#* I OWE HIM A LOT ( OF MONEY ) / KRRSANTAN.

[cantsayidont]

March 2021. For a long time, I was very reluctant to investigate the DOCTOR APHRA series, put off by the overly cutesy covers and the grim mediocrity of most post-1986 SW comics, but I eventually got some of the trades from the library and was pleasantly surprised.

The titular Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is an archaeologist (she does actually have a doctorate, even though she did end up blackmailing her thesis advisor to get it), treasure hunter, thief finder of rare antiquities, con artist, and all-around ne'er-do-well who thinks principles are for suckers. Naturally, she gets herself into a lot of trouble (including owing large amounts of money to many very dangerous people, like her sometimes-ally, the Wookiee mercenary Black Krrsantan), and many of her adventures revolve around her trying to get out from under the aftermath of her previous capers.

Aphra is also a lesbian, and kind of a fuckboy, leaving an ever-growing trail of embittered ex-girlfriends who aren't sure if they want to kiss her or shoot her. Much of her initial ongoing series deals with her on-again, off-again relationship with Magna Tolvan (the white cyborg lady pictured behind her above), an Imperial officer who eventually joins the Rebellion after Aphra ruins her career. Given the usual trajectory of online fandom, which is very eager to impute gayness to the most drearily hetero of media, I hadn't expected Aphra being gay to be more than a vague implication in the actual comics, but she does actually canonically sleep with women. Who'dathunkit?

Aphra's early appearances in Kieron Gillen's wretched DARTH VADER comic and the lackluster Jason Aaron STAR WARS book present her as pretty overtly villainous. When she got her own book, Gillen apparently decided that wasn't viable, so in her own series, Aphra acquires a bit of a conscience — never enough to keep her out of trouble, of course, but enough to distinguish her from her meaner allies, like Triple Zero (a protocol droid with the personality of a gleefully polite serial killer) and BT-1 (an astromech who's basically R2-D2 if somebody let him have way too many grenades). The latter part of her first ongoing, written by Si Spurrier after Gillen's departure, eventually threatens to soften her a little too much, but the current ongoing, written by Alyssa Wong, seems to have found a better balance in that regard. On the other hand, I find the current book a bit too episodic — it's more accessible, but a lot of what makes Aphra delightful is her increasingly frantic scramble to escape the accumulating consequences of her many, many terrible decisions.

The massive (1,200+ page) Omnibus pictured above compiles all of Aphra's early appearances and the complete run of her initial ongoing title in chronological order. While her early adventures are important insofar as they introduce Aphra and some of her major supporting characters, they aren't as much fun as her first ongoing series, so you could just as well start there. There's also an audio dramatization of Aphra's early adventures, adapted by Sarah Kuhn and featuring Emily Woo Zeller as Aphra. The dramatization is okay and Zeller is great, although Marc Thompson's Vader is completely unconvincing and a bit of a drag on the proceedings.

[archaeotech3]

So the new script version of the Aphra audiodrama includes a list of the cast introduced in Aphra’s voice. I just have to share. 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

DOCTOR CHELLI LONA APHRA: Rogue archaeologist. Weapons and droid expert extraordinaire. Our intrepid heroine.

DARTH VADER: Infamous Sith Lord. Man of few words. Our intrepid heroine’s terrifying boss.

TRIPLE-ZERO: Protocol droid. Favorite hobbies include translation, holo-chess, and draining organics of all their blood.

BEETEE: Blastomech droid. Has a flamethrower.

SANA STARROS: Smuggler. Unfortunate dreamboat. Working with the rebels for some godsforsaken reason.

BLACK KRRSANTAN: Disgraced Wookiee. Fearsome bounty hunter. Do not challenge him to a pit fight.

PADMÉ AMIDALA: The “good” former queen and senator of Naboo.

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA: Rebel royalty. Has a mean left hook.

LUKE SKYWALKER: Yellow-haired rebel humanoid who is supposedly important for some reason?

HAN SOLO: Reformed scoundrel. Always claims to save the day. Actually useless.

