Webcomics. When publishing is too much of a hassle so you turn to the internet as your distributor. And as long as you have you keep an eye on all the ins and outs of Fair Use, you can even make use of preexisting properties, like Star Wars for example.
Enter David Morgan-Mar. Australian physicist and part-time comic creator. He had already done work in the webcomic genre with his series Irregular Webcomic! when on September 2007 a new series came about, Darths & Droids, a campaign comic set in The Phantom Menace. Campaign comics are fairly simple, you take stills and screen caps from film or television and make comics from them, specifically as if the characters from the film or program were characters in a tabletop role-playing game. The trick is that the comic itself acts as if the source material doesn’t exist and the setting is a wholly original creation by the usually unseen game master. Separating any preconceived notions about the film or tv series is the reader’s responsibility because the game itself can go in wild directions from the source. The late Shamus Young pioneered this idea with his own webcomic, DM of the Rings. A comedic retelling of Tolkien’s epic where the main cast bumble their way through Middle Earth.
David Morgan-Mar and his friends and coworkers (known as The Comic Irregulars) were pretty bold at the time. The Prequel Trilogy had just concluded and while Revenge of the Sith was generally considered the best of the three, Star Wars wasn’t in the best of places among general audiences to say nothing of fans of the series. And yet, things started pretty strong.
A big part of that was the comic knew how to not just make use of screencaps for maximum comic effort but how to give each of the “players” big personalities that shown through the stills.
Beginning with Jim, a gung-ho player and Ben the more grounded of the two. The series took an immediate turn to the absurd as the series found new and creative ways for Jim’s Qui-Gon Jinn to “attack first, loot second, and maybe ask a question about the plot” through the plot while Ben’s Obi-Wan Kenobi both tries to keep up with Jim derailing the plot and fast-talk the longsuffering Game Master.
Things took a further turn with the introduction to Ben’s little sister Sally who ended up playing the role of Jar Jar Binks and subsequently helped create some of the more outlandish elements seen in The Phantom Menace.
Trust me when I say, Sally might’ve been the most important character added to the comic. As I mentioned, Star Wars wasn’t in the best of places at the time so the decision to have a hyper imaginative little girl play one of the most maligned character of the series bearable, but also a joy to read. As the series continued an Sally grew up and developed her own creativity outside of the events of the comic, well it became one of the best subplots of the series.
Along the way, some more friends join the group. Pete, the resident gaming control freak and Munchkin (a player only in it for the best abilities and items). If Sally was created with idea of making Jar Jar likable, Pete was given the unenviable task of making R2-D2 unlikable.
And Annie, a drama student who joins up to improve her acting and improv skills.
The end result was a comic masterpiece that turned all the little plots and details of the movie on their heads and sent the intricate political idea the Game Master originally had completely off the rails. And it only got crazier from there. And now over nineteen years and two thousand comics later, Darths & Droids has come to a close. And what a ride it’s been.
I won’t go into further detail or spoilers because if you’re a fan of either Star Wars or tabletop gaming and you haven’t read this series, you should really read this. It’s bittersweet to see this end, but all good stories must. And considering they managed to redeem not only the Prequel Trilogy but managed to make an intriguing story out of the mess that was the Sequel Trilogy, well you can say they earned their laurels and their rest.
I started reading this comic around the time they were wrapping up their take of Attack of the Clones and I’ve been a fan ever since. It was a good reminder of the hidden history of the Star Wars series; that before the Prequel Trilogy reignited public interest it was books and comics and tabletop games that kept the fandom alive. And even when its popularity waned or sometimes plummeted, it was the fans that kept it alive all the same too. Darths & Droids kept that fandom alive by not tackling this series for money but for the love of the series. And that love also meant being able to poke fun at the source material and some of their…interesting creative choices. And to poke fun at themselves, the nerdy gamers.
To David Morgan-Mar and the other Comic Irregulars. The best of luck and may the dice rolls be with you.
