Insider 89: "Underworld: A Galaxy of Scum and Villiany" by Abel, Ryan, and Joe

That's what I liked about this project so much! Even though it had a specific focus on the Star Wars "underworld", Ryan and Abel spotlighted a great mix of colorful characters for the article. I got a kick out of revisiting some of the Shadows of the Empire characters, illustrating some of my classic favorites and establishing new characters. It was really fun just playing Prequel, OT and EU characters off of one another in certain scenes (like BoShek and Xizor, Kai Justiss vs Boushh and Zuckuss, Boba Fett and Zam in the main illo, etc).

You never know where or when he might show up. He's a very versatile and tenacious Jedi

 

A tenacious Jedi, eh? So, maybe he'll be appearing in Dark Times...on a quest to find the Pick of Destiny!

 

Thanks Barriss. Glad you enjoyed it!

There were a few Marvel references in there, Hunter's World being the obvious one. Luna-weed gets a shoutout, as do Mandalorian slaves.

Hardly. That's bit too cute, even for me. It must've been late here too.

Exactly!

I love Biscuit Baron.

 

My introduction to the Three Investigators was, fortunately, through a vintage hardback of Whispering Mummy. So Alfred Hitchcock was there from the very beginning for me. ;-)

After I posted, I decided to investigate ( ) the matter. Turns out it's a bit of both, if Wikipedia is to be believed:

? ? ?

I'm telling you, once you've had a 12-piece flangth from Flangth-2-Go, you'll wonder why you even gave the Baron the time of day. For cryin' out loud, for some reason they've even stopped using real bantha in their Bantha Breakfast Biscuits.

 

I'm gonna have to be a lone voice of dissent here and say I was kind of underwhelmed. I mean, there's nothing at all I disliked about the article, but it just didn't have the same amount of oompf ones like Unknown Soldier and Evil Never Dies had.

Sorry, guys. Although the Biscuit Baron reference was awesome. And Joe's art is always great to look at.

 

Only someone who hasn't tried the Baron's Blue Sauce would say that .

 

Thanks for the honesty, 000. Of course, a comparison to Evil Never Dies is understandable, but misleading. As an analogy of the style differences between these projects: Evil Never Dies is a bomb about to go off; Underworld is the explosion. If you're a bomb expert, chances are you'll prefer the subtleties of END. If you want something in your face, Underworld is a jolly good show.

And as Joe hinted, there's going to be quite a few extras on Hyperspace this time around.

 

Great investigating, Ris! Terror Castle was the only Hitchcock book I had for a long time; I'd always wondered how they managed to write him out of it...

TC

 

arf_maul:

Only someone who hasn't tried the Baron's Blue Sauce would say that.

Pish. People keep talking about the blue sauce like you can't have a good old-fashioned Bantha Breakfast Biscuit without it, but I find that it takes the bite out of them.

Halagad_Ventor:

Thanks for the honesty, 000. Of course, a comparison to Evil Never Dies is understandable, but misleading. As an analogy of the style differences between these projects: Evil Never Dies is a bomb about to go off; Underworld is the explosion. If you're a bomb expert, chances are you'll prefer the subtleties of END. If you want something in your face, Underworld is a jolly good show.

I think a big part of it is the reduced page count you had to work with. You didn't have enough room to pull out all the stops like you did for those articles.

And as Joe hinted, there's going to be quite a few extras on Hyperspace this time around.

Good. It seems most of the good Insider stuff is in the supplement nowadays anyway, and I'm not just talking about your stuff.

TalonCard:

Great investigating, Ris! Terror Castle was the only Hitchcock book I had for a long time; I'd always wondered how they managed to write him out of it...

Proud to be of service.

 

>>>Pish. People keep talking about the blue sauce like you can't have a good old-fashioned Bantha Breakfast Biscuit without it, but I find that it takes the bite out of them. <<<

I've always thought that some of the blue bottles sitting around in the background of Han and Chewie's appartment in Tales: A Wookiee Scorned were Blue Sauce bottles.

 

I've noticed that both CUSWE and Wookieepedia claim that Mika was a Cathar, not a Farghul. Was she identified as a Cathar in the comics? (Star Wars Republic 65 and 66, her only appearance).

 

It may have been something Jan or John said.

 

Reject blue condiments? Blasphemy!

It is and it isn't. Evil Never Dies is probably the largest piece I've ever had published. But the multiple voices of Underworld, and I don't just mean in-universe, demand a certain logic to the way information is related. Incidentals and asides comes across much less naturally in a conversational style than an omniscient one.

I think the Insider supplements are starting to get their act together, thanks in large part to the posts many of you here have made over at the StarWars.com boards.

I like it. Heh heh...

Take care,
Abel

 

that's what i guessed it was... and the chap on the left side of the image is Tyber Zann, then?
although he's wearing a very talon karrde like jacket?


and abel.. thanks for the mandos as slaves reference.. i had just picked up that TPB of Marvel reprints at comic-con..

 

That information came from LFL. I assumed she was a Cathar too-- but it turns out she's Farghul all the way.

 

Cool, thanks Ryan.

Joe: So who's the Twi'lek and the Bith?

 

The Bith is supposed to be the card dealer and is actually mentioned in the scene from "Rebel Dawn". I took artistic license with the scene though and threw the Twi'lek in there for whimsy... and to make Lando look more like a "player"

 

Man, Lando has just become infinitely cooler with that image

 

My favorite image is the Aurodium Sword in action - is that Snoova behind Muzzle? i can see a Wookiee bounty hunter working with a private security squad that works with free Wookiees... or even getting his start there, and then going freelance...

 

Exactly. And that's definitely Snoova

 

Heh, that's a terrific analogy. Like I said, I didn't dislike any part of Underworld... I've just been spoiled by stuff like Evil Never Dies.

Ah, good. Those are always enjoyable.

 

Howdy prophet! Before you know it, playing favorites leads to predictability and stagnation. So I figured I'd give the Mandalorians a little elbowing. This goes for writing too, hence why I enjoyed the style of Underworld and collaborations generally.

 

Czethros was absolutely meant to be Skorr. I remember confirming that w/ Kevin Anderson back in the day.

Dan

 

Too bad Skorr shot himself. That would have been a great Classic Star Wars tie-in.

 

the style of underworld was great - having it be written as snippets of different reports written by different people within the empire
poor Jix had to write reports... he must have just dictated them and had a droid type them up - although apparently no one reads his reports or else they might complain of him being self-ranked as Sith stooge. or anyone who complained to him got beat up!