CHEWBACCA: Han Solo’s very loud Wookiee sidekick. No match for Black Krrsantan.

C-3PO: Simpering Triple-Zero doppelgänger.

R2-D2: Foolhardy Beetee doppelgänger.

EMPEROR PALPATINE: Our intrepid heroine’s boss’s boss.

BOBA FETT: Bounty hunter. Inspires fear in the hearts of all ( except for our intrepid heroine ).

MAZ KANATA: Badass pirate queen. Incredibly sore loser.

KORIN APHRA: Our intrepid heroine’s father. Obsessed with excruciatingly boring Jedi stuff.

LONA APHRA: Our intrepid heroine’s mother. Obsessed with excruciatingly boring planets.

THE ANTE: Information broker. Sometimes useful. Not to be trusted.

IG-90: Bounty hunter. Overly pedantic assassin droid. Likes to shoot things.

BOSSK: Bounty hunter. Wookiee-killing machine. Does not understand the concept of jokes.

BEEBOX: Bounty hunter. Very short, but carries a big gun.

UTANI XANE: Curator of Quarantine World III. Loves bureaucracy and crushing dreams.

SAVA TOOB-NIX: Sava of the University of Bar’leth. Hates when his lectures are interrupted (especially by our intrepid heroine).

COMMODEX TAHN: Former mortician of Naboo. All-around bad liar.

ENEB RAY: Former rebel spy. Loves to monologue.

GEONOSIAN QUEEN: Really scary. No other descriptors necessary.

[comicstache]

Doctor Aphra 5

WE left Aphra and her crew having just discovered the Citadel of Rur. We know that there is a crossover event coming up with the Star Wars series called the Screaming Citadel arc and I’m wondering if this is moving us into that.

Still being pursued by the over poetic Captain, Aphra and her father begin exploring the Citadel and are surprised by what they find. Orthodox Jedi, in contrast to the Urdu Aspectu Force Users which they would have identified by symbology. Her father is upset because he sees these Jedi were killed and not given traditional Jedi cremation. While lamenting that death for Jedi, he exclaims when he sees Aphra begin collecting lightsabers and other artifacts. She reminds him that she has debts and wants to get paid.

The relationship between them rings so true as an estranged father and daughter. The way they push back. He in a more self-righteous way and her in the passive aggressive or sarcastic. She also mentions that she is keep Black Krrsantan around not just because she owes him money, but she as also promised to help him find his former captors making me think that may be where the next arc goes after Screaming Citadel.

As they open the big door and walk through, we see a very imaginative room. Ice bridges and energy shields leading right into space. It’s really a cool idea and I love how it worked. As they try to find the core computer they are beset by Imperials who catch up to them and begin firing, mostly on Black Krrsantan, he gets away and starts making his way to the Arc Angel where Triple Zero and Bee-Tee have killed a few Stormtroopers and are cleaning up their mess.

Aphra and her father get pinned down on the other side of the room and as the Imperials rush to get them, Aphra shoots the control for the shield and we see them get dropped right into space. Some of the troopers any ways.

This is also when we find out that Krrsantan and the droids have left the Aphras on their own. Aphra then unintelligently insults the wookiee she owes money too. Not a smart idea, but it seems she gets away with it. Then they go into the green room.

The Aphras then descend into the core and it’s completely green with bodies lying around. THat’s when they discover the body of Immortal Rur, or so they think. They then begin to have a conversation that is very dense and has a lot of exposition and character development. In it, Father Aphra explains that he has spent all this time obsessed with the Ordu because he thought that they would be able to help make the galaxy safe, i assume, from the Empire. He also explains that that is why he divorced her mother is because she just wanted to disappear onto a farm and not worry about it.

Aphra makes it clear she wasn’t really on anyone’s side and just is a contrarian to both of them. However, when her father begins to tell her how she can get her doctorate reinstated, the main reason she is even still with him, she stops him. She then claims that without him holding that information over her head, she might be inclined to hurt him, reminding him that he still doesn’t know just how far she has fallen ethically. Of course this is what I love about Aphra. She’s a great anti-hero. And also has a great sense of humor getting in a number of funny lines throughout the issue.

