Veitch recalls, 'I remember a comics pro saying to me at the time, 'What do you want to do Star Wars for? Star Wars is dead!'' Indeed, as Dorman points out, 'There was a huge vacuum of products for the Star Wars fandom, from the early ‘80s until 1990, had stopped creating new Star Wars toys, Marvel was no longer doing comics. Despite the dearth of new Star Wars content in the late ‘80s, Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy, and editor Archie Goodwin had a feeling that the franchise 'was just taking a nap, waiting for a fresh injection of imagination.' With that in mind, they took a leap of faith and wrote a letter to Lucas, who subsequently asked to see samples of their work.

It all began with a letter to George Lucas. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series (the final issue released in October 1992), sat down with Tom Veitch (writer) and Dave Dorman (cover artist) to look back at the series, how it came to be, and why its influence continues to echo today. And in so doing, they effectively set precedent and laid the foundation for nearly three decades of Star Wars stories - both narratively and visually. Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy, and Dave Dorman (along with countless others who helped bring the books to life) bestowed on Star Wars fandom an incredibly visual, cinematic story that felt like a true successor to the original trilogy. Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire had come out a few months before, but it had been years since Star Wars was truly a growing, thriving universe.ĭark Empire changed all that. But in 1991, we were at the tail end of a Star Wars drought. The characters we thought we knew were a bit older, wiser, darker, and charting a course not even hinted at in the movies.įor fans who have grown up or come to the franchise in the years since Dark Empire, this might not seem surprising or revolutionary. The six issues of Dark Empire featured familiar characters, but the setting was brand new.

During 19, an entirely new Star Wars story made its way to store shelves. speaks to writer Tom Veitch and cover artist Dave Dorman about their landmark miniseries.īelieve it or not, we just celebrated the 25th anniversary of Dark Empire - the iconic comic series that, in a very real sense, kickstarted Star Wars back from near oblivion.

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