Comics Tales of the Jedi

I love reading about the Sith.
I’m thinking of reading the old Tales of the Jedi graphic novels.
I understand that they were nit published in strict chronological order. Where should I begin?

As I said, I’m particularly interested in Sith history.

 

Tales of the Jedi
The Freedon Nadd Uprising (skippable)
Dark Lords of the Sith
The Sith War
Redemption

Golden Age of the Sith and The Fall of the Sith Empire are also skippable. They aren't very interesting sadly.

 

Ok, so tales of the Jedi is chronologically the first ever SW story?

 

The Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire are chronologically the most.

Dawn of the Jedi isn't Tales of the Jedi but written in the same style and it's the chronologically first.

 

So shoul i start with Dawn?

 

For the very origins of the Jedi Order in Legends, yes.

Tales of the Jedi and the recommendation I gave you are the best stories, though.

 

Ok, thanks very much!

 

Chronological order:
- Golden Age of the Sith
- Fall of the Sith Empire
- Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon
- The Sage of Nomi Sunrider
- The Freedon Nadd Uprising
- Dark Lords of the Sith
- The Sith War
- Redemption

Golden Age and Fall of are prequels that were released in between The Sith War and Redemption. I recommend release order through Dark Lords of the Sith.

The villains of The Saga of Nomi Sunrider aren't Force-users, so you don't have to read it if you're looking for Sith history.

 

Thanks. I just got Marvel Unlimited and I think they have all of these. Brings back memories, as does my unabridged Trilogy audiobook I just started to listen to today. That trilogy and the Sith comics were great.

EDIT:

Yes. Got all of them. Thanks for the information on the chronological order.

 

I would read all of them, if they're available to you. It's all pretty good, though if you only have money/time for the Sith stuff I would follow @darklordoftech list

 

Are they all collected volumes?

 

Yes. However, Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon and The Sage of Nomi Sunrider are collected in one volume - Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic

 

@TheNewEmpire

I recommend reading in release order. Release order can be better than chronological (historical) order for many reasons. You get to see how the characters, conflicts, and worlds were developed.

Reading in release order is important with this Tales of the Jedi series because a bridge was developed from Dark Empire in the epilogue text written by Tom Veitch for the Dark Empire I comics (and First Edition of the trade for DE I). I recommend reading the epilogue text before starting Tales of the Jedi #1 (Beast Wars of Onderon, first Ulic Qel-Droma story). TOTJ ties into Dark Empire.

Here is a Tom Veitch interview from 2016:
http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2016/08/interview-with-dark-empire-writer-tom.html

The ideas started with writer Tom Veitch. The writing got passed to Kevin J. Anderson. I've been fortunate to communicate with Tom Veitch and Christian Gossett. I've also gotten to communicate with the editor on Dark Empire who oversaw the comics license transition to Dark Horse.

If you are interested/intrigued in the style of Dark Empire I and Tales of the Jedi, I recommend checking out the Light and Darkness War published by the Epic Comics imprint.

Since you are interested in the Sith, you might enjoy the Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire.

Every arc is collected into tradepaperbacks that are available on Ebay. But check out how the trades are often more expensive than purchasing the individual comics as a set. The Freedon Nadd Uprising tradepaperback is a slim two-issue trade that can claim higher collectible pricing.

The Tales of the Jedi Companion from WestEnd Games can also be found.


The print options are:
1) original issue releases
2) tradepaperback releases
3) Omnibus releases (in two volumes for TOTJ)

Digital options:
1) original issues on comixology
'
Note: Dark Horse Digital offered digital omnibus editions of the Tales of the Jedi arcs before the license shifted.

 

There's a "Volume 1" Omnibus and a "Volume 2" Omnibus.

 

I'd recommend publication order because of the amount of Sith history TotJ retcons between the original run and the GAotS prequels. If you're interested in how Sith history developed and changed as the EU went along, that is by far the best order... but chronological order is okay, too.

Just don't expect it to line up perfectly.

 

Another problem with chronological order is that the transition from Fall Of to Ulic is jarring and the "Ulic era" stories feel disconnected from the "Daragon era" stories until you get to "Dark Lords".