The issue ends with them reactivating the computer core to find that the ETERNAL RUR comes back to life and begins to inhabit a decrepit but still dangerous looking robot. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but the tease page for the next issue shows a lightsaber, so I’m down.

This was a good issue. Lots of action and an imaginative setting coupled with lots of good character exposition and Aphra’s signature wit made this a fun one. It felt a little like trying to get to the next thing, but I know it’ll be moving in an interesting direction.

8/10

[liambaileyjournalism]

“You’re Black Krrsantan. The infamous Wookiee bounty hunter. I’ve heard of you. I know why you were forced to leave Kashyyyk. And how you’ve disgraced your people ever since. Jabba hired you, didn’t he?“―Obi-Wan Kenobi to Black Krrsantan

Black Krrsantan, also known as “Santy”, was a male Wookiee bounty hunter during the Galactic Civil War. He was a regular bounty hunter for the crime lord Jabba the Hutt and was hired by Darth Vader to track down and capture an agent of the Emperor. (Biography below has been provided by Wookieepedia)

The Bounty Hunter first appeared in issue 1 of the Darth Vader comic book series and has since featured frequently in the series as well as the Doctor Aphra series. During the Vader comics Black Krrsantan and Doctor Aphra ended up working to together which resulted in Aphra owing the Wookiee a lot of money, this resulted in him joining her crew, unofficially.

Early in his life, Black Krrsantan was forced to flee Kashyyyk when he disgraced his people. He then entered into a program under the Xonti Brothers with four other aliens, a Talz, a Herglic, a Gamorrean and a Dowutin. He soon realised he chose wrong when they trained him and the other four against their will to be gladiators. They were pushed and pushed and the Xonti Brothers started picking them off. The Talz fell first to a Sarlacc. Then the Gamorrean was killed by a large monster. The Herglic fell after to a swarm of robotic insects. This left Black Krrsanton and the Dowutin. The Xonti Brothers altered the Wookiee’s knuckles by filling them with metal to make them better when punching. Black Krrsantan tested it on the Dowutin and knocked it unconscious in one punch. He was then auctioned to the highest bidder. Sometime later, he became a bounty hunter for the crime lord Jabba the Hutt who resided on the desert planet Tatooine.

In 10 BBY, Krrsantan was hired by Jabba to track down the man who stopped his water tax. He went to the location of the attack in the Dune Sea with Pagetti Rook and a Klatooinian guard. Krrsantan went to the moisture farm nearby and took Owen Lars hostage. Krrsantan then made Lars scream. He then saw the man, “Ben” Kenobi appear behind him. He was given a chance to leave by Kenobi. Krrsantan fought Kenobi, choking him and trapping him with a Stun net. Lars fought back against Krrsantan but was easily knocked aside. Kenobi used the Force to cause rocks to hit Krrsantan and save Lars from falling. He then tried to kill Kenobi with a rock. Krrsantan was briefly blinded and scarred by Kenobi’s lightsaber. He tried to shoot Kenobi with his Electrified net gun, but it was destroyed. Krrsantan then punched and tried to kill Kenobi, as Kenobi attempted to rescue Lars. He continued trying to kill him with his bowcaster until he fell off the side of a cliff. Krrsantan then fled Tatooine, knowing that Jabba would be incensed at his failure.

Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Darth Vader travelled to Tatooine on a mission to negotiate on behalf of the Galactic Empire for supplies with Jabba. Vader also used the opportunity to take on a personal mission, and he requested two bounty hunters from Jabba. The Hutt provided his two best bounty hunters, Krrsantan and Boba Fett. While Fett was to track down Luke Skywalker, the Rebel who destroyed the Death Star and who was secretly Vader’s son, Krrsantan was hired to find and capture an agent of the Emperor. Vader wanted this agent, whose identity and purpose Darth Sidious did not reveal to the Dark Lord, in order to find out why he was working for the Emperor.

