Lit How is the Thrawn trilogy comic book adaption? no spoilers please

I was wondering about this one. I've always enjoyed the novels.

 

It's very...artistically done.

 

I was wondering about that too, since I've ordered the hardcover edition of the comics (more for the visuals than anything else).

 

What a ...cryptic answer.

 

It's a sweet read, I think the art kinda decreases in awesomness as it goes on, and it is rather wordy by comic book standards (they're cramming Zhan's prose into there which, generally, comics don't talk as much cuz you gotta get the art), but worth a look. There's a panel where Leia wakes up in bed topless. I think it's in the Dark Force Rising adaptation, when they're going to the Wookie home planet. I'm actually not even kidding. It's shaded out. Very artistically done.

 

The artist's complete disregard for any previous depiction of the things he was drawing, and in many cases of Zahn's own description of those things, made it hard for me to enjoy it. The fact that those depictions have gained a kind of primacy in the EU, moreso. He's the reason that Mara Jade, who is known for wearing a sleeve gun in Zahn's books, is wearing a sleeveless jumpsuit in most depictions of the character. He's also the reason there are two kinds of Bimms, that no one is sure if Mazzic is a Human or a Myke, that vornskrs have cartoonishly large heads, that meekish Ghent has facial tattoos, and that Talon Karrde is often drawn as something of a thug despite his refined description in the novels. Thankfully, the hulking Noghri and clean-shaven Pellaeon have mostly fallen on the ash heap of EU history.

 

One of the annotations in the Twentieth Edition of Heir to the Empire points out a mention in the narrative of Karrde being clean-shaven. Zahn says he was surprised by the later artistic renderings of the guy, but ended up rolling with the beard in his later books. The beard itself predates the comic adaptation, but yeah, the earlier pictures of him still had him looking pretty refined rather than shaggy.

 

Karrde is also mentioned as having short hair in one of the books, I think DFR, but only three pictures have ever reflected that. There's a long, long history of art not matching literary description throughout the EU (see Kueller, whose super-creepy flexible skintight skull mask in the book, which made him look like an actual talking skull, suddenly consistently turned into a metallic, rigid, vaguely skull-shaped helmet with giant horns whenever it got drawn), but it's a particular issue in this case because of the extensiveness of the visual adaptation.

That said, the art itself is fantastic. The artist is different for the adaptation of each book, and I like all the art styles. HTTE had a very cool, stylized look from a French artist.



Dark Force Rising had an awesome more photorealistic style.




The Last Command had the art of Edvin Biukovic, which is classic comic style. Really great art.

 

Myke, definitely myke

 

The only problem I have with them is they remove the possibility of Mara's sleeve gun because she...doesn't...have...sleeves. Other than that it's great.

 

Of some reason I always read it as meaning shoulder holsters, maybe it was the translation or maybe I read part of the comics before the books - I actually don't remember - and got my mental picture from there

 

The visual aspect is majorly improved by Olivier Vatine (all of HTTE) and Edvin Biukovic (first half of TLC).

 

Yeah, Mara's forearm holster has always confused me. It's mentioned throughout the Trilogy as being her trademark, and yet I'm not sure I've ever seen a visual representation of it. Is it on top of her forearm or below it? Which way do you draw the blaster from, above or below? It just seems really impractical compared to an old-fashioned hip or thigh holster, or even a shoulder holster.

 

I think the art in the Dark Force Rising adaptation was great!
The comics are not bad at all. Sometimes I thought the large amounts of dialogue were disturbing, but that is all.

 

Would it be better to read the novels or the comics of the thrawn trilogy first?

 

Novels, no question about it.

 

Agreed. The comics abridge a bit, it's worth reading the novels to get the whole story.

 

To get the whole story?

 

The comics are abridgements.

 

Yeah, they don't skip any of the important stuff, but novels by their very nature explain and expand a lot more of character actions and motivations, and there's some dialogue missing from the comics as well. Again, nothing important, the story is the same, but it's like listening to an abridged version of the audiobook. I'm OCD enough that I don't appreciate knowing that something was left out of the story I'm reading, and I prefer a work in its original format. If you read the comic before the novel, though, it probably won't matter, because you wouldn't realize what's missing.

 

As long as he's not Duros...

As to my knowledge, Heir to the Empire Sourcebook is the only place's she's pictured with one. http://kataja.mono.net/9691/images of Mara Jade
But practical? Well, you know, writers...

 

Thanks for the picture, that does look how I imagined it to. Not exactly concealed carry, is it? She'd have to be wearing something with really poofy sleeves to hide it. It's like she's wearing one of those workout weight armbands, only with a gun inside it.

 

Worth mentioning that Pellaeon's famous moustache is never mentioned in the original trilogy, hence never depicted in the comics. Funnily enough, everyon just imagines him as Watson in Imperial uniform to Thrawn's Holmes anyway.