My Interview with Star Wars: Invasion's Tom Taylor!!! (Bonus: Mac's interview with Colin Wilson!!!)

...is three exclamation points overdoing it? Nah.

*achem*

Ladies and gentlebeings - shortly after the announcement of new Dark Horse comic series Star Wars: Invasion at the New York Comic Con, I took it upon myself to drop writer Tom Taylor a line regarding a few of our most burning questions about the new series. He was gracious enough to indulge me, and I've brought his responses here, and here alone, for your reading pleasure.

What comics does Mr. Taylor enjoy himself? Will Invasion be revisiting the death of Anakin Solo? Just how do the Yuuzhan Vong feel about puppies and nuns? Answers to all these and more can be found below...

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[b]Tell me a little about where your professed love of comics comes from? What comics, if any, did you grow up reading?[/b]

My love of comics comes from my childhood without a doubt. I grew up reading all of the DC superheroes and I have always been a massive Superman fan. I think John Williams, inadvertently, wrote the soundtrack to the early lives of a lot of people my age. I also read a bit of [i]2000 AD[/i]. However, it wasn?t until I was about 17 and returned to comics with Sandman, that my adult love began.


[b]What are some of your favorite books/creators?[/b]

Well, [i]Watchmen[/i] is really good and [i]Dark Knight Returns[/i]? just kidding. It seems like they?re the only two books that non-comic book people can list when they?re asked this question. Of course Alan Moore and Frank Miller are good; they?re Alan Moore and Frank Miller! I won?t go too much into my favorite artists here, except to say that Colin Wilson is brilliant. ;)

Favorite writers:

Garth Ennis
[i]Hitman[/i] and [i]Preacher[/i] are two of my favorite books of all time. Garth Ennis forces you to care more about his characters than anyone else in the business; he can make you laugh, cry and? squirm. His [i]Hellblazer[/i] run was also brilliant as was his ?Trooper? story in [i]Star Wars Tales[/i] #10.

Warren Ellis
[i]Authority[/i], [i]Stormwatch[/i], [i]Planetary[/i], [i]Nextwave[/i], [i]Transmetropolitan[/i], [i]Aetheric Mechanics[/i]. The guy has more ideas before breakfast (which I assume is just a cigarette and some cynicism) than most of us have in our lifetimes. I buy almost everything he produces.

Mark Millar
[i]Ultimates[/i], [i]Wolverine[/i], [i]Wanted[/i] - A one man movie-making machine. Pacing, scope and twists.

Bendis
Dialogue that Aaron Sorkin would be proud of. I have all of his early stuff. I?ve bought [i]Ultimate Spider-Man[/i] since day one and I can?t get enough of [i]Powers[/i].

There are so many more; Vaughan, Whedon, Grant Morrison ([i]All-Star Superman[/i] was great), Gaiman, Willingham, Brubaker, Kirkman, Straczynski, Johns? I?ll stop now.

No I won?t. I?m also really enjoying [i]Umbrella Academy[/i] and Drew Goddard?s [i]Buffy[/i] arc was one of the best runs I read last year. There?s also these Star Wars books you may not have heard of called [i]Legacy[/i], [i]Dark Times[/i] and [i]Knights of the Old Republic[/i]?


[b]It seems to be pretty rare for comics writers to have much of a face-to-face relationship with their artists; how do you think being able to meet with Colin Wilson regularly and in person is affecting the final product of [i]Invasion[/i]?[/b]

Colin and I would meet for two coffees each and a long chat about life, the universe and everything whether we were working together or not. Having said that, we are working together and working well. One of the pluses for us is that we both have fairly isolated working lives so stepping out of a study once a week (to step into another study) and actually talking to another human being about what we?re doing, really helps keep the excitement levels up for the series. I think one of the major advantages of working so closely is that there?s someone else there to make sure you don?t make mistakes. So Colin will say, ?Hey Tom, you know how you want this character doing this [u]and[/u] this charact

 

Awesome, thanks Coop! Tom seems like a great guy, I can't wait to read this series.

