Current Interviews & Features | Interviews & Features Archive

A Conversation with Haden Blackman and Brian Ching

Haden Blackman comes to the comics world from LucasArts, of all places, having worked on Star Wars games there like the popular Starfighter and the highly anticipated Star Wars Galaxies. He was given the opportunity to continue the story of one of his characters from Starfighter in the “Crossbones” mini-series, and was also responsible for giving Jango Fett a more well-rounded backstory in the pages of “Open Seasons”.

Brian Ching is relatively new to the Dark Horse’s stables, hailing originally from Top Cow where he helped chronicle the adventures of another pop culture sensation, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Brian’s introduction to the Star Wars Universe at DHC began with some covers he did for the core monthlies, but with Republic #55, readers will get to see what Brian can really do when he gets to cut loose on the interiors.

Haden and Brian are hoping to make a splash when they take over the creative chores on Republic with a story titled, “The Battle of Jabiim”. It chronicles a long and difficult battle in the ongoing Clone War where Obi-Wan goes missing in action and is presumed dead leaving Anakin alone to fend for himself, and the Padawans under his care. The two creators have promised more action than you can shake a lightsaber at and a lot of things blowing up Star Wars style.

So, without further ado, I give you Haden and Brian...

MIKE JOZIC: Brian, we’ll start with you. For readers who may be new to your work, what had you done prior to Star Wars #53?

BRIAN CHING: I had worked at Top Cow for a number of years. I also did some video game design and storyboarding. I did work on the Tomb Raider series as well as a run on Witchblade.

JOZIC: And what were the circumstances surrounding your joining Dark Horse’s team?

CHING: I met Randy Stradley at last year's San Diego Con and he remembered me from the samples I had sent him in the past. It was a nice quick chat and a couple months later he called me up to do some Star Wars work.

JOZIC: What prompted the jump from the game-designing gig to drawing comic books?

CHING: I actually started in comics and the whole video game thing sort of happened along the way. Working in video games is great and the pay is really great, but the creative aspects of it were pretty limited. You are basically hired to draw exactly what they want and sometimes that can be a little draining. In comics, we have so much freedom as long as we stay within the confines of the script. I honestly do feel very fortunate to be in the comic business. Especially right now, working on the Star Wars books is the most fun I've ever had drawing!

JOZIC: Were you a big Star Wars fan prior to getting on with DHC? Had you read the comics before?

CHING: Absolutely. I am a big fan of Vatine as well as the Cam Kennedy and his stuff on “Dark Empire”.

JOZIC: And Haden, how does it feel to be off the minis and one-shots and into the core Star Wars books?

HADEN BLACKMAN: I'm just really happy to be writing comics, whether I'm working on a mini-series, short story for something like Star Wars Tales, or an ongoing. I'm still a little amazed that I'm doing it, actually. I thoroughly enjoyed writing both the “Crossbones” and “Open Seasons” series - with the latter, it was just so geek-cool to be asked to explore Jango Fett's backstory and help establish the history of the Mandalorians.

I try to view the ongoing as a number of connected miniseries. We're telling stories in self-contained arcs, but at the same time we have the opportunity to slip in some subplots, introduce recurring characters and explore multiple themes over time. The biggest challenge (for me anyway) is to constantly raise the bar with the action - every issue. I'm trying to top myself in that respect.

JOZIC: It's interesting that both of you have a background in game design. Had you run into each other before this assignment?

CHING: No, the video game work was really temporary and something I never made a conscious effort to pursue. I would love to do it again someday because, but I'm really happy where I am right now.

JOZIC: Haden, what prompted your jump from the LucasArts gig to writing comic books?

BLACKMAN: Well, I still work for LucasArts as the LucasArts Producer on Star Wars Galaxies. Writing the comics is something I do in my very limited spare time. I became involved when Dave Land at Dark Horse asked me to do a short story based on one of our game characters. That led to “Crossbones”, and then to the “Open Seasons” series. In truth, “Open Seasons” was even connected to a game - Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

JOZIC: Was making the transition to comics a difficult one for you? Did you have to develop a whole new writing process?

