Thrawn Trilogy Graphic Novels: Better than the Books

I read the three Thrawn books by Timothy Zahn back in the early 90s as they first came out. I remember liking the overall storyline, but I had a couple of big problems:

1. The plots, counter-plots, counter-counter-plots, counter-counter-counter-plots, etc. was simply too much. At times it seemed more like a chess match than Star Wars.

2. Thrawn knowing everything, and going into unbelievable detail as to how he knows all this stuff that he couldn't possibly know.

However, someone has saved the Thrawn trilogy for me: Mike Baron. He wrote the script for the three graphic novel adaptations of TTT. Wow! What an improvement! Much of the type of stuff that I didn't like about the novels was gone in the graphic novels. In general, I think that the graphic novel is a better medium for SW than is the book. The graphic novel format cuts out all the extraneous stuff and captures the fast pace of the movies. This improvement is especially noticeable in TTT.

To all those fans who are thinking about reading TTT books I say: Don't! Read the graphic novels instead. They are much better.

 

The comics have far too many errors. Characters drawn wrong(even changing species) etc.

I prefer the novels anyday.

 

I liked the books a lot better than the graphic novels. They were alright, but reading them as comics made them lose that serious feel that the novels had for me...

I enjoyed TTT just as they were.

 

I don't quite get how they drew the Noghri in the comics, either. It didn't jibe with the description in the books.

And overall, I LIKE the complexity of TTT. It's what makes it a real sf book, not juvenile literature.

 

The artists completely and utterly ruined the Bothans and Noghri forever ( not to mention Karrde - who does NOT have long graying hair as of then - and Mazzic ::groans:: ). They paid no attention to the fact that WEG already had drawings of each. And now those are the accepted versions of those species, and we must come up with dang continuity fixes.

I think that there's some beautiful art in each TPB though. Especially of Mara and new types of starships.

I still prefer the novels.

And for the record...I've barely seen any good art of Thrawn. For some reason, I just can't see any artist getting him right, the way I personally envision him. The best rendition I've seen is actually in the opening cutscene of TIE Fighter, and the worst is definetly that horrid painting by Dave Dorman that actually was made into an icon.

 

I bought all three graphic novels as i was getting back into the EU. I figured i'd just read those instead of re-reading the novels, since i wanted to start reading the books in sequence. I could not follow the graphic novels, some scenes i remembered from the books but all in all, very confusing.

What's WEG?

 

West End Games. The RPG license-holder from 1987 to 1998 for SW.

 

Were the WEG Bothans furry looking deer/mule people?

 

Yes, there were too many mistakes in the comic adaptations. Standard TIE fighters leaving hyperspace, Lieutenant Page an alien...etc. But I like them to some degree, and I think TLC had the best artwork between the three books.

 

I thought Page was just disguised as an alien. And it didn't necesassrily show those TIEs exit hyperspace. But if they did, remember, Thrawn had Interceptors equipped with shields, so anything is possible.

 

God, how can you guys remember these tiny details? Must have a richer SW comic experience than i do, most of the technical stuff goes over my head.

 

Yeah, I'd assumed that Page was disguised as an alien.

Also, I'm sure SWTC has come up with some wonderful new designation for these unique TIES which haven't been seen anywhere else...

 

I don't know... It doesn't seem plausible to equip them with hyperdrives without changing their outer lookings...

 

Hyperdrives can be somewhat small. After all, an A-wing is equipped with them.

 

Graphic novels? It was my understanding that the Thrawn Trilogy was released as a trilogy of comics by DH, each part of the trilogy having six issues to it. Then the issues were gathered together in a TPB. The Dark Forces books are graphic novels as they are novels with artwork to go along with them. And not the comic book style art work either. I'm not putting that style down. But the artwork in the Dark Forces graphic novels would be more like the cover art of a comic book in my opinion. No dialouge, but something that could be scanned, edit out all the text on it, and then have it framed or something.

Of course, considering there was an actual comic book museum in this area from about 96 to 98, can't say that the pages between the covers wouldn't end up being framed either.

 

I never considered the distinction until now. Still, graphic novel has a better ring to it than tpb. Maybe we should just call them picture books.

 

I thought Thawrn modified the Ties with hyperdrives, or atleast a few to dump the Ober-si library.

 

Wow. Am I the only one who preferred the graphic novels/comic books/picture books/whatever?

 

A Gallery of Bothans that I put together.

 

Graphic novels? It was my understanding that the Thrawn Trilogy was released as a trilogy of comics by DH, each part of the trilogy having six issues to it. Then the issues were gathered together in a TPB. The Dark Forces books are graphic novels as they are novels with artwork to go along with them. And not the comic book style art work either. I'm not putting that style down. But the artwork in the Dark Forces graphic novels would be more like the cover art of a comic book in my opinion. No dialouge, but something that could be scanned, edit out all the text on it, and then have it framed or something

Graphic novel is the term people who are ashamed to buy comics use for comics, and is usually simply used to describe a TPB or collected edition. Each of TTT Graphic novels were a collection of 6 individual comics. Actually I think one of them was 5, but oh well. The Dark Forces books were NOT graphic novels. They were illustrated novellas -- that is, not comics, but real prose books with full page illustrations or paintings scattered throughout. The technical term I believe is "Graphic Story Album" or something.

 

Cool site. I like the non-mule/chewbacca ones. Though there were some cool pictures there all around.

 

Let's just agree to call them the Funny Papers.

 

"Though there were some cool pictures there all around."

I just have them on a site so as to fix continuity error, and let those that don't have a good idea of pics from different sources look at them. Also, it was fun to do, .

 

Learn to take a compliment!

 

What is "there all around" supposed to mean?