A&A The Official Abel G. Pena Discussion Thread

Awesome Abel! Mad props all around.

If only you could have established the Jedi Lords of the New Sith Wars = Jedi Council, then it'd be perfect...


Ah well...next time...

 

Great work, Abel. I hate to see how much new info and how many details are in this article when meanwhile, the Insider gives us a Sith article basically summarizing what many of us all ready know! I'm all for summarizing things for the uninitiated, but I hope that trend doesn't continue...

And you may have all ready guessed that I remain grateful for you constantly expanding upon Lumiya's story. Nice way of saying what she's doing leading into Legacy of the Force without actually explicitly stating it.

JMM

 

Thanks Arthur! This is definitely one of those you need to read several times before you can squeeze everything out of it.

The Sun Guard/Sith Merc is a link to those baddies in the The Phantom Menace PC game that look like black clad royal guards. The name Phanius is actually a truncated form of the name Epiphanius, suggesting Ruin's explosive insights.

 

Thanks QG!

So it's perfection you're after, eh QG?

Well, alright, I guess that's reasonable.

Thanks JMM. It's one of those things, I suppose. I'm happy that Evil Never Dies finally found a home.

I've always been a fan of the understated, letting folks connect the pieces for themselves. I think it's funner that way. I liked the idea of keeping Lumiya in the background.

But actually there was a much more practical reason for not focusing the piece on her: when I originally wrote Evil Never Dies, I'd just come off of writing The Emperor's Pawns. I couldn't write Lumiya's stats in two back to back features.

Take care,
Abel

 

The name Phanius is actually a truncated form of the name Epiphanius, suggesting Ruin's explosive insights.

If you don't mind, I'm stealing this sentence for Wookieepedia's Behind the Scenes section on the Darth Ruin page.

 

Not in the least, QG. Handle it.

 

Excellent selection on species of Darth Ruin and Darth Millennial. Any chance that we will have an illustration of these two?

 

Thanks Darth_Malus. An illustrated Ruin and Millennial, wouldn't that be something? As of now, there are no plans, but you can bet I'll always be on the lookout for the opportunity to help bring about illustrated representations of these dudes. I'd go as far as to say it's likely inevitable that Ruin will get illustrated at some point in the near future, whether I have a hand in it or not.

 

Abel, just a few things:

did the Sun Guards originate before Palpatine, did he just reshape them?

and what ties exist between the Sun Guards and the Echani culture of KOTOR?

 

You caught the ambiguity, which was wholly intentional in this case. It could be either at this point.

Only what's already been established.

Take care,
Abel

 

oh good! Wow now if anyone who does comics would work with you and create an animated short story with Darth Ruin and the others my life would be complete. What was the inspiration of Darth Millennial's name?

 

Just a heads up for everyone, I wrapped up all of the artwork for the "Underworld" feature in Insider #90 and handed it in to my Insider editor earlier this week. Ryan and Abel did a fantastic job with this one. Lots of great EU content for the fans. And keep your eyes peeled in the artwork for new characters and a few interesting cameos and surprises to boot

 

Actually, I meant to say the "Underworld" feauture will be in Insider #89
Thanks!

 

Joe?

I'd be extremely interested in doing something substantial with Darth Ruin.

To be revealed... some day.

Joe's illos are positively dyno-mite. His Lando is especially pimp...

Abel

 

Lando? Lando, you say? Awesome!

 

Oh, I gotta ask my standard question! Any Marvel characters referenced?

I'm still waiting for Rik Duel's triumphant return.

 

You know if you pitch it I will draw it I'd actually love to have the chance to establish the visual look of such a principal Sith Lord character.

Thanks! Lando is actually one of my favorite characters but for his cameo I concerned myself less with potraying his actual likeness (since he's more in the background of the scene) and went more for "mood"

 

There is a Marvel reference in my artwork specifically, not dealing with a character per say, but more of a specific item or relic that's kind of fun. There are some Shadows of the Empire cameos too and a certain Order 66 survivor reappears

 

Does a Lepus Carnivorous know karate?

That was a fun one.

Underworld is chock full of cross continuity goodness and some cool new things! Folks will be happy with it.

Take care,
Abel

 

Not only that, but it was incredibly fun to do. Abel and Joe are fantastic guys to work with.

After being a longtime fan of both your work, it was a true honor to actually work *with* you on something.

 

Holy hoojibs, it's Ryan!

 

Sounds all very exciting. So how does a collaborative article like Underworld come about?

Did one of you request to work with another author? Who pitched the idea for the article to begin with? Or was it all Mr Parisi's idea?

How does writing the article together work? Do you assign yourselves different sections of the article and write them separately, or actually sit together and battle it out? Or both?

Heh, too many questions

Keep up the great work Abel! And looking forward to Joe's new artwork

 

Thanks Ryan! But the man's too modest. Ryan was captain on this project and gave it the unique feel of its structure. It almost didn't make it through approvals! But we stuck to our guns and we think it turned out a really fun piece.

Well actually, it all came about in a rather odd way.

Originally Karen Traviss and I pitched a piece about something completely unrelated. All seemed well until LFL decided the timing wasn't right (which, in retrospect, now makes a lot of sense) and nixed the idea. However, it so happened that Ryan had been working up a proposal that touched on some of the stuff Karen and I had planned to cover, so we'd gotten to talking about our respective projects. So, when word came down about LFL's decision, Insider editor Frank Parisi asked if we'd be interested in doing a piece on the criminal underworld. The subject's not generally my cup of tea, but both Karen and Ryan were excited about it, so I figured what the heck. I can be a sucker for collaborations, especially with writers' whose styles differ significantly from mine. I figure it stretches me, bringing out aspects of my writing that are burried a little bit deeper.

At the last minute, though, Karen got too busy with other projects and had to pull out. That left just me and Ryan. Madness ensued.

Well Ryan got his DT-57 and a frag grenade and I pulled out my lightsaber, and Ryan goes, "I want to call it Underworld," and I go, "I want to call it A Galaxy of Scum and Villainy," and then we tried to kill each other, and then our editor goes, "Wait fellas! Why don't you call it Underworld: A Galaxy of Scum and Villainy?" And so we put our weapons and detached appendages away.

I've met with cowriters before when working on a project (Enrique Guerrero for the 20 EU Most Memorable Moments), but usually we do most of our collaboration via cyberspace. Once we had the green light, Ryan and I threw some ideas back and forth, then he banged out an outline
based on our emails broken into sections based on our stated preferences, and then we went to work. Ryan had the idea for a particular style and setting for the piece, and I was down with that, so those self-imposed parameters colored the entire piece. Afterward, we brought our sections together, and voila!

One of my favorite parts of a project is when I really get to grind out with Joe the kinds of compositions will be good for the piece. Joe always likes to go for broke, which is why it's so much fun to work with him.

Take care,
Abel

 

Abel: is the Dragite quote in NEGD's Iron Knight section from the Star Wars Missions kid game, establishing Dragite as one of the Knights encountered in that book?

 

Originally Karen Traviss and I pitched a piece about something completely unrelated. All seemed well until LFL decided the timing wasn't right (which, in retrospect, now makes a lot of sense) and nixed the idea.


Ok, this is the kinda tease that makes fanboys' heads explode (like mine).

I'm certain you can't and won't talk about this project, but can you at least say if, in your opinion, we'll see it at some point down the road?