Tommy Stella - ATGLive March 21, 2024 - Around the Galaxy

Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
You este to Around the Galaxy.Welcome to a Round the Galaxy, the

(00:35):
Star Wars fan talk show. Iam one of your hosts, Pete Fletzer,
and along with my co host NickMilke, we take you on a
journey meeting the people behind the StarWars fandom, capturing that magic moment when
Star Wars fans meet, now youknow the drill. Typically, we embark
on one hour long journey's peeling backthe layers of the Star Wars fandom with
our amazing guests. But this episodeis from Force Connect, our weekly segment

(00:57):
on our show atg Live where weget together on Thursday nights on our YouTube
channel and you can join us there. In these captivating twenty to twenty five
minute conversations, we explore the galaxieswonders with some of the most intriguing personalities
around in folks. This week's guestis sure to leave you wanting more.
Joining us today is none other thanTommy Stella, a comic book writer and

(01:19):
Internet sensation Hailing from the bustling streetsof New York City. Tommy's tails are
a blend of the surreal and thefantastical, crafting characters and narratives that resonate
deeply with his fans from his workslike The Days at the End and Mustn't
Tell. Tommy's creative genius knows nobounds. And speaking of must Intel,
He's currently running a Kickstarter campaign forthat multi part comic, so please make

(01:42):
sure to check that out and showyour support. Tommy's not just any comic
book officionado though, no, nono, He's a die hard fan of
those obscure Star Wars characters, theones that we lovingly refer to as glup
shadows, So make sure to checkthat out. Remember to subscribe and hit
that notification bell so we never missyou on one of our shows sharing the
Star Wars magic on around the galaxy, and don't forget to join us live

(02:04):
every Thursday night for ATG Live,where we cover all the latest Star Wars
news and feature special guests like TommyStella and this Thursday we're joined by Clayton
Sandel and st Bendy talking about theirbrand new return of the Jedi Visual Archive
Book. You are not going towant to miss that. Connect with us
on our website, the SSW networkdot com, and follow us on all
your social media channels at VSSW networkdot com. You can also join us

(02:28):
as a patron for as little asthree dollars a month. You'll get free
swag and discounts on our merch,plus be able to join us when we
do our in depth Star Wars interviewswith celebrities on Around the Galaxy, and
now, without further ado, ourconversation with Tommy Stella, Tommy there is

(02:51):
Hi. Can you fear me?Is is this working? Yes? Man?
Here you I've been watching you guys, you know, for thirty minutes
now, and it feels so weirdto watch a podcast and then all of
a sudden, you're like in apodcast. I got so comfortable just watching
like this is fun. I'll justwatch this for Oh shit, I gotta
talk. Oh wait, I'm onthat They're gonna ask me stuff now.

(03:13):
Gosh ye. Well, Tommy,for those that don't know who you are,
what you do, and why you'rehere, maybe give us a little
bit of your your background and tellus little about yourself. Yeah. So,
as they said, I'm an Internetsensation. This is a terrifying thing
to live up to Internet an Internetguy. Internet nuisance is probably the best
way to say it. But Iwrite comics. I tweet things that people

(03:38):
like. I just kind of makethings exist in the world. Not the
real world, but like in thefake world in my head, you know.
Yeah, And I like Star Warsa lot. I'm adjacent to the
franchise. A lot of people knowme from that, from my nonsense,
from meeting me at celebration, whichwas always fun. Yeah. Right now,
I'm mainly focused on writing comic books. Hopefully what you will know me

(04:00):
as absolutely well. And like Isaid, we have said, I call
you a Internet sensation because you're oneof those fun people that like you're engaging
with other people and it's funny.You're engaging with your own thoughts and they're
funny. They're with Like I haveanother podcast as a sports podecast I've listened
to for almost twenty five years now, and you know, smart and funny

(04:23):
is his thing. He's like,if you're smart and funny, like that
gets the job done. And Ifeel like that's what I relate to him
when I see that in your tweetsand so, you know, followed you
years ago and all that kind ofstuff, but you are a Star Wars
fan. So I want to dothis for a minute, take us back
to the beginning. Where did youfirst encounter Star Wars? How did it
start for you? What's your originstory? Uh? I mean, so

