Tie-In Books

45/4/23

The Ballad of Shirtless Lou

Happy May the Fourth, everyone! In the spirit of this Star Wars-themed quasi-holiday, I wanted to share a Star Wars-themed story. A few years ago, I wrote a LEGO Star Wars book called The Official Stormtrooper Training Manual, which was published by Scholastic in 2016. I decided to write it from the POV of a stormtrooper. So the idea is that an ordinary, lunkheaded stormtrooper is narrating the book. On the section of the book which deals with the “AT-AT” vehicles, I wrote the following joke (among many others):

“The AT-AT is often the first thing sent into a combat zone. The LAST thing sent onto a combat zone is a stormtrooper named ‘Shirtless Lou,’ who has the words WE WON painted on his belly.”

And I didn’t think anything more of the joke after that. Like I said, it was just one of many jokes I jammed into a very joke-heavy book.

But then, years later, while looking through the comments section on the book’s Amazon page (why I was doing that I don’t really know, it’s not a healthy thing to do), I saw the following comment from a parent:

“The text is full of silly jokes that crack my 5 year old Star Wars superfan up. There’s a reference to ‘Shirtless Lou,’ the last stormtrooper to go into battle, that made him laugh so hard that I ordered the Batman-in-swimsuit minifigure and swapped that torso with a stormtrooper so he could have his own Shirtless Lou, and he plays with him all the time. Shirtless Lou is always doing something silly during stormtrooper training and causing Captain Phasma all kinds of headaches.”

Reading that totally made my day. I was – and still am – very happy that somebody appreciated The Official Stormtrooper Training Manual enough to write such a flattering comment about it. And now I’m just upset that I never pitched a “Shirtless Lou” spin-off book, because apparently there’s at least one kid out there who’d read that book.  

But the saga of Shirtless Lou doesn’t end there.

Later on, I noticed that someone decided to give Shirtless Lou his own entry in Wookieepedia, the (crowd-sourced, fan-edited) Star Wars Wiki. Here’s the Wookieepedia description of Shirtless Lou:

“Lou, nicknamed ‘Shirtless Lou,’ was a human male stormtrooper of the Galactic Empire. He was considered to be the last thing sent into combat zones, as he had the words ‘WE WON’ painted on his belly.”

Which is…fine. I mean, Shirtless Lou’s Wookieepedia entry is totally accurate, in a way. It never mentions that The Official Stormtrooper Training Manual is a humor book, which is kind of an important detail to leave out, but whatever. Again, I’m just flattered that somebody at Wookieepedia mentioned Shirtless Lou.

I guess my point is that my little one-off joke about Shirtless Lou was apparently a good one, because people seem to have taken notice of it. And as a writer, sometimes you never know which stories (or jokes) people will respond to, and which ones they’ll ignore.

Also, if they somehow work Shirtless Lou into the Ahsoka Disney Plus series, or the fourth season of The Mandalorian, that little shirtless dude will have truly made the big time.

 

 

31/3/23

Great Scott! The Back to the Future Little Golden Book Is Out NOW!

Hey, everybody! Happy New Year, aka Happy two days after Public Domain Day, aka Happy December 34th! (It would be December 34th, if it wasn’t for stupid January. Thanks for nothing, January!) Guess what? I have some news! 

Over the past several years, I’ve written quite a few Little Golden Books for Penguin Random House. Some of them are adaptations of famous movies. Most recently, I wrote The Back to the Future Little Golden Book, which came out today from PRH.

As you may have guessed based on the title, it’s an adaptation of the classic 1985 film Back to the Future, written as a Little Golden Book for very young readers.

Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies and I saw it SO many times when I was a kid (ask me some time about my childhood theory that the movie is a loose adaptation of The Hobbit). So it was a real thrill to write this book.

The Back to the Future Little Golden Book was illustrated by the brilliant Meg Dunn.

And much like The E.T. Little Golden Book (which I also wrote), The BTTF LGB is not just a Little Golden Book, but a Funko Pop Little Golden Book! That means that Meg Dunn drew all of the characters in the iconic, super-adorable Funko Pop style.

Also…

Check out the book’s page on the Penguin Random House site.

Check out the Amazon page for the book.

And you can buy it via the official Back to the Future site.

Find out more about some of the other books I’ve written for Penguin Random House.

 

2112/21/22

The E.T. LGB Is In The Beat Holiday Gift Guide!

Happy holidays, fellow earthlings! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wrote The E.T. Little Golden Book, which is out now from Penguin Random House. The book was illustrated by the amazing Chris Fennell, and it’s a retelling of the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In fact, it was published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of that film. It’s also a Funko Pop Little Golden Book, so Chris Fennell drew all of the characters in the adorable Funko Pop style.

I first saw E.T. when I was a kid, and I remember thinking that it was the first time I’d seen a movie where the kids talked like REAL kids. The dialogue sounded authentic. Whenever Elliott, Michael, and Gertie spoke to each other they were saying things actual kids might say, rather than some adult’s not-very-accurate approximation of how they thought kids spoke. That’s a testament to the talent of screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. * She was able to remember the thoughts and feelings she experienced when she was a kid, and she was able to accurately reproduce those thoughts and feelings on the page. That’s a rare gift.

And speaking of gifts…

Earlier this month, The E.T. LGB was mentioned in The Beat’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide! If you scroll down to the section titled “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 40th Anniversary Gifts ‘N Things,” you’ll see that Beat writer Rebecca Oliver Kaplan was kind enough to name-check the book (and to name-check me as well). Thanks, Rebecca!

 

 

 

* And yes, it’s also a testament to the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, and the exceptional cast he assembled. I’m not trying to minimize their contributions to this movie at all. This was obviously a very personal film for Spielberg, and it shows. But when people talk about E.T. and how great it is, sometimes Melissa Mathison’s name gets left out of the conversation, which is absurd, because she was such a key component of that movie’s success.

 

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