A&A The Official John Ostrander Discussion Thread

John,

Is there any chance we'll see any tie-ins to other EU? Perhaps appearances by Vima-Da-Boda or Callista, or perhaps an issue about the Battle of Dreighton referred to in the Rebel Assault games, or anything at all of that sort?

 

Thanks so much for the news, guys.

 

MATEO:
>> just got the Darkness TPB, its good to have it at last, which reminds me John do you know or have any idea when The Stark Hyperspace War will be released in TPB? i checked on Darkhorse comics website but it didnt show a release date.

>>Cant wait for Rite of Passage 3 and 4,and the Morgukai act almost like Yuuzhan Vong warriors.<<

I believe that STARK HYPERSPACE WAR will appear some time next year but I'm sure when. RITE OF PASSAGE 3 shows up this week, i think, and then the big finish. I don't think the Morgukai have some of the hang-ups that the Vong do; they believe they are superior but, on the other hand. there seems to be only two of them left. Also, they don't have a religious context -- just deep pride in themselves.

John

 

>>Is there any chance we'll see any tie-ins to other EU? Perhaps appearances by Vima-Da-Boda or Callista, or perhaps an issue about the Battle of Dreighton referred to in the Rebel Assault games, or anything at all of that sort?<,

isn't Callista more between Episode III and IV? Sorry, I don't have my notes in front of me. I know Jan is interested in Vima Da-Boda. And we're going to be trying to tie-in to a lot of EU history BUT, because the Clone wars are so big, it's inevitable (and, i think, desirable) that we don't tell every single story connected with it. Our first concern is telling really cool stories. If we can fill-in bits of EU continuity along the way, that's great. But it's not our first concern. We also want the issues to be accessible to the casual SW fan as well while also satisfying to all SW hardcore junkies<g>. (Keep in mind, some of the latter are also WORKING on the books as well!<g>)

Seriously, I think leaving areas untold leaves some MYSTERY and that is always cool. Don't worry -- we won't be jumping around and we're working on a timeline that will proceed. Our goal is to seemlessly (as possible) tie into Episode IV when it comes out (and when we know what it is about!).

This will really give a focus and a forward drive to the book that I think will be VERY beneficial. And I'm very thankful that LFL chose to let us go ahead with it.

John

 

Yay!

 

Thank you John for your posts and explanations, I really appreciate it.

"Aayla IS in it and it is NOT a cameo. The relationship between the two is changed because now she is not only a Jedi knight but has been for a few years."
That's great, can't wait to see that. Sorry if I sounded negative, I didn't mean to. It's just as an avid Aayla harcore junkie.

"INCLUDING Aayla, Quin, and your other fave characters."
Yay! That's great news, thanks a lot. I know we -well ok, probably only and mostly me- are difficult fans, but we try not to be, it's just you guys do such an awesome job!

Again, that you John for posting and answering us and most of all for all the awesome work and great comics!

 

Sweet! John, is Yoda already of "General" rank in this series (i.e., do all the Jedi have officer ranks)? There was a cut line in Attack of the Clones where a Clonetrooper addressed Yoda as such (I don't know if it was kept in the novelization), so I wasn't sure how LFL wanted to have the Jedi integrated into a traditional Army command structure when leading the clonetroopers.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to this series, and best of luck!

Edit: Leto, I wonder how the purists will react to Holonet News being on the AoTC DVD

 

It's interesting that this is brought up right at this time, because recently there was this enormous debate in the Literature fora centering around the level of creative involvement George Lucas exercises during the development of non-filmic stories...many of the Hardcore Lucas Worshippers hath decreed verily that under no circumstances whatsoever does he wish to taint His Anointed Vision by any dealings with other writers. Which, of course, is complete and utter bollocks.

An interview given by Jim Luceno at the Official Site in 2001 (around the release of Cloak of Deception) largely derailed that particular freight-train, but I find it most fascinating also that Mr. Lucas has decided to allow the lion's share of this storytelling to be done off-camera, and by other writers. Which is quite something, to be sure.

I made the analogy earlier on concerning the turning over of one of the prize racehorses in his stable to other jockeys to ride, and this, I think, fits perfectly with this scenario. Put simply, the Clone Wars are one of the Great Mysteries of the entire Star Wars saga, having been declared off-limits since around 1991 or thereabouts by Lucasfilm fiat...Purists and Completists alike (if you want to get factionalized about it) have speculated for going on three decades now about these events.

Myself included.