(04:45):
Phantom Menace came out when I wassayink five or six, and I was
just the pure victim of that marketingcampaign. Want to go to the toy
store when you're a little kid andyou just see like, and let's be
honest, it was comprehensive as awhole marketing kid. Like I can still
remember like the layout of the toyaisle for Phantom Menace and it was like

(05:05):
my first memory that I have,Like that's how And I know George like
sent people in or whatever to likeput everything specifically where he wanted whatever.
But it worked. I think Iplayed with the toys way more than I
watched the movie. I was justlike they were like, here's a sword.
You can hit your friends with this, and we're not gonna be mad
at you. Just don't hit themtoo hard. Find that nice, gentle

(05:26):
amount to hit them with and you'llbe fine. You're playing the movie.
So I think that was the initialStar I was like Final Lightsaber, and
then from there, you know,the Phantom Menace came out. And six
year old me really loved the tradedispute talk that was they are going here,
this is really cool. I didn'twant the pod racing hit. Remember

(05:46):
being a kid, I think Ilike gained sentience during the pod racing scene.
There was a moment there was likemaybe you really did like the politics
when it was five years old.I didn't even I remember like years later
when I mean I was like probablyten or twelve people joking about the politic
the trade and the politics and allthat, Like that wasn't in the movie
are you talking about? They werekilling each other, they had the pod
racer. That's what the movie wasabout. That's cool. Cool. So

(06:12):
so you you're a writer specifically ofcomics, but tell us a little bit
about how Star Wars you know.Again, so it's interesting because Phantom Menace
is getting the big re release forthe twenty fifth anniversary. But how did
how did the Phantom Menace kind ofinfluence what you're doing and where what you
know? Sort of did it drivethe question kind of we ask a lot

(06:35):
of our guests is did Star Warsinfluence you to go to where you did
or and what was the path?Because sometimes it's not like, well,
I saw Star Wars, I decidedto be a writers. I saw Star
Wars, I got into this,and then I did that, and then
I did this, and hey,I'm back to Star Wars. So what's
what's that story look like? Yeah? I mean I think I would credit
like Phantom Menace with kind of likeexploding my imagination, which directly led into

(06:57):
this. That's why I first learnedwhat Star Wars was was during that whole
push, and then my family wentto Disney World like all the time,
so then I would go there andI would experience it in that kind of
way. And I think with likeStar Wars, which is the Star Wars.
Yeah, like being fully surrounded byhis story and by like this this
world that I just learned about.I think specifically like Star Toars like felt

(07:20):
a little bit more concrete than alot of the other rides that were there,
Like you were really fully encapsulated init. I just like made me
think, like I was like,how I want this forever? Like what
else is there for this? Andthen I was like, oh, there's
three other movies. That's cool,we go watch those. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that like that desire forlike escapism and for all these fictional

(07:43):
stories led into my love for justcreativity and just wanting to make things.
You know, it was never necessarilyeven about storytelling. It was just about
like letting people get lost in adifferent world for a little bit. And
yeah, like I can thank thetoys r Us phantomnic Style for that one.
And So if you were given thechance, if if, if you

(08:05):
could write a Star Wars story,what what era would you write it in?
And what would you what kind ofstory would you want to tell?
I? I mean, I likepart of me wants to do something small,
just because I think with the smallercharacters you get a little bit more
freedom. Yeah, like the youknow, obviously I want to say like

(08:26):
Droopy McCool right now, because that'smy whole thing. But really, just
like any character that I can liketake on some kind of journey that means
something. So I don't I don'tnecessarily need to write like a Han Solo
or a Luke Skywalker. I wouldjust want to write someone who you know,
you get to play with their actionfigure a little bit more. Maybe
it doesn't need to go back inthe box afterwards. It can be left

(08:46):
in the in the in the Sandboxor something like that. But I'm still
gonna say, Droopy McCool, I'mstill gonna you are you know you're a
love of funny side characters, DroopyMcCool, all the other ones. The

