It’s almost time for the Star Wars In Comics Panel to start at Emerald City con. We’re going to be liveblogging it.
Get ready to hit refresh.
Our cast: Jeremy Atkins, Randy Stradley, Brian Wood, Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko.
Wood Star Wars – His book takes place a week after the first film. The Rebellion is trying to regroup, so is Vader. The Rebels think they have a spy in the group.
Hardman on Legacy – It’s in the (Star Wars) future. Ania Solo is running a junkyard on a moon and comes into possession of a lightsabre, which opens a door to trouble.
It’s the Legacy time period, but starting in a different place and will be introducing a lot of new characters. Old characters will be popping, but Ania Solo is the focus.
Stradley on Dark Times – It will establish where K’Kruhk was during Star Wars, followed by a Darth Vader Arc.
On Dawn of the Jedi – The invasion is on the way and we’ll see where the Jedi came from.
Q: What does Disney buying Star Wars mean for Dark Horse?
A (Stradley) – He was in Korea at a seminar giving a speech about Star Wars comics when he found out. He had to rewrite the speech a bit. So far, it’s been business as usual. To date, Disney hasn’t had a discussion with Lucasfilm’s licensing people about the comics. He should hear something this year. But nothing has changed.
Q: [to Wood] Did you have any trepidation coming into writing Star Wars/clear direction coming in?
A: No. It’s the Star Wars he knows. At the beginning, he was just trying to make Stradley happy. About a week before the first issue came out, it sunk in and then he got a little nervous. He’s trying not to think about it too hard.
Q: [About Legacy] Anything you’re specifically trying to do?
A: Pulpy science fiction. See different parts of the galaxy. Make something that “feels like Star Wars.” Friends and loyalty themes.
Q: [To Stradley]: Where did you want them to take the stories?
A: They picked the directions he wanted without prompting. In Empire, which is most people’s favorite Star Wars film, they’re not saving the galaxy, they’re saving each other.
Q: [To Wood] How are you using Leia?
A: She’s young, and she has a sort of official high profile position, but she’s also a bad ass and a pilot. He wanted to have both sides.
Q: [Legacy] Both series are focusing on strong female characters. Did other comics inspire you for that?
A: Possibly more from outside comics. They wanted to avoid the “fake bad ass.”
Q: Sometimes titles have long runs. Some go away and then come back. How is that organized?
A: It’s hard for a creative team to work on a monthly series. Especially artist. Sometimes you need fill-in artists. With Legacy, Ostrander wrote everything but there were fill-in artists. With Dawn of the Jedi, Jan takes about 6 weeks to draw an issue, so there will be arcs. Jan is always drawing, but it’s scheduled to account for that and leap frog. In other cases, artists will switch off.
Q: Is Invasion coming back?
A: Right now it’s not.
Q: What’s coming up for Wedge?
A: Wood read the X-Wing novels, so Wedge is top tier and will stay in the story. His conflict is dealing with Luke as an upstart figure.
Q: With new movies on the horizon, the cannon could change. How does that effect you?
A: Dark Horse has already dealt with this sort of thing, especially between the prequel episodes and with the Clone Wars TV series. That’s just how it happens.
Q: Han and Chewie have their own thing going on. Will they interact with everyone else?
A: Not for the first 6 issues. They will after the first act.
Q: Will there be gangster elements in the comics?
A: Wood will have some underworld elements. Bounty hunters. Han in the Imperial Center underworld with the sanitation workers.
Q:How do you keep the emotional integrity when the series span such large time periods?
A: [Wood] I’m in a specific time period, so it’s much easier. It would be harder for the other writers.
[Hardman] It’s just about keeping the tone.
[Stradley] A lot of things have been established. He tells writers to ignore the background, just don’t contradict it. Don’t write a Wikipedia article and repeat all the established information.
Q: Lots of different people have different kinds of licenses (like games). Does Dark Horse ever communicate/collaborate with other license holders?
A: Occasionally. They’ve cross-pollinated the novels with Del Rey. They have given character specifics to a game company at least once. Not that often, though.
Aaand… that’s a wrap.
Comments are closed.