I was gonna write a thing this week about writing for comics, but I think that’ll have to wait for next week. I just got off the phone with my assistant and had my umpteenth conversation for the week about the dire state of the entertainment industry. A friend of mine, an actor of some 40 years’ experience, just took a non-entertainment industry job. An incredibly talented concept designer I know hasn’t worked since 2019. My aforementioned assistant is contemplating leaving Los Angeles and she’s hardly the only person I know who’s doing that because how can anyone afford to live in flammable, homeless-dominated, expensive LA on the scraps the lucky ones are able to receive from today’s tech bro-dominated entertainment industrial complex?
I have a few writer friends who have taken up teaching because they need money, which I get, but film school has become a scam which just pumps out thousands of student debt-burdened writers and sends them into a non-existent job market. The image of people being fed into a wood chipper comes to mind.
I wish I had something hopeful to offer you. I certainly didn’t have anything to offer my assistant. The entertainment industry is experiencing an unprecedented downturn. Even worse, the word “downturn” suggests that the situation is liminal, but there are days when I fear that our current nadir is the “new normal” we’ve been waiting in vain to arrive like Elijah at a Passover seder.
We all said “survive til ‘25” but now the lucky ones among us can only “exist til ‘26.” But who knows if things will be better by then?
LA STRONG
The incredible folks at Mad Cave Studios have assembled a murderer’s row of comic book talent to contribute to a book about the recent LA wildfires called LA Strong. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to LA wildfire relief. I was honored to contribute and stand alongside such heavy hitting comic book talent.
The book comes out March 19. You can pre-order it by clicking here.
Final order cutoff for the book is February 24, 2024, so please let your local comic book store know you’re interested in buying a copy. (Lunar code: 1224MA843)
FEEDBACK
Norman Anderson writes:
I’ve tried a few times to articulate my thoughts on what is going on and all of the obvious consequences, but the words just won’t come. So… I will simply say, Thank you for continuing to put out these Substack updates about what you are doing and experiencing. It definitely makes me feel less alone and brings happiness through entertainment to us all. We need these moments.
Thank you, Norman.
In response to my comments about the Democratic Party, William Fordes writes:
You are too kind to Biden, Garland and Schumer.
Guilty as charged.
Robert Emmerich writes:
Good title, but is it ok if I hope Canadians and Mexicans motivate us along? Mexican President is a hoot and the Canadian seems smart, I like their varying responses. I'm currently of the mind that the GOP is the getaway driver while Trump and Elon rob our banks and the Dems have just hopped in the back seat for the ride. So that's not good. On the bright side I thought a really bad thing would happen every day but today seemed ok, so there's that. Mostly though it's all Mirror, Mirror Fourth Reich fascism — Elon copied that salute from Spock — and I'm waiting for people to be lined up in front of walls like Handmaid's Tale. So let the mass protests begin, like we're Proletariat Europeans, or it's Arab spring. What do we have to lose?
I keep waiting on the mass protests. I think things will, sadly, have to get (even) worse before that happens. I have a few friends who are very active in Resistance 2.0, but given that all 1.0 did was prevent Trump from revealing how much of a threat he poses to democracy by suppressing his worst impulses, I think we have to let the kid touch the stove. And the petty part of me (which is, like, 99% of me) wants the people who voted for Trump — or the ones who stayed home on Election Day — to get the full brunt of what they voted for. They fucked around and I, for one, don’t want to do anything that delays them reaching the “find out” stage.
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS
Star Wars editor Mark Paniccia recently teased this image from Jedi Knights #3:
This happens to be a splash page (a page with a single image, no panels), but the truth is that every page in Issue 3 is a splash. This is the same gimmick that Dan Jurgens employed when he killed off Superman and it works really well here because of the scope of this particular story, which introduces Kaiju to the Star Wars universe.
FROM THE VAULT
At a panel I did at MegaCon Orlando next week, a fan asked how we did the flashback transitions on Arrow. I explained that when the show started, we didn’t really have a vision for how the flashback transitions should work. But then DP Glen Winter started developing what would become the signature way the show navigated from the present day scenes to the flashbacks. To encourage visiting directors to think as Glen did, we asked them to storyboard out their transitions. Here’s an example from Arrow Ep. 411, directed by Charlotte Brandström:
Be good to each other.
Best,
Marc
Encino, California
2.14.25
COMING ATTRACTIONS
A regularly-updated list of upcoming releases and events:
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #1 (March 5, 2025)
STAR WARS CELEBRATION: JAPAN (March 18-20, Makuhari Messe, Japan)
STAR WARS FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2025 (May 5, 2025)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #5 (July 2, 2025)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #6 (August 6, 2025)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #7 (September 9, 2025)
GALAXYCON DES MOINES (September 12-14, Des Moines, Iowa)
GALAXYCON ST. LOUIS (October 10-12, St. Louis, Missouri)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS Volume 1 (November 4, 2025)
To quote the great patriot, even though he was Scottish, John Paul Jones, “[We] have not yet begun to fight!” To all my friends who think we are DOA, I tell you, the orange buffoon and president Musk will never triumph. Like Hitler and his foul beasts, they are fierce now, but I guarantee you they will end in a bunker with the 21st century equivalent of a Walther PPK and a tablet of cyanide.
*GASP* Oh my gosh THAT WAS ME. I WAS THAT FAN WHO ASKED! *squeak* Seeing these transition storyboards is very cool! It really does help to visualize and understand the concept, even as a viewer, that we're now looking at the past versus the present. (I also remember the episode that came from, haha). It sounds so complicated and maybe even a bit daunting when you're just considering the script, but the visual aspect really brings it all in and makes it easily understandable. I still remember the early days of finding Arrow and being really amazed by that flashback concept (funnily, I actually stumbled across Ep. 2 and missed the pilot originally, but boy did that show hook me in even at that point). Thank you for showing that artwork!
Also, thank you so much for coming to MegaCon! It was really cool to meet you and hear your writing tips. I appreciate how approachable you are. Hope to see you at another one so I can get an Arrow script! (of course, the Crisis script is good too!)