Star Wars Expanded Universe Thread (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Grey]

Matt, here is Dark Horse's page for Star Wars comics:

http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/starwars/index.php

Click on Republic. Republic is the prequel era comic line. I've read all of the Clone Wars stuff and a few of the pre-AOTC TPB collections. I think almost all of The Republic comics have been collected into the TPBs. The Clone Wars start with Republic issue #49.

I recommend all of the Clone Wars stuff and of the pre-Clone Wars I'll recommend anything written by John Ostrander.

 

[David Williams]

I really enjoyed this series, particularly the first book. The author really seemed to capture the extended family dynamic of our heroes, especially the Solos. The Solo children are also written very well.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I've started the "Han Solo Adventures" book and it's pretty enjoyable. Not deep, but fun.

 

[Joel...Lane]

I used to collect the comics RELIGIOUSLY but have since stopped. Two kids will do that to ya. Anyway, does anyone buy the TPB's of any given series? I always liked each individual issue and never really cared for the series being collected into one book. From a collector standpoint, you wouldn't even be able to read the TPB for fear of creasing the cover since they're so thick!

Anyway, down with TPB's, long live singles!

 

[Matt Stone]

In general, I'm more concerned with reading the stories...not collecting the comics, so I think TPBs are a great way to buy a large amount of comics at a good price.

That being said, I do usually prefer the serial nature of individual comics.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I'm still getting the singles for the ongoing Star Wars series, but waiting for the collections on the limited series. And if I was smart, really, I'd wait on those, because Dark Horse's schedule is incredibly frustrating. It's not entirely their fault - I gather that getting approval from Lucasfilm is a nightmare, often requiring already-pencilled pages to be scrapped. Sometimes, two months will pass between issues and then they'll come out bi-weekly for a month and a half. Or a four part story will be issues 12, 13, 16, and 20. And the ads...

Bah, that's not so difficult. I regularly read much thicker paperbacks without lines appearing on the spine.

 

[JonZ]

Nevermind, I had the wrong info

 

[Kevin Grey]

Well the TPBs aren't very thick so no worries on the spine.

I find individual issue collecting very frustrating. When I finished the most recent TPB, I didn't want to wait until the next one since the wait was rather long *and* wouldn't be out until well after ROTS. So I spend the better part of several days trying to search out the most recent 9 or 10 issues of Republic from comic stores across San Diego. And let me tell you it was impossible! I was able to find a few odd issues here and there but I ultimately ended up ordering the bulk of them online.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

Where's the Jar Jar EU books? Seriously though Everything I've read that Michael Stackpole has written Rocks!

Does anyone know the name of the book all about Lucas's notes and such for starwars? It goes into everything he ever thought up about the original concept.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I guess it's the Annotated Screenplays by Laurent Bouzereau.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

That may be it I'll have to thumb through it to see if it has stuff like this:


The Republic Galactica was founded in the distant past by a holy man named the Skywalker. He discovered the "Force of others, an energy field influencing the destiny of all living creatures". The force has two halves, the Ashla (good) and the Bogan, or paraforce (evil). When the Bogan is felt, despair fills the soul, but it can be fought with good thoughts. Though the Ashla had communicated with the Skywalker and made him powerful, he knew that weaker beings could be seduced by the Bogan. Therefore, he only passed on his knowledge to his twelve children. His descendants became the Jedi Bendu (servants) of Ashla, and for 100,000 years, the Jedi protected the Republic. However, as the Republic grew, its great Senate fell under the influence of the Power and Transport Guilds. The senate became corrupt, and when the Jedi threatened them, they hunted the Jedi, driving them to flee to the Outland systems of the galaxy. They then abetted civil disorder, hindered justice, and aided terrorism until the people, sickened by "lawless barbarism", welcomed a police state, the Empire. Yet, it was foretold that "in the time of greatest despair there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as The Son of the Suns".

A young Padawan-Jedi named Darklighter was seduced by the Bogan and taught its ways to a clan of Sith pirates. These became the Black Knights of the Sith, the Emperor's bodyguards, and they helped the Empire to find and kill most of the Jedi. Finally, only a few Jedi families were left. A civil war began in earnest, a rebellion against the Empire. Its famous leader was the Starkiller, one of the last of the Jedi.


If it does then that's it. A friend about 3 years ago showed it to me and i thought it was interesting and forgot about it until now.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Just wanted to say that getting this book from a friend is what really kick started my interest in the EU although I had looked at some of those chronologies and timelines in the past.

