Lit Comics A Look Back at Dark Horse Star Wars, Year By Year: Now Discussing 1998 [WARNING: IMAGE INTENSE]

They're good companions- the lack of Fett in the novel is noticeable but here it fills in that gap well.

 

I still feel they should have just gone with Kyle instead of creating a Han-clone with Dash- especially since they hadn't yet retconned him into a Force sensitive at the time.

We probably would have gotten a lot more on Kyle over the years had they done so (but, of course, without JK & JO, his popularity and story would have been very different).

I think the need for a new ship was a big factor (Outrider vs Moldy Crow- tough call, both are sweet looking), as was the degree of possessiveness the licensees seemed to have over certain characters (ie: Bantam/DHC not wanting to interfere with any plans LucasArts had for the character- something we saw again years later with Republic Commando).

 

With SOTE basically released in early/mid '96, the story was probably locked at least a year prior in order coordinate the various versions to ensure they'd all get released on time (well, the N64 game got delayed slightly but still hit a late '96 release), so DF was definitely done and released by then (heck, even the Mac version was out by then! ). DF had about a 2 year development cycle, and supposedly early plans for JK began before DF was released (Jk had a fall 97 release).

It is a slim window where they could have tuned things to fit, i suppose, but not an impossibility.

 

Also the ASP-7 droid.

I wouldn't have been surprised to see more SOTE elements added into ESB & ROTJ had their SE's not been add-ons to the original ANH-only SE plan and had been given more time to work on them.

 

Yeah I was really hoping to see that- replace a speeder station with a cut out portal looking into the adjacent docking bay with the Outrider or something.

The bounty hunter ships were also designed for SOTE, were they not? I know Decipher was a key factor in those.

And as we know, the Hounds Tooth design popped up a few times in TCW.

 

Oh, you mean like how Kyle Katarn did the same thing more than a year before Dash did?

 

1997
January 1997
Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith #4 (of 5): Pawns of a Sith Lord / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #15: The Warrior Princess, part 3 (of 4) / Cover

February 1997
Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith #5 (of 5): The Flight of Starbreaker 12 / Cover
Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #1/2 / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #16: The Warrior Princess, part 4 (of 4) / Cover

March 1997
Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Stars End #1 (of 3) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #17: Requiem for a Rogue, part 1 (of 4) / Cover

April 1997
Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Stars End #2 (of 3) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #18: Requiem for a Rogue, part 2 (of 4) / Cover

May 1997
Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Stars End #3 (of 3) / Cover
Dark Force Rising #1 (of 6) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #19: Requiem for a Rogue, part 3 (of 4) / Cover

June 1997
Dark Force Rising #2 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire #1 (of 5): Desperate Measures / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #20: Requiem for a Rogue, part 4 (of 4) / Cover

July 1997
Dark Force Rising #3 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire #2 (of 5): Forces in Collision / Cover

August 1997
Boba Fett: Murder Most Foul / Cover
Dark Force Rising #4 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire #3 (of 5): First Encounter / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #21: In the Empire's Service, part 1 (of 4) / Cover

September 1997
Dark Force Rising #5 (of 6) / Cover
Droids: The Protocol Offensive / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire #4 (of 5): The Dogs of War / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #22: In the Empire's Service, part 2 (of 4) / Cover

October 1997
Dark Force Rising #6 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire #5 (of 5): End of an Empire / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #23: In the Empire's Service, part 3 (of 4) / Cover

November 1997
The Last Command #1 (of 6) / Cover
Shadow Stalker / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #24: In the Empire's Service, part 4 (of 4) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #25: The Making of Baron Fel / Cover

December 1997
Boba Fett #1/2: Salvage / Cover
Crimson Empire #0
Crimson Empire #1 (of 6) / Cover
The Last Command #2 (of 6) / Cover


And here we are in the year of the Special Editions- which is surprising because there's not much here connected to that.

