by Matt Weiner

Comic Club: Can we correctly assume that TotJ: Golden Age of the Sith will focus on Naga Sadow?

KA: Yes, we saw a glimpse of his story in the first issue of Dark Lords; this tells the whole tale.

CC: Will any of the nine unnamed Dark Lords appear or be referred to?

KA: No.

CC: Will any ancestors of established characters appear?

KA: Not really ancestors -- we will meet Empress Teta herself (referred to in many previous SW stories) as well as young Odan-Urr, the ancient Jedi librarian in The Sith War and Dark Lords.

CC: How many issues will it be. Is there any truth to the common rumor of a five-issue series to be followed by a five-issue Fall of the Sith Empire series? What months and frequency are we talking about here?

KA: The whole story will be eleven issues: Issue #0, a sneak preview, prequel that introduces the series, will be out in a 99 cent format at the end of July (with a gorgeous cover by Chris Moeller and great artwork by Chris Gossett (!)); the five-issue "Golden Age of the Sith" comes out monthly starting in October, with art by Dario Carrasco, Jr. and covers (I believe) by Russell Walks. It will be followed by the five issue story "The Fall of the Sith Empire" -- same artists, supposedly without a break between the series. (There was a big gap between Dark Lords and Sith War -- there should be no such gap between these two series.)

CC: Please tell me what you can about the plot.

KA: Two young "hyperspace explorers" from the Empress Teta system -- Gav and Jori Daragon -- attempting to map out a new portion of the galaxy accidentally stumble upon the Sith Empire, and trigger a war that spans uncounted star systems...

CC: Who came up with the #0 idea, if it wasn't you, what do you think of it, and were there problems with Lucasfilm due to #0s being frequently regarded by comic fans at illiterate attempts at quick buck? (although I see that it's only 99 cents, so we know it's not)

KA: Because scheduling at Dark Horse was going to leave a ten-month gap between the end of The Sith War and the beginning of Golden Age, I thought this was just too long -- readers would stop looking for a new Tales of the Jedi story. I came up with the idea of doing some sort of sneak preview or prologue ... in fact, I originally asked if it could be part of one of those "Dark Horse Presents" issues or something. Bob Cooper, the editor, and I brainstormed the possibility of doing a standalone issue, and he proposed the 99 cent version. At that price, it is really a loss-leader, done strictly to promote the new series and get readers hungry for more. I, personally, did not know that Issue #0 ideas had the stigma of being "quick-buck" projects...that's certainly not the case here.

CC: I've seen your X-Files book, but regret to say I haven't heard you were writing a comic. What will this be like?

KA: Topps asked me if I would like to do a few comics for XF, and since I had pitched plenty of ideas to Fox (from which they had to pick only one for GROUND ZERO), I had others that were adaptable for comics. I have finished a two-issue story, "Family Portrait", about a very strange camera that steals souls, and the demon connected to it...plenty of interesting stuff. I will be doing more XF comics on a story-by-story basis. These are quite different from SW comics, in that they rely so much on atmosphere instead of action, "and" because I can tell a story in only an issue or two instead of these monstrous sagas! The first issue of "Family Portrait" will be out in July, Issue #20 I believe.

CC: What are the major differences in writing comics and novels?

KA: Writing comics is so much more visual (of course) and it requires you to be focused on very few words, finding an interesting way to SHOW what's going on, rather than just having your characters talking. I enjoy both.

CC: Do you think Star Wars fans should waste their time bickering over you versus Timothy Zahn versus blah blah blah? i.e., do you care who's better if you're both good?

KA: I think it's a total waste of time -- it implies that if you like one of us you *can't* like the other, which is stupid. We're all doing the best SW we can do; we have different approaches -- which is GOOD because otherwise all the novels would read the same. You're bound to prefer some over others.

CC: Will there be a Dark Lords of the Sith, Book II?

KA: Maybe, maybe not...Since I still have five issues of the current historical series to write, I'm not looking "that" far ahead!

Hope that's interesting enough. Thanks for your interest!

Kevin J. Anderson