Dark Legends: Interview with George Mann

Myths & Fables opened the door to never heard before stories that have tumbled down the ages—immortalized by the words of author George Mann and the artwork of Grant Griffin. After the success of this legendary collection, more tales have been captured in Dark Legends—this time strongly infused with dark side energy, influenced by the darkest Grimms’ Fairy Tales and set in a galaxy far, far away.

“I loved writing Myths & Fables, but the highlight for me was definitely those darker stories … Gaze of Stone, The Witch and the Wookie … they seemed to get a great response from readers as well. I had roughly 30 ideas for the stories when we first started. When I got to talking with Michael Siglain of Lucasfilm about doing a follow up—I mean, to be honest, we didn’t really stop because we had such fun doing those stories in Myths & Fables—he just said ‘How about we do a Halloween book? We can take some of those story ideas that you have and then add a whole bunch of new ones and do a spooky book.’ So that’s kind of how it happened,” Mann shared in an interview with TatooineTimes.com.

Just like in Myths & Fables, Mann and Griffin were allowed to be flexible with the way they represented the Star Wars universe with Dark Legends. The collaborative process between the author and the artist—with a few notes and suggestions from Lucasfilm—was a creative loop, beginning with captual story outlines and ending with sketches feeding back into the story development.

“There’s a particular trick to writing the story in [a folklorish] way … you’re not giving sweeping details and descriptions because that makes it too real. They’re meant to have this fable-like quality of stories that have tumbled down the ages and maybe some of the specifics are lost,” Mann said. “In The Orphanage, we never say it’s the Grand Inquisitor. Grant shows you that it’s the Grand Inquisitor. Also, as a Star Wars fan you can read the story as the legend, and you might have a suspicion about who it is, but the artwork then closes that gap for you as well.”

Mann delves into the first tale of Dark Legends, The Orphanage, shining the light on his main source of inspiration for centering the story around the Grand Inquisitor—the main villain in the first season of Star Wars Rebels. “I’ve been watching Rebels with my son, and it just struck me … he’s got those pointy teeth, he’s got that kind of tall, willowy figure, and I just said to Mike [Siglain] ‘It might be a bit mad, but what about the Grand Inquisitor as Nosferatu? Backlit in front of the window, picking up that classic scene,’ and Mike was like ‘Yes, we have to do that!’ It was the first story I wrote, and it set the tone for the whole book.”

Unlike the rest of the stories in Dark Legends, The Orphanage is told from a child’s point of view. “I wanted to have a Jedi survivor and the Grand Inquisitor, but I thought the best way to get that fable-like quality was not to tell it from either of their perspectives,” Mann explained. “She’s in an orphanage at the end of the Clone Wars. You have a sense that she’s already had a tragedy. She’s a survivor. It kind of sets the tone for her character,” Mann said.

In the end, The Orphanage is centered around the moral of courage overcoming fear—making it the only one with a sort of happy ending.

“You have failed me for the last time.” The cover of Dark Legends features an all too popular moment in Star Wars history where we see the reflection of a despaired Imperial officer through Darth Vader’s eye lenses moments before he is choked to death by the Sith Lord. The Predecessor tells the story of the psychological impact that someone as ferociously evil as Darth Vader can have.

“His presence is almost trivialized in the films, books, and comics where Vader chokes an Imperial officer and immediately someone else steps up into his place. I thought, ‘How does the guy that has to step into the shoes of the man who’s just been choked to death in front of him feel? What is the psychological impact?’ That’s why I kind of went down the psychological ghost story,” Mann said. “Obviously it kind of becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because he unravels so much that he ends up getting choked to death by Vader, but it wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t happened to his boss.”

Myths & Fables introduced the readers to one of the most fascinating and cunning Sith Lords of all time: Darth Caldoth. “I couldn’t help feeling that, after Gaze of Stone, there was more of Darth Caldoth’s story to tell. I was keen to cement his place in Star Wars history! My friend Cavan Scott even put a reference of Darth Caldoth in Dooku: Jedi Lost, which gave additional validity to the character,” Mann said.

Mann brought back his original character in Dark Legends to give a broader perspective about his life. In The Gilded Cage, Caldoth’s infallibility and mastery in deception are again tested, this time facing off against none other than the Nightsisters. The beautiful tale leaves the reader with a desire for more stories starring the cunning Sith Lord. “I’d love to write a novel about him. I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, but that would be a real dream,” Mann admitted.

Star Wars Dark Legends will soon be released to a galaxy near you, so make sure you pre-order a copy today! Don’t forget to visit George Mann’s social media pages on Twitter and Instagram.