(09:07):
question I wrote, and this ismy own personal agenda. I was gonna
say, some people call them aglup shadow. I was gonna say,
who is the best one and whyis it? Goal the leak the licking
Jedi monster from Return of the Jedithat's on the ceiling of Javis Pallace.
So if we take Droopy off thetable, who are your other favorite weird
somebody else is in Star Wars.Uh, it's a shame we have to

(09:30):
take Droopy off the table. ButI think keep doing on the table in
the first place. I think it'sa better question. That's right playing music's
solo, I think, uh,like a like a like a Nbs is
obviously a good one. That's someoneI've been. I don't know how I
got associated with Nubbs, but Iam that just kind of happened. I

(09:52):
like another way, like if Ihad a second option of like what to
write for Star Wars. Actually,this isn't just like a little bit like
I do like Star Towards a lot. I think a comic series, but
that would be really cool, soobviously, like and Rex would be like
the main focus of it in someway, shape or form. But I
always just love those like side StarWars things like a little like I'm a

(10:13):
victim of marketing, so like anytimethey do like a video game or just
a side story, like all Icare about. I think, like a
Star Toars comic series would be reallycool to do with Rex in charge.
See I think I think Rex isactually my different answer. I like that,
and I love Star Tours. I'msorry, Pete, but yeah,
that's another one of those ones thatlike as a kid who grew up in

(10:37):
the eighties and you know when StarTours came out in the late eighties early
nineties and became a thing, Likeeven now, I spend way too much
time on eBay in my own BrandonMinerdi looking at all the old you know,
Star Tours merchandise and posters and thingsthat I'm going I need that in
my life, but I can't makeunsound financial decisions in order to claim them.

(11:00):
Now you can't. Star Wars fine, which it's interesting because I I
wonder if with all the Star Warsand you know, on the one hand,
it's fantastic and amazing and wild upbetween comic books and novels and television
shows, we have backstories and onall kinds of characters. But you know,

(11:22):
between Phantom Menace and the original trilogyand of course the prequel trilogy,
there was always all these characters thatwe got to love and create our own
stories for them. And I wonderif that's still if that's still a thing,
if that's still you know, becausethere are so many stories out there

(11:43):
being told. What are your thoughtson that? Yeah, I mean I
think the whole from a certain pointof view kind of like started to tackle
that, but I think we cango keeper. I think we got to
go from like an even more certainpoint of view. I just I've always
like when I remember learning that youknow, there are the characters and then
there's the characters behind them, andlike, like I think a bit of

(12:03):
like Star Wars trivia, for likethe common person back in the day was
like every single one of them hasa name, and every single one of
them as a BackStar. They won'tcrazy whoa that's a wild like I think
it that's that's probably the best partabout it. And I and I think
it'd be really cool to just giveevery single one of them like a little
bit more than just an encyclopedia page. I just think there's so many like

(12:26):
little nifty details that you can kindof just add on to and and and
you know, like we're the coolthing about Star Wars is that it mirrors
our own world so much and justlike specifically like hope, streams, expectations,
you know, all that, AndI think giving those to the people
who aren't saving the galaxy, justthe everyday people in the background, is

(12:46):
like a really cool opportunity to showthat, you know, even if you're
not blown up to death star,maybe you're just going to work, you
can still have like a cool littlelike personal story. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. And I think,you know, that's that's all part of
a lot of the stuff that we'reI think Disney plus gives us that opportunity
to learn some of these stories.Wikipedia has been I can't tell you how

(13:07):
many times I've done to Wikipedia inmy life. But you know, we
just you heard us talk a littlebit about at the top of the show,
and we're going to get into ita little bit more. But the
talking Star Wars here is asking thisquestions was also on my list for you.
The trailer drop, what what?What's your initial reaction? What are
your thoughts on the show? Whatare you excited about? What are your

(13:28):
big predictions? Yeah? Where where? Where? Where do you come out
on the the the accolade era thatwe're living in now? I mean,
it's it's a crying shame that there'sno white guys in it. You know,
if only Star Wars at some pointhad white guys in it. There's

(13:48):
not a there's not a guy withbrown hair that I attached myself to.
I don't know what action. Imean, no one's gonna want to.
I can't. I don't have arole to play a recess, and so
I just don't think I can relateto this anymore. I'm gonna have to
go. I'll see y'all later.Star Wars has moved beyond me. I
have to be a girl, noI I My like best and worst quality