Krrsantan successfully tracked down Cylo and discovered that he was moving illegal alien parts to a secret base in the Outer Rim. The agent discovered Krrsantan was following him before he could find out where the base was or what he was doing for the Emperor. Krrsantan captured the agent and brought him to Vader aboard his Nubian starship, where he witnessed the agent, whose name was Cylo-IV, being killed by Vader’s new torture droid, 0-0-0, but not before providing the information Krrsantan had previously failed to acquire.

Sometime after his contract for Vader expired, Krrsantan was summoned along with fellow bounty hunters Bossk, IG-90 and Beebox to a cantina on Son-tuul where, as he waited for his fellows, Krrsantan entered the cantina’s fighting pits, where captured Wookiees fought each other for the entertainment of the customers. Krrsantan strangled a fighter and took his place to become a contestant, becoming one of the only Wookiees to enter the pits willingly. The Wookiee bounty hunter won the fight by beating his opponent to death.

After the fight, Krrsantan joined Beebox, Bossk and IG-90 in the cantina where they were approached by rogue archaeologist Aphra, who had issued the summons. She told the assembled bounty hunters about her plans for a heist: the Empire had just broken the criminal element known as the Son-tuul Pride, which dominated Son-tuul’s underworld. The fortune they had hoarded was in transit to the Imperial vaults. Aphra told the bounty hunters that she had inside information which would allow them to locate the transport, circumvent the guards and get away and that she was offering them apart in exchange for their services.

Krrstan then piloted his ship during Aphra’s robbery near Anthan Prime. There, Krrstan was able to use an asteroid to penetrate the Arquitens-class light cruiser’s hull. He and the others gathered what remained of the credits aboard the cruiser. He and Aphra used the ship to collect the credits floating in space. He went with Aphra to Anthan 13 where they met with Lord Vader for information on the people who cut him up.

Krrsantan then went to Vrogas Vas, where he attacked the Millennium Falcon. He then went to confront Han Solo and Skywalker. However, then got into a fight with Chewbacca. During the fight, Krrsantan tossed Chewbacca at Solo. He was then shot with a needle by R2-D2 and knocked down by Chewbacca. However, Krrsantan was able to knock Chewbacca out with brass knuckles. He then confronted Solo. After defeating Chewbacca, Krrsantan then grabbed Solo. However, C-3PO told him to stop his fighting. Krrsantan then knocked both himself and 3PO out.

Krrsantan survived the battle. He and several other bounty hunters were secretly hired by Vader to find Aphra; dead or alive. He then met up with Vader on Anthan 13 with a squad of commando droids. Krrsantan, along with 0-0-0 and BT-1 then went to Cosmatanic Steppes to retrieve Aphra. He then took her to Lord Vader’s new flagship, the Executor. He then fought alongside Aphra and her droids against Cylo’s forces. Krrsantan stayed with Aphra because she owed him money.

After Vader retook the Executor and jettisoned Aphra into space, Krrsantan then rescued her from the vacuum of space.

Thank you for reading and may the force be with you!

Comic Book Insights – Black Krrsantan "You're Black Krrsantan. The infamous Wookiee bounty hunter. I've heard of you. I know why you were forced to leave Kashyyyk.

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: Kieron Gillen Returns to Star Wars with ‘Ethically Broken’ Doctor Aphra

One of the intriguing elements of the Star Wars Universe is its rich history both in terms of the time period of what’s been seen on screen, and the ancient periods of history that span thousands of years before the films and television shows. Games and comic books have mined that time period for stories in the past, but now there’s a Marvel Comics series about a character who mines that time period for her wallet.

Of course, that would be “Doctor Aphra,” the new ongoing series by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Kev Walker, which started with two issues last month. The book starring the titular ethically challenged archeologist who made her debut in the Gillen-written “Darth Vader” series.

In December’s “Doctor Aphra” #1, Gillen reintroduced readers to Aphra’s crew: the homicidal droids Triple Zero and Bee Tee; the Wookiee bounty hunter she owes a huge monetary debt to, Black Krrsantan; as well as a surprise character from her past. CBR spoke with Gillen about Aphra, her relationships with these characters, the initial archeological adventure they’ll embark on and the ancient mystery that will drive much of the book’s action.

