Taral Books and Comics

In early July 2020 I finally subscribed to Disney+, the streaming service offered by The Walt Disney Company. There were a few programs I wanted to watch, most of them Star Wars.  Between February and May 2020, Disney+ began airing the much-anticipated final season of The Clone Wars . Readers may remember when I wrote about that show that when Disney purchased Lucasfilm, they cancelled all ongoing projects, including The Clone Wars . A shortened sixth season was put on Netflix and some stories were released in other media, such as the Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir comic miniseries and the novel Dark Disciple . Resources were refocused onto new Star Wars content for Disney, the main television series being Star Wars Rebel s. Nevertheless, the creators of The Clone Wars knew how they intended to finish the series, and worked on the assumption that the events of the planned series finale were canon. Years later, after Rebels had been completed, they were able to finally finish The C...

With the initial adventures of the Jedi Knights and their apprentices post-Episode I out of the way, I refocus my attention on a set of characters that have been part of the core of Star Wars since the very beginning.  They're badass warriors who prey upon the scum of the galaxy. They're hired guns who sell their services to the highest bidder. They're cold-blooded killers who live in a shoot-or-be-shot universe. Bounty hunters have been part of the Star Wars mythology from the start, since Greedo tried to apprehend Captain Han Solo and bring him to Jabba the Hutt. It didn't go so well for Greedo, but that didn't stop more hired guns from hunting the smuggler-turned-Rebel. The Empire Strikes Back gave us a group of bounty hunters including the man in Mandalorian armor, Boba Fett.  The prequel era had its share of bounty hunters as well, continuing the tradition George Lucas had begun decades earlier. The story of Episode I involved no bounty hunters, but one charac...

The first thing that hits you, even before the smell, is the pervasive feeling of despair. Or at least, that's the first thing I notice when I step into Saint Morrigon's Mission, a shelter and kitchen many consider to be the last place where Star Trek-focussed RPG bloggers can get a meal, a warm bed, and a wi-fi connection. I spoke briefly with Jane Sinclair, the one-woman team who single-handedly runs Saint Morrigon's.  "Look at all these poor souls," Jane said, gesturing to rows after rows of beds filled with people typing away on their phones. "It seems wherever they go, they do something that pisses someone off. Within a few days, they're banned." I spoke briefly with one of the people living at Saint Morrigon’s. "I show up, post a few articles, and within a week I’m on the streets!" said a person identified as Major Tom. He showed me some of his work and I understood why. To verify my understanding, I tracked down a few...

I remember in 2012 hearing the announcement that Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm and all of its properties, including Star Wars. This included an announcement that they were going to produce new films. I was excited! The last Star Wars movie (not counting The Clone Wars) was more than seven years behind us. We were certain there would be no new films, and suddenly now there would be. I remember making a point to avoid spoilers. I watched the trailers, but kept off social media in the weeks and months leading up to the movie's release. I bought books marketed as "Journey to The Force Awakens", but refused to read them until after I had seen the movie (in hindsight, none of those spoiled anything). Movie poster for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens . Image from Wookieepedia. I missed opening night, as I was traveling for work that week. But I managed to get tickets to see it with my wife and her sister closer to Christmas. For this post, I consumed the fo...

Episode I: The Phantom Menace established the status quo for the prequels going forward. We have Obi-Wan Kenobi, recently graduated Jedi Knight. His apprentice, young Anakin Skywalker, who just won his freedom from slavery on the desert planet Tatooine. A Republic plagued with corruption. We don't know much about where the story is headed. But we do know Anakin and Obi-Wan will have more adventures, as will countless Jedi and other heroes and villains. For this post, I consumed the following stories: Republic 7-12: Outlander (comic arc by Timothy Truman , 1999) Republic 13-18: Emissaries to Malastare (comic arc by Timothy Truman, 1999-2000) Republic 27: Starcrash (comic issue by Doug Petrie , 2001) Rogue Planet (novel by Greg Bear , 2000) I read the novel in the hardcover format. Republic 7-18 were collected in the graphic novel Omnibus: Emissaries and Assassins . Issue 27 was collected in Omnibus: Menace Revealed . Cover of "Rogue Planet" by Greg Bea...

I first became familiar with the Battlefront games around 2005 or 2006, when the first game titled Battlefront II was put out by LucasArts and Pandemic Studios. It featured a story mode where you played as one of many nameless clone troopers during the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (which had just come out) and then through the years as a stormtrooper during the events of Episodes IV and V. The game's story was fantastic (and I will cover it in segments in future posts), but its main purpose was as an arena game for both single player and multiplayer fun. I never once connected the game to the internet to play online, but I had as much fun with the "Conquest" mode (defeating your enemies on arena maps of each planet in the game plus several bonus worlds) as I had with the story mode. I later picked up the first Battlefront game (from 2004), which had no story and was less fun. In late 2015, under the New Canon, Electronic Arts and Digital Illusions CE rele...

In my recent post about challenges and opportunities in my reading, I announced that I would take a short break from reading Star Wars after my coverage of Episode I, so I could try something else for a bit.  This would break up the monotony of Star Wars coverage and permit me to read something non-Star Wars in the next few years.  I opted to begin with some books about spies, war, and political intrigue: the original James Bond novels from Ian Fleming and some Tom Clancy novels. I've enjoyed James Bond movies since I was a child.  My parents took me to see the Pierce Brosnan movies in theatres, and we would watch the Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton ones on TV whenever they would come on.  I didn't understand much about the world of spies then, but as an adult I've come to know a bit more about the time period, as well as the tropes of such stories. I first read Tom Clancy novels in high school, starting with Rainbow Six , because I had begun playing the video ga...