If you collect Star Wars gaming miniatures, you may have caught Wizards of the Coast's second comic "mash-up" depicted on the interior face of Insider #104's back cover (check out our write-up on the first comic here).
For the third, currently planned for issue #105, The Clone Wars takes center stage, with characters from both the 2D series and the new CG animated series taking aim at each other in a tongue-in-cheek Order "64? 65?" scenerio (scroll to the bottom of the page to check it out). We asked Wizards Art Director Melissa Rapier and Copywriter Kurt Isensee to give us a sneak peek at the new ad soon hitting newstands.
What inspired the brief Clone Wars storyline for your latest comic ad?
This particular expansion presented a new challenge. For the first time during this comic book page campaign we were selling an expansion that didn't include any characters outside of the set's theme. All past sets in this campaign have included characters from all eras. So in order to stay on the message of "With Star Wars Miniatures, Anything's Possible!" we had to find a new tactic. We still had to create impossible scenarios, but we couldn't mix eras.
This time, we focused on powerful characters and how very likely it is that, in the game as opposed to the written Star Wars universe, they'd be taken down by minor characters. In Star Wars movies and books, battles are epic, between the most interesting and powerful individuals. This is not necessarily the case with our game, which can be totally unpredictable. Powerful characters draw a lot of attention and fire. In the game, survivors can easily be the minor characters. They can also be the ultimate demise of the powerful, simply because the powerful have taken a lot of damage prior to their encounter.
Durge seems to be taken out pretty easily -- is there some subtle commentary there?
It's to make the ad humorous and engaging while illustrating a potential game scenario and, of course, the message: "With Star Wars Miniatures, Anything's Possible!". Also, because we love the idea of the little guy taking on and winning a battle with one of The Big Guys.
The original concept sketches seem pretty close to your final art -- were there any changes requested of your story or artwork?
No major changes were made once the direction was approved. We had originally proposed seeing some evidence of a fallen Yoda (to help explain the scenario a little better, but alas, that was too much).
When can we expect to see the next one?
We haven't determined all the specifics yet, but we're definitely looking at unique ways to continue the campaign with Imperial Entanglements, coming in February of 2009.
Perhaps we'll finally see Ozzel get payback on Piett? Stay tuned, and check out Wizards of the Coast's official Star Wars site here and StarWarsShop's selection of Wizards Star Wars gaming miniatures here.
