How did you become involved in STAR WARS #108? How did you feel when you knew you had it?

I had been writing X-Men for a bit when then X-Men editor Mark Paniccia moved to take over the Star Wars line. Mark is a great editor and even better person, and we kept saying how we should catch up at some point now that we weren't working together. We finally got together for lunch and after a bit I started really bombarding him with Star Wars questions. It maybe wasn't the best form on my part, but it sort of worked.

How so?

After a couple days he shot me a note asking if I liked the classic Marvel Star Wars books and I told him that I loved them and even had a complete run of the series in single issues. A couple days later he asked if I wanted to do this story that continued the original run and I could not have said "yes" faster. After I sent that email that I needed to sit quietly for a bit. It's not every day that you get asked to continue telling one of your favorite stories of all-time.

Now, how would you characterize that classic era of Marvel's 1970s-'80s Star Wars comics?

They're really wild in a very unique way. They are very much Star Wars, but somehow different. At their core they are great pulp, sci-fi adventure stories. I think they owe a lot to the old adventure comics in the same way that the movies owe a lot to the film serials. But as the Star Wars universe progressed with more films, the comics were clearly forging their own path often. It makes for a very fun sort of "alternate history of Star Wars" feel. Plus the talent on these books, both in terms of art and writing, is unquestionable. There are so many legends working on those issues that they can't help but be great comics.