While "Model Officer" was the title of my Star Wars: Empire #35, I'm using the phrase more literally this time. While I have dabbled with art now and again, it only took me a couple of attempts at sculpture to decide that my talents lay elsewhere. Leave it to those who can!

One who obviously can is Dayton Allen, a Florida commercial artist and hobbyist who has been keeping the Knights of the Old Republic comics team posted on his progress with rendering our favorite renegade Mandalorian, Rohlan, as a custom action figure.

Readers have seen a little more of Rohlan each issue lately – he's first seen in a cameo #6, heard in #7, and unmasked in #8. Dayton first showed us his take on a masked Rohlan figure a few weeks after #7 came out – and, following #8, he added new details for the character's face and backpack.

It's a hobby for Dayton — he's got more online at his site — and the work looks great to me. It was fun when my and Steve Ellis' design for Crimson Dynamo became a Heroclix figure; this is pretty cool, too!

"OK, I spent a lot of doggone money on this college education, and by God, I'm going to use every bit of it!"

That's how I feel sometimes, inserting little trivial tidbits into things -- not just from pop culture, but from that otherwise wasted education of mine. Thus far, I've tributed Melville in one of my Star Wars issues -- and with Knights of the Old Republic #8, now available, we hop around from the medieval Song of Roland to 18th-century ships of the line! (Click the link there to my production notes to see just how tortuously I'll trace a path to an inspiration!)

Not one of these things actually means anything, of course, except that, well, I had to sit through those classes (when I went), and this is the only way to get something out of them...

Just back from Wizard World: Chicago, and another enjoyable singing at the Dark Horse booth. It was fairly non-stop, and there was a nice mix of fans -- veteran Star Wars comics readers bringing their own copies, as well as new readers finding out about the series for the first time.

Thanks again to Dirk Wood, Amy Huey, Jeremy Atkins, Dave Land and all the fine folks at the Dark Horse booth for their hospitality. See everybody again next year!

Knights of the Old Republic #7 is now on sale, and my production notes and trivia are now online. A new arc, so there's a little more than usual -- as well as the truth (well, part of it) behind the naming of the galaxy's most uncooperative droid, Elbee.

Anyway, here's your spot for feedback for #7. Enjoy...

While I've been to Comic-Con International: San Diego eight previous times (I think), this is the first time I've been there promoting a comic book. Crimson Dynamo just missed San Diego back in 2003, and last year, Knights of the Old Republic was just being announced. So signing in that gigantic monument to comics was a new experience -- and a fun one. I wondered whether I'd actually make it there. The night before I left, I had a fever -- evidently associated with nothing at all, since it went away the next morning -- and then, on the way out to the car with my luggage, I was stung by a hornet. You can imagine the fun of toddling down the road, wondering whether or not I'm allergic to stings or not. (I lucked out.) Then there was the weather along the way and ... well, let's just say I was glad to make it to San Diego, even if the gentle ocean breeze seems not to have made it this year.

I had a good time meeting with the rest of the Star Wars team, including editors Randy Stradley, Jeremy Barlow, and Dave Marshall.

And this was my first meeting, believe it or not, with the art team -- seen in the pics here during our signing on Friday's "Star Wars Day." Up top, that's me and Brian Ching -- and below here, that's me with artist Dustin Weaver and colorist Michael Atiyeh.

(Thanks to the inexhaustible Trudy for the photos! I did remember to take my camera, just not to use it...)

Anyway, it was good seeing everyone, and KOTOR fans, I'm glad to say that we definitely have a lot of great stuff coming up in the series for you. I'll be appearing again at Wizard World Chicago in a little over a week -- hope to see you all then!

Comic-Con International: San Diego is coming up, and I have a few notes for your schedule:

I wrote the intro for the comics and graphic novels section for next year's Novel and Short Story Writer's Market -- but you don't have to wait to hear some of what's in it. On Friday, from 10:30-12:00, I'll be speaking in the Impact University: How to Write and Draw Comics and Graphic Novels panel. I did this a couple of years ago with Will Eisner and Lea Hernandez, and it was really a lot of fun.

This year's panel also includes Marv Wolfman (Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans), Matt Haley (Superman Returns artist), Jim Salicrup (editor-in-chief, Papercutz), Maggie Thompson (editor, Comics Buyer's Guide), and Peter David (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, X-Factor), Peter has a book on writing comics coming from Impact Books -- I helped direct them to him in the beginning, and am thrilled that it was able to turn into a project for them.

