Lit Lostworlds & Lost Words: Cancelled Media

I'm still agonizing about that decades later. Tom generally stopped contributing as a writer to SW after that. He had some of the best ideas and momentum in his writing.

 

I loved the published backstories. Some great nuggets in them and inuniverse bits, especially the Leia one. Could you tell us some you had planned or wanted to add?

Lightsider was an interesting mystery. Rumors claim it was a full novel while others said it is more a short story or novella at best.

Interesting excerpt of Veitch about creating the early Expanded Universe back then, though I never found the book if it ever got published (???):

Spoiler: No Spoiler but Link

https://starwarsinterviews.com/revi...PxLOiunWQzsNFHbBweMPHmfsgR38pmrDPXfmyspc_PjIo

There even had been some "leaks" rumored about authors selfpublishing stuff nonlicensed.

I like how back in the 90s and early 2000s authors published a lot of cancelled content on their websites still. Or continued some of their works as fanfiction if not picked up for publication. WEG Adventure Journal type stuff comes to my mind, like Bungo & Rusti or more about Garos IV and Alexandra Winger (one of the few ladies lesser known to have had the chance to kiss Luke Skywalker!).

At least the club exclusive Hyperspace on the old starwars com website managed to salvage a lot.

 

Oh yeah, the Zahn/Veitch feuding was quite something. It always struck me as strange that the early-90s Powers That Be decided to essentially let them write parallel stories that didn't talk to each other. And they really don't -- I probably spent 20,000 words on continuity spackle between Dark Empire and the HTTE trilogy, zero of which was convincing, let alone satisfying. I suppose that's why there's a Story Group nowadays.

Revisiting the Tom-Tim back and forth, it's interesting that a lot of Veitch's ideas resonate/echo with the sequel trilogy or even anticipate it, while Zahn's still writing SW and Thrawn is thriving as a new-canon character. So I guess you could say they both won.

As for Backstories: Luke, there wasn't a lot new -- there couldn't be, since it would have come out shortly after TLJ. There was a little bit about what Luke had been up to since ROTJ, but it was very impressionistic to avoid stepping on future storytelling. I tried that approach again, with some of the same elements, for the "Interlukes" I wrote for the TLJ novelization. Which also never made it to publication. I'm nothing if not stubborn.

Honestly, the biggest bits of lore were full/last names for Deak and Windy. Which I know isn't much, but that's not the kind of book where you're breaking a lot of new ground. What I thought it did well was put Luke in context as the son of Anakin and Padme and a pivotal figure in what came after his generation, and I'm sorry readers -- particularly new fans of the saga -- didn't get to read that.

But hey, I got to write about Luke Skywalker and someone even paid me. That's a double win.

 

I'm still mad about Essential Characters because it sounded like Dan was actually gonna use my Time 100 suggestion.

 

Time 100 suggestion?

 

He was taking suggestions here for how to make a third volume seem fresh and mine was to vary the POV--have Lando write Han's bio, Leia write Mon Mothma's, that kind of thing.

 

Essential Characters even had art done... when it was cancdelled the artist had 100 character images ready that never saw the light of day. I tried everything but to no luck to get to see any. Wern't some recycled into the Essential Readers Companion but not all?

 

I don't actually own the ERC but Essential Characters was Wheatley and he's not listed as an artist for that. Where did you hear 100 completed images?

 

Maybe I thought the art got reused given the ERC features lots of character pieces in similiar pose and style as Roods art for ERC. But true, most ERC character art was Brian Rood. Anyway, 100 finished pieces by Wheatley I heard back then from artist himself I think. He gave updates of making of the art on his social media, with I think one work in progress pic even of too small to recognise arts in background. Given my passion for some characters I even asked back then about my favourites if they are among those... but got no reply.

Old Report on Art in progress with a few preview pieces here with link to Wheatleys facebook (defunct now):
https://roqoodepot.com/2012/08/28/preview-art-for-the-essential-guide-to-characters/

https://roqoodepot.com/2012/10/26/more-star-wars-essential-characters/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/starwarsbooks/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10151222715303713




So the 100 finished pieces is indeed true! If only one could get ahold of them all somehow! Btw 100 finished of 150 total as advertised for the entire guide means two thirds were done!

Preliminary Cover even we had with blurry characters some:

 

I'd never actually heard of the Essential Characters until the other day when I was looking through Wookieepedia. By the way, anyone heard of The Tao of the Force? It was apparently going to be a reference book by James Luceno that was cancelled because GL didn't want the Force to be a religion.

 

I've managed to dig out some of the information I found for Lostworlds. First Look: Escape from Dagu. Clone Wars Update: Escape from Dagu. Brian Daley Interview (Mentions Leigh Brackett Princess Leia novel and Jack Chalker Han novel). Paul S Kemp Duology Update. More Paul S Kemp Duology. Del Rey Online - Star Wars: Blood Oath. "Blood Oath" by Elaine Cunnigham. Cellblock 1138 - Andy Mangels (Mentions unpublished Andy Mangels works). Lostwords: The Essential Guide to Episode I. Lostwords: The Clone Wars Sourcebook. Karen Traviss - FAQs (Mentions Imperial Commando II). The Publishing Horizon: The Next Three Years (Mentions Blood Oath). First Look: Blood Oath. Star Wars: 1313 (The amazingly awesome 1313 website. Even though it has barely anything it's got a soundtrack thing and that's really cool. I think). The Essential Guide to the Yuuzhan Vong: Appendices (Mentions KnightfallI). Hope this information is good!

I'm assuming this would've been called something like Luke Skywalker: Jedi Knight.

I read the article. It's very interesting. Are these the only images from the Expanded Guide?