This is one of those crown jewels of SW interest, and I'd like to think that George is expressing no small measure of faith in other scribes to take this mantle up in between his own motion pictures. Many of the "Films-Only!!!" apparatchiks on these boards might at first be quite miffed and broggulate peevishly about this news, as their whole ideology is centered upon decrying All That Which Does Not Come Out Of George's Sacred Camera...but if they want their Clone Wars fix (and they will), they're gonna have to go beyond Lucas, this time around.

 

Leto, I wonder how the purists will react to Holonet News being on the AoTC DVD

Really?

Great stuff, then...I must have missed that detail by a wide mile when I was looking at the disc specs that were given by Lucasfilm. That's terrific, though. Looks like they'll be more exposed to non-film happenings than I even thought possible. And this is what Martha Stewart would call a Good Thing.

 

LETO II
>>This is one of those crown jewels of SW interest, and I'd like to think that George is expressing no small measure of faith in other scribes to take this mantle up in between his own motion pictures. Many of the "Films-Only!!!" apparatchiks on these boards might at first be quite miffed and broggulate peevishly about this news, as their whole ideology is centered upon decrying All That Which Does Not Come Out Of George's Sacred Camera...but if they want their Clone Wars fix (and they will), they're gonna have to go beyond Lucas, this time around.<<

i don't want to suggest that George Lucas himself is involved in what we're doing. Also, i think his attitude is that the EU does what it does but he goes ahead and makes the movies that he wants to make. That said, two things: 1) I understand that one of things that GL DOES read is the comics -- or so i've been told; they were part of his culture growing up; moreover, they are usually a pretty quick read; I don't know as he reads the novels; 2) GL is going to be dealing with the END of the Clone wars at the START of the next movie; he doesn't really have tome to do the Clone Wars AND everything we all know has to happen in the next movie, right? So it makes sense that others are allowed to do the Clone wars. We have NO idea, at the moment, what his plans are but, as LFL is allowed to let us know what the status quo is at the start of the next movie, you can be sure that we'll play to that. It's not a matter of GL working around us; it'll be us trying to anticipate him and working to fit what we do with what he intends. George is God as far as SW in concerned; it's HIS sandbox and I'm delighted and honored to play in it. In the meantime, our first priority is to deliver really top notch stories against the backdrop of the Clone Wars.

And you're right -- if you want to know what happens next, you have to start with us. <g> Hopefully, even for the most dogmatic of fans, we can entertain you all.

-- John Ostrander

 

AnotherAgentSmith
>.I know we -well ok, probably only and mostly me- are difficult fans, but we try not to be, it's just you guys do such an awesome job!<<

Fan IS short for fanatic.<g> I don't see you as difficult; just enthusiastic. Since I (along with Jan) created Aayla, how can I be upset by the fact that you're so enthusiastic? We wanted to create a memorable character; i'm glad that, for those like you, we succeeded.

John

 

KRUEZADER
>.John, is Yoda already of "General" rank in this series (i.e., do all the Jedi have officer ranks)? There was a cut line in Attack of the Clones where a Clonetrooper addressed Yoda as such (I don't know if it was kept in the novelization), so I wasn't sure how LFL wanted to have the Jedi integrated into a traditional Army command structure when leading the clonetroopers.<,

I think we have to take that Yoda (along with other members of the Council) are generals as a given. Yoda certainly ACTED as one in AotC. Which brings up an interesting problem for the Jedi: they have been the "peacekeepers" of the republic -- the equivalent of U.S. Marshalls in a way. They also revere life deeply. They now must become the generals in the war and, in war, people die. The sentients are clones in many cases (not all); does that make them less living beings? How do the Jedi deal with that? These are among the questions we raised both at our conference and later. We've already spent a LOT of hours sending messages back and forth to each other, going over all this, and I expect to spend as lot MORE time.

-- John

 

Cool, glad to see that Dark Horse is looking at the morality of the Jedi sending beings bred to follow their orders to their deaths, men offered no other choice than to fight as warriors. It's a common theme in sci-fi, and although AOTC didn't have time to address the ethics of it, it would be a disservice to the reader to never see the Jedi Council debate their course of action as the war begins.

I did notice some third-party discussion on the morality of cloning earlier this year, but that's a red herring compared to the larger issue of the Army of the Republic being created as willing, sapient cannon fodder, clones or not. "Combat education and training programs" treads dangerously close to brainwashing, and I can't imagine Yoda being terribly comfortable with that

 

G'day John

Tom AKA Villiemace here.

I have just found out about the exciting news from San Diego Comic con and I am looking forward to it with great interest. After seeing Attack of the Clones I had wondered what had happened next and how the Star Wars EU characters (Quinlan, Villie, Aayla and others) would be affected. I guess we will find out here.