(14:11):
as someone who takes in entertainment isthat I get bored very easily. I
don't think things are bad easily.I just get bored easily. And like
I see a lot of tropes andthings like that, and that's true for
like every thing that comes out,every every every ip, every franchise and
all that. And I think Accoladeis like one of the first things Star
Wars has done in a bit whereI'm just like, I don't know what
this is. This is completely outof left field. You know. It's

(14:35):
cool that they're doing a different timeperiod. Obviously it's like shoehorned in between
two very known time periods right now, but like it's like perfectly in between
that anything could happen, and Ithink that's exciting. Like I'm ready to
not know what's gonna happen next weekbecause there's no like place they have to
get to by the end of it. You know. Yeah, I think

(14:56):
it looks incredible. I was inthe room last year for some libration for
the Higher Public panel when they showedit, and it was like the crazy
I went to the Taylor Swift Arrowstour and it was comparable to that,
like if people were wow speaking outand it was wonderful. Wow. And
you're you're a big High Republic fan, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah see,

(15:16):
And I'm curious because as Nick andI have readily admitted where we're not
hugely and it, which is simplybecause you know that you got to draw
the line somewhere, and it's notthat. I mean, I started listening
to and I'm about three hours awaythrough the first book, Charles wrote Charles
sol I believe right, So fantasticbook. But man, it's what I

(15:41):
love about it. And I'm hopefulin the show. And again we'll get
into it a little bit more lateron the show too, but I'm hopeful
that anything can happen. And Ithink you're ready with that. The fact
that it's not Skywalker sog Like.We knew Anakin was not going to die,
we knew Obi Wan was not goingto die, we knew the Emperor
was going to survive. We werepretty sure that pad May might not make

(16:02):
it. So in this case,is Carrie and Moss going to make it
past the first twenty minutes? Wedon't know. We just don't know,
so uh And I love that.And I think that's that's what makes sures
like Game is Thrown so good,is that you just it doesn't matter who's
starring, It doesn't matter how bigof a role they are or actor they
are. They the fact that anythingcan happen, and again it doesn't need

(16:23):
to be deaths, but just thattheir story can go in any direction we're
not held to it is is huge. So that's kind of that's where I'm
at on that as well. Yeah, no, And I think that's why
they market the High Republic as everyone'sdying in this because everyone can die,
you know, I think not thatmany. I mean there's a ton of
deaths in the High Republic, butlike there's still a billion characters left.

(16:45):
But it's more enticing that at anymoment, one of these beloved characters,
and they're all beloved. That's abig priority for them is to make every
single character really fun. They couldjust explode, and I think that's really
grim, but it's fun, youknow, yeah, literally explode, opening
up blind the Jedi is like halfthe people in the book die immediately.

(17:07):
It's a lot of fun. Yeah, And we do have a question from
the chat. I want to bringthis one up because we did talk about
clup Shadows. We have a goodfriend of the show, Eric Elliott.
He asks the question, does Tommyappreciate Claude and his contribution to saving the

(17:29):
galaxy. This is important for Eric, I think. So I like his
uh like his gay cousin from JediSurvivor a bit more. I think that's
the same species, right, theother one. But yeah, yeah,
he's cool. I'm happy for him. I think he could have done a
little bit more, you know.But also I think if they should have
gave him a little bit more responsibility. I think if Claude was there from

(17:52):
the Force Awakens, I think uhTylo would have been murdered immediately, you
know. Yeah, I mean,let's let's get it out of the way.
Can't. You can't fight the powerof Claude, right, what doesn't
show weakness? And then I thinkthat's what's really important. He's a strategist
and he just goes in for thekill. So I do appreciate it.
Get it out of the way.Yeah, he's work smarter, not harder,

(18:15):
right, Yeah. I have somuch appreciation for the fact that he
was making repairs on the falcon withouta single hand, like he just kind
of slithers by it in the spot, just taking care of things him move
it all. To be honest,maybe they pick him up and move it