 

[Greg_S_H]

WOW! Cool little connection between Dark Rendezvous and Revenge of the Sith:

In the novel, Whie has visions of being killed by a Jedi. Whie is one of the Jedi Anakin kills in the holographic footage viewed by Obi-Wan.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I am going to sound like a completist, but I have just about every single book listed by Scott in his amazing list, with two exceptions.

I haven't got Cestus Deception yet, since after NJO ended I slowed down in reading SW books and have acquired quite a backlog already, and :b I have never heard of Ruins of Dantooine... thanks Scott for providing a "checklist".

I'd echo most comments already made, the five Zahn books are good, X-Wing is a nice "diversion" away from the main characters, and they're great books per se anyway.

The in-between standalone books are, IMHO, rather "blah", e.g. Crystal Star, Darksaber ("Death Star superlaser" without a Death Star? Doh!). The various series books (Corellian, Black Fleet) are generally better, presumably because there's more room and scope to build a more interesting and epic story.

I will also say that I did not like Shadows of the Empire. Vader is supposed to be Palpatine's apprentice and right-hand man, how can a mere "gangster" compete effectively with him for influence? Please... :rolleyes

As for comics, courtesy of the local shop I go to, they simply hold everything for me, and I pick them all up every few months or so. Although I got into the comics a bit late -- my copy of Dark Empire is a cheapo UK reprint TPB equivalent -- I think I have just about every Dark Horse comic there is (subject though to friends borrowing and forgetting to return -- I think I'm missing my set of Fall of the Sith...)

I used to hold off reading them until a particular series or serialised story was complete, then I could read the whole story in one go, but in the past 2-3 years (since marriage, I guess :b ) while I've continued to buy them, I haven't actually gotten around to reading them :b :b

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Glad you liked the list. I did it mainly to keep my own head straight as I try to collect the paperbacks, but if you find it helpful ... cool!

And I'm buying the darn books a lot quicker than I can read 'em. Damn you eBay!

I'm particularly looking forward to the "Tales of..." anthologies. Once I finish these three Solo Adventures (Daley), I'm sitting down with "Splinter" - cuz it was the very first one.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I was "lucky": I graduated college back in 1992, around the time the first Zahn book came out and revived the entire concept of SW EU fiction, so I've been able to buy each book as and when it was first published, and when the much older books were reprinted I picked those up too. Although come to think of it, to this day I don't have any novelizations of the original three movies.

However, in the past two years, I've had less time and consequently have collected -- goodness, just checked, 9 unread books and 2 still unpurchased as well! Basically everything since the AOTC book. And for that matter, come to think of it I'm not entirely sure I actually finished reading Approaching Storm, or even Cloak of Deception for that matter. Or even AOTC. I did make the effort to finish the NJO books, since I wanted to know how that massive arc finished.

All right, I'm reading ROTS right now, and will have to get my SW reading back on track ASAP.

 

[Sam Favate]

Some of my favorite stuff is the work of Al Williamson, which was collected and colorized in about three trades from Dark Horse about 10 years ago. It was also very well packaged in B&W in a three-volume hardcover edition with a slipcase. Williamson's art is particularly other-worldly, and his earlier work in the 50s and 60s was an inspiration to Lucas.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Sam, was Williamson a part of the early Marvel comics?

 

[Sam Favate]

Williamson drew Marvel's ESB and ROTJ adaptations, and drew the Star Wars newspaper strip for several years. It's his strip work (written by Archie Goodwin) that was collected in three volumes (in color) by Dark Horse and in hardcover (in B&W) years earlier (can't remember the publisher of the hardbacks). Williamson also drew a few issues of the Marvel monthly.

There are several books on his work. Two I can think of off the top of my head are Al Williamson: Hidden Lands, and Al Williamson Adventures. He drew Flash Gordon for a number of years, which partially inspired Lucas, and also drew the 1980 movie adaption of Flash Gordon.

His conception of alien life and planets is some of the best I've ever seen, and you can see his influence in Star Wars in the Dagobah scenes, to name just one.

 

[Chuck Stephens]

Sam, couldn't agree more about the Williamson stuff. Classic Star Wars #7 got me buying comics again after a 3-4 year absence. Those Classic Star Wars books are well worth searching out to fans of the original trilogy.

It's interesting that I just came across this thread because I've been going back and reading some of the older Dark Horse titles since viewing ROTS opening day. In particular the Tales of the Jedi series.