Chewie above).

Words can’t express just how excited I am for this book. First off, it’s my very first time playing in the entirety of the Star Wars sandbox — Luke, Leia, Vader, everybody. It’s a story that spans the length and breadth of the Marvel Star Wars line and we’ll be planting some very deep and important flags about the stories you can expect to see in 2023. It drops in November and you can read more about it here.

PROJECT ENCORE

I was going to announce this sucker in this week’s newsletter, but with everything that’s going on, I decided to push a week. This is an original graphic novel that will be out this December from Image Comics. The entire story is complete — written, drawn, colored, and lettered — and we’re just working on the overall package and finalizing the bonus features of which there are several, all of them quite cool.

In a strange turn of events, this week we also closed the sale of the rights to the book to a major movie studio. I’m writing the screenplay as we speak. It’s the first time I’ve adapted something I’ve written into a different medium. It’s a fun challenge.

OTHER UPDATES

This week, I also delivered the outline for my contribution to PROJECT MARBLE, did a little polish on PROJECT SPECTRE, and created a visual deck for PROJECT QUARTZ, a TV show I’ll be pitching next week.

I also started work on the pitch for another TV series. It’s a legal drama, my first since the ill-fated LA Law. That experience rekindled my love of writing law shows, which led to this project which I’ll call PROJECT EVERGREEN. George Lucas created Star Wars because he couldn’t get the rights to Flash Gordon. It’s my hope that Evergreen will be the legal Star Wars that comes out of the LA Law experience.

No pressure whatsoever.

SETBACKS

I was chatting with my mentees from #StartWith8 and they remarked how this newsletter has helped illustrate how failure and setbacks are still part of the game, even at the “echelon” (my word, not theirs) of the industry I supposedly occupy.

If people want, I’ll write more on this topic in a subsequent newsletter. Suffice it to say, that failure, setbacks, and disappointments come for us all and all the time. When I tally things up, I can safely say that my failures easily outweigh my successes. The greatest success — and the only one that really matters — is the ability to do what I love and get paid for the privilege. (Actually, I like to say that I write for free. I get paid to take notes.)

Well, I’m off to visit colleges. Next week, I’ll chat all about PROJECT ENCORE. In the meantime, be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

New York, New York

11.12.22