Welcome back to the newsletter! The holiday season is upon us and in the spirit of gift giving, I have some really fun things to show you.
My online shop is now open! HERE you can find signed books, comics, and more. The shop will be updated regularly, and new products will always be coming in. The shop will be closed for restocking and shipping on DECEMBER 15TH AT 9AM PST so get your holiday orders in now! There is an option to get a monster or dinosaur drawn inside your book along with the signature.
It’s December which means that my first issue for this Phase of The High Republic Adventures is out! For those that need a quick intro to our main hero, Sav Malagán, here’s an official Star Wars animated video about her that just came out: {link}
It’s already been great to see the excitement around this story so far. The reception to Sav’s rebellious ways to Quiet Shan’s badassery—you are all making this such a special launch. Just look at Isabella’s Sav Cosplay! You might remember them from their Star War Celebration Qort cosplay—incredible!
And once again Bel created some beautiful art of grumpy little Sav Malagán in anticipation of the series.
I’ve always loved Team Books, especially stories about disparate misfits thrown together into a chaotic crew. As the High Republic team plotted out our Phase II assignments, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to do exactly that, and with Maz Kanata’s pirate crew no less. I immediately started sketching. For me, drawing is often one of the first steps to creating a story — I was one of those Always Drawing Kids, so jumping back into that medium loosens up my imagination and helps me organize my thoughts. In this early sketch I did, you can see my mind was already in the Solo-era creature shop. A lot of these guys didn’t end up in the final crew but the vibes remain constant.
Now let me take you on a quick tour of the pirates and padawans alike that we’ll be accompanying through the chaos of this uncharted era.
What’s really cool is that I was given the chance to introduce my main protagonist, Sav Malagán, in the first round of THRA. When we see her then she is old and wise, the Star Hopper Padawans look up to her and her unorthodox excellence as a Jedi. This time around we get to explore Sav’s girlhood, her boredom with the Jedi Order, and her insatiable thirst for adventure. I realized early on in writing this that Sav’s story is the opposite of Lula’s. Whereas Lula begins her journey the absolute peak of Padawan-hood, fifteen year old Sav is 100% fed the eff up with the Jedi Order. A rebellious and super talented teen through and through. I wasn’t consciously thinking about it when I set out to write this story, but I had my Sav moments coming up. There were times when the Boston public school system had my brain so fried and upside down that I couldn’t seem to flourish, no matter how hard I tried, and all I wanted to do was…basically run off with an unruly gang of space pirates.
Also returning from Phase I, is the infamous pirate queen Maz Kanata! I love writing Maz—she’s brilliant and cunning and so unabashedly herself. Writing Maz and Sav is quite different this time around; last phase we knew them as two old friends who’ve seen everything together (and, well, caused everything together). In Phase II, Sav looks up to Maz, she wants to be just like her in many ways. It is a dynamic that I have had a fun time playing with.
Speaking of dynamic, let’s get into some of Maz’s new crew! Meet Alak: he once took over an entire battle station by mistake and ended up saving a planet. Sure he’s wanted in like twenty systems, but I love this dude.
Next is Quiet Shan. It’s said if you ever hear her speak, you’re about to die. She’s also Alak’s prodigy and a fierce pirate herself.
The man who has been arrested, in Sav’s words, a bazillion times: Coromont Vizzle. They say the law is always on his back — well, one of the many ballads about his exploits says it, and he would know, because he wrote them all.
This man needs no introduction but in case you live under a rock it’s Therm Scissorpunch, the greatest glup of them all. Still amazed I got to use him for this story. Look at that absolute icon!
And here, of course, is the one and only Dexter Jettster. In this era, we meet him as a master storyteller — a side of Dex you had probably intuited from his too brief on camera moment, but I wanted to see more of it. He travels the galaxy having grand adventures and telling the tallest of tales. And the mustache!! Toni Bruno never disappoints!
Next month we’ll talk about our series baddies, the Dank Graks!
That’s all for now. Thank you all for the wizard launch, happy holidays, and I’ll see you next year!
—D