(j) Short story as über-commercialised graphic design:

I cannot quote this story in any useful way, because it is wordless, and because it sits in its own unique place in the vast agglomeration of story and lore and canon that is the Star Wars universe. But after forty-five years and counting, that universe is now so utterly supersaturated into popular culture — is now literally inescapable — that it would be near impossible to find anyone who had so little idea of the storied elements of the Force, the Dark Side, and Darth Vader that they wouldn’t be able to understand and be moved by the vast terror and all-too-briefly grasped relief told in these twenty-four eye-poppingly gorgeous panels.

Honestly, I am fully Star-Wars-ed out. Glutted, satiated, full to puking. I don’t care how good the reviews are for Andor and Ahsoka, I’m done. But I have read this short graphic tale countless times now, and it will not leave me alone, because it’s a horror story, full-bore hellscape horror, with Vader as the demon at its heart, and what the hell is that doing in the Star Wars universe? The fact of it, and the awful meta-irony of the title, never mind the stare-at-it-for-hours monochrome-and-blood-red beauty of the art… it’s unsettling, and disruptive, and did I mention it’s gorgeous to look at? Graphic design as a terrifyingly wordless scream of a short story.

First published in Star Wars: Darth Vader – Black, White & Red #1, Marvel, April 2023