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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #3
"COMMENCEMENT" PART 3
As with all my “production notes,” consider a “Spoiler Warning” attached. Please read the books first.
The
third issue of this storyline finds us moving from Zayne's flight for
survival to his fight for answers -- and brings in two new characters
in the form of Jarael and Camper.
I think many comics creators find that third issues of six present some
unique storytelling challenges. They are often spent in transit,
getting all the pieces in place for the revelations to come in the
second half -- and given their position in the events of the story,
they aren't as amenable to true cliffhangers. (Having seen a lot of
"false cliffhangers" in third issues, I try to either end on something
real or on a joke -- here, we did both.)
In collected format, the role of third chapters changes completely,
fitting in much more organically. That poses, in fact, a temptation
comics creators actively have to resist -- it'd be easy to tell a
132-page story and just chop it up into comics-sized chunks without
mind to where things are breaking in the serial. As a comics guy, I do
work to make the story play "both ways" -- Episode V was a completed
thought despite leaving almost every big issue "To Be Continued" -- but
it's not always desireable to give every chapter exactly equal amounts
of action, revelations, etc.
Here, chapter three very much is about getting the pieces in place for
the revelations to come -- although we made sure to pause along the way
for some comedy and action. Brian's Jarael is a pretty fearsome
opponent!
Some readers noted Zayne's mood shift this issue -- from his earlier
denial and despair to anger and resentment. That seems perfectly
natural to me -- especially when you've gone through what he has in the
last day or so! Others immediately began talking of a Zayne/Jarael
romance here -- although at this stage, the characters seem unwilling
to breathe the same air!
It was during production of this issue that we paused to do the Knights of the Old
Republic/Rebellion Special, lengthening the
production time, somewhat. But it still came out right on schedule,
thanks to everyone involved!
I did a release-day signing of this issue at Comics and Collectibles
in Memphis. It was my first shop signing associated with the series.
TRIVIA
- I am informed that bacta, to which Gryph refers in this chapter, may not have existed in this time period -- at least under that name. Clearly, neither Gryph nor I read the book where that was established. There are a number of remedies (no pun intended) for that, including assuming that it was the coincidental name of something Mama Hierogryph used to make. Or maybe be got it from "Bacta: The Future." (Sorry, pun intended that time...)
- The Rakghouls of the Undercity come directly from the first video game, of course.
- With the mentions of Feln and Xamar, our five Masters finally have their names. I spaced them out so as not to hit everyone with a dozen names in the first issue.
- Jarael's species, the Arkanians, was one of the first ones added to the milieu by Dark Horse years ago. It's not mentioned in this issue, but it was actually revealed back in Dark Horse's initial slide-show about the series, I believe.
- Some asked about the fact that Jarael has pupils, which some previously depicted Arkanians didn't. Personally, I never tended to take the no-pupil thing quite literally whenever I saw it, but rather as an artifact of an art style that was used whenever an artist wanted to convey that a character was mysterious or powerful. I never quite fully accepted that Storm, Starfire, or Dark Phoenix literally had no pupils, just that it was a cool effect! Walt Kelly once called it the "blunked-out eye look." (Coincidentally, I dug up a 1979 cartoon for my column in last month's Comics Buyer's Guide #1616 -- where someone did a send-up crossing over no-iris Little Orphan Annie with no-iris Phoenix. "Flamin' Annie," they called her...) Other, less subjective differences have been observed, but I'm not willing to get into those at this time. Keep reading...
- Lhosan Industries is the company represented by the alien, Jervo, seen in #1. He clearly didn't get his tax breaks...
- Sharp readers may have noticed that Zovius Mendu was mentioned in the text page of #0!
- There's no way that the stars above Taris would be visible in the scene on the final page -- the planet's dayside is too bright -- but as most movie producers have found, it just looks odd without them!