BLACKMAN: Technically, it's a whole new process, but the biggest difference is just the extent of collaboration - there are fewer people involved with a comic, but it's more intense and focused. With a game, you have a whole team of designers and artists working on various aspects of the story. As a writer on those projects, I typically helped with overall plot and cutscenes, but a lot of that was also driven by the needs of the project and the mission designs. There's a lot of "what do I write here to make this Mission A connect to Mission B." You also need to plan for different contingencies because, to some extent, details of the story can change depending upon the player's actions. With a comic, everything is wonderfully contained and there's a much smaller group driving the creative content. I like that sense of control, and I really enjoy being able to work one-on-one with an artist to tell very specific stories through very specific images.

With all that said, there is a great deal of crossover between the two mediums. Both need to tell stories concisely, with interesting but relatively sparse dialogue. Working on games, I learned to write in short, information-packed dialogue and only say what you really need to tell the player, letting the visuals do the rest. It's the same with comics, in many instances. Both are also well suited to stories with a heavy emphasis on action. I learned to visualize action sequences by working on games, which has been helpful with comics as I tend to write very detailed panel-by-panel descriptions.

JOZIC: Brian, do you find this limiting at all, or do you get to cut loose from time-to-time?

CHING: Sure, Haden is really specific with his scripting - from camera angles to panel shapes and sizes - but he always makes it a point to me that if I can visualize it better then just go with it. So there have been a few times when I will stress a certain panel like Obi-Wan's grand entrance and make that the largest panel because that's what I would want to see if I were the reader. It's really just a bunch of little things like that. Nothing really specific to mention but it does put me at ease that Haden is willing to collaborate. And it works both ways. I've told him that if he really disagrees with anything I've done we can always rework it. So far, things have gone very smoothly.

JOZIC: How different is your approach, artistically, to Star Wars compared to your Darkness or Tomb Raider work?

CHING: The approach to drawing is pretty similar. The biggest difference is probably scheduling. Dark Horse works a few months in advance so things seem to move more smoothly. We were always in a rush at Top Cow to get the stuff out so I never felt I got to do my best work. I gotta say that I'm really appreciative of my editor, Randy Stradley, for being so supportive and really giving me enough time to do what I need to do.

JOZIC: Haden, a lot of your work has taken place during the time of the Galactic Republic. Do you prefer writing for that period over the Civil War era of episodes IV-VI?

BLACKMAN: No, not necessarily. When I first starting writing for DH, there was a greater focus on Episode I and II in support of the films. And my original stories - in Star Wars Tales and then “Crossbones” - were tie-ins to LucasArts games set during the prequel era. It was a natural transition to take arcs in the Republic series.

I do enjoy writing about the Clone Wars because it's such an important part of Star Wars history, but I'm also strongly attached to characters from the original films, so I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to tell their stories too.

JOZIC: John Ostrander and Jan Duursema will be back on Republic briefly with issue #54 for another Quinlan Vos story, but the book goes back to you and Brian with the next issue. Will you guys be leap-frogging on the series for a while, or have you guys officially taken over as the regular team on Republic?

BLACKMAN: I'll be writing a four-issue arc that covers the "Battle of Jabiim" - the next major conflict in the Clone Wars - then John will be writing #59. We're just now beginning to plot the events for #60 and beyond.

JOZIC: Brian, are you going to be hanging around the Star Wars line for the foreseeable future or will you be moving on after “The Battle of Jabiim”?

CHING: I hope so. I have so much fun working on this stuff and there's still two more years before Episode III comes out so that's a lot more adventures of Obi-Wan and Anakin to tell before Anakin turns bad.

JOZIC: In Republic #'s 51 and 52, you introduce a new character called Durge who is kind of a Boba Fett to the Nth degree kind of guy. I'd heard somewhere that he was developed as a joint effort between Lucasfilm, DHC and Hasbro, is that correct?

