Sometimes the price of a dream isn’t regret… it’s everything that came before the payoff.

I said yes because I believed in the vision.
Because sometimes when you’re creative, hopeful, and just a little reckless… you think your love for the thing will protect you from how much it costs.

It was a bold project.
A fan dream on a professional scale.
Life-sized props, custom builds, original designs ... the kind of stuff you’d normally see in a galaxy far, far away.

I thought it would pay off.
At the very least… break even.
At the very least… earn respect.

And it did ... but not the kind you deposit in a bank.

Let’s just say the business side didn’t match the creative one.
What was promised… changed.
What was assumed… disappeared.
And what was left was me, standing next to a masterpiece… holding the bill.

The money? Yeah, it stung.
It was the kind of sting that lingers in quiet moments, when you open your bank app and your stomach turns before the screen loads.

But I didn’t talk about it.
Not publicly. Not bitterly.
Hollywood doesn’t do well with grudge holders.
So I swallowed it.
Smiled through it.
And kept moving.

Because something else was happening… quietly, powerfully.

People saw the work.
They remembered the name.
They remembered me.

And somewhere in the middle of the fallout…
Captain Meeshal was born.

My likeness ... my actual face ... added to the official Star Wars comic legacy.
A character inspired by me, written into canon.

You can Google it.
It’s real.
It’s absurd.
And it’s mine.

It didn’t come with a check.
It didn’t erase the debt.
But it carved something deeper.

When you see your own face in a universe you grew up loving…
when a character with your name gets drawn into a story that shaped your imagination as a kid…

you stop asking if it was “worth it.”

Because the truth is…
it hurt.
But it changed everything.

Would I do it the same way again?
No.
I’d protect myself better.
Choose wiser partners.
Read the fine print.

But would I risk it all to be remembered?

Yeah.
I think I already did.

And somewhere out there…
in a comic panel on some collector’s shelf,
Captain Meeshal still stands.

Still fighting.
Still part of the story.