Author: Ben Crofts

Dark Horse Loses the License – Our First Reactions

Posted on January 6, 2014by , , , and Aggressive Negotiations

True story: the first time five of us got together for an Aggressive Negotiations chat, it took over a month to work out the scheduling—some of us had work, some were traveling, and Ben Crofts insisted on being British for some reason. So when the news broke yesterday that the license for Star Wars comics, as many have spent the past year sensibly predicting, would be leaving Dark Horse after this year and coming “home” to fellow Disney property Marvel, it surely must have been fate that most of us were able to get together only about twenty-four hours later to share our thoughts.

We’ll have some more polished reactions in the weeks to come (and don’t miss Becca’s early analysis of the license situation from late last year), but for now, enjoy our decidedly un-polished, un-copy-edited discussion. And cheers to the fine people of Dark Horse Comics for 23 awesome years.

Alexander: So, Marvel it is.

Mike: topic one: fuck

Ben: Plus probably reboot

Mike: that’s a good starting point: does the license switch guarantee a reboot?

Alexander: I don’t think it guarantees it, but I think it’s a very strong indicator of it.

Ben: I think it makes it more likely, yes

Mike: is there any precedent for continuity among competitors?

Jay: It certainly makes it more likely, especially if they want to keep a single universe

Jay: Del Rey / Bantam?

Jay: but Marvel is a different beast.
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Our New Year’s Resolutions for Star Wars in 2014

Posted on January 3, 2014by , , , , , and Not A Committee

vaderdove

Welcome to 2014! After a bleak Christmas with no new articles for a whole week, one could be forgiven for submitting to the doldrums. To liven things up and kick off the new year with a bang, I asked the gang to share the resolutions they’d like to see the Star Wars franchise adopt in 2014.

Jay Shah: Don’t Force the Storytelling

Star Wars may well be part fantasy, but the mystic aspect has dominated in the years since the prequels. Whether we’re looking at the books, comics, games, television shows, or even the movies themselves, the Jedi and Sith loom large over Star Wars. Lightsabers and magical powers may well be iconic, but one could be forgiven for imagining that they were the only thing Star Wars was ever known for. Stormtroopers? X-wings? Smugglers? Eh, not a big deal.

There are a handful of releases these past few years that have kept things diversified. Fantasy Flight Game’s Edge of the Empire RPG materials are the best example, as they practically avoid most mentions of the Force except as a fleeting whisper, a myth given credence by rumor more than observation, which fits the game’s OT setting. The Old Republic has multiple character classes as part of its game system, meaning that players are free to diversify, but is dominated by the titanic struggle between Jedi and Sith in the pre-movie eras. As we approach the inauguration of the Sequel Trilogy and Episode VII in particular, the Force will have to play a large role in events: we’ll doubtless see the reëstablishment of the Jedi Order in some fashion or another and we’ll probably see the continuation of the Skywalker story. This is well and good, but Disney mustn’t forget that a large part of what made the OT great was that it featured political struggles — Rebels versus Imperials — or the heroism of the everyman in response to the calling of destiny.
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Classic Star Wars Re-Visited 20 Years Later

Posted on January 2, 2014by Obiwomble's Outlook

Some stories make such a strongly positive impression that you wish to own them but not necessarily rush to re-read them! Classic Star Wars by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson is one such story. As part of my general upgrade to trades over comics, I secured copies of them some years back but had not read them. I read the issues but that was 20 years ago and I’m certainly not who I was then so how does it look to me now?

Originally published as a newspaper strip from 1982 to 1984, this 3-year tale focused on the then largely vacant gap between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back (ESB). In this way it set the tone, perhaps unknowingly, for all subsequent bridging stories, at least up until the Clone Wars material – they wrote it knowing what they were bridging to! Dark Horse Comics decided to re-publish the strip but they wanted to publish it as a monthly comic, in colour. An extensive period of re-formatting and careful colouring followed, as colour could easily obscure the graceful linework by Williamson if done carelessly. The 20-issue series ran from 1992 to 1994, with it being collected into 3 trades in 1996.

Two decades on and I’d estimate that I’ve read around a couple of hundred Star Wars comics in that time, how can a 20-issue series, of material written in the 1980s compare to these? The answer is quite easily because quality is timeless and the one thing no would ever accuse either Goodwin or Williamson of lacking is superb creative skills! It also avoids a couple of pitfalls that older material, at least where the superheroes of Marvel and DC are concerned, regularly fall into.
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Ostrander vs. Miller: Worldbuilding vs. Characters

Posted on December 19, 2013by

On one side, John Ostrander and frequent collaborator, Jan Duursema; on the other, John Jackson Miller. These individuals have arguably been the heart and soul of the comics Expanded Universe for the last decade. When both Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic were running, it was a golden age for Star Wars (SW) comics. Dark Horse Comics’ (DHC) axing of both titles was their biggest and most spectacular own goal, though opting for miniseries a la the Mignolaverse isn’t far behind.

Yet, if we were to pit these titans against each other, what might the outcome be? I think it would be fair to say their strengths play out differently – where Ostrander excels at worldbuilding and a grand, epic sweep, Miller’s forte is crafting characters you immediately latch onto and care about. With their successor projects, as it were – Dawn of the Jedi and Knight Errant, this difference is particularly noticeable.

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The Pitch – Darth Vader TV Specials

Posted on December 6, 2013by , , , , and

A couple months back, a Disney licensing brochure hit the interwebs outlining several upcoming Star Wars merchandising opportunities over the next two years—Rebels, for example, Lego Star Wars, and of course, Episode VII. But included on the list was the tantalizingly vague “Darth Vader Themed TV Specials”. While the news item included a photo of the brochure and it appears to be a legitimate thing, no official information on these “specials” has been released since. Could they be one-shot episodes from the Rebels team? Tiny interstitial animations like the original Clone Wars Animated Series? Or even fully-produced live action material? No one has any freaking idea.

Could the staff of Eleven-ThirtyEight ask for a better opening? I submit that we could not. Here’s what we’d like to see.
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