Ostrander and Duursema Return to Star Wars Comics
Fan-favorite Expanded Universe creators John Ostrander and Jan Duursema have a track record of great Star Wars comics going back well over a decade. With The Phantom Menace returning to theaters in 3D on Friday, now is a great time to revisit their stories with Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura, running all the way from the time of Episode I until just past the end of Episode III.
Last month also marked the publication of the trade paperback collection of Legacy: War, the concluding arc to their amazing series. I gave rave reviews to the beginning and ending issues of War, and I’m looking forward to reading them again.
At the opposite end of the Star Wars timeline, this month brings the start of Dawn of the Jedi, their newest collaboration. Set over 32,000 years before the movies, the new ongoing series explores the earliest era of the study of the Force and the long-rumored origins of the Jedi Order in the Tython system. Issue #0, a handbook style issue with lots of background information on the era, setting, organizations, and characters went on sale last week. Issue #1 of the first arc, Force Storm, hits stores next week, February 15.
In a recent interview with the L.A. Times Hero Complex, Ostrander and Duursema shared some very interesting thoughts on their perspective on the Force and how they’re approaching it in Dawn of the Jedi. Check out the full interview for lots of interesting insight into the comic series and Star Wars in general.
JO: Thing is, I don’t think you can do better than how Obi-Wan and Yoda described it in the movies. That’s bedrock. My understanding of the light side and the dark side of the Force has changed over the years. As I see it, those working on the light side work with the Force, channeling it, open and sensitive to what it tells them. They serve it. Those on the dark side try to impose their will on the Force, to make it do their will, to make it serve them. …
JD: For me, Jedi and Sith are well defined into good and evil, light and dark, those who serve the Force and those who bend the Force to their will. Our question was – was the Force always so polarized into two schools of thought? How did those who became the Jedi view the Force before the Force Wars happened? …
Finally, Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #3 was released today. Written by Ostrander with art by Stephane Roux, Agent of the Empire is Star Wars meets James Bond. The lead character, Jahan Cross, is an agent of Imperial Intelligence, and the supporting cast and plot feature all the archetypes and elements you’d expect in a great spy-thriller story. I’ve read the first two issues, and I’m hooked.
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
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