TOM VEITCH INTERVIEW
Mikefjedi2
to everyone! Please pass it along! Enjoy! - Mikef...@aol.com
Thanks for taking the time to give us an interview Tom, we know how
valuable your time is!
OOTM7: GIVE US A BASIC HISTORY OF YOURSELF.
I've compressed about six lifetimes into this one, with the years of
writing comics being only a small part of the picture. I was a Benedictine
monk in the 1960's. I was a poet and novelist in the 1970's. Through all
that time, and even up to today, earning a living was secondary to my deep
involvement with dreams and understanding what dreaming is all about. I
studied the works of Carl Jung and did a three year stint in Jungian
analysis to better help me understand dreams and how the mind (conscious
and unconscious) works. More recently I spent three years studying
Buddhism for the same purpose.
I have written comics because I understood and loved the art form. But I
have generally found the comics industry to be a crass and unscrupulous
business, with very little conscience about its role as teacher of
children. I have known a number of first-rate people in comics, people I
respect. But I have never considered myself a "comicbook person", for the
simple reason I don't respect the industry as a whole.
I have observed that comics people, being by nature given to fantasy, tend
to be very free about sending negative energy toward each other, in the
form of "attack" gossip. Like in Hollywood, I suppose, they are envious of
their brother's success and rejoice in his failure. Over the years I have
heard a number of false stories about myself which were obviously dreamed
up by people who know me only as a comics person and nothing else. They
imagined I am somehow a mirror image of themselves -- living and breathing
for comics...or living and breathing for Star Wars. But this is not the
case. Comics are among the minor aspects of my life. Star Wars, much as I
enjoy it, takes a backseat to my deeper interests.
OOTM7: HOW AND WHEN, DID YOUR ASSOCIATION WITH STAR WARS FIRST BEGIN?
The artist Cam Kennedy and I did a series called THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS
WAR for Marvel/Epic, back in the 1980's. At that time Star Wars was at its
lowest ebb. There was nothing being done except some bad 3-D comics. The
West End Games material was in the works, but hadn't started to appear.
The thing was, Star Wars wasn't dead as far as we were concerned. I
recognized that Cam was a natural Star Wars artist, and I suggested to him
that we send The L&D WAR to Lucas, with the idea that he might make a
movie of it...or at least let us do a Star Wars comic series in the same
style.
So I wrote a letter, addressed to George Lucas, told him about what we
were doing, and asked if he would like to see our comic. I remember as I
was walking to the post office with the letter, I passed a house and heard
the Star Wars theme playing loudly through an open window. "Hmmm," I
thought. "Maybe that's a sign." Three days later I got a telephone call
from a lady at Lucasfilm. At their request I sent them The LIGHT AND
DARKNESS WAR, and the rest is history.
At first they offered me the license, for a sum that would be considered
ridiculously low these days. Not being a business-type, I steered the
project to Archie Goodwin, our editor at Epic Comics (himself a Star Wars
writer from the old days), and we took it from there. Later, when Archie
left Marvel for DC, I steered the project towards Dark Horse. Lucasfilm
asked me if I could recommend a publisher for the Indiana Jones license,
which Marvel was dropping. I told Lucasfilm about Dark Horse's excellent
work with the ALIENS license, and suggested to them that Dark Horse would
also do a better job on Star Wars than Marvel. After Lucasfilm checked out
Dark Horse they asked me point blank: "Do you want us to offer Dark Empire
to Dark Horse? It's your call."
In those days I had quite a bit of "power" relative to these Star Wars
projects, largely because I was the first guy into the pipe. Lucasfilm
asked me if I wanted to write a Star Wars novel. I said ok, of course. But
when they set up their license with Bantam, Bantam's editors said "you
don't want a comics writer doing this...we'll get you a REAL science
fiction writer!"
All I can say to that is "hah hah". I'm not a fan of the books that Bantam
has done, with the exception of the McQuarrie art book and one or two of
the novels.