BLACKMAN: Actually, this was true of both Durge and Asajj Ventress, a dark Jedi character who also appears in #51 for the first time. Lucasfilm wanted to establish two villains to challenge the Jedi during the Clone Wars era. Both villains had to be very tough and memorable. They also needed to be designed for use in multiple sources including comics, novels, cartoons and toys.

The characters started with the visuals - the first concepts for the characters actually came from prequel concept artists at Lucasfilm, though I believe Hasbro had some input as well. I was given the concept art and wrote up their backstories, descriptions of their personalities, and whatever else I could to flesh out the characters. Naming the characters was sort of a group effort at Lucasfilm.

Beyond that, we knew very little about the character. I had only been told that he needed to be a bounty hunter who could be used as a major Confederacy villain. I felt that, in order for him to be taken seriously as a villain, he needed to be able to defeat Jedi. That meant that he also had to be basically superhuman. We haven't revealed much of his backstory, but he is a pretty powerful alien with abilities that make him a perfect foe for the Jedi. He can take a ridiculous amount of punishment, for example. I also established a connection with the Clone Troopers, through a sort of rivalry with Jango.

JOZIC: He seems kind of unconventional as far as Star Wars characters go in both look and deed.

BLACKMAN: His personality developed as I was writing Issue #51. Ventress and Durge murder thousands of Gungans with an experimental weapon, so that suggested a really brutal and callous character. But, I also tried to give him a sense of humor.

JOZIC: Your use of chemical weapons in the story mirrors a recent concern with the horrors of chemical warfare. Were the events in the story influenced at all by "current events", as it were?

BLACKMAN: Probably. I don't know that you can write about war and not be influenced by current events. On the surface, though, I was just trying to think like the Confederacy: if your army of mechanical droids is fighting an army of organics, it makes sense that your "secret weapon" would be something like a biological or chemical agent that only affects organics.

JOZIC: The current storyline is being drawn by Tomas Giorello - who has moved over to Empire to help out Paul Chadwick for a while - and your next arc is being done by Brian. Why the switch?

BLACKMAN: Determining which artist is best suited to which story is really Randy Stradley's job, but I believe it mostly has to do with schedules.

JOZIC: What would you say each artist brought to their respective projects?

BLACKMAN: I've really enjoyed working with both guys and I think they're work has been fantastic. Brian is being asked to design a lot of new characters; it's been really exciting to see characters that have brief descriptions in my pitches fleshed out visually.

JOZIC: From reading the solicitation copy, it sounds like there is going to be a lot of Jedi action over the course of the 4-parter. Was that a big draw for you, Brian, in taking the assignment, or do you prefer drawing the Bounty Hunter and Scoundrel set of the Star Wars Universe?

CHING: With Episode I and II coming out so recently, the adventures of the Jedi are so fresh in my mind. The end of Episode II just barely taps into the beginning of the Clone Wars so we really haven't seen too much of what goes on.

I feel really fortunate that I am able to show some of that and sort of bridge the gap between Episode II and III, but I definitely want to someday tackle the stuff from the original trilogy. Boba Fett would be great.

JOZIC: The solicitation info also said that it might be Obi-Wan's last mission, which we all know to be impossible based on his appearance in “A New Hope”. What are the challenges to writing a story like this when the character’s longevity is already set in stone?

BLACKMAN: Haven't you heard the rumors that the Obi-Wan in the original Star Wars is really a clone?

The story arc is really about Anakin, but we put him into a specific situation that requires Anakin and the Jedi Council to think that Obi-Wan is dead - or at least MIA. I decided to just go for it and create an ending to issue #55 that really does suggest that Obi-Wan has been killed. From there, the story shifts to focus on Anakin and his new allies, a group of similarly-orphaned Padawans, and we get to see how Anakin behaves when he's not in his Master's shadow.

Obviously, readers will know that Obi-Wan isn't going to stay dead, but I want them to come back to find out how he survived.

