It bereaves me to be the bearer of such bad news, especially so soon after the passing of Dave Wolverton, but I come to the thread with incredibly sad tidings.
As reported by his son this morning, legendary Star Wars Comic writer Tom Veitch has passed away, at 80 years old.
Veitch is not a small name in the Expanded Universe whatsoever, especially in regards to comics. In fact, it is entirely because of the contributions of both him and artist Cam Kennedy that we were able to get nearly two decades of Dark Horse comics material.
I’m certain most of you probably know him from his most famous work,
Dark Empire, a series which he and Kennedy had already been working on at Marvel in the late 80’s, where it would languish in development hell until Dark Horse secured the comics rights in the early 90’s. Aided by the personal input of George Lucas and the sinister blue and green macabre hues of
2000 AD alumnus Cam Kennedy, Veitch penned a story that remains controversial and polarizing to this day…but was nevertheless highly influential.
World Devastators. Shadow Droids. Holocrons. The vertical criminal metropolis of Nar Shadaa. Luke’s first steps to recruiting and liberating confused and afraid Force Users. The first steps of Leia embracing her Jedi lineage. The ongoing grudge between Han and Boba. The very concept of ancient Sith/Jedi mythology that preceded the OT by thousands of years.
It all originated here, from the pen of Tom Veitch.
For these reasons, I would posit that however outlandish the premise of this comic is, it arguably pioneered more mainstay EU elements than even
The Thrawn Trilogy. For an unproven comic series to introduce these many long-term facets of Star Wars in only a few issues was groundbreaking, especially when factoring that it was all written in 1991. True, the unfortunate timing of its release meant it contradicted with various elements of the Prequel Trilogy…but that was true of many stories from this early era of EU publishing, even Timothy Zahn’s lauded work. And more than that, the success and popularity of
Dark Empire would not only prove that Star Wars was capable of epic storytelling far beyond previous comic efforts, it convinced Lucasfilm Licensing that Dark Horse was the right fit—granting them the exclusive comic rights they would hold until 2015.
That’s right: we got nearly 25 years of phenomenal Dark Horse Star Wars comics because of
Dark Empire.
But I and many others would argue that Veitch’s true success wasn’t in handling stories about Luke, Han and Leia’s post-Endor escapades. It was when he approached George Lucas with a radical idea that he was
sure would get shot down: in this barren, primitive era of publishing where OT nostalgia reigned supreme and the Prequels were nowhere in sight, Veitch wanted to chronicle the ancient history of the Jedi and the Sith.
To his unending surprise, Lucas loved the idea—and in 1993,
Tales of the Jedi came into being.
I cannot stress the mountainous importance of this series. Practically everything that’s popular and well-known about ancient Star Wars lore originated from these pages: Ulic Qel-Droma, Nomi Sunrider, Freedon Nadd and Exar Kun…names that would be immortalized in works like KOTOR, all made their debut here. On his own, Veitch conceptualized locales like the Iron Citadel of Cinnegar, Onderon and its locales—from its capital Iziz, to its jungle moon, Dxun. He conceived the Adegan lightsaber crystals, the Sith hississ dragons, the Nadd Uprising and the Sith War. And once Veitch began his collaboration with Kevin J Anderson,
Tales only skyrocketed;
Its story became more nuanced and dramatic, was bolstered by the backstory of the Sith Homeworld and Naga Sadow (which Anderson would flesh out in his own series), the tragedy of Nomi and Ulic spiraling into a climactic ending, the confrontation of Exar Kun and his master…all of the narrative and world-building foundations that the next two decades of SW media would be built around.
If
Dark Empire was a huge step for the SW universe,
Tales of the Jedi would be the jaw-dropping leap. And while Veitch would end his involvement with the series with its third entry,
Dark Lords of the Sith, the concepts and creations he pioneered would pave the way for countless creations. His collaborator Anderson would go onto finish the series, penning arguably its narrative highpoint in the form of
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption. Both Bioware and Obsidian would economize on the galactic history he created, using it as the bedrock for both
Knights of the Old Republic games. Countless Dark Horse scribes from John Jackson Miller to John Ostrander would build off of his mythology in their own work. Even today, if you play the SWTOR MMO or any of its expansions, you will see the remnants of Veitch’s world and characters strewn about…whispers of titans like Qel-Droma and Sunrider, locales like Korriban and Dxun, and tales of the original Jedi-Sith conflict that spun into the Galactic War being waged in the ongoing SWTOR storyline.
And yet for all of Veitch’s efforts, the tsunami of memorable elements he brought to the SW universe, he wouldn’t be vindicated during his career. The controversy of his
Dark Empire storyline followed him throughout the years, remaining the routine target of ridicule by both fans and even authors like Timothy Zahn. Hit-piece articles decrying the EU would often cite his work as the “shark-jumping moment of Star Wars”, and a regular point of mockery by cretinous charlatans who never read one page of the EU. And while the disasterpiece that was
Rise of Skywalker certainly vindicated
Dark Empire’s stronger elements by pinching out a wildly-inferior rehash of the exact same premise, Veitch’s story is still lambasted far and wide by the SW fandom…so much so that, for years, it became part of the negative word-of-mouth that tainted the EU’s reputation as “80% garbage”, and dissuade newcomers from giving it a chance.
I regret to say that, for all of my spouting about the EU on this thread, I was one of these people. I didn’t give the EU a proper chance for years, squarely because I allowed negative hearsay about stories like
Dark Empire coerce me into avoiding it. Thankfully, my personal fallout with Disney’s tenure on the franchise back in 2015 (and the release of a certain ANH remake) convinced me to bite my tongue and give the EU a chance…and I realized for myself how many redeeming elements
Dark Empire really had, and how much Tom Veitch gave to the continuity I now love.
There’s a story Veitch liked to tell when he was alive: that when
Dark Empire first came out, George Lucas liked it so much that he sent copies of it to Lucasfilm Employees throughout Skywalker Ranch during Christmas of 1991. And now, I find myself looking back on that story with some melancholy, thinking about how that was one of the only instances where Veitch’s efforts were given some positive recognition.
So I invite everyone who only remembers Tom Veitch for wacky concepts like the Emperor returning via clone bodies or titanic superweapons like the Galaxy Gun to read
Tales of the Jedi…to see the dramatic journey of Nomi Sunrider and Ulic Qel-Droma, to witness the best of ancient SW lore in its infancy, and remember Veitch for creating elements that, without which, the Star Wars universe would be a far emptier place.
