Hey everyone!

Whoo, well it's been a loooonnng time since I wrote anything here, but truth be told, I've been swamped working on Afterburner PSP, and now things are settling down a little. We're in the final stages of work, waiting for Sony approval, and that's when we do a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

In the meantime, I thought I'd say a few words about "Spy Girls," a story I wrote for the Clone Wars Adventures digest, volume 7.

For those of you without access to the comic, I'll summarize the story, which is pretty simple. Padme attends an exclusive party on Coruscant, thrown by a corrupt Senator on the Separatists' payroll. She and Sheltay Retrac decide to investigate secretly, and go running about the building like a pair of high-tech ninjas. Eventually Padme gathers the evidence she needs, confronts a big beastly guard and gets away with a little help from her friends. There's also a subplot involving C-3PO and a smitten alien.

Spy Girls started off as an Anakin-Amidala story. I had an idea that the two might be secretly chasing after the same object, but for different masters. Anakin would be working secretly for Chancellor Palpatine; and Padme would be working for Bail Organa. They would both be costumed or their identities masked somehow, and they would encounter each other and battle-unaware of who the other was. Still, there is chemistry between them, and as they fight, they flirt and what-not.

Ultimately, the idea collapsed under its own weight. There was too much potential to contradict existing canon, and the characters were stretched to the edges of plausible behavior, in battling one another. Sometimes this can be a downside to working in an established universe with a vigilant licensing arm-fun ideas that can never see the light of day. (This, by the way, is one of the reasons I love ... LOVE... Star Wars Tales. The stories found within its pages never ceased to surprise and entertain, whether they were canon or not.)

Jeremy Barlow wisely sent me back to the typewriter, and I came up with another version that dropped the Anakin angle, and had Padme and Sheltay pursuing an object for the good of the Republic. I had a couple of overlapping motivations there...

First, I wanted to write a story for girls. I have a daughter who's approaching the age where she wants to see adventures for girls. (And ponies too, but unless I could work in Caravan of Courage, I wasn't likely to find any ponies working for the Republic.) I thought, hey, here's a chance to have some fun and tell a good yarn about where Princess Leia got her risk-taking streak.

Second, I wanted to do a feature that incorporated Sheltay Retrac, the anonymous aide who strides down the corridor of the blockade runner next to Bail Organa. Who is she? What does she do pre-Ep III ? I liked the cut of her jib, and it felt natural to make her buddies with Padme.

Finally, I wanted to do another pursuit story. "The Package" was a pursuit story, and I feel comfortable writing them-especially within the very confined page count of Clone Wars Adventures. I had essentially 18 pages to make a story work. If I can start out with a plot that's incredibly easy to communicate (i.e. pursuing an object), then that leaves more room for character stuff or action gags.

Setting the story on Coruscant was easy. I wanted something with lots of glamour, and I noted that not too many CWA stories had utilized Coruscant, so that made sense. I think originally I'd set the story on corrupt Senator Drexx's homeworld, but I believe Jeremy steered me toward Coruscant. I'm not 100% sure, though. Memory is getting bad.

I love Stewart McKenny's use of color and his renderings of the characters. Perfect, spot-on. CWA has a very graphic style, much like the t.v. show, and truth be told, it's the art style I prefer to see. (I'm a huge fan of Hellboy and Madman.)

I knew the big party scene would be a great moment, and I asked for a few details here and there (like the Hutts in ties and hats), but Stewart really went to town. We've got Max Rebo chilling over in the corner, looking bored out of his mind. I love the little pig Jedi guy, the big blue Wookiee in the fez! And check out the guys down at the bottom of the page-one Garidan-type fellow is helping himself to the punch. I love it.

There are some great things about being a writer, and one of them is being able to describe scenes like this, and have a talented artist flesh it out, adding their own style and sensibility. There's a great feeling, seeing your imagination through someone else's eyes. I'm a very visual person, but I could never, ever draw what Stewart did here. Hats off!

There's more to the party scene, where we pan through the crowd. Yes, that's Mon Mothma and Bail Organa having a boring conversation about "appropriations committees." I thought it might be funny to get a quick glimpse into the day-to-day boringness of being a senator... with emphasis on the "quick."

I really love how Stewart drew Padme and Sheltay's faces, wedged between the two enormous gas bags going "blah blah blah." This panel, as written, was influenced by modern anime and manga, where individual panels can play with the form of the comic and definitely be over-the-top. Stewart made it work quite well, I think.

The next panel we're introduced to 3PO's amorous admirer. In the original script, she adds "My first husband was a droid!" That was either too bizarre or too risque, and it got cut.