 

There also was an Essential Guide to the Underworld announced at Celebration.

Gesendet von meinem FP2 mit Tapatalk

 

Interesting. Very interesting indeed... Now, Underworld is also something very interesting. I seem to remember that AC Cripsin was going to make a Leia trilogy sort of like her Han trilogy, but LFL didn't want anyone to make anything in that period because "it was going to be covered in Underworld".

 

Indeed they planned a full on multimedia dive into underworld stuff, not just with a tv series and 1313 games but more. But while some episdoes of the tv show had interesting cameos most of it was its own thing that did not have constant movie cast attached to it.

A Crispin Leia trilogy would have been golden... given the talent to really connect and draw from all sources that previously mentioned anything about a characters past! I had my own notes compilation on her pre-ANH story snippets and an idea how to unite it all into a ANH leadup book like the PT each got theirs. Rogue One then cameoed Leia at least but did not give us her full leadin story.

But stories aside, a lot of ongoing guide series had plans for future titles. Not just Essential Guides but also others that did see continuation under canon label like Dan Wallace's Jedi Path and Book of Sith got plenty more additions under canon. Just imagine what had been planned for them were they published as Legends instead? What references had to be cut? Some still stayed after all as we know!

When I was speaking to publishers at last book fair (Haynes Guides, Studio Fun, Abrams, Insight Editions, Becker&Mayer) in 2019 about the guides, we really had lots of fun and idea sharing. Pity some lines seem to have found their for now natural end.

 

I also agree that a Crispin Leia trilogy would have been great. Crispin did a great job on Han, and I can imagine her making a Leia trilogy. I also wouldn't mind knowing what Leigh Brackett's Leia book(s) was going to be, or Jack Chalker's Han book(s).

 

Hey! This thread made it onto Wookieepedia!

 

Some interesting Underworld-related things: Putting the Pieces Together and Test Footage with Behind-the-Scenes. There's also this site. It has loads of concept art and videos. If the images don't come up on the site, right click on the image and click "Open Link in New Tab". If the videos don't work, just copy the link text and put that in a new tab. Hope this information is cool!

 

ERC was done before Essential Characters really spun up much so recycling art into it wouldnt have been possible.

(Source: I was the literal intern at the time, worked on reference for both. More ERC than EC)

 

I got for you some more Lostworlds content:

Back when DeAgostini released the first ever Star Wars Factfiles magazine run for Legends, there were more articles than made the final cut of the entire complete magazine run. The same Factfiles were released in other languages in other countries, but for whatever reason, content and articles were not released in the same order as the english ones. This lead to articles missing in the english complete run being published in the german run, and vice versa, stuff missing from the german run published in the english one!

If you truly want a complete FactFiles (v.1.) set... you need some missing foreign articles, complete with art and all. And now for the good news: I got the german articles not released in english. 18 articles covering 42 pages, some being 2 page, others 4 pages per person/planet/topic.

I mentioned this previously years ago on TFN, but I think this fits this topic too.

Wookieepedia does not seem to mention the german exclusives but mentions that Japan got exclusive articles too. Same as german ones maybe? That I could not confirm so far!

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Official_Star_Wars_Fact_File

 

I'm still searching around for some new or cool info about Lostworlds... But in the meantime, it's MAY THE FOURTH! I'm planning on starting a Lostworlds page on my blog, so if I do, I'll post the link when it's up.

 

I've started the Lostworlds page on my blog. You can find it here. So far, I've only got one listing, although I've actually written about 12 entries, so I'll try and update when I can. I'm also going to add illustrations when needed.

 

I just found out about something that was new to me. Might not be to everyone else, but I certainly haven't heard of it. The Ultimate Star Wars Graphic Novel Library. You can find out information about it (and a promo image) here.

"The Ultimate Star Wars Graphic Novel Library is a beautiful ten-volume hardbound compilation of the Dark Horse graphic novels and short comics detailing the events and characters of the original trilogy of the Star Wars saga. Each beautifully illustrated volume is crafted of fine durable stock and solid hard bindings which collectively form an impressive spine art panorama featuring the major characters from Episodes IV, V and VI."

I also found out that the cancelled Star Comics Ewoks #15 had a bit of info...

"Fleeing from the evil Duloks the Ewoks Wicket and Teebo discover the lost city of Endor-la—a place of peace and good will which leads them into more trouble than they imagined! "The Hidden City" is written by Dave Manak, penciled by Warren Kremer, and inked by Jon D'Agostino. A Star comic. $1.00."

One other thing, take a look here. Never heard of it before today. There's also these covers. There's just more and more Lostworlds everyday!

 

Does anyone know what happened to "In a Future, Far, Far, Away..." by Ian McCaig? The Star Wars Comics Companion lists it under Visionaries, but it seems that it was never published.

 

"'In a Future Far, Far Away..." by Iain McCaig. Thousands of years after the Battle of yavin, there are no more Jedi, the Sith are but a memory, and the oly familliar faces left are the Droids C-3PO and R2-D2. Yet even they have undergone changes, continuing to evolve and outpace their own technology. Together the droid search for meaning and purpose to their extended existence."

That is what I found regarding it on TFN no less in the Comics Companion discussion way back.

And this from rebelscum explains the issue:

Around the release of the Comics Companion, there was a rumor that there was a missing Visionaries story. It appears that the Comics Companion listed a story by Ian McCaig called "In a future far, far away..." Randy Stradley, Dark Horse Editor, addressed this on the Dark Horse Message Boards, as "Actually, the 'missing' Visionaries story is one that was proposed, but never completed because the writer/artist had to finish work on Revenge of the Sith."