I am pleased that you have said that Tarkin may show up now and again. Although Villie and Quinlan and Yoda and Mace windu are my main favourite characters in Star Wars, I have enjoyed seeing Tarkin every so often as he is such an evil character to observe and his appearence in A New hope has always been a memorable one. I have been a fan of Peter Cushing (the actor who played him in A New Hope) for a few years ever since I saw him and Christopher Lee in some of the old hammer horror movies that they made back in the sixties. He made his first Chronological appearence in a star wars short story by James Luceno and i have enjoyed watching his rise to Grand moff in the subsequent novels in which he has been in. An idea that could be quite cool and a nod to the fans of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing such as myself would be if you and Jan had a story in which Dooku and Tarkin appeared together. It would be very cool.

I think it is good that the jedi council have an unofficial investigation into the cause of the battle of Geonosis and use Quinlan Vos to set up a spy network for them. Even though there have been a lot of adventures of Quinlan Vos that we have seen, I have always thought of Quinlan Vos as a behind the scenes sort of character and him having a spy network is very typical of his character. Although I am not sure that the current schedule for the star wars comics being released in the future would allow it, I would be interested to see what quinlan vos was like as a jedi before he lost his memory. How much of a change has his character undergone since loosing his memory?

Anyway got to go

Best wishes

Tom Aka Villiemace

 

Thank you fo rthe kind coments John. One of my common traits is to get a little 'too' enthusiastic at times for others to be comfortable, I can get carried away. (So if and when I do, I apologize for that.)
Aayla really is a very memorable character, so is Quinlan. It's great to see how their lives are tied in with each other but remain still a disctinctly different entity each. Personally I see them go far, not only in the Star Wars universe and timeline but also as great characters which they already have become.

"Which brings up an interesting problem for the Jedi: they have been the "peacekeepers" of the republic. They also revere life deeply. They now must become the generals in the war and, in war, people die. The sentients are clones in many cases (not all); does that make them less living beings? How do the Jedi deal with that?"
That's indeed a great point to have worked out in the upcoming stories, I wonder if you will tie it with the 'downfall' of the Jedi Order? It musn't by default but could be a factor of influence on the Jedi's morality.
How do you protect and celebrate life by sending hundreds, thousands of sentient beings to die against non-sentient machines? And for what 'worthy' cause? A political unity of thousands of planets?

"I can't imagine Yoda being terribly comfortable with that."
Personally I think Yoda suffers from those that persih, the Jedi, Clonetroopers and innocent victims. I think he grieves rather deeply. (As seen in AOTC at the end, he does see the loss of life as a defeat.)
But Yoda, being the wisest of all Jedi I also think that though it hurts emotionally, he sees the truth and the greater good and end result.

I think Yoda knows who Sidious/Palpatine is, I think he foresaw -in rough lines- most of what would happen and that he realized that even though it would cost the lives of many Jedi and innocent victims the Jedi Order was in a state of decay and the only way for Sidious to be defeated and the Sith destroyed was to have the 'chosen one' fullfil the prophecy and turn to the Dark Side, only to redeem himself at the very end by bringing balance to the Force again.
The tragedy being that for the ultimate balance between Light & Dark to occurr, the Empire had to be born and the Jedi Order eradicated.

 

This is VERY exciting news! May actually get me buying comics again.

John... I mainly buy TPB's - you mention that the CLONE WAR series, which are mainly one shots, will be grouped thematically for TPB's... does this mean that the TPB's could jump around the timeline? I hope not.

Will the CLONE WAR series be linear, ie: follow a chronological order, or will it jump around?

 

Howdy John.

So far the only Star Wars comics I've read are Dark Empire, DE 2 and Crimson Empire.

But this Clone Wars gig may very much get me rading these things, and some of the earlier ones from Ongoing, so, don't let me down.

And I should add it takes a special kind of person to come to these boards and deal with us, so, thanks for dealing with us.

 

GATHERER:
>>John... I mainly buy TPB's - you mention that the CLONE WAR series, which are mainly one shots, will be grouped thematically for TPB's... does this mean that the TPB's could jump around the timeline? I hope not.

>>Will the CLONE WAR series be linear, ie: follow a chronological order, or will it jump around?<<

The order in which we TELL the stories in he monthly will be linear in that one issue will follow another. In the TPBs, all the stories will make sense grouped together BUT I don't KNOW a)that every story will be gathered into a TPB or b) that every TPB will strictly follow chronologically. Why? This will become clearer as we go, especially when I can tell you more about Jan's and my special project. I'm simply giving everyone fair warning -- don't asssume that everything will be gathered into TPBs. Maybe they will but, since we're no longer doing the traditional arcs, that may not be the case.

-- John

 

DARTH_DUCK
>>So far the only Star Wars comics I've read are Dark Empire, DE 2 and Crimson Empire.