Next we met Senator Bezz Drexx, dressed in a weird mustard yellow military uniform. I think the Separatists must have a very loose dress code for their high-ranking members, because in Chris Avellone's "Impregnable", we've got another freaky alien in a weird uniform, and in the Clone Wars cartoon series, Volume 2 opened up with that bizarre military-marching-band general. It's a Separatist thing-we wouldn't understand. Anyway, as a side note, the name "Bezz Drexx" is something I've been trying to use somewhere in the Star Wars universe since the "Battle for Naboo" videogame.

As the party moves upstairs, and the girls .. er, women... get into their action gear, we see the panel where Padme removes the camera from 3PO's butt. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see that. Jeremy and I bandied about a bunch of ideas about where 3PO might store things, and "his butt" was clearly the best among them. So now it's official. I can only hope someone from Kenner is out there-we need a 3PO With Butt Storage!

The next couple of pages are a dialogue between Padme and Sheltay about why it's important for normal human beings to take an active part in the war. Actually, it's not a very good exchange-Sheltay is basically just agreeing with Padme, which doesn't make for sparkling dialogue. But still, I wanted to put in something that addressed the issue plaguing the prequels, which is that it's mainly superhumans versus droids, and there's not much room for regular folks to be heroes.

Sheltay and Padme split up at the double staircase, which gave me a chance to have a non-Jedi character say "May the Force be with you." I always liked when Han said it to Luke at the end of New Hope. What does it mean when a non-Jedi uses that phrase? The explanation is complicated, and I like complicated things. But I also like that, on the surface, Padme is just saying "See ya later."

I love Stewart's rendition of the "eye-spy" camera thingie. In the script, it was written as more of a Splinter Cell type gadget. More subtle. But looking at the sketches, I immediately realized that a big metal eye on a thick ropey cable is actually much funnier and easier to understand. Which is why writers need artists so badly.

Padme tangles with the big boss guy, and shocks the poodoo out of him. The idea of Padme coyly playing the girl, so she could lure her enemy into a false sense of security was something I had from the very earliest drafts. Even back when it was Anakin versus Padme. I think Padme, being a politician, has a very astute sense of herself and her appearance to others. So, rather than going on the offensive, she portrays herself as defenseless, and then uses her opponent's arrogance to her advantage. I can't imagine that anyone as young and as physically unimposing as Padme would have gotten as far without learning that type of skill. She uses her intellect and her perception to solve problems, as opposed to her husband, who needs brute force to make his ideas into reality. But anyway.

I hope Padme's final swan dive came off okay. I like gags where characters apparently leap to their death, but are actually saving themselves. There's a moment in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf hurls himself from a tower, but is actually aiming for a giant eagle flying low. I'm sure there are more examples out there...

The last page is a little epilogue, tying up the caper and giving some validation to the spies for their effort. I don't think Padme needs the validation of the "guys" necessarily-but it does give a nice picture of how the Rebellion might start to form: Padme and Bail, gathering information, working together secretly.

I must admit that 3PO is the character I love to hate. So of course it gave me a secret thrill to be able to bounce him down the stairs on his golden butt, and have that hideous pink cow moaning and crying over him. And Star Wars is full of moments where droids are treated as second-class citizens, so Padme and Sheltay leaving 3PO behind is, to me, completely believable.

This is now my third story for Clone Wars Adventures, and although I'm happy with how it turned out, I still feel I haven't yet hit my goal. What I really want is to write a story for all ages, that can be understood almost without words. For example, the sequence in New Hope, from 3PO and R2 parting ways in the desert, through Artoo's getting caught, and up to their reunion-there are almost no words, and no words are necessary. The story is told visually, and through sounds and mood and action.

That's my goal. I want to do something like that for CWA, if I ever get another opportunity. The only problem is: I'm hopelessly drawn to stories that end with cruel ironic twists. Both "The Package" and "Orders" both featured harsh turnabouts in the last moments. This is not exactly kid-friendly stuff. Most children are still trying to come to grips with the notion of conventional narratives, and here I am throwing irony at them.

Well anyway. With "Spy Girls," I tried to turn in a conventional story with a happy, successful ending. With this one, it really felt right. With the others, it might have been forced. (Maybe it's because they were about the clone troopers, and clones are by their nature tragic-and therefore their stories tend to be tragic too.)

I hope you enjoyed this look at the creative process, and my gratuitous self-analyzation. Sorry I haven't been on the blog much. Being Project Lead on Afterburner was a full-time job and took most of my mental bandwidth. I had to take a self-imposed break from Star Wars to fully focus my energy on making a great game. But it's good to be back.