(18:37):
over outside. Now you're coming withus Yeah. Well, Timmy, we've
talked about how you're a comic bookwriter. We want to get into your
work, the things that you've gotgoing on. You have several comic books
out, you have a Kickstarter thatI know that is going on. I
know I read recently, certainly inpreparation for you coming on. I will
admit that before I was like,oh, yeah, I need to get

(18:59):
to that, and I never did. But when you're coming I read.
I downloaded and read the Days,which was fantastic. I really enjoyed that.
Ye. I love you know,yeah, I love I have the
connection to you know. It dealswith brief and it talks about real life
things that you know are key andimportant. But tell us about your comic
book work. Tell us about thestuff you've got out the Kickstarter. What
all you've got going on? Yeah, just the part I'm always bad at.

(19:22):
Yeah. Right now, we're kickstartinga series called Mustn't Tell. It's
a five issues, all ages horrorstory. Right now, the kickstarters for
issues one and two. It's basicallyit's it's like a kind of a classic
horror story. It's it's kind ofcomparable to like Stranger Things, but set
in like the mid two thousands tobest friend named Ryan and Jake, and
most of the stories just them tryingto kill a monster that's haunting Ryan's house.

(19:47):
It's full of like a ton ofjokes. I'm kind of calling it
like what if Disney made an animatedhorror movie because a lot of like emotional
beats. There's a lot of likethings to tie into, like mental health
and anxiety. Yeah, it's justit's my first ever i CA starter and
it's been an absolutely insane experience.It's fully funded, which is cool,
but now we're trying to get tothe stretch goals and all that, which
is a whole nother beast, butuh yeah, it's not there, and

(20:10):
it's it's a lot of fun.And I think if like people aren't super
used to comic books, like maybethey're more of like TV show movies people,
it's a really good spot to getinto comics. It's going to be
a very accessorl story. I don'tneed to know anything to go into it,
just it is what it is.I think that's what I loved about
The Days, which was it wasyou know, I was worried when I

(20:32):
first started reading. I was like, am I gonna have to read three
or four of these, but no, there's a complete story and I want
more. And it was and Ithink I think you're right. I think
that gives you a kickstarter and thesort of independent comics. You know,
it's very similar to the independent musicscene, right in that if I like
that band, or if I likethat writer or that artist, I can

(20:53):
because and I think this is partof your social media presence as well as
people love what you're doing and yougauge. We talked a little bit about
it before you before we brought youout, about how Star Wars is doing
that now with their fans. They'reengaging and you know, people start to
see that, Yeah, I couldsee that sounds kind of porny and weird,
but I could see your personality inthe days when I read it,

(21:17):
and I'm looking forward to seeing that. It mustn't tell And I haven't read
the The Garf story yet though,but I'm afraid to because it just seems
like it's it's gonna shatter me.Yeah. No, no, it's definitely
a priority for me to like makemyself accessible. I think that's kind of
like the modern day creative person issomeone that. I think it's just what

(21:37):
we're used to with social media andstuff, Like, I think beyond just
your works, like just knowing theperson that's creating it is like a bonus
kind of thing to the whole experience. Like, like a lot of the
younger generation, who is what I'maiming a lot of my stories at,
They're used to influencers and social mediaand all that. Right, So when
I do stories, it's both likea part of me that I'm sharing with
you, but also hopefully a reallyfun story. So yeah, so it's

(22:00):
nice that you notice that because itis a big priority to like be accessible.
And how long does it take youto develop these stories? And do
you prefer writing in this sort ofone off, contained story or do you
do you have visions of wanting tocreate sort of an ongoing serialized story.
I mean, as far as thatgoes, it's like I like the one

(22:22):
shots because I get to like doa beginning, middle, and end.
I think one of the scary thingsof comics is that they're expected to go
on forever. You know, whenwriting like a Spider Man, the goal
is to write a billion Spider Mancomics, right, And my brain doesn't
really work in that kind of way, Like I I would get bored myself
writing you know, just the samething over and over again. So when

(22:44):
I go into a story, likeif I don't have the ending, I
don't really like starting it. Sosomething I mustn't tell is my first like
full series kind of thing. Imean when I when I first did the
one shots, it was mainly justbecause when you're starting off as a comic
writer, it's really hard to keepartists because they're all also starting off as
an artist, and doing writing comicsis very easy once you have the idea

(23:04):
to do a script in like atwo days, whereas the art takes like
a month on average. So Idid the one shots is kind of like
a way to do a begin inthe middle and end, retain the artist
kind of just like tell a fullstory, say it is what I'm capable
of without having to worry about likean unresolved cliffhanger or something like that.