 

The Great Sith War aka "Exar Kun War" is credited with advancing civilization in certain systems of the galaxy.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Sith_War

I have always found creative ways of explaining any lack of fit between the era depicted in 4,000 BBY (Great Sith War) and 5,000 BBY (Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire).

Also, the Sith built a civilization in isolation from the Galactic Republic. The two civilizations discovered each other after centuries of isolation. Their discovery of each other is part of the "modernity" depicted in Knights of the Old Republic. Their discovery of each other might be compared to European civilization and the Americas discovering each other in the late 1400's.

Back in the 90s when Tales of the Jedi was first published, Dark Horse was also releasing the Archie Goodwin/Al Williams Newspaperstrips. A big retcon occurred when the Massassi Ruins on Yavin IV were connected with the events in Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War, Golden Age of the Sith, and Fall of the Sith Empire.

Kevin J. Anderson wrote in the forward to the Newspaperstrips Vol. 2., The Rebel Storm (First Edition, July 1995):

​

From the antepenultimate paragraph: "Readers of the Star Wars: Dark Lords of the Sith comics (written by Tom Veitch and me) and its sequel "The Sith War" will learn much more about the origin of the Massassi temples on Yavin IV as well as the night beast and its true mission. " (referring to the sequences on Yavin IV in the Goodwin/Williamson newspaperstrips in Vol. 2).

From the last paragraph of the forward: "...readers will finally be able to see that all of these disparate pieces [of fiction] really do fit together. Honest! Trust me -- and keep reading."

 

I checked and unfortunately the books are not available from comixology in the UK. There is only the option to add them to a wish list.

I did manage to find a brand new copy of Tale of the Jedi for £13 on amazon
Thanks for the advice and for posting the interview.

 

The marvel digital platform may be the same in the UK. Wish list only.

The trades and individual issues are a good option.

 

It's a little weird that a digital book is out of stock. Is it a right thing do you know?

 

I'm not sure what you mean that? There are two digital platforms for star wars comics, comixology.com and marvel.com. I recently viewed Tales of the Jedi comics for sale on both sites but I'm based in the U.S. Do these sites say the comics are out of stock in your country?

 

They say i can add them to a wishlist but without an option to buy.

 

I've only ever read these in chronological order, because I got the Tales of the Jedi omnibuses when they came out. I never thought anything was jarring, in particular because each story (in the omnibus, at least) began with a clear indication of what year it was (though for Fall of the Sith Empire it was erroneous, implying a 10-year jump in time when mere days at passed).

But these are some of my favourite EU stories.

 

I read these (some 9-10 years ago) in publication order (i.e. everything until The Sith War, then GAOTS and FOTSE, then Redemption). The connections are nice this way, i.e. you first find out about the Empress Teta system and then you find out who Teta was and what she did in order to get a system named after her. Regarding the Dark Empire connection: I read TOTJ with this in mind, as a prelude (even if it was written later) to a re-read of Dark Empire and to a thorough exploration into much of post-ROTJ fiction (up until LOTF). I found the DE links to be quite forgettable so I don't think you should care about them very much. More powerful IMHO is the connection to the Jedi Academy Trilogy (which I read like a week later).

One thing to keep in mind (that I've seen no one to point out) is that main series focuses mainly on some Jedi that turn to the dark side under the influence of Sith teachings so they may rather be viewed plainly as Dark Jedi. If you want to read about the formation of the Sith and what became of them, GAOTS/FOTSE is the way to go. Also, even if they are regarded here as "weaker", I enjoyed them much more (possibly, though, not because of quality, but simply because I had the feeling that they were telling the story I wanted to know about).

The whole series is, however, a good source on how a more less-developed galactic society might look like (e.g. the old Senate chamber, hyperspace beacons) and for a wider variety of non-human species (including Jedi of those). The KOTOR comics, which immediately follow TOTJ in the timeline, happening just 22 years later, used, in a highly criticized decision, aesthetics and technology heavily based on the prequels.

 

So I’m reading tales of the jedi...

It seems rather boring and the artwork is bad.
In the beginning the story alludes to dark jedi encoutering the Sith for the first time. THAT story is far more interesting, I want to read that! Not this narrative about a couple of siblings trying to make a quick buck.