The party's over — now the beatings shall begin! Looks like Knights of the Old Republic #21 will be appearing in stores this week... and there's a lot going on this issue. Answers to several previously posed questions. The fate of Lord Adasca and Camper. And some other folks, as well. All this, and a commercial message from Cassus Fett!

Hie ye hither to your local comic book store and return. Five points to the first person to figure out the actual historical event which partially inspired the wording of Cassus' declaration. It's a toughie...

(*Brilliantly clever headline shamelessly appropriated from TheForce.net's literature boards — thanks, Jedi Merkurian! Hey, this arc also had an Aurora, come to think of it...)

The first part of an interview about "Vector" with Randy Stradley is up at Newsarama. Part II, including John Ostrander, Jan Duursema and myself, shows up tomorrow.

Also, the preview of #22 is now online. Enjoy!

Update: And now Part II of the interview  is online.

OK, finally had a moment to do some housekeeping. There are now preview pages up for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Vol. 3: Days of Fear, Nights of Anger, and issues #24 and #25 of the regular series. #24 concludes the "Days/Knights" cycle, while #25 is the first part of the 2008 "Vector" event.

And a couple of links:

"Vector" artist Scott Hepburn's site can be found here.

Also — a pretty cool link for anyone who's into interesting maps, both historical and fantasy: Strange Maps. Fascinating stuff this site comes up with!

And Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #20 has arrived in stores, meaning that Zayne's new cellmate has arrived. Warden! Warden! Isn't there room in solitary?

Pretty hectic, so the production notes will be a little while in coming. In the meantime, enjoy the issue and talk about it here!

In response to questions I've been getting, yes, as announced to retailers at the Diamond Comic Distributors seminar in Baltimore, the various Star Wars comics teams are developing an event for 2008 that will involve not just my own Knights of the Old Republic but also Dark Times, Rebellion, and  Legacy.

The Dark Horse thread about "Vector" is here, and there are links there to other places discussing it. I've said there about all I can say at this point, but it's worth restating that it's something we've been working on for a very long time, and that we think will be interesting both to regular readers of these titles and new ones. We've all seen what we liked and don't like in various comics events, and we're working to make sure this one has the desired impact. It'll be fun!

So stay tuned, regular KOTOR readers — here's yet another reason to keep tabs on the book as we lead up to it!

Visit the official site for more news about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

You'd figure something called "the Seinfeldian Chain" would relate to how to integrate completely unrelated plotlines all into a single comic payoff. In fact, it's a pretty simple organizing trick to help writers write, artists draw, and bloggers blog — as described here on LifeHacker. It's all about inertia — the object in motion tending to stay in motion.

Born and raised a journalist, deadlines have always tended to be my major motivating factor. But since going fully freelance, I've begun to use something like the Chain on my own calendar to manage multiple projects at once, so everything doesn't pile up and I get something done on each pending assignment each day. I'm still tinkering with it, but the goal is not to have to rely on the Dreaded Deadline Doom for anything more than ulcers. Maybe it'll result in me blogging more frequently, who knows...

Thanks to Cat's blog for the link — check out her useful advice for gamers!

Wizard Entertainment has announced that Inquest Gamer magazine (originally named Inquest) has been cancelled as of the September issue.

As editor of Scrye and later editorial director overseeing the gaming magazines at F&W,  Inquest was the magazine's major competitor — and, as such, we paid a good deal of attention to it. There was of course some back-and-forth as you might expect in a highly competitive business, but we also came to respect the work each other did. I recall a trade show right after we released the first giant Scrye CCG book  in which one of their editors came over to praise the effort in a "wish we'd done this" moment — and I should say there were moments looking at their mag when we thought the same. There was a lot of talent there, and I'm hopeful it won't be lost to the industry.

I didn't know an official announcement had been made about the following when I was already being asked about it, but I understand now from my editors at Dark Horse that Lucasfilm's Jonathan Rinzler announced it at their panel at San Diego. Anyway, I am cleared by my publisher to confirm that, yes, I'm writing the comics adaptation of the fourth Indiana Jones film, releasing next year.

And that's about all I can say, beyond confirming that, yes, they're making a movie and, yes, we're making comics — so please don't ask! Please visit Dark Horse for further information about the comics; their initial press release is here.

As for myself, I can say that I'm continuing to write Knights of the Old Republic each month, so nothing changes there.

And I can also add that this is a great honor — speaking as someone who not only adored the original films, but snarfed up all the old comics off the rack. I still have a spare unopened polybag with Raiders #1-3 (wonder what that's worth?) — and I remember one of the earliest things I bought at a comics shop nearly 25 years ago (was it that long?) was the first issue of John Byrne and Terry Austin's Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, a series I followed faithfully thereafter. Readers of my CBG column may recall that the one sad attempt I ever made at costuming at a convention was none other than the Professor — evidently, the hat alone is not enough — and I even still have my copy of the old TSR role-playing game!

So add that to your shopping list. It'll be fun!

And Knights of the Old Republic #19 hits the shelves today -- for real, this time! Lots of surprises this issue as all the pieces for "Daze of Hate" move into place.

I haven't had time to work up preview pages for them here yet, but Dark Horse has announced my Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Handbook for November 7 -- as well as #23 of the regular series, shipping November 28.

The handbook is something I've been working on for a long time -- should be interesting reading, whether you're new to the series or not. More on these later!