OOTM7: WHAT IS THE PROCESS YOU GO THROUGH TO COME UP WITH A NEW STORY?
I would recommend to new writers that they learn to write in layers. What
that means is you put your first drafts away for awhile and then take them
out for a fresh look. Develop a little distance from the work, so that you
perceive it with the ruthless eye of an editor. And having that distance,
you will also be able to bring in new layers of imagination, better plot
twists, etc.
I was able to do that on Dark Empire, more than on Dark Empire II. On DEII
we were under tremendous time restraints, and we had less freedom to tell
our story the way we wanted to. All kinds of pressures appeared that
didn't exist when Star Wars was just "a dated film". When Dark Horse
published the first Dark Empire, nobody knew if it would be successful or
not (except for Cam and I, who never doubted). The stores dropped their
orders on the first printing of the second issue by more than a third, so
that it is much rarer than issue #1. (The second issue of a comics series
is ordered before the first issue has gone on sale.) The day the orders
came in on the second issue I got a call from somebody at Dark Horse
consoling me on the failure of Star Wars in the comic marketplace!
OOTM7: HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A COMIC WRITER OR DID IT JUST DEVELOP
ITSELF INTO COMIC WRITING, RATHER THAN NOVEL WRITING?
Some of this is answered above. I have three novels in print, one of which
was translated into German about 1970 or so. They are what you would call
"experimental" novels, not the kind of things that are easy to read.
Writing them was one of the adventures of my youth. One of the books, a
collaboration with poet Ron Padgett, was actually called ANTLERS IN THE
TREETOPS. (Published by Coach House Press in Toronto). Remember those old
jokes about book titles? ...We created the book by splicing together
thousands of small pieces from other books, rewriting them slightly to
tighten the weave. The other two experimental novels are THE LUIS ARMED
STORY (Full Court Press) and EAT THIS! (Angel Hair Press). I think the
best of the lot is EAT THIS!, a very wild and weird book that is like
software that reprograms your brain. EAT THIS! was actually taught at
Harvard for awhile, by a professor who was a big fan of the book.
OOTM7: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT ALL THE NEW STAR WARS TOYS TRADING
CARDS, VEHICLES, ETC. COMING OUT ? IS IT TOO MUCH FOR A STAR WARS FAN TO
HANDLE ?
Star Wars fans are free to vote with their dollars. If they don't like
seeing all this merchandising stuff, don't buy it! (Yeah, I know, you are
all being hypnotized in your sleep by that guy on the QVC channel.)
OOTM7: DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED CHARACTER OR STORYLINE THAT YOU LIKE TO
WRITE ABOUT ? IF SO, DO YOU FEEL IT INFLUENCES HOW THE STORY WILL
PROGRESS ?
Hmmm. I don't feel I really had a chance to get into some of the
characters I created. Ulic Qel-Droma was taken away from me and trashed.
Honestly, I feel that some of the characters like Master Thon and Master
Arca have a built in richness that we barely began to explore. We really
should have woven a much more detailed and complex tapestry before we
rushed into the events of Dark Lords of the Sith. I feel now that it was a
mistake to ask another writer to collaborate on that series.
But, hey...bygones are bygones. You really don't operate in a vacuum when
you are working on Star Wars. There are pressures coming at you from every
direction. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. If you read the
articles and interviews about the making of the films, you realize it was
the same for the people who worked on the movies -- chaos and compromise.
OOTM7: I SAW THE VIDEO DAVE SENTZ MADE OF THE "GANG" AT THE CENTER FOR THE
ARTS STAR WARS EXHIBIT LAST YEAR. IT LOOKED LIKE ALL OF YOU REALLY HAD A
LOT OF FUN ! HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT STAR WARS TODAY, AS OPPOSED TO SAY 15
YEARS AGO, WHEN THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK WAS OUT ?
