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

The golden age of the modern EU, perhaps, but if we're applying comic epoch labels, the Marvel run and other 70's/80's EU would be golden age, 90's pre-TPM silver, post-TPM bronze, with maybe an Modern Age starting in 06-ish?

There's not a direct comparison, though, since comic ages are much more broader swaths of time than the different eras of EU production and we start to have far more eras than the comics industry as a whole does- especially with whatever partial reboot we might be facing next year.

 

I think every era of the EU has its gems. DHC put out some classic material in the 90's, but, IMO, they really hit their stride in quality in 2003+.

I find the experimentation of the 90's EU interesting- the creators were building something almost wholly unique in media spin-off material and were kind of still trying to figure out what that thing was, how far could they push it within the boundaries given to them, what elements of the films could be recognized in different dressings and what it's like to tell stories that could have consequences for other stories.

But there was also a reverence for the material that would eventually be traded with familiarity, I think.

Come to think of it, it's not too unlike the internet and web in the 90's. They weren't created then, but they were defined then.

 

Very soon, actually.

 

As an update I should hopefully have the next post up in the next week or so- finally over the delay from switching to and from computers that I was working, just need to bang out a few things this week before I can turn back to the project.

 

1998
January 1998
Crimson Empire #2 (of 6) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #26: Family Ties, part 1 (of 2) / Cover

February 1998
Crimson Empire #3 (of 6) / Cover
The Last Command #3 (of 6) / Cover
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #1 (of 5) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #27: Family Ties, part 2 (of 2) / Cover

March 1998
Crimson Empire #4 (of 6) / Cover
Dark Forces: Rebel Agent / Cover
The Last Command #4 (of 6) / Cover
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #2 (of 5) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #28: Masquerade, part 1 (of 4) / Cover

April 1998
Crimson Empire #5 (of 6) / Cover
The Last Command #5 (of 6) / Cover
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #3 (of 5) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #29: Masquerade, part 2 (of 4) / Cover

May 1998
Crimson Empire #6 (of 6) / Cover
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #4 (of 5) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #30: Masquerade, part 3 (of 4) / Cover

June 1998
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution #5 (of 5) / Cover

July 1998
The Last Command #6 (of 6) / Cover
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #0 (of 6)
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #1 (of 5): A Gathering of Jedi / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #31: Masquerade, part 4 (of 4) / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron: Handbook / Cover

August 1998
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #1 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #2 (of 5): The Search for Peace / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #32: Mandatory Retirement, part 1 (of 4) / Cover

September 1998
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #2 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #3 (of 5): Homecoming / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #33: Mandatory Retirement, part 2 (of 4) / Cover

October 1998
Dark Forces: Jedi Knight / Cover
Jedi Academy: Leviathan #1 (of 4) / Cover
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #3 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #4 (of 5): The Trials of a Jedi / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #34: Mandatory Retirement, part 3 (of 4) / Cover

November 1998
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood #1 (of 6) / Cover
Jedi Academy: Leviathan #2 (of 4) / Cover
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #4 (of 6) / Cover
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #5 (of 5): Master / Cover
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron #35: Mandatory Retirement, part 4 (of 4) / Cover

December 1998
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood #2 (of 6) / Cover
The Jabba Tape / Cover
Jedi Academy: Leviathan #3 (of 4) / Cover
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand #5 (of 6) / Cover
Republic #0 / Cover
Republic #1: Prelude to Rebellion, part 1 (of 6) / Cover



In a way, this year seems to live up to it's place as the swan song of the 90's, pre-prequel EU era- Crimson Empire carrying forward Dark Empire's legacy, The Last Command topping off the adaptations, TOTJ closing out with one of the best EU stories ever told, X-Wing coming to a close at the peak of it's game after finally recovering from the dip in quality in the middle, while tie-ins (Leviathan) and spin-offs (SOTE:E) to the novels pad things out.

First off, I think we can all agree on one thing: SOTE: Evolution had some truly horrific covers. WTH is with the Fourth of July parade backgrounds? They almost remind me of the dreaded Tales photo covers...





Some moments from TLC visualized in the comic:








TLC #5 did give us our first canon appearance of Padme's visage:


Not to mention our favorite creepy guy:


Meanwhile, TOTJ: Redemption was probably the first time art in a comic grabbed me so much that I actually paid attention to the name of the artist (yes, I was a bad child for those first 6 years of comic reading, not paying attention to the names of the people actually writing and illustrating them), but Chris Gossett was awesome here:



The B&W sketch version is just as strong:


(I should also warn that some of the image selections coming up have major spoilers for the end of TOTJ: Redemption)









And a couple shots from Crimson Empire:


Though they're from much earlier in the EU's existence, it's still neat that the Turbo Tanks still existed this far back:


TBC in a moment with some cover art highlights...

 

Cover highlights:






I love this one...


(amusing to note that it must have used the production model (or photos of the model) for reference, as the DS2 is unflipped)

The odd statuesque vibe of the Redemption covers have stuck with me. I think I just saw them on shelves more, having started to spend more time at my local comic book shop around the time of their release.






"YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!". Actually a pretty creepy cover.


Obligatory, and semi-final, X-Wing love:






I love this one:


And this one evokes a lot of non-specific memories of 90's Star Wars. Though TIE Fighter would be the most obvious one:


"Nice work, Rogue Squadron!"



And, then, it begins... a new era of Star Wars- Star Wars #1 (though issues seemed to rotate between issue #'s and arc # of # labeling for the early stretch of this series) aka what would retroactively be Republic #1 (or, alternatively, Dark Times #-83 ):

 

Yeah, it wasn't really an advertised thing- just the first 50 people in line each day at Matt Busch's booth had the chance to buy one. And it hasn't had a lot of online images made available of it, either.

I'd love to get a SOTE movie poster done in a similar style (or even if Joe Corroney did one that fit into his C4, C5 & C6 trilogy of posters). But I'm guessing EU-based stuff will be even rarer to find now.

I think so- the novelization didn't come out until April around the time of Celebration 1 and there was no adult TPM lead-in novel (COD didn't happen until closer to AOTC's release). And I don't believe the Jedi Apprentice series started until around the release of TPM either.

PTR was obviously structured so as to not give away anything from TPM while also filling up the 6 months prior to the film's release, just in time for the comic adaptation to hit around the time of the movie.

EDIT 2- Though, Rogue Squadron the N64 did have the Naboo Fighter hidden in it at the time of it's release in Dec 1998, though it's presence in the game (and the code to unlock it) wasn't revealed to the public until July of 1999. If you count that, then Rogue Squadron came out a little over a week before Republic #1.

However, the famed Prelude to Rebellion #0 web comic whose files were lost beats them all out with a Dec 1st 1998 release date, according to Wookieepedia.