JOZIC: Actually, now that I think about it, Obi-Wan gets knocked out of commission in both storylines. What's your beef with ol' Ben?

BLACKMAN: Obi-Wan does take a lot of damage in the series, but I think that shows his resilience. In Issues #51-52, he gets poisoned by the chemical weapon, but he keeps fighting. The Jedi are fighting in a war, and Obi-Wan is involved in a number of really dangerous missions; it's unlikely that he'd escape without injury somewhere along the line. But compared to the other Jedi characters in my stories, Obi-Wan gets off easy. He's not decapitated or drowned in lava.

JOZIC: Brian, what can readers expect to see from you and Haden over the course of the four issues?

CHING: A lot of destruction. I've never drawn so many things blowing up.

But seriously, Haden has been great with providing a lot of action for the readers. There are things showing up in the battle of Jabiim that no one has seen yet. We have new Jedi showing up and vehicles from the Clone Wars video game. I get to draw some earlier versions of the vehicles we saw in the original trilogy. It's gonna be great!

JOZIC: The first issue is still a ways away from being released. How far ahead are you working on the story?

CHING: I'm on the second issue right now.

JOZIC: And what is the process from start to finish of putting together a page or an issue of Republic from a pencilers viewpoint?

CHING: After reading the script I usually start doodling directly on the script and try to get an idea of what will be the most important scenes - at least visually. It's important for me to try and figure out which panels will need to stand out the most and which ones I need to gather reference for. From there I do thumbnails - tiny 3 x 2 inch layouts - and I make sure to keep it rough so I can have some spontaneity on the page. After that, I transfer the thumbnail to the page and it usually takes me between eight and fourteen hours to pencil the page. The hard part is really the layout but the labor-intensive part is the finished pencils.

JOZIC: Do you use any non-Star Wars reference when you're working to get that Galaxy at War vibe happening?

CHING: A little. Some of the uniforms I've designed are based on American WWII uniforms. Some of the weaponry is also based on real weapons - at least parts of it are. I'll grab any ref that will help me out.

JOZIC: Since you guys are doing a previously "uncharted" period in the Star Wars saga, what sort of guidance do you get from Dark Horse or LFL when tackling these stories?

CHING: They send me a good amount of reference. Some of it is really cool since I know not a lot people have access to those images. After that they pretty much let me go and have fun with it all.

JOZIC: Has any of the resource material been from Episode III, or is it pretty much all from the previous two films?

CHING: It's almost entirely Episode II stuff. I don't think much of Episode III stuff is even done yet. If so, then I don't think they want too many people seeing it yet. Some of the stuff I have gotten so far was early designs of the new bounty hunter Durge and even some of the preliminary toy sculpts.

JOZIC: Haden, because of your previous Content Supervisor and Project Researcher/Writer positions at LucasArts, as well as your current role as Producer on Star Wars Galaxies, do you feel that you have an advantage over some of the other contributors on the Star Wars books?

BLACKMAN: Maybe. I've been pretty entrenched in Star Wars on a daily basis for the past five years.

JOZIC: On the Galaxies site you talk about all of the elements that make up a successful Star Wars story. How much of that philosophy do you bring to your comic book work?

BLACKMAN: All of it. I really believe that there are many more Star Wars stories to be told but we need to find ways to leverage the strengths of the content in new and engaging ways without losing our connection to the films. I'm trying to do a bit of that in Republic. I prefer to focus on the film characters, but put them into, hopefully new situations, for example.

JOZIC: What are your plans for future stories in Republic?

BLACKMAN: Lots of dead Jedi.

“The Battle of Jabiim” is the next major arc, which covers a huge, and long-lasting, battle on a miserable, rain-soaked planet. We're introducing a new villain and a number of new Jedi characters to fight alongside Anakin and Obi-Wan. The arc focuses largely on Anakin and his interactions with characters other than Obi-Wan. I also try to explore different types of Jedi; characters that are very different from the stoic "Coruscant Jedi" we see in the films. Beyond that, I hope we'll eventually start dropping in seeds for Episode III.

