Some assorted musings on #DarkHorseComics' 2015 #StarWars #DarkTimes series, written by Randy Stradley -- and in particular how it relates to George Lucas' 1974 rough draft and the #SecretLibraryArchiveProject.

The main character in Dark Times is ex-Jedi Dass Jennir: an albino-pale sort of fellow who occasionally gets beat up a lot. Like here, where he ends up shirtless afterward.

Dass Jennir's love interest is Ember Chankeli, a fiery redhead who also gets walloped sometimes. Note that her red hair & white dress are based on Princess Leia in the 1974 #StarWars rough draft.

Notice Ember's injuries match Jennir's? Match them EXACTLY - ie, imagine her topless with a fully swollen-shut eye - and you have Leia's appearance after she's gang-raped by a group of green-skinned fish-aliens in #SecretLibraryArchiveProject adaptations of the 1974 rough draft.

To further the reference, when Dass Jennir got worked over, the people who did it tossed him in the river afterwards, expecting him to be eaten by fish.

The brawl in question was sparked by slavers infiltrating a brothel -- a surprisingly adult subject for mainstream #StarWars, but par for the course with #SecretLibraryArchiveProject films.

Note the woman in the blue beaded wig in the right panel: it's based on a wig Leia wears in some SLAP adaptations of the 1974 rough draft.

Also also: there's an occasional villain running around, named Sahdett: a green bug-eyed monster who resembles the green-skinned fish-men aliens of the 1974 rough draft.

He shares a name with Sadeet, the scaly green Trandoshan from the Dark Empire comics, The origin of the name almost certainly derives from SLAP SW films.

Speaking of things likely derived from a common source in SLAP SW films: when he's not shirtless, Dass Jennir dresses like Kyle Katarn. Especially with that on-again, off-again beard.

Also note the GFFA version of a Japanese fisherman's hat. A very George Lucas costume choice.

At one point Ember is captured by a gang of slavers, along with a woman named Maddie -- based on the slave bought & freed by the Princess Yuki in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, one of the 1974 rough draft's major inspirations.

It turns out the heroes are being followed by this ominous-looking -- but ultimately not evil -- Man in Black. He resembles Prince Valorum in the 1974 rough draft, but with the obvious difference that he's not a man of color.

In fact that's true of both this guy -- bounty hunter Falco Sang -- and Jennir. Falco Sang looks rather like dark-haired Annikin Starkiller, protagonist of the 1974 rough draft, while albino-ish Dass Jennir is the inverse of Prince Valorum.

(Jennir does, though, resemble Luke's albino children from some #SecretLibraryArchiveProject SW sequel films.)

Small correction: #DarkTimes was actually published between 2006-2011.

Another bit of interesting info: before the destruction of the Jedi Order, Dass Jennir worked with a group of dinosaur-like aliens called the Nosaurians. A nod to the "dinosaur" items found in the time-capsule vaults of the #SecretLibraryArchiveProject.

When Ember is captured by slavers, Jennir tries to rescue her, but is thwarted when she falls over the side of a skiff barge, leaving her hanging upside-down in midair -- the way Princess Leia is when the heroes break into her cell in the August 1975 third draft.

Falco Sang captures Ember, and ties her to a stake as bait for Dass Jennir, so it resembles the sort of pyre used to burn a witch. A nod to how the climax of many #SecretLibraryArchiveProject SW films based on the 1975 third draft feature Leia falling into a volcano.

Also, how did Falco know Ember was significant to Dass Jennir? He recognized her shoe prints.

This is based on a scene in #SecretLibraryArchiveProject adaptations of the 1974 rough draft, where Princess Leia's overly-fine shoes betray her disguise as a peasant girl, so she has to take them off and go barefoot.

Other things based on Leia's torture by Imperials in the 1974 rough draft: at one point in the previous arc, Ember is tied up on her tiptoes -- and we see this citizen of planet Telerath being flogged. Both are details based on what happens to Leia in SLAP 1974-draft adaptations.

Note the framing of the panels in image 2: straight out of the final duel in Kurosawa's SANJURO.

Plus, look at those non-laser swords! A nod to some SLAP adaptations of pre-1974 #StarWars works, in which the concept of lightsabers wasn't fully fleshed out.

Also also: I should mention that JW Rinzler's 2013-4 comic book adaptation of the 1974 #StarWars rough draft likewise makes Annikin & Valorum whiter than they properly should be.