CBR: How does it feel to have the debut issue of a Star Wars title featuring characters you created out in the world? It looks like the opening scene of “Doctor Aphra” #1 is very much a twisted homage to a Lucasfilm character and movie that inspired her creation: Indiana Jones and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Kieron Gillen: I’ve been working on this since before the end of “Darth Vader.” So finally having it out there is just fun.

The thing about the “Aphra” book is it’s quite confident. You get the big hook at the end of what the story is going to be about and we build. So for me it was like, “Let me introduce these characters. I know most of you may have met them through ‘Darth Vader,’ but here they are. This is Doctor Aphra.” Then we figured out a way to best delineate Doctor Aphra.

We did that with, as you pointed out, the sort of homage to Indiana Jones. There’s the quiet presumption in that scene that she’s the one in the mask, but it turns out no! She’s Belloq! [Laughs] There’s a part of me that wanted to run that for like 15 pages and have these incredible action sequences with this random person that just gets killed at the end.

That speaks to the black comedy of the book. It’s darkly funny, but this isn’t a gray character. She’s the most ethically troubled Star Wars lead apart from Darth Vader.

The cast of the book are really bad people, but they are fun people to be around. [Laughs] We know Aphra is awful, but the question is how awful? That’s one of the things we’ll look at in the book. We’ll examine what she’ll do and what she won’t do. The first thing she won’t do happens in the second issue. There’s a sense from her of, “No! That’s too bad even for me!” Plus, she occasionally does good things. And, due to the seedy corner of the galaxy she operates in, she mostly stabs people who are bad in the back. [Laughs]

There’s a British TV show called “Fleabag.” Aphra is a bit like “Fleabag,” but in the Star Wars Universe. “Fleabag” is about this woman in her 20s who is just this moral monster. The stuff she does is utterly unforgivable, but also very funny to watch. [Laughs]

“Doctor Aphra” #3 cover by Karmome Shirahama.

What’s it like bouncing the Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan off of Doctor Aphra? What made you want to bring him into the book?

Black Krrsantan was a character I wanted to do more with in “Darth Vader.” There wasn’t really a whole lot of room to get into his subplots though because, as the title suggests, it was Darth Vader’s book. Towards the end of “Vader” there was a shootout with Doctor Cylo’s troops involving Black Krrsantan and Aphra where she goes, “Wait! Why are you with me?”

I’m pretty sure the readers wouldn’t have questioned it, but Black Krrsantan had no explained motivation to help her. So the writer part of my brain went, “I have to stop and explain this. Guys — he’s just here because he wants to be paid.” He wants the money Doctor Aphra owes him and he considers Aphra an investment.

So that’s why she has a relationship with him, but he’s not exactly helpful. They don’t have a Chewbacca and Han-style relationship. A guy who she owes a lot to in both money and personal favors is keeping her alive. She’s like a bank and Aphra is almost too big to fail now for him.

So that was part of it, and we’ll definitely get more with him. He gets to do some really cool action stuff in issue #3. That’s a lot of fun. There’s one panel Kev does which I basically want to marry.

So like Han and Chewie there is a life debt between Aphra and Black Krrsantan it’s just the other way around? It’s something that she owes him and it’s constantly accruing?

Exactly. It’s a complete inversion, and that’s kind of a lot of what we do. We go through the big themes that way and I’m really looking forward into getting into his past and the gladiators that trained him. That will be entertaining when we get there.

EXCLUSIVE: Interior art from “Doctor Aphra” #3 by Kev Walker.

Another fun element of “Doctor Aphra” has got to be the title character’s droids, Triple Zero and Bee Tee.

They are and it’s interesting. In a way the fun has changed because Aphra was basically the comic relief in “Darth Vader.” She was the good guy because as bad as she was, she still wasn’t as bad as Vader.

The second you make her the lead that certainly changes the dynamic. Triple Zero is still really funny in a black comedy way, but he’s clearly a growing problem. [Laughs] And Aphra doesn’t quite realize how big a problem Triple Zero is.