>>But this Clone Wars gig may very much get me rading these things, and some of the earlier ones from Ongoing, so, don't let me down.

>>And I should add it takes a special kind of person to come to these boards and deal with us, so, thanks for dealing with us. <<

No problem. You folks have been very nice. I'm a fan myself (remind me to tell you some stories of me as fanboy some time) so I know how it feels. IF you're interested, I can tell you that two of my arcs have been gathered into TPBs, TWILIGHT and DARKNESS. Both of them feature characters that Jan duursema and I came up with and tend to use fairly often -- Quinlan Vos, Aayla Secura and Vilmahr Grahrk. DARKNESS also introduced some other characters that we're using as well. The current arc RITE OF PASSAGE also features these characters. If you want to get a flavor of them, any of these will be a good place to start. In addition, you'll also find Mace, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and a lot of the other characters you've come to know.

Let me know what you think if you sample them.

All the best

John Ostrander

 

Thanks for the time John!

I was in such a rush to get the news out as soon as I got in last night, I may not have been very clear. Still, I'm more than willing to defer to the creator of the art work to explain it, rather than let a fan boy do it.

I am so excited about what's coming I could just burst. Between this and Empire, it's getting really fun and really exciting REALLY fast in the SWU!

And to think, last year around this time, I was ready to drop the Star Wars comics, I was getting so sick of the lackluster stories and the playing fast and loose with continuity! Only goes to show, you just need one good writer and one good artist and one kick ass movie to make it all better!

Thanks again, John! I cannot wait!

 

I think we have to take that Yoda (along with other members of the Council) are generals as a given. Yoda certainly ACTED as one in AotC. Which brings up an interesting problem for the Jedi: they have been the "peacekeepers" of the republic -- the equivalent of U.S. Marshalls in a way. They also revere life deeply. They now must become the generals in the war and, in war, people die. The sentients are clones in many cases (not all); does that make them less living beings? How do the Jedi deal with that? These are among the questions we raised both at our conference and later. We've already spent a LOT of hours sending messages back and forth to each other, going over all this, and I expect to spend as lot MORE time.

Excellent. I'm glad to see that there's much more of an interest in exploring the whys-and-wherefores of Jedi philosophy -- and how this might create something akin to moral torment for many of the Jedi -- now that they are being forced to fight head-on in a major war. It's nice to know that ethical quandaries are going to be dealt with in a much more substantial way than we've been accustomed to seeing lately, and that we're going to witness internal character conflict...so much more satisfying at the end of the day than snarky, whiz-bang blast-'em-up tales (which, admittedly, are still part of the overall Star Wars oeuvre and flavor).

 

Also, as an addendum, Mr. Ostrander...

Is it possible that -- since Obi-Wan Kenobi will be receiving his promotion to General in the comics -- we will also see Bail Organa and his activities in the series? It'd be a great tie-in to the original film to cover both. If Lucas allows it.

 

with all the philosophical conundrums that will face the jedi throughout these stories, is it possible we might see yoda communicate with a JEDI HOLOCRON to research the role of the jedi in the last real war at the forming of the republic? (according to sio bibble)

that would be amazing.

it calls to mind tons of possibilities that luke and leia would not have known about.

imagine yoda, a jedi master who knows how to access the hidden chambers of the great holocron using it for reference!!!!!!!

oh, and Mr. Ostrander - you are awesome!

 

>>I'm glad to see that there's much more of an interest in exploring the whys-and-wherefores of Jedi philosophy -- and how this might create something akin to moral torment for many of the Jedi -- now that they are being forced to fight head-on in a major war. It's nice to know that ethical quandaries are going to be dealt with in a much more substantial way than we've been accustomed to seeing lately, and that we're going to witness internal character conflict...so much more satisfying at the end of the day than snarky, whiz-bang blast-'em-up tales (which, admittedly, are still part of the overall Star Wars oeuvre and flavor).<<

I think you'll find that to be very much in evidence in issue 49. Are you willing to sacrifice a life to save more lives? Certainly, we might. But what about a Jedi? Depends on the Jedi? What if the Jedi is Quinlan Vos?

John

 

>>Date Posted: 8/5 11:13am Subject: RE: The Official John Ostrander Discussion Thread - Date Edited: 8/5 12:09pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Leto II
Also, as an addendum, Mr. Ostrander...

Is it possible that -- since Obi-Wan Kenobi will be receiving his promotion to General in the comics -- we will also see Bail Organa and his activities in the series? It'd be a great tie-in to the original film to cover both. If Lucas allows it.<<

Trust me -- already a topic of discussion amonst us doing the Clone Wars.

John