A Star Wars comic 10 years in the making ... sort of

For years, I have been pitching a Jyn Erso story to anyone who would listen.

The doomed revolutionary who led the mission to recover the secret plans to the death star, played by Felicity Jones in “Rogue One,” has resonated with me on a personal level since I first watched the film at the Hollywood premiere. As someone who lost my father, the man who introduced me to a lifelong love of Star Wars, at about the age she does in the film, I related to her instantly.

At the time I was a film journalist for the New York Daily News, and I had the chance to interview Jones weeks earlier. I brought up how meaningful the character would be for my then 12-year-old daughter’s generation.

“She is someone who has great humanity, she is someone who has an independent spirit and lives by her beliefs, and I think there’s something wonderful about her for a young girl to admire,” Jones told me at the time.  

That’s not limited to young girls. The fact that Jyn never lost her innate goodness despite the trials and tribulations the galaxy threw at her, made her my favorite character by the time Scarif was engulfed in a super-laser explosion and the credits rolled to thunderous applause from the premiere crowd at the Pantages Theatre.

I left wishing there more stories about Jyn’s journey. A few years later when I became a comic book writer, I started to think about what those stories could be. 

This week, I finally got the chance to tell one of those stories in STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE – JYN ESO #1, available at a comic store near you.

I hope I did Jones and the character justice, but of course it helps to have the cinematic art of Ramon Rosanas making every panel look like a film frame, the mood-setting coloring by Guru-eFX, and the pitch-perfect lettering of Travis Lanham to elevate my script 

It took ten years to write this love letter, and I hope it comes across on the page