I think George Lucas has got himself in an interesting situation, relative
to the prequel trilogy that he is working on. He has committed himself to
creating three mega-pictures about the triumph of evil over good! Think
about it. Here we are approaching the millennium, an extremely potent
turning point in history, a time when all kinds of mythological ideas are
converging at once. And poor Mr. Lucas has locked himself into creating a
modern myth, on a massive scale, in which the heroic element gets
completely crushed by the arrogant, evil, murderous elements.
Well...it will be interesting to see how he does it, whether he can leave
us with a positive and strong feeling about ourselves and our relation to
the lightside when we leave the theaters in the year 2000 or 2001. Do you
remember feeling sort of depressed at the end of your first viewing of The
Empire Strikes Back? ...No? Well I did. The dark father had conquered, cut
off the hand of his son. It felt like a blow to the soul.
Vader, you see, is a symbol of something in the mind and the psyche. He is
the same archetype that ruled Nazi Germany. The very same. You can see the
connections in the details in the film -- the stormtroopers, the massive
architecture, the cruel totalitarian politics, the sheer violence and
genocide that the Empire represents. Also the occult side of it -- the
mystical religion of the Force, which can be used for good or evil. Hitler
and his boys were into using the occult forces for evil, as we well know.
Now there's no doubt that the little band of rebels who survive the
extermination campaign of Palpatine and Vader are going to triumph at the
battle of Endor. We've all seen that. Once the prequels are done, we can
watch the six films in order, with the heroes triumphing at the end.
But in temporal terms, in order of their appearance, a different rhythm is
being created. The climax of the Star Wars saga in terms of the way it is
presented to the audience, will be the last film of the first trilogy. And
in terms of the way movies affect you in your deep brain, in your
unconscious, that film will be the kicker -- not ROTJ which you saw many
years before.
Movies are a powerful medium for truth and for teaching young minds.
That's one reason we are all drawn to the Star Wars films. These films do
reflect certain spiritual realities that have mostly been forgotten. The
ideas of the Force and the Jedi are not simply "entertainment content",
interchangeable with the latest action thriller. These are real spiritual
ideas, and seeing them depicted has a certain liberating effect.
But the potency of evil in these films is also a real thing -- not "just a
movie". The Star Wars stories are real myths (as the mythologist Joseph
Campbell has testified). And real myths do real things to you. They change
your life. They change they way you see. They change your idea about your
own inner strength, your potential, and your abilities.
There's a scene Chris Gossett and I did in TALES OF THE JEDI, where Master
Arca is flying over the battlefield, meditating the battle. A bad guy has
a good warrior down, is about to kill him, and the good warrior is feeling
hopeless, knowing he is about to lose his life. As it says in the
captions, "Every warrior carries an image of impending victory in his
heart -- when the image shatters, to be replaced by a vision of defeat, he
is beaten."
Using Jedi Battle Meditation, Master Arca reignites the good warrior's
spirit, infuses him with insight, inner power and strength, and the will
to win -- and the good warrior proceeds to overwhelm his dark opponent.
Now our story is a metaphor for the way films affect you. A "dark" film
can suggest to you, with the power of images, that you are weak and small
and defenseless before the huge strength of the evil side of life. And
you, being only a kid, drink this stuff in, it programs your brain, and
you go out into the world and play the role of a victim to the aggressive
power complexes that control our world.
So my question is -- how will George tell his three-part story of the rise
of Vader and the utter extinguishment of the Jedi, without turning the
audience of children (and adults) into failed heroes?
There may be a couple of ways of pulling it off. But right now it looks
like they are taking a perilous approach. The first film will star a ten
or twelve-year-old as Anakin Skywalker -- and he'll be a hotshot pilot,
who marries a beautiful princess. In other words, somebody whom the
audience of children will be expected to identify with. What happens to
your audience when this kid Jedi turns into the greatest mass murderer
since Genghis Khan?