In some ways he’s the ticking time bomb of the comic. In issue #1 he’s already going off and killing people without her permission. That’s not going to end well is it? And as funny as he is, we go pretty dark with him.

Aphra is now our lead and all the people around her who were comic relief when they were in Vader’s book now become more threats. Everything around her becomes rearranged and a little more frightening. Not so much though that they’ll lose their intrinsic humor. They’re just more of a threat now that Vader is not around. Vader is like the absolute zero of threats.

So none of your cast members are really trustworthy individuals. It seems like it’s only a matter of time then until this group self destructs.

Oh yeah. This can’t end well. [Laughs] The way I put it in the pitch was that from Aphra’s point of view with Darth Vader she had a tiger by the tail. How can I let go of this tiger and survive? I don’t think Aphra realizes how many tigers she was holding by the tail. In some ways as our story proceeds there is a lot of that, and events following naturally from the interplay of this cast’s poor decision-making skills.

I suddenly find myself thinking that you could do an Aphra playset for the excellent freeform RPG “Fiasco,” and it’d work very well. I digress.

EXCLUSIVE: Interior art from “Doctor Aphra” #3 by Kev Walker.

Another interesting development in “Doctor Aphra” #1 was that on the final page we got to meet the title character’s father, and it looks like he’s part of a religious order.

Yes! We talked a bit about Aphra’s mother and father in the original “Darth Vader.” So there is a background there and I knew if I was to a do story about Aphra’s past, I would have to bring her surviving parent in.

I had the idea that her mother and father were both idealistic in completely different ways. So very, very rapidly we get her father’s interests in an ancient Jedi splinter group called The Ordu Aspectu. He’s basically blackmailing Aphra to help him out. While we’ll see it’s not like that, the obvious comparison is an ethically broken “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” [Laughs]

The stuff with Aphra and her father is great and really meaty. They’re people who obviously have kind of a strange relationship. By the end of the arc you kind of know Aphra a lot better, which is the main reason I wanted to do the book.

What else can you tell us about the mission Aphra and her father embark on in this first arc? Will you be visiting some familiar Star Wars locales?

In our first arc there are no familiar Star Wars characters from the movies. Part of that was because we wanted to define the book by itself, but at the same time we did want to touch on a few interesting locales. There was one big iconic locale I wanted to use in particular. So you’ll get some great action set pieces at a place you know, but you don’t know like this. That’s part of the fun of it.

The book’s fundamental Indiana Jones quality come from the fact that it’s about an archeologist in the Star Wars universe. The thing about the Star Wars universe is it’s really, really old. That’s kind of the thrill of it for me — taking a Star Wars thing and doing something you have not seen before with it.

Right, some of the ancient elements of the Star Wars universe were explored in stories that are no longer considered canon, but you can bring back some of those elements, correct?

What I’ve been told about the previous stuff is that it doesn’t exist until you bring it back in. There is one thing in this story that is based on a very obscure bit of Legends material that I suspect people won’t spot. It’s so obscure that even long term Star Wars fans might not spot it and even then they probably won’t notice it until the end, because it’s a complete reimagining of a concept. I mean, to stress, it’s so obscure that I 100 percent don’t expect people to get what I’m building on. It’s just a good idea we’re giving a 21st century spin on. I expect readers to experience it just as this excellent thing that happens.

A possible comparison to what we’re doing with past canon is what Marvel did with its Ultimate Universe. All the toys are there, but they don’t really exist until we reintroduce them. And when we reintroduce them we can do that in a way that makes it all kind of fit together.

That’s very much how I look at it. It’s, “What cool stuff can we give a new spin too?”

EXCLUSIVE: Interior art from “Doctor Aphra” #3 by Kev Walker.

What kinds of obstacles and adversaries will Aphra and her father run afoul of in this initial story?

Well, Imperials to start! [Laughs] There are a number of Imperials in the story including an officer I introduce named Captain Tolvan, and she’s great. I like her a lot. She’s like the complete opposite of Aphra. She’s clipped and very collected. She’s also very angry all the time. For those who read “Journey Into Mystery,” she’s Leah to Aphra’s Loki, but actually antagonistic.

