One of the fun things about overseeing Dark Horse’s Star Wars line is being able to include real-life people in guest appearances within the stories. And when you’ve got an artist who’s as good—and as accommodating—as Doug Wheatley, it makes it easy. In the letters column of the next issue of Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness, I give a shout-out to some of our friends and associates who have shown up, but one in particular deserves special mention.
Over a year ago, at the Wine and Roses Benefit for the Athletics department at Portland State University (publisher Mike Richardson’s alma mater), then fourteen-year-old Madison Porter’s grandfather won an auction for her to appear in a Dark Horse comic book. Madison came into the Dark Horse offices for a photo shoot, and went away, probably expecting to appear in something a few months later. But I didn’t want to just stick her in some inconsequential walk-on part, or worse, a crowd scene. I wanted her to feel like she had really been made a part of a story. So Doug and I figured out a way to include her in several issues of the next Dark Times arc. Madison would get a meaningful role that she and her family could be proud of. And that’s when everything changed.
See, I thought I knew exactly how Madison’s part would play out—what her character would do in the story, and how she would depart at the end of the arc. But her very presence in the tale required that other characters interact with her and, to my surprise, Maddie (as she is named in the story) began to affect those characters. Now, thanks to the influence of Madison’s character, the end of the arc has changed, and . . . well, you’ll see.
Even the firmