Just a reminder: If you're at your comics shop this week, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #1 goes on sale Wednesday. And next Wednesday, our Knights of the Old Republic/Rebellion Special arrives, providing some more background on both series.

I got my advance copy of Knights of the Old Republic #1 from Dark Horse and have to say I am thrilled with the presentation. Brian Ching and Michael Atiyeh really worked hard to faithfully translate my words into pictures -- and the Travis Charest cover is a great topper. My hat is off to all of them (and it's cold where I live, so we remove our hats for nobody)!

A couple of quick thoughts if you haven't read any of my interviews on the series or my earlier postings: This is an original story set in the Old Republic period, not a straight adaptation of the video games. You don't have to have read either the earlier Tales of the Jedi comics or played the games to enjoy the series -- though if you have, you'll find our series, as it develops, bridges the two nicely.

Again, this is an ongoing series, so I have a lot of plans going forward. I know I never like following a TV show where it seems like the creators don't know the answers to the mysteries they've set up. Trust me when I say that I do know the answers and we will share them as we go along -- so stay tuned. (Or, rather, keep buying those issues each month!)

Coincidentally, this past week I was in Arizona on business and got to hang out with an old friend and a Star Wars comics alum, Michael Stackpole, of the X-Wing Rogue Squadron series and a lot more.

Now, it's not actually true that all the writers hang out together -- at least, not for me, since I live alone out on the tundra. I have actually known Mike since long before the comics: Since 1995, he's written a column about the game industry for one of the magazines I manage in my day job, Comics & Games Retailer. His advice as I've done more and more fiction (comics and otherwise) has been invaluable. It was great to talk comics, Star Wars, and general Arizona trivia with him -- it being my first time in the state.

He's got a new book out, too -- The Secret Atlas -- which you should definitely check out. I'll be reading it myself -- when and if my luggage ever shows up!

More later...