Then one of the other threats stems from the Indiana Jones-style archeological adventures. So there’s weird stuff from the ancient past. It’s not Sith stuff, though. The Jedi history is very long. So this is a completely different Jedi splinter group.

I’ve gone through all of “The History of Rome” podcast as part of the research for my new “The Wicked + The Divine” special. Part of that is all the Christian heresies and the different groups. What I’m doing with the Ordu Aspectu is kind of like that. In terms of this is a really ancient Jedi splinter group, which had a very specific reading of the Force. We kind of get into that. It’s also partly that they don’t really know who the Ordu Aspectu were because it was so long ago.

We flash back to their time long, long ago and what I’m trying to get to is what happened to the Ordu Aspectu is as mythical to the people of the Star Wars Universe as Star Wars is to us.

Are they sort of comparable to the Night Sisters of Dathomir?

Good comparison! I was thinking about the Night Sisters really recently, actually. I’d rather people not know exactly what the Ordu are though. That’s why I’m happy the first two issues are coming out so close together; you get a lot about the Ordu Aspectu. Aphra Senior and Aphra Junior have kind of different takes on them. The mystery of what the Ordu are and what they’re trying to do is open all the way through the series.

You’re working with artist Kev Walker on “Doctor Aphra,” who’s always great, and his work here feels like “2000 A.D.” meets the “Star Wars” concept art of Ralph McQuarrie.

Yeah, “Star Wars” is an enormous influence on Kev’s stuff. You get him talking about that you’ll be there all day, and it will be amazing. “Star Wars” and Ralph’s art is one of the reasons why he became an artist.

There’s also a Moebius influence in there, and you definitely get “2000 A.D.” in the velocity. I’m doing an action book, though, so what Kev is doing is a master class in action-science fiction storytelling. Kev is always great, but I think what he’s doing with Star Wars is above and beyond that. As we go through, I leave more space for Kev to do his thing.

Apart from Jaimie [McKelvie] I can’t think of an artist I’ve worked with who we reworked the script to make it work better for them. In terms of, “OK, let’s do the action sequence like this.” Then we’ll move it and certain beats around. I even like the storytelling on the slow bits. The storytelling is just beautiful, clear, funny and human. I couldn’t be happier with this.

EXCLUSIVE: Interior art from “Doctor Aphra” #3 by Kev Walker.

You’re known for telling long-form ongoing stories with a beginning, middle and end. “Darth Vader” was one of those stories — is “Doctor Aphra” one as well?

What attracted me most to this job was I got to define Aphra as a functioning character in the Star Wars Universe. So the first year is one story. That will be about 15 issues, and it’s kind of, “Here’s Aphra, here’s why she’s a great character, and here is how she impacts the Star Wars universe.” It’s a complete story in and of itself.

I’ve got an idea for a second year, which I also know the ending of. So we’ll see. There’s a possibility of 15-30 issues, and then depending on who’s alive at the end I may do even more. I guess a way of looking it as I see each of the “years” as a movie in and of itself. Modular, but building.

Star Wars books are the only new things I’m doing right now that are not creator-owned. That tells you how much fun I’m having. I may not own everything I’m doing right now, but all the books I’m working on feature characters I’ve created, which tells you where my head is at the moment. I went through the renovation phase of my career and now I’m much more into doing things that I’ve built from the ground up.

In some ways, “Aphra” is two-fisted archeological adventures in the Star Wars Universe. We’re having a lot of fun and we’re bringing in so much different stuff. The fact that it’s Star Wars adds a lot. I’m thinking up a lot of stuff, but I’m also part of a story group which means I can go, “Oh I can use this. Something from ‘Rogue One’ might be useful here.” Very small things in the comic tie into “Rogue One,” which means when people come out of the movie and read the comic they can be like, “Oh! I see that this person was in this place.” The thing that I love about this is it’s connected to the brightest thing in pop culture, and it’s just great to be a part of that.

“Doctor Aphra” #3 is scheduled for release from Marvel on Jan. 18.

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