The Old Republic Epic Collections are in stock again at my shop, and you can purchase signed copies directly while supplies last.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #9
“HOMECOMING”
Art by Brian Ching
Lettered by Michael Heisler
Colored by Michael Atiyeh
Cover by Brian Ching
Edited by Jeremy Barlow and Dave Marshall
Released October 20, 2006 by Dark Horse Comics
Story licensed and © Lucasfilm Ltd.
As with all my “production notes,” consider a “Spoiler Warning” attached. Please read the books first.
When people have asked about my favorite characters in this series to write, I have often included Lucien Draay – perhaps a puzzle to those who only knew him from his earlier appearances. Following the release of “Homecoming,” essentially a solo Lucien tale, my preference may make more sense to some. He’s a very fun guy to write.
I had wanted to do a single issue focusing on Zayne’s pursuers in which he didn’t appear, and I wanted to do it right in the first year, putting a finer point on what they were about. A couple of previous comics served as mental models for this.
My favorite Archie Goodwin Star Wars story, Marvel’s Star Wars #29 (“Dark Encounter”), was a battle between the bad guys – and its drama gripped me more than the stories where the villains only appeared as antagonists. Here, we got a little insight into what Vader was thinking. (And when I did my own first Star Wars issue, I was glad it could be a Vader solo story.)
And one of my favorite comics stories of all time, period, is Neil Gaiman’s Hob Gadling story reprinted in Sandman: A Doll’s House. It’s a single issue which revisits the same characters in one time period after another, leaping years at a stretch. It’s an interesting device, and while the structure of “Homecoming” differs in that it’s a present-day drama interlaced with flashbacks moving forward in time, I enjoyed the opportunity to do something in a related vein.
And, indeed, it was of my favorite issues to write in the series to that point. But “Homecoming” nonetheless had its twists and turns behind the scenes.
The first twist related only to my own stupidity. I lost half the script in a foul-up with a new hard drive. Due to a power failure (I believe) both the file and its back-up were corrupted, and nothing I could hit it with – and believe me, I tried everything there was – could rescue it from being a file full of “@” signs. I figured that probably wouldn’t make for a good script. (Good call!)
While the Internet is generally an endless fountain of ideas about how to restore a document, there’s a moment at which – after enough hours of attempting to virus scans, file repairs, and deleted file searches proved fruitless – you’ve spent more time on that than you would just rewriting. So I did, meaning this puppy got more drafts than anything I had done to date for this series. So if the issue shows more reflection, it came by it the hard way! (And yes, immediately afterward I began backing up everything in octuplicate. There’s even a flash drive on the cat’s collar now…)
Another twist came long after my work was done. The plan had been for Dustin Weaver to work on #7-9, which Brian Ching worked ahead on #10 – which this issue was announced as. But when the scheduling situation meant that Brian got done first, we reversed the issues – which was fine, since there was little to change to make that happen. The two issues were essentially happening simultaneously on opposite sides of the galaxy. Ironically, I finished the script for #10 before #9 anyway, so this actually is reflected in the release order. We wound up titling it “Flashpoint Interlude: Homecoming” in the monthly comic book.
The #9-10 switch was a good, low-impact solution; low enough that readers didn’t always notice when we corrected the order. The first two Dark Horse reprintings put “Homecoming” after the end of “Flashpoint,” restoring the intended order — whereas Marvel put the pages in order of release when they did the Epic Collection in 2005.
TRIVIA
• This issue marks the turning of the calendar from “approximately 3964 years before the Battle of Yavin” to “approximately 3963”; the Onslaught, taking several days, actually straddles the 3963-and-a-half year mark, so the whole battle is “on the cusp.” We didn’t deal in months in the KOTOR era, which can cause a bit of confusion, since people might have read the cover note and thought a full year has passed. I’m not sure it was a problem for most, though.
Next time: A return from our detour, back to the conclusion of “Flashpoint.” Or you can skip ahead and read all the notes for the series, though they’re only updated up through this issue.