(23:25):
So I mustn't tell. It's stillit's still a five issues, still relatively
shortened the comic world, but Igot to like kind of expand on the
characters while still like knowing what theending is going to be. And not
have that like weird mystery kind ofperiod where things just kind of float through
and there's like filler. M mhmm. Yeah, that's so cool.
And I love that you can pour, you know, that individual personality into

(23:48):
it. Like we said, whetherit's a garf story, whether it's you
know, whatever it is, likeyou get to not only put yourself into
that art that obviously created, butthen you get to put it out there
in the world, and when weread it and we know your present,
we go, oh, yeah,that's timy, Like I feel, you
know, your presence is imbued intothe things that you create, and I
think that's really something that special thatartists get to do. And you know,

(24:10):
as someone who's not an artist,I'm jealous of that. So thank
you for putting that out into theworld. Thank you for being willing to
be vulnerable to share stories, whetherit's grief because we don't know that could
be connected to your life, thatcould be connected to someone personal that you
know, and I think those arepowerful moments that we love. You know.
We had that conversation with Ethan Sachsand he told the story about his
daughter and the difficult times they wentthrough, which led to a story that

(24:33):
he told. So that's the powerin you know, certainly narrative art,
as we said at the top ofthe show, and you're a key part
and a player in that. Sothank you for sharing that with us.
More importantly, thank you for hangingout with the two of us tonight.
Thank you for coming by I spendingsome time. This has been a ton
of fun. Before we get youout of here, tell everybody where they

(24:53):
can find you, how they canfollow you, where they can get your
comics, read it, all thatgood stuff. Yeah, you can follow
me on Twitter. It's Tommy UnderscoreStella. That's where I'm most active because
I can't quit the website. It'sa horrible curse. I'm on Instagram at
Tommy two underscores Stella, going tomake it more complicated. And then I'm

(25:14):
on TikTok as just Tommy Stella,no underscore. Just figure it out,
It'll be fine. You had achoice to go one on do you go
three underscores or none on TikTok Sorry, I would let you go no underscores
from the get go. It wasalways someone who took the straight up name.
But I got in on TikTok earlier. Now it was it was that
baseball player, wasn't it. Ithink it might. He gets to have

(25:36):
He has a whole like middle partof his name that he gets to have,
and like that's sacred. He justtakes all my Google results right on
there. Find me on there.I make the jokes right now. The
Kickstarter is the best place to getall of my comics, or at least
the more recent ones. I don'thave everything on there. If you go
on Kickstarter, it's on my Twitterand all that. But mustn't tell on

(25:57):
Kickstarter you get back it there.We got a bunch of cool perks.
Yet you got to like sketches.You can get my old comics as well
on physical copy. We're hitting astretch goal. If we get to five
two hundred and fifty, everyone getstwo trading cards that are onto their order
free, So hopefully we get tothat'd be really cool. We're only like
two hundred away, which were reallygreat. Yeah, on those places.

(26:22):
Twitter is the main one is totake away very very cool. Well,
we can't thank you enough for hangingout with us tonight, And to everybody
else that's hanging out and blatzing thankyou also for being here. Well,
that wraps it up for this episodeof Around the Galaxy. Thanks to Tommy
Stella and thank you for listening.If you had fun, please like,
subscribe, share rate, and reviewit. Head on over to our website,

(26:45):
the SSW network dot com for moreinformation on joining us as a patron,
links to our merch and more informationabout the show. Make sure to
follow us on all your social mediachannels at the SSW network. The show
has been copy right twenty twenty fourPeak in the Seat Studios in our music
by the band of Hollow's Ghost m

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Tommy Stella - ATGLive March 21, 2024

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