Monday - Strip 11 - We're inside Home base now, which we saw the exterior of last week. Home actually has some pretty old backstory. It's the roving headquarters of Reekeene's Roughnecks, a group of Rebel "Irregulars" that fought against the Empire during the war.

The folks seated at the table with dialogue are General Lens Reekeene, Rebel Agent Tiree, his droid R2-DO, and Lt. Am Serro. The original source that first described Lens Reekeene mentioned she resembled someone who would run a corner store more than a military leader, so it's a bit of a personal decision to illustrate her like someone I knew who ran a corner store many, many years ago.

The other people at the table are Santhou Lazith'chika and Mikka Reekene. They're established in the same source (The Star Wars Campaign Pack) as the rest of these surroundings.

The conversation is about Tiree's mission from last week that we only caught the tail end of... before a Star Destroyer went and spoiled the game. But now we know who Tiree was going to go meet and what became of them.

Tuesday - Strip 12 The expositional dialogue just keeps piling on! Necessary evil, folks. We gotta get this story moving along...

There may be an anachronistic artistic choice here -- Reekeene wears the Rebel officer uniform as seen in Episode IV. Serro wears one as seen in Episode VI. But other sources have had the VI-style show up this early in the timeline, so why not?

And where are we in the timeline? I'll get to that a little later...

Wednesday - Strip 13 - Reekeene's line "carrying out missions across the Empire" is a purposeful addition. The original Campaign Pack described her activities as being contained to the Fakir Sector, but that would limit some storytelling options in the future, so this line of dialogue gives her a little more territory in which to operate.

Thursday - Strip 14 - The four recruits on the datapad pretty much telegraph where this story is gonna go next. Like I said before, it's an origin story, so there's certain ground that has be tread. I just hope I can keep it lively without falling into the pitfalls of an origin story.

I won't translate the Aurebesh.

General Reekeene's line about 21 missions is from an old piece of Star Wars lore first published in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook. Rebel intel field agents are typically retired after 20 missions, because at that point, they've lived through a 23 percent chance of survival. That earns the retiree the nickname of a 23er. Given that we know Tiree will go on to carry out other missions, he clearly avoids being put behind a desk.

Of course, there's a question that this raises. If what Reekeene is sending Tiree on is his 21st mission, then what does it matter if it's not documented? He's already past the limit. Well, if that's his 21st, than his 20th was the botched rendezvous interrupted by Barezz. That mission was never completed... so maybe it wasn't cataloged by Reekeene either...

Either way, this explains the dots on Tiree's helmet. He was keeping track. Given the grin on his face in panel #3, he's in no rush to retire.

Also, I won't spoil the fun of any Illuminati conspiracy theorists who may have noted that the oblique mention of a 23er occured on the 23rd of the month by saying it was only coincidence... even though it only was.

Friday - Strip 15 Change of venue! And cast! Granted, we're still sitting around a table, but hey, at least it's a card game going on.

Meet Raal Yorta. You'll get to know him. He's a scoundrel. Card-player. You'll like him.

As for the other odd characters around the table, you'll get to see more of them next week. But I have become oddly enamored with that Swokes Swokes. Sometimes, certain characters are just fun to draw.

Now, let's dig into the ol' Rookies mailbag, shall we? Or rather, the comments from last week...

Tay Vanis and more Marvel to come! That's too cool for words! Will you be using Vanis' name in the strip? I don't think most people know the Tiree/Vanis connection yet.

Probably not, if only because it's a confusing piece of history that's hard to naturally bring up in the story without burdening readers with another name to keep track of. But I should explain the Tiree/Tay Vanis connection to those who aren't aware of the backstory...

Tay Vanis is a Rebel spy from the Marvel comics series. He plays an important role in the capture of the second Death Star plans.

In 1987, West End Games introduced the character of Tiree, a Rebel spy. Not much info was given about him, but it was obvious that this Agent Tiree was not supposed to be the Y-wing pilot named Tiree who gets blown up during the Battle of Yavin. Why? Well, because WEG's Tiree is alive and kicking while the Episode IV Tiree is only so much space dust nowadays.

So, fans speculated that Tiree was a code-name or a nickname. I imagined that it would be cool if it turned out that Agent Tiree's real name was actually Tay Vanis. Thanks to some like-minded fans, that became a reality in Rich Handley and Joe Bongiorno's article about Marvel aliens in Star Wars Gamer #1. Tay Vanis and Tiree are indeed one in the same.

As it's not really integral to this story that Tiree be identified as Tay Vanis, it's probably not going to come out in the text.

Pablo, seeing Santhu was awesome! I am assuming thats who is in the "jedi" robes. So I suppose that girl in the begining is one of the aforementioned rookies? Anyway, cant wait for more strips to come out!

Yep, the robes were deliberately Jedi-like, but not necessarily Jedi (anyone in a robe these days can pass for one... Santhou is there just as background for now.

And yes, the path of the fugitive girl from week one will cross with the plot to find our four rookies.

It wouldn't be me if I didn't ask a chronology question, but when approximately should I place this strip on the timeline??

The year is definitely the same year as the Battle of Yavin. I'm just not certain if it's just before or just after yet. By the time I script the third arc, I should know for sure.

That's it for this week. See you in seven!*

* actually, scratch that. I won't be online next Friday. So, more like, see you in 10.

ph