"The Adventure Begins"
Hey everyone! Jake here. And if you've happened to click on here to view Tony's pictures from start to finish, let me then welcome you to a little mini-tour. For the next twenty pictures, I'll be your guide giving you my opinions on the early works of my best friend because unfortunately, he never wrote ramblings about them himself. I wish he had because as I look back at all the wonderful illustrations he created, I can only share the details I recall. So, without further ado...
This illustration wasn't originally meant to be a pin-up but a mock-up cover to the first in a series of Plight novels written by Tony. When I gave my friend a rough breakdown of how I envisioned my comic as a ten-part series and listed off what would happen in each issue, Tony started having inspirations of his own.
Using the template of the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (now referred to as "Star Wars Legends"), my buddy began plotting tales which would have taken place between issues, served as prologues to others, and fleshed out background characters who might have only appeared in one panel. He was interested in diving into some of the adventures Eklypse might have taken back in the 1930s, expanded more on Rahistal's origin, and even incorporate a few of his own creations into the lore. His goal was to write the definite Timothy Zahn / Thrawn trilogy equivalent in the Plight universe.
Although I fully supported the idea, somewhere along the way Tony convinced himself the tales he had rattling in his mind were better off illustrated in a comic format. It's easier to type words onto a page rather than draw panels, but he felt it was better to have Plight stick to the graphic media. At least, at first. So, what started off as a loose cover idea wound up becoming a pin-up. - Jake