Originally posted by MadHeretic
It's not even official EU. Its' from "Visionaries" and "infinities" section - which deals with "what if something new/something ele happened" storylines 🙂 Most EU fans treat these are trash, naturally. Only the most dedicated who could buy anything that has to do with Star Wars, are fans of the infinities comics.
On the contrary, I'm a big EU fan, and I love Tales and Infinities simply because they can do things with the stories that wouldn't be possible to do otherwise. For example, there is a story in Tales about Vader fighting a reincarnated Maul to see who is really deserving of being the Emperor's apprentice. Of course that could never actually happen, but it's an interesting premise that easily answers questions that would be debated here otherwise.
http://www.millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3408
The last comic there dealing with Kashyyyk made me wonder something crucial to Star Wars. Why does anyone give a rat's ass about Kashyyyk? Is it going to turn the tide of the Clone Wars? What use is it to Palpatine?
The whole premise of the visionairies book is that they wanted to showcase the work of some of the most skilled concept artists that worked on ROTS. Some of the stories interact with or lead up to events in the movies because these guys came up with these back stories for Lucas when they submitted character designs. Maul as a half cyborg was a concept they were kicking around but ditched. Lucas had asked the art dept. for a cyborg like character to help introduce the same technology that would be used to save Anakin and make Vader. They ended up tossing the cyborg Maul for General Grievous. GG's origin story in the Visionaires book is what the art dept. and Lucas used as his back story when fleshing out the character. This origin was also referenced in the novel Labrynth of Evil. But aside from that story, the rest are essentially what if?'s to show the artists work, not add to star wars as a whole. Enjoy the art, because these are usually the under appreciated and less famous artists. This book is to let them get a bit more in the public eye.