SO, IT'S BEEN TWO WEEKS...

LegalDispatch 0.24

PROJECT MARBLE & STAR WARS

I’ve been working away.

These past two weeks have been taken up — and joyfully so — with Star Wars and PROJECT MARBLE.

I can’t really talk about Project Marble as it hasn’t been announced yet. We’ve been working in a writers room but it’s not a TV series. (Ooo. Mysterious.) For my mental health, it’s just what the doctor ordered, as it provides a welcome respite from my post-LA Law inner thoughts and allows me to just focus on work for a bit. Plus, the writers I’m working with are absolutely delightful, not to mention smart.

The same can be said of the Star Wars comic writers and editors. They’re an absolutely wonderful group and I look forward to our weekly Zoom coordination meetings.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve turned in revisions on Yoda Issue 7, the first draft of Yoda issue 8, revisions on Han Solo & Chewbacca Issue 6, and the first issue of Han Solo & Chewbacca Issue 7, which was an incredible amount of fun to write as it involves a prison break.

The cover for the first issue of Yoda (written by Cavan Scott) painted by the incomparable Phil Noto (who also does the covers for Han Solo & Chewbacca)

PROJECT SPECTRE

I also revised a pitch for a potential new TV series and sent it off to the rights holders. Got an email from them today which was very nice.

OBI-WAN KENOBI

No, I’m not writing this. (Though if wishes were horses…) I just watched Part V on Wednesday night and it’s hands down my favorite Star Wars TV series. There’s so much established continuity that they have to stick-handle around, but the writers do it so deftly that I don’t feel short-changed. And seeing Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen reprise their roles is a total delight. Natalie Holt’s score — working with a theme written by the immortal John Williams — is brilliant and very Star Wars.

A NOTE ON PROCESS

Having done so much comic book writing in the past week, I thought I’d wax on a bit about my process.

I tend not to outline but, rather, work off of a “synopsis” of what has to happen in the issue. That said, I go into the script with some “pre-baked” ideas, the number of which differ from issue to issue. Generally speaking, I know where I need to go and have at least a vague intuition of how I’m going to get there. The process is all rather organic.

As I write, I try not to get too caught up — or bogged down — in moments of continuity with previous issues or, in the case of Star Wars, the names of people, things, and places I don’t have instant recall for. Nor do I take time to research the specific images I include as reference for the artists.

Rather, I write somewhat freely, allowing the story to unfold as it wants to, and whenever I come to one of these look it up/figure it out later points, I just type TBD.

I also do this for various “aesthetic”/clarity issues. For example, at the top of each page, I indicate how many panels I’m asking for. I also leave this part ‘til last, typing, for example, “PAGE NINETEEN (X PANELS)”.

Then, when I’m done with the whole script in this format, I revise and tinker before doing a “fill-in pass.” This is when I search on various placeholders. I start with reviewing to make sure that there aren’t any duplicate pages. (I can’t begin to count the number of times I accidentally miscounted and wrote in two Page Twelves, for example.)

I then search on “TBD” and fill all those in. Same for “X PANELS.” As I do this, I continue to polish and tinker. I usually have a feeling for a moment that doesn’t work quite as well as it should and I’ll go back and revise accordingly. For example, there’s a scene in Issue 8 of Yoda where I had Anakin move off and take out some Battledroids. But the thought that this moment should belong to Yoda — it’s his book, after all — nagged at me until I revised. Sorry, Anakin.

Is this kind of process stuff interesting? Or is it dry and boring AF? Lemme know in the comments.

That’s all from me for this week.

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

6.17.22