 

We have our core characters and a huge supporting cast.

A focus on the core characters would be my fondest wish.

Great job on the interview Coop!

 

Great interview! Is it cool that I post it on EUCantina.net?

 

Sweet. Does this mean more fan art? because I've been thinking about a lot of things...

 

Is he going too have his own thread where he posts along with Ostander and soo on... ?

 

I guess anything's possible down the line, but he indicated to me that he's not really a message board person, so I wouldn't count on it.

 

I am genuinely excited for this series, especially after the interview. Thanks to both of you.

 

Thanks for sharing Coop.

 

What Coop hasn't told you guys yet is that this is only one of a pair of interviews: I've done a companion-piece interview with Colin Wilson for the main TF.N site.

You can now read THAT one here!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Sweet! Nice timing.

 

Nice. All of this has me very hopeful!

though:
Speaking of which, I want to assure all of the women out there that Kaye is a kick-ass character. I wouldn?t be surprised if she ends up being the toughest character in the series.
...you have to raise you eyebrows at that, in the "doth protest too much" kind of way.

Anyway, I hope they focus on the characters an other events rather than tying them in too closely to the books, though Kotor showed it is certainly possible to blend the two together.

 

I love this guy more and more every day.

 

Okay... after a little conferring with Coop and the Mods, I'm adding a copy of the Colin Wilson interview here as well!

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[b]TheForce.Net: [i]Star Wars: Invasion[/i] seems to have been very enthusiastically received by a lot of fans. How did you get involved with this new title, and did you expect the reaction that it?s getting?[/b]

[b]Colin Wilson:[/b] The reception so far has been terrific, and almost universally positive. When Tom and I first starting talking together about doing [i]Invasion[/i] together, we knew that the fans would be looking at every little detail, trying to anticipate where we are going with the new series, what existing characters will make an appearance etc. But I certainly had no idea of the level of interest that we?ve so far seen.

[b]TFN: The new series takes place in a part of the [i]Star Wars[/i] timeline where there?s a detailed story in the ?New Jedi Order? novels, but relatively limited visual material. With that in mind, can you tell us how you approached the established characters and technology for this series, such as an older Luke Skywalker, the children of Han Solo and Princess Leia, and the new-generation X-wings?[/b]

[b]CW:[/b] You're telling me that Han Solo and Princess Leia had children?!! Seriously though... visual continuity is really important to me as a [i]Star Wars[/i] artist, and I know that the fans demand it. While its great to be able to invent the occasional new alien, or some never-before-seen spacecraft, I can manage stuff like that because I?ve been such a huge fan of the whole [i]SW[/i] ?look? myself, ever since I saw the original film. I immediately went out and tracked down as many of those original ?Art of [i]Star Wars[/i]? books that I could afford at the time. Still got ?em too. Existing characters are OK, there?s so much material available, but for [i]Invasion[/i] I?ve got to portray much older versions of those same characters, and their children. There?s not a lot of existing visual material for this stuff.... book covers, some (beautifully painted) Japanese illustrations.... I?ve researched what I can and tried to synthesize my own take on these characters as they start to appear in [i]Invasion[/i]. Let?s hope I can keep the fans happy.....

[b]TFN: Was there a difference between that part of the series, and the demands of developing the new heroes created for the comic, the Galfridian family, and their homeworld, Artorias?[/b]

[b]CW:[/b] Visually, our new characters present a whole different set of criteria. Tom and I talked this through in great detail, and Tom?s stage experience helped out a lot here and probably kept me from falling back on too many comic character cliches. Because its important not to.... these characters are going to be around for a while, and I?ve got to really know them well. We?ve found a local stage actor that we?ve been able to photograph too, and although he probably doesn?t directly resemble Finn Galfridian, I?ve been able to use the pictures to stretch my own drawing skills to visually create a new [i]Star Wars[/i] character that I?m very happy with.