JOZIC: Any chance we'll be seeing Nym appearing again in the future?

BLACKMAN: If I can find a way to include him that makes sense - there has to be a good reason for him to show up. He is incredibly fun to write, and I think he's visually compelling, but I'm not going to throw him into the mix just because I think he's cool. I don't know that he'll star in any Republic stories, but it would be great if I could work him into one of the upcoming arcs.

JOZIC: Brian, licensed books have a funny way of being especially problematic when it comes to character likenesses. Are you going for a strong likeness or have you found there is a lot more freedom with how the artist is able interprets the character?

CHING: I do my best to try and capture the right feel or essence of the characters. I feel like if get too caught up in worrying about the likeness the drawings become a little stale. The energy in the drawing is really the most important thing to me. I look at the work Vatine did on “Heir to the Empire” and although his Luke or Han Solo didn't look exactly like Mark Hamill of Harrison Ford you knew who he was drawing and his work was just so cool that you bought into it. That's sort of what I'm going for and so far Dark Horse and Lucas Licensing have been great.

JOZIC: You started off doing covers for Empire, and one for Republic, prior to your getting the regular gig. Was that kind of a warm up to see what you were capable of?

CHING: Absolutely. It gave me a little time to get familiar with drawing things in the Star Wars universe. I had come from drawing a bunch of busty women at Top Cow so there was some adjustment necessary. It's weird, I know the movies pretty well and have seen them a bunch of times but drawing that stuff is so different.

JOZIC: Those covers were inked by Batt but you'll be doing the Republic interiors solo, correct?

CHING: No, I'm working with two fabulous inkers. Victor Llamas on a couple of issues and Joe Weems on the other two. They really are two of the best inkers in comics. They specialize in the "Image Comics look" started by Scott Williams when he and Jim Lee were rejuvenating X-men. It involves a lot of work with the crow quill and creates some really beautiful line work.

JOZIC: A lot of things first introduced in the comic books have made their way into the Star Wars canon, like the Jedi Holocron and the character of Aayla Secura who even had actual screen time in Episode II. What do you hope will be your contribution to the Star Wars mythos?

CHING: Haden has created a bunch of new young Padawans that I got to design. I think it would be great if one of them made it into the next movie.

JOZIC: Episode I and II have taken a lot of flack for not being "as good" as the first trilogy. What are your thoughts on the new movies - pro and con?

CHING: I think people remember how they felt when they saw the original trilogy when they were kids and are looking for that same emotional "high." I think the original trilogy had a lot of characters for people to identify with and people especially love Han Solo. There isn't much of that in the Prequels and that has a lot of people annoyed. But I still love them. I just love the whole mythology of all the Star Wars films and I think visually there are very few films that can touch them.

BLACKMAN: I'm obviously a huge fan of the original trilogy and I'm not sure that anything could eclipse them. When Star Wars was released, it was unique. Due to my age at the time, it had a major impression on me. It would have been unfair for me to expect that any film could have that same impact, given my age and the fact that the film landscape has changed so dramatically - as a result of the original Star Wars. So, I went into Episode I and II with a little different attitude than some other fans, and I enjoyed them both.

JOZIC: What would you say have been the overall strengths of the new trilogy?

BLACKMAN: As a writer, I appreciated the difficulty of telling the backstory for these characters, especially Anakin. As a fan, I was happy to see things like Obi-Wan's first encounter with Anakin and get more information about the Jedi Order.

Thinking about my work with the license specifically, I was extremely excited about the opportunities provided by Episode II. It obviously opens the door to the Clone Wars, which we're now mining in the comics. It also unveiled tons of new tech - the walkers and such - and the scenes of dozens of Jedi battling battle droids are really vivid.

CHING: I think visually the new trilogy is incredible to look at. I'm not just talking about the Special FX, although those are incredible too but the overall color of the scenes is just spectacular. I actually watch “Attack of the Clones” on my DVD player about once every ten days. I tend to work to music or DVDs anyways but something about the look and feel of “AOTC” is just really aesthetically pleasing.

