Before I launch into the next batch of questions, I’d like to direct interested readers to what’s close to a last-chance opportunity: In honor of the series ending, the Intrepid Meredith is auctioning the last spare complete set of Knights of the Old Republic we have — issues #0-49 plus #50 when it comes out this week, plus the Knights of the Old Republic Handbook #1 — plus a copy of the out-of-print Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide for the role-playing game.
That’s one copy of everything I’ve done in the KOTOR milieu, all in one lot. All are signed by me, with a portion of proceeds going to The Hero Initiative, a fund that provides a safety net for former comic creators in need of emergency medical aid and financial support for the essentials of life. (Formerly known as ACTOR.)
We haven’t done much in the way of online sales in recent years — our full sets are pretty much gone, as a number of individual issues we’re low on aren’t in stock anywhere online, and we haven’t really had time to deal with it anyway. So this is the set we were saving for a special occasion — this week’s chance to do one true start-to-finish collection. (It’s North America only, I’m afraid; shipping gets crazy on a set this size, and as I say, it’s not something easily replaced.)
Continuing a sequence of short pieces on the Knights of the Old Republic comics series, which ends Wednesday with #50, I continue to answer reader questions about the entire series. You can still get questions in, by posting here)…
Grey asks: Did you read Jeff Smith’s Bone? To me, KOTOR sometimes felt just a bit like it — huge differences, obviously, but there’s something about the main characters (goofy kid, money-obsessed sidekick/mastermind, beautiful woman). …Could it simply be that both series were largely influenced by collective Disney-influenced consciousness (as the money-obsessed guy was defined by Uncle Scrooge, for example)?
I started reading Bone with issue #3 — Comics Buyer’s Guide, which I later worked for, was one of the first places to recommend Smith’s classic series. I would say, though, you’re right on in seeing a Disney connection, as my love for Carl Barks’ work predates my knowing anything about Star Wars or just about anything else in comics. (There’s a big Uncle Scrooge set above and to the right of me in the shot here.)
Interestingly, Roy Thomas writes that George Lucas is a Barks fan, and that a common interest in Barks was discussed in their first talks about doing Star Wars comics at Marvel!
Anonymous asks: Why was Saul Karath using a crutch during “Turnabout?”
Karath was injured in the melee aboard the Arkanian Legacy in #21. We see Morvis leading him out and asking for Carth’s help.
Tyber asks: Can you distinguish the likenesses of Nahk and Tallie Sowrs? Who is the blond and who the brown-haired?
I don’t think we were ever very specific about it — #22 was to be their one and only appearance, and it was. I think I might have noted somewhere that Nahk was the older child, which would make him the brown-haired one.
Ashley asks: The story has it that Gryph was originally intended to be an Ortolan, like Max Rebo. Were there designs or species of any of the other characters changed along the way?
Usually I’ve got the species settled before we go to the artist, but occasionally I’d go back and forth on what creature to use. Toki Tollivar was probably every diminutive non-Ewok species before I settled on a Bimm. There are so many different choices, it’s often hard to choose.
What’s nice is that some of the species come with traits that help improve the stories you’re working on. Goethar Kleej went through a couple of different iterations in the plotting stage before I learned about how Gotals sensed the world around them; that suggested the entire Aubin portion of the story, and gave us the motivation we needed.
Andrei asks: Who do you imagine Jarael sounds like?
Catherine Zeta-Jones is probably the closest. Sort of a deep voice, with a lot of confidence. Your personal casting may vary!
Another Anonymous asks: After the Covenant was taken care of, what happened to all their Sith artifacts, like the Helm of Dathka Grausch and Gauntlet of Kressh the Younger? Also, how did they manage to collect so many Sith artifacts?
It isn’t said what happened to their artifacts, although we do see the Helm incinerated on Odryn, and presumably Lucien had the Gauntlet long enough to help him survive the same fate. But we don’t see what happened after that. We also don’t learn how many more storehouses exist, or if everything that remained was in the chest Haazen had in the back room in #32. Certainly, Zayne could certainly have directed investigators to Odryn, but knowledge of any other locations would have had to come from someone else. We did suggest a certain compartmentalization of information in the Covenant, so even Xamar might not have known.
As to how they managed to collect the artifacts, we learn that in #25: with Shadows playing archaeologist.
And on a related note…
Benwinn asks: When Gryph and Zayne visited the Sanctum of the Exalted, was the item Gryph was holding actually Ludo Kressh’s pedicure set? Or was he just crackin’ wise throwing out a random Sith name? If it really was Kressh’s pedicure kit, was there any connection to a certain vengeful Sith lady from Lost Tribe: Paragon?
It’s actually his pedicure set, which means, yep, it is what you think it is!
More later…