[b]TFN: The other major factor in this setting are the antagonists: the alien Yuuzhan Vong. Did you know much about them before you began work on this project, and how are you finding them as you work on the series?[/b]

[b]CW:[/b] Visually the Yuuzhan Vong present an artist with a whole different set of problems. It has already been established that the Vong, while resembling human form, are a terrifying, fearless species originating from outside of the galaxy... the technology they use is genetically engineered and purely organic. All good stuff for a comic artist, and my job is to visualize this, make it all look real, and yet still retain a sense of menace and unpredictability about everything Vong. No problem!

[b]TFN: A comic is a strongly visual means of storytelling: the pictures are about tone and narrative as well as just images. Have you found any specific insights or surprises in this new series - in particular, any differences of a

 

The more I hear from Tom, the more I like him. He seems to be a big Star Wars fan who already knew a lot about the EU coming in, which is great.

 

Great interviews. Tom Taylor has excellent taste in comics. If there's anybody here who's interested in checking out comics beyond Star Wars, you can basically check out anything on his list and it's guaranteed to be excellent. I'm very excited to see what Taylor can do.

 

Nice interviews Cooper & TMcE!!

I like him already.

 

Thanks very much for the Interviews, Cooper and Thrawn . I enjoyed reading both of them. Nice job! IT's great that the author and illustrator were willing to take the time to answer questions too.

 

What?s your take on the Yuuzhan Vong? Since their ultimate ?redemption,? so to speak, is already common knowledge, do you think that will affect the way they?re portrayed in the series?

I?m not sure how common that knowledge is for people who haven?t read the books or investigated the storyline. I will say that this is the start of the war, the Yuuzhan Vong have no redemptive qualities at all at this stage. At the moment, these are the sort of guys who would beat a nun with a puppy.

I'm a little dissapointed in that response. This makes it less likely any of the YV characters will be anything but drooling males D:

However, it's great that's he's so enthusiastic about writing Star Wars. Wookieepedia!

 

It sounds like tom and i like the same type of comics. I'm looking forward to reading invasion.

 

Tom just alerted me to another new interview with him and Colin (when do these two make the comic, exactly?) in the preview magazine for the upcoming Supanova convention in Australia. Not really any new info for us obsessives (though it sounds like Luke is actually on Artorias and recruits/rescues Finn personally, so we should expect to see that him pretty early), but it's fun nevertheless.

"This means that a Jedi attempting, say, a mind trick on a Yuuzhan Vong, might find the Yuuzhan Vong is already eating his heart."

Click here and skip to page 28 to check it out. Tom and Colin will both be attending the Con, so if any of you happen to live near Melbourne, be sure to track them down (the con itself goes to Brisbon, too, but I'm unclear if they'll be at both stops).

Oh, and say hi to Morena Baccarin for me.

 

Gaaaaaah! Look at the page banner right now! So much eye candy.

From the interview. I hope the boy grows up to do wonderful things...

 

Great interview and I must say I'm really looking forward to Tom and Colin's collaboration on this series! I've enjoyed Colin's work on the Star Wars: Legacy and Star Wars: Rebellion books so this is a wonderful extension of that work. And I'm not just saying that because I'm Colin's original comic art dealer

For those who might be interested in the mention of Colin's work on Western and iconic UK books, this was a reference to Colin's work on Jean (Moebius) Giraud's Western character Blueberry which has been translated in various European editions and also for 2000AD where Colin illustrated the adventures of Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd. More recent books illustrated by Colin include "Du Plomb dans la tete" which has been optioned as a movie property by Warners with the former Smallville producers Millar & Gough associated with the movie treatment as well as his work on Battler Britton, Losers and Point Blank.

If curious, you can see Colin's original comic art here - http://www.comicartshop.com/ComicArtShopsByCat.asp?GCat=111

Colin's Blog can be seen here - http://wilco4400.blogspot.com/ and website here - http://web.mac.com/wilco440/

Best,

Royd

 

This comic will probably be the best star wars comic ever.