It was really the 1996 material, now in collected forms no doubt, that were probably being pushed for that purpose, but as far as new material goes, the focus seems to be on more adaptations of "EU launchpad" content like TTT or Dark Forces (perhaps to draw in people watching the SE's for the first time and wanting what happens next as the hardcore fans did a few years prior with TTT novels and DE).

But it's really the 2.5 adaptations, X-Wing (in the midst of it's weaker arcs [though it would recover by year's end] and the average TOTJ prequels providing the bulk of new content until near the end of the year.

Twin Engines, being in SW galaxy Mag first for awhile before getting a comic reissue, was one of those kinda-legendary things- "Fett vs Kast! References to the Marvel Mandos (maybe they're canon afterall?)".

It was also kinda Andy Mangel's swan song as seemingly lead EU influence before KJA took over the reigns by this point in time- the "Chancellor of Star Wars University".

Dark Forces (and Dark Horse's Star Wars line) expands into graphic novellas here as well- something I'd have liked to have seen continue past the first three- even if with different characters.



Classic Star Wars basically ends here with the reprint of the HSASE adaptation. A shame that didn't lead to new adaptations (even if retro-styled) of the other two HSA books, given the focus on adaptations in this era of DHC.



Lui Kang, wins!

The Dark Force Rising and The Last Command covers didn't really do much for me (I particularly didn't care for TLC's- at least these first two; DFR's are better at times).

The interior art, however, was an improvement over HTTE. Kinda strange that the DFR covers went more stylized while the interior went more realistic. TLC kinda went slightly in between, I think.







And, lest we forget...



Though they didn't reach the Dorman-levels of the first few TOTJ arcs, the covers to Fall of the Sith Empire were an improvement over Golden Age's, IMO. Less busy but still keeping that Egyptian detailing and theme. They might not all have screamed Star Wars (though one or two of them did), they did strike a genre cord, IMO.



The interior art, while not the best the series has offered, does have it's moments:









And then we have the cover to Scoundrels, er the promotional image for Guardians of the Galaxy, er...



Which gets trumped by this cover for the "real" Boba Fett issue of the year:



Which didn't shy from being unpleasant:



This year also saw a final Droids issue released- fittingly written partially by Daniels (alongside Ryder) and based on a story outline by Brian Daley (who couldn't finish it for obvious reasons). Actually kinda makes it a heavy year for material written by Daley between this and the ROTJ Radio Drama.

It also looks like this year's "WTF?" issue is Shadow Stalker, a SOTE tie-in released a year too late (not a bad thing to keep tying-into it, but the timing seems weird for a kind of random one-shot that would have made more sense released while the SOTE comic was more recent).

And then we get to close the year out with what I think is the last of the 90's covers done by Dave Dorman that rank among the all-time classic pieces of Star Wars imagery ever made- Crimson Empire #1.


"RELEASE THE DORMAN!"

 

(cont'd) and then the X-Wing report, giving us some key glimpses of characters from the novels, events from the Radio Drama, and, of course, The Fel.





This one I found interesting because of how closely an interior panel mirrors it (no doubt based off the same art):







And this one is close to becoming a classic image, as it's obviously meant to be the Imperial version of the Wedge cover to issue #1, but it's not Dorman so it's not quite there.



And Fel ends up looking better in the interior art anyways:



Derra IV (from the ESB Radio Drama) depicted:



(it certainly was a year for the Radio Dramas to get their due, between the radioplay books, Derra IV here and the ROTJ Radio Drama being produced).



Also, never let Hobbie fly.

 

X-Wing was very roller coaster in quality, IMO. I agree it definitely hit its stride with ITES after a so-so opening arc, a very strong arc with TPA, an ok BT and the series lows of TWP & RFAR.

Ah, thanks. I probably came across them and mistook them for the other adaptations.

That's good though- a direct SE adaptation fits the year well.

(on a side note, damn was Jan 1997 a good month to be a SW fan!)