I especially love looking at the droid factory scene near the end. The colors in that scene are amazing and I'm always blown away that those guys at ILM actually had to create the whole environment. There's nothing at all real there and everything is completely manufactured in the computer! That's really amazing to me. But there are a lot of colors to coordinate, the character's outfits and the backgrounds, all the colors work perfectly together. Those guys really know what they're doing.

JOZIC: What Star Wars characters would you love to get your hands on that you haven't had a chance to?

BLACKMAN: Lando and Chewie.

CHING: Luke Skywalker.

JOZIC: What is it about those characters that draws you to the them?

BLACKMAN: Lando is really compelling because of the conflict he faces in “The Empire Strikes Back” - maybe I read more into his character than others, but I always saw him as a formerly selfish gambler forced to make a choice between the life of his friend and the lives - and livelihood - of the many thousands of people who rely on him as their leader. As an audience who empathizes with Han and realizes that Vader is a villain who can't be trusted, we think he made the "wrong" choice, but he's then allowed redemption later.

In contrast to Lando, Chewbacca is a great character because of his loyalty to Han. A story exploring the interactions between Lando and Chewie, presumably during the timeframe between “Empire” and “Jedi”, would be really interesting.

CHING: My fondest memories of all the movies come from Luke's scenes in “Return of the Jedi”. I think it has something to do with his transformation from a naive and impulsive kid in the first two movies to a Jedi Knight whose movements and words are very calculated and precise. That's really cool to me - and of course you gotta love the black uniform. It connects him to Vader and keeps the audience thinking about his fate. Will he be swayed to the dark side or won't he? It was such a cool dynamic to the story and I think it is part of the character's appeal.

I know, I'm very much a fanboy.

JOZIC: What was your first Star Wars memory?

BLACKMAN: The Jawa leaping out and shooting R2 in the original Star Wars. That scared the hell out of me.

CHING: Han shooting first.

JOZIC: The Han shooting first is a sore point with a lot of fans. Why does that one stand out for you?

CHING: It's one of those things where the hero or one of the heroes of the movie doesn't have to be a boy scout. He's often referred to as a scoundrel and a pirate in the dialogue and he should live up to that.

JOZIC: In your opinions, what was the best Star Wars moment or line, from the films or the expanded universe?

CHING: My favorite is when Luke takes out all of Jabba's goons on the barge in “Return of the Jedi”. It was the first time we ever saw what a Jedi could really do.

BLACKMAN: The entire carbon-freezing chamber sequence in “The Empire Strikes Back”. The scene is so tight, and even though it's packed full of characters, there's a little bit of character development for everyone. The dialogue is fantastic, and seeing Chewie go ballistic and start throwing Stormtroopers around is total fan fulfillment. There are a ton of subtle interactions - Vader gesturing for Boba to lower his gun when Fett readies to shoot Chewie, for example - and the "I love you", "I know" bit is probably the best exchange in the entire trilogy.

JOZIC: Lastly, Brian, since you’re the new kid on the block at DHC, are there any other Star Wars creators that you would like to collaborate with on a project?

CHING: I'm not really sure. You know, I haven't even done too many issues of Star Wars yet and I think I'd sort of like to make my mark on this series before working with someone new. Maybe to prove I'm worthy to work with some of the big names, who knows? Also, I'm having an excellent time working with Haden right now and I think we have a real opportunity here to do something memorable. Hopefully, people will like our stuff in the years to come.

At least that is my hope.


	Mike Jozic has spent the last several years interviewing comic book creators and other entertainment related personalities for various publications. He has been published both online and in print, with his work appearing in The Comics Journal, FearsMag.com and Silver Bullet Comicbooks. He maintains his own website at www.meanwhile.net and currently serves as the Features Editor for SBC. If given a choice, he would love to "get his hands on" Leia as Jabba's slave girl. Rowrrr.

Discuss this interview on the Feature Fiends Forum!