That's Friday from 10:30-noon in Room 8 upstairs.

And as Friday is Star Wars day, I'll be signing at the Dark Horse booth from 4-5 p.m. with fellow Knights of the Old Republic creators Brian Ching, Michael Atiyeh, and Dustin Weaver. Wouldja believe it's my first time meeting these guys in person? Amazing how well people can collaborate remotely these days...

This year, Dark Horse is also giving away a galaxy map, including several of the locations seen so far in KOTOR (and some that we'll be visiting in the future). Bring your KOTORs and your Empire #35s -- Brian and I will be happy to sign 'em.

Apart from that, I'll be out and about in the hall -- sometimes at the Dark Horse booth, sometimes at the F&W Publications/Comics Buyer's Guide booth, sometimes over where my artists are set up. Schedule updates will be here, if any happen. Hope to see you there!

One of the things that's changed just in the few years that I've been writing comics professionally is the rise of Wikipedia and other Wiki-based sites.

Crafted as non-profit sites by hobbyists, they catalog an amazing amount of information. Not always correctly, as observed John Siegenthaler (who visited my newsroom at the University of Tennessee Daily Beacon while I was editor years ago) in his much-publicized conflict with the main Wikipedia site over his entry. In general, though, the more different people are involved with a site, the more reliable the material tends to be. I think the main Wikipedia may be on its way to becoming a new kind of Internet search engine, given all the links that are on there.

It's been interesting to find my comics writing documented on these sites -- and surprising to realize that there's more than one Wiki project tackling any given project. The one I probably get the most traffic from lately is Wookieepedia, where there's quite a lot of information about the Knights of the Old Republic series -- even cataloging names only mentioned once here or there in passing.

Of course, approaching these things as the author, you get a whole different experience. The facts are whatever they are as of the current issue -- so there are a number of occasions where the info online is ultimately incorrect, but correct to the best of the posters' knowledge. It's wrong, but it's not wrong "yet," so to speak.

To take a recent example: "Perero" was never Camper's real name -- nor did it mean father, even though the word has that ring to it. But I wanted to misdirect readers into thinking he might be Jarael's father or grandfather, at least until #5 -- so if there was any misperception out there, it was absolutely my purposeful doing! And I may not be done with his name yet!

Which raises the question: How much of what's in, say, Wookieepedia now about my published work is incorrect by my own design? The answer: Some -- but I can't say what things. That's as it should be. As long as there are mysteries yet unresolved, Wikifolk, wherever, will want to hedge their statements when it's wise, to put it alliteratively. (And most do note when something is speculation, I've found.)

Looking at these sites also gives me an idea when something needs clarification. On seeing traffic from a Wookieepedia page on the Jedi's digs on Taris, I realized I'd never stamped an official name on the building in the series. Interestingly, though, while I can and do clarify such things now and again (in this case, for example, I personally refer to the building as the Jedi Tower -- the Jedi Temple referring to the room on the top floor), it often doesn't impact the Wikian definition unless and until the clarification appears in the comics themselves. That seems to be how it works, anyway.

The result is a kind of interesting dance. I learn from fans what they need clarification about -- and, if it's something that fits with what I'm doing in the series, that can result in a line like, "Oh, yeah, the Jedi Tower with the Jedi Temple on the top floor" somewhere down the line. I'm generally not into the thought that serial fiction is a collaboration with the readers -- there does need to be a distinction between storyteller and audience -- but this is one case where it seems to work out...

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #6 went on sale today, concluding the first arc of the series.The production notes for the issue are now up, too. Please use this thread for comments about the issue.

A quick note: The fine folks at Diamond Galleries have done an interview with me about the new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic storyline "Flashpoint." Be sure to check it out!

I missed it last week, but the Christian Science Monitor ran a piece on politics in super-hero comics.

 I had actually forgotten doing the interview, but it was kind of a funny moment. The reporter called asking for what I knew about recent attempts to put political themes into super-hero comics -- not knowing at first that I was the guy who made Iron Man into the Secretary of Defense. So I wound up having more to say than I probably would have!

Another busy week. My latest issue of Knights of the Old Republic hit the shelves on Thursday; the production notes are now online, here.

I also have a new interview up at the Lightsabre site -- click the link here to see it.

I also finally got DSL out here in the sticks, replacing my satellite internet service, which was in the process of imploding. Should hopefully translate to more frequent updates in the future!