Issue 11: Star Trek, upcoming signings, and short film news!
Holy crap, there’s so much to talk about! We don’t know where to start.
“At the beginning,” we hear you say. But where to begin?
And don’t say “at the start,” that’s just rude.
NEW STUFF
Soooo the main image for this post might’ve given it away, but we’re officially writing a Star Trek comic! Let’s see that cover hotness again, because it is so good.
This is (obvs) one of the secret comic projects we’ve been talking about for the past few issues. We were asked to pitch a Janeway-focused story that would be part of Voyager’s 30th anniversary celebration, so we came up with five different concepts, and this was the one our editor Heather Antos, Paramount, and everyone else loved the most.
The basic gist is that this five-issue series picks up immediately where the series finale, “Endgame,” ends. “Endgame” is a really good finale, but… it ends with Voyager approaching Earth. We don’t get to see them actually get home, or reunite with the people they’ve missed for so long. And that always left a little hole in our hearts.
So they’re gonna get one last mission together, and then we’re gonna get ‘em home. It’s something a lot of fans have been waiting thirty years to see so, um… no pressure! Eeep.
The cover art is by Angel Hernandez, who’s also doing interiors! Colors by Charlie Kirchoff, who may also be doing interior colors but we don’t know for sure yet.
Issue 1 hits (with three covers!) in Aug/Sept from IDW!
Writing Star Trek is a literal dream come true for us. It’s the best.
May this be the first of many!
Only a couple days left to support our trans sci-fi short film! We’re shooting it in a couple weeks! AAAHHHHH! (don’t panic don’t panic)
The film’s fully funded, but we still need to cover things like film festival submission fees, a DCP (digital cinema package, which is basically everything you have to compile and send to festivals for digital projection), and the cost of reserving a theater for our screening in LA this summer (which supporters can attend by backing at the highest levels). A $25 donation or higher gets you an advance link to view the film when it’s done!
Please drop by and support it on Seed&Spark!
The LA Strong charity comic to help victims of the LA wildfires is out today, and the signing event will be at Revenge Of on Saturday, March 22! If you’re in SoCal, come on out and see the both of us (and lots of other people who contributed to the book), get your book signed, and help a great cause! Get tickets here!
Also! Tilly was part of a magazine put together by an entire team of trans creatives about TTRPGs (table-top roleplaying games) to raise money for trans charities for Trans Day of Visibility. It includes a brand new essay on the importance of TTRPGs to Tilly’s (and many trans people’s) early explorations of gender. It also includes many other articles and even ready-to-play games! Check it out!
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
Well, did we mention we’re writing a Star Trek Voyager comic? 😌
That’s gonna be a big part of what we’re doing over the next five months (we’re scripting roughly one issue per month).
We also did a zoom table read with our short film cast, which went fabulously but we forgot to grab a screenshot, so here is a poor facsimile!
There was also an in-person rehearsal to go over blocking and the physicality of some scenes between the actors, and we’re in a constant state of costume approvals and last minute substitutions, final prop designs, and a whole mess of other things.
Our shot list was cut down from 53 shots to 39, which is still a lot, but everyone thinks it’s doable in our one 12-hour day (tho it’s gonna be a long, exhausting day). We’ve also got the shot order locked, which gives us call times for the actors, when the SAG-AFTRA mandated lunch has to be, etc. etc.
As far as our other comics pitches, we’re still in a holding pattern. You didn’t uncross your fingers yet, did you?
TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE
The Trans Allegory of “Real Genius” continues through part 2 and part 3, examining the characters, their names and what they represent, and chugging along through timestamps to show you all the transness within. It’s a party! Join us, won’t you?
Tilly Bridges
Tilly Bridges
RECOMMENDATIONS
It’s old now, but check out the videogame State of Decay 2 (3 is on the way but still about a year out). It’s a zombie survival horror game, which may seem weird to be playing at the moment given *gestures vaguely at the entire world*, but videogames are one of the few ways we have of shutting off the writer-brain (probably because we haven’t written for any yet). And that’s vital when you’re in the middle of tons of projects. We find that videogames are also a great way to tune the world out for a while, when it all gets to be too much. And SoD2 is as much or even more about community management than it is about killing zombies. We actually avoid the zombies when we can, it’s about stealth and quiet and finding what you need to keep your small community going and even help them be happy in a miserable world, and right now that feels kinda good actually.
THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH
Henry has this recurring eye infection that just happens from time to time, and we have prescription eyedrops to give him. But he hates them, and if he sees us coming to grab him for them (or hears us talking about him) he takes off and hides. So we’ve given him the codename MEATBALL so he won’t know when we’re talking about apprehending him so we can help him, but no we’re monsters, just ask him.
Anyway when his eye gets bad he doesn’t feel great, and we walked into the living room to see this. Why do they look like we caught them being nice and they’re embarrassed about it?
But then they just… kept doing it.
That spot where Henry is? It’s apparently the best seat on the couch and is hotly contested. Izzy kicks him out of it often, and sometimes he does the same to her. But this time he very, very lazily swatted at her leg once, and then they just… went to sleep.
We think Izzy knew he was feeling bad and maybe she was trying to make him feel better, but of course he will never ever accept a cuddle, so she just got as close as she could. She’s such a little sweetheart (and occasional menace), and he honestly doesn’t deserve to be treated so sweetly by her since he’s still often such a jerk to her. I mean, she’s learned to give as good as she gets, but still.
All of us keep loving him anyway, he’s our angry little Dirtbag. 💜
WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?
Big Time issue 11 goes into the process of casting our short film, and how it was both wonderful and incredibly difficult (and fulfilling and heartbreaking) all at the same time.
Plus you get the Cannibal Planets comic page 4! What a deal!
Sign up for it and make us so happy!
Tilly Bridges
THE END
Heyyy, the next issue of this will come out in mid-April, because next weekend Tilly is doing a book signing and talk at a bookstore, and then we will be at WonderCon on Saturday only (find Tilly at the PRISM Comics booth from 9:30 – 11 am, and both of us on the Women in Comics panel at noon in room 213 CD), and then it’s our short film shooting day!
We are gonna be pooped.
Sometimes even the Bridgeseseses need to rest and recover. Maybe you do too. Go relax for a while, that’s an order!
SOCIALS
Tilly’s Bluesky
Susan’s Bluesky
Writing website
http://www.birdguest.com
