Issue 21: Voyager issue 1 roundup, film fest news, and Begin Transmission is back!
Holy wow.
Um, dang.
So much has happened!
NEW STUFF
As you saw in the opening graphic, and in the one above, the first issue of our Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming comic shot to the top of the sales charts?!
Annnnd, uh, then this happened:
WE
ARE
DEAD.
Well, we were dead, and then on Sept. 8 (Star Trek Day!), this happened (posted to all her social media accounts):
Now we are REALLY, MOST SINCERELY DEAD.
Mega thanks to the legend that is Kate Mulgrew for supporting our book (and making us scream and then die, twice).
The response to the first issue has been so overwhelming, it’s honestly a lot to take in. That first issue was so tough to write, and while we love it we truly think the next four are even better, where the entire focus is just on the story we wanted to tell.
It’d been a wild week. Here are just some of the reviews!
“…exactly the fast-paced book I was hoping it would be, and even being teased with a few plot points, it still managed to surprise the hell out of me.”
Comic of the week pick! “This issue launches a thrilling continuation of the beloved series… promises emotional depth, high stakes, and long-awaited closure for fans of the show.”
10/10!!
“…I can honestly say that it has changed my perspective on past episodes and made me rethink past interactions. This only shows just how well these writers know and love the source material.”
“…an engaging, thrilling and thoroughly entertaining story…”
“…it’s fantastic! …there is a great plot twist… it really does amp up the action.”
We were also interviewed about the book by Trek Brasilis! They translated the interview to Portuguese, but you can translate it back and kind of get the gist. They seemingly pulled some info from other interviews we’ve done as well, because there’s stuff in this interview we didn’t tell them because they didn’t ask!
Here's another interview (in English)! It does contain some mild spoilers for Issue 1, however, so be ye warned!
Annnnd here’s the last of the Trek comic writers group interviews we did from SDCC, which just went up this week!
One final Trek-related thing (for now)… we were guests on the This is Getting Graphic podcast to talk a little bit about Homecoming and a whole lot about a book we love, the Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way comic. We chose the book to discuss on this episode, and we picked it before it won the recent Hugo Award! So what we’re saying is we have excellent taste.
Long Away had its US premiere last weekend, at the Long Beach QFilm Festival in Long Beach, California!
We got to watch it along with some other really fabulous trans short films, and be part of a panel discussion with one of the other directors after!
And on the same day, it played at the FP Arts Short Film Festival in Scotland! It’s kinda surreal that it played on opposite ends of the earth on the same day!
We also found out the film made it into the Seattle Film Fest, which meant you could buy tickets to stream it online through… last weekend. And then vote on it after watching, and the films with the best (or most? unclear) votes make it to the in-person theater screenings part of the festival. We knew we made it into at least the online portion a while back, but didn’t know it was up for viewing until four days before the end of the online run.
Which is sad, because that might be the only way for many folks (who missed the crowdfund) to see it before we can make it freely available online around the end of 2026, if it doesn't get into a festival geographically near them.
Every festival is so different about their notifications and what they do or do not tell you, information-wise, but it’s nice that we made it in!
Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of The Matrix finally had all its formats and reviews reinstated on Amazon, over two weeks after they disappeared. Still no explanation as to why it happened.
Some people who had their Kindle versions of the book removed without authorization from their devices have reported the book is back on them again. If yours was removed and you didn’t get it back, let us know and we’ll get you a copy and make it right!
The book is, sadly, seemingly still having its title and cover censored to people who buy it, like it’s pornographic… which is less than great. Who knows if there’s anything to be done to change it back.
For a few days after the missing formats returned, the "products related to this item" Amazon offered with it were all... seemingly pornographic. We worried this was a quick slide into declaring all queer and trans art (and people) pornographic by default like the present administration wants, but thankfully it seems to be fixed now.
Oh wait, back to Star Trek for a second! (look, we told you we were only stopping “for now). Signed copies of Voyager Homecoming issue 1 are now up in our ko-fi shop! Get one if you want!
Final order cutoff for Voyager: Homecoming issue 2 is still September 15, so be sure you’ve got your order in at your comic shop!
And still beware the preview for issue 3 that’s out in the wild, because it’s CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS!
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
The Homecoming issue 5 script is approved by Paramount, and officially locked and done! We’re still looking at art as it comes in and doing lettering passes on each issue (and writing little recaps of the previous issue to put at the start of the next), but the bulk of the work on the book, for us, is done. Really hope we’re writing more Trek again soon, we could literally do it forever.
The editor who asked us to pitch for an IP has requested some tweaks to the pitch to help it get okayed by the license holder. And the editor we have an original pitch in with asked for some more details on part of it, so we’re going to be doing those revisions too.
Still waiting to hear back from other editors on other pitches, and waiting to be sent to revision on the animation episode we wrote.
And hoping somewhere in here we somehow get staffed on a show (ha ha, the industry is such a mess).
Somewhere in there… we’re going to start scripting that new pilot. Totes fer sure.
TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE
The past two weeks have been all about debunking the “trans women can’t compete with cis women in sports” nonsense. We started with evidence that literal nazis originated this bullshit, and that all of sports operates on “unfair advantages.” And then went on to the actual science which shows that trans women don’t have any actual advantages anyway (and are actually at a disadvantage physically), and that naked bigotry is behind it all. It’s just to set precedent that “trans women aren’t really women,” and if we’re not women in sports, how can they be women in any other aspect of society? The bigots have actually admitted this is what they’re doing.
Do not fall for it! If you've got people "just asking questions" about this propaganda, direct them to the essays linked above, or to hear it discussed in the podcast version of both episodes!
RECOMMENDATIONS
Since we loved this comic so much that we talked about it for two hours on a podcast, it feels like the right time to mention it here, too. It’s not just a fabulous Lower Decks comic adaptation, it’s not just a choose your own adventure comic… it’s something truly unique in ways we can’t explain without spoilers. And we won’t do that, because it’s really something you need to experience for yourself.
It truly takes advantage of both the comics medium and the choose your own adventure style of storytelling in a brilliant and unique new way, and was very deserving of its Hugo Award. Check it out, because it’s a really amazing read.
THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH
There’s a squirrel that loves the jade plants we have in pots on our balcony, because the leaves are juicy inside and it’s been very hot here (welcome to LA in August and September, the hottest months of the year).
There are these little tiny ledges that stick out under our bedroom window, and they serve no purpose. They’re like three inches long and stick out three inches from the building, and don’t connect to each other or anything else. Why are they there? Who knows, why does anyone do anything?
But this squirrel loves to jump to one from our balcony railing, and hop across them all really quickly, like Mario sproinging across brick blocks, to get to the railing of the neighboring apartment’s balcony. And one day there was just a huge crash of the blinds in our bedroom window, and there were Henry and the squirrel in a stare-down.
The squirrel would then leave around the corner, and then come back and look at Henry again. I think it was taunting him. He probably deserves it.
Izzy, meanwhile… continues her Izzy ways.
WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?
Big Time issue 21 talks about the importance of a call sheet to running a smooth and organized shoot, and you get to see the actual call sheet for our short film, Long Away!
Sign up for it at birdguestbroadcast.com and help us pay rent and eat food and stuff!
THE END
Hey, there’s a lot going on.
Some of it’s really tough.
Be sure to take care of yourself, okay?
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