RIP Tom Veitch
“For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic…before the dark times…before the Empire.” Between 1986 and 1991, Star Wars was dead. The Ewoks made for TV movies aired in ’84 and ’85, the Droids cartoon lasted a single year in ’85, and the Power of the Force toy line was cancelled that same year. The Ewoks cartoon managed to hang on for two years, finally sunsetting in ’86. And then, there was silence.
Star Wars wouldn’t appear again in the public consciousness for another 5 years. Chronologically speaking, that doesn’t sound like that long – but for the entertainment industry, it’s an eon. Audiences move on to the next big thing, and even Lucas felt that the saga was likely over for good. For the die hard fans, these years were The Dark Times. But for a persistent finance director at Lucasfilm, Star Wars may never have returned.
But according to Howard Roffman, former President of Lucasfilm Licensing, Lucy Autrey Wilson was adamant that a publishing program may be worth persuing to gauge if a more adult audience might still exist for the property. Quoting from his forward in the 20th anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire:
“Fortunately for Lucey – and for all of us – by 1989 there was a convergence in the Force. I was persuaded that it was time to restart our adult fiction publishing program and seriously explore new stories in the Star Wars universe. And I was willing to give Lucy the chance to find a publisher who shared our vision. But before we could do that, there was one last hurdle. If we were to play in this particular sandbox, we needed to consult the owner of the sandbox. So I went to George Lucas and humbly requested permission to expand his universe. He was appropriately skeptical (I seem to recall a response along the lines of, “No one is going to buy this”) but supportive enough to give me the oppotunity to fail. We established some very basic guidelines: The stories would have to take place after Return of the Jedi; events prior to A New Hope were off limits because if George were ever to make more Star Wars films, that was where he would go; and no major characters could be killed. Other than that, George made it clear that he would be hands-off. It seemed so simple and straightforward. I don’t think George or I had any idea what we were getting ourselves into.”
The original Thrawn trilogy is credited with reviving an entertainment juggernaut – but it does not deserve sole credit. Heir to the Empire debuted in May of 1991, the first of a 3 part trilogy that defined what Star Wars going into the future could be. But that same year a comic miniseries was also released by Dark Horse comics – Dark Empire, by Tom Veitch with artwork by Cam Kennedy. Some awkwardness was created by releasing these two projects at the same time – the stories had very little in common and wildly different visions. This was new territory for Lucasfilm publishing, which had only just revived the brand and hadn’t yet figured out how managing storylines would work. Despite some friction about story points and tone rom the respective creators of their projects, adjustments were made to Dark Empire to allow it to follow the conclusion of the Thrawn Trilogy by one year.
In this new series, The Cloned Emperor would emerge to again threaten the galaxy and Luke Skywalker would turn to the Dark Side, albeit briefly. The artwork in Dark Empire was a fever dream of psychedelic colors and styles – vivid greens, pinks, and purples with spiky-haired characters and a reborn emperor who looked much like a Punk Vampire in his younger incarnation. While the Thrawn Trilogy was widely celebrated, Dark Empire had a polarizing reaction. Many readers who followed the novels were not aware of the comics series existence. When the Jedi Academy trilogy was released and made reference to the comics series, many readers were left confused and scrambling to find out when Luke had turned to the Dark Side and how the Emperor had been reborn.
I was one of those confused readers, and my first experience with Dark Empire came from the audio adaptation by Time Warner audiobooks. Looking back, the voice acting and sound effects were hammy, but I loved every bit of it. While it didn’t fit in well with the rest of the EU, this early effort in expanding the Star Wars universe introduced many concepts that die-hard fans couldn’t imagine not being there now: Nar Shaddaa, Holocrons, and the genesis for the Tales of the Jedi Comics Series (and the later Knights of the Old Republic comics and games) all had their roots in this story.
In short, Dark Empire was one of the early foundation stones of what would become the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and everything that came after owes it as much a debt of gratitude as the Thrawn trilogy. This is even true for the sequel trilogy – much of what the Rise of Skywalker became was a poor adaptation of the original comics material. And it all sprang from the mind of Tom Veitch, who sadly passed away Friday, February 18th at the age of 80. For those wanting a look at a goofy and much-maligned early story in the Star Wars EU, I can’t think of a better place to begin than here.