Lucas has got himself in a Shakespearean situation, relative to these
characters. It will take a great deal of skill to pull it off in a way
that satisfies the moral imperatives of mythology.
(I'd be interested if anybody has any thoughts on this or can think of any
ideas about how GL will deal with these creative questions. You can e-mail
your thoughts to me at tve...@aol.com.)
OOTM7: DOES ANYONE IN PARTICULAR INFLUENCE ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS IN YOUR
BOOKS ? IF SO, WHO AND WHY ?
Cam Kennedy was the model for the character Kam Solusar. I asked his
permission, and he said ok. Later, when the book was about to come out, he
wanted to change the character's name. But I wouldn't let him. <grin>
OOTM7: WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF OTHER WRITERS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STAR
WARS SAGA ?
See the answers above. Not much to say in this area. I miss Brian Daley,
whom I feel was one of the best, maybe the best of the Star Wars writers.
OOTM7: CAN I GUEST STAR AS A CHARACTER IN AN UPCOMING STAR WARS COMIC THAT
YOU MAY BE WORKING ON ? <G>
Sure. Do you want to be King of the Nevoota Bees? <<double G>>
OOTM7: WALT DISNEY WORLD, IN ORLANDO FLORIDA, SENT ME INFORMATION ABOUT A
STAR WARS CONVENTION AT DISNEYLAND, NOVEMBER 1996. WILL YOU BE IN
ATTENDANCE ? WHAT ABOUT THE CONVENTION IN ORLANDO, AT DISNEYWORLD IN 1997
?
Probably not.
OOTM7: SPEAKING OF CONVENTIONS, THERE ARE SEVERAL BIG ONES SCHEDULED THIS
YEAR, INCLUDING THE SAN DIEGO COMICCON, THE
CHICAGO COMICCON, AND DRAGONCON. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO MAKE "GUEST"
APPEARANCES TO ANY OF THESE, OR JUST TO ATTEND AND CHECK IT OUT AS A
REGULAR FAN ?
Probably not.
OOTM7: WHAT KIND OF "SAY" DO YOU HAVE IN WHAT YOU WRITE ABOUT ? WHAT KIND
OF LIMITATIONS DOES GEORGE PUT ON YOU ?
As I mentioned above and in other interviews, we were given a lot of
freedom in the beginning. Over time things began to tighten up.
OOTM7: CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT THE LIGHTSIDER PROJECT? WHAT IS IT?
Lightsider is a short novel I wrote, that was originally supposed to be a
Star Wars novel illustrated by Dave Dorman. In the process of writing this
book I invented a game that Jedi play, using the Force, called
"Lightsider". The game turned out to be quite good, I think. After I had
finished creating it, I realized that it would make an excellent computer
game, sort of like Myst, but different in many significant ways. In fact I
may have invented a new genre of computer games. So as we were negotiating
a contract I asked Lucasfilm if they could put in a clause which would
allow me a royalty of some kind if they ever decided to make a computer
game out of Lightsider.
Well...it turned out I pushed their button on that one. They told me it
would be impossible to agree to such a royalty, and that I was way out of
line asking for one! They said they don't do business that way -- they
acquire all rights when you do a project for them, and you are paid only
for the original project.
So I elected not to sell them Lightsider, because the gaming concept was
just too strong. I am in the process of marketing it elsewhere right now.
The curious thing, from my point of view, was the vehemence of their
reaction to my request. They could have just said "no", and that's that.
But it was as if I had poked a scorpion with a stick or something.
Ahh...but life is sweet, and it goes on forever. The power of the Force is
great, my friends. Do not fear the Emperor. Do not tremble before the
minions of the dark side. Realize the Lightside of the Force, live in the
Force, and the Force will be your support and your strength, even in the
face of great adversity. ;-)
MTFBWY!
* * * * * * * * *
Tom, thanks so much for taking the time out of your schedule to answer
these
questions! It means a lot to ma and all the fans I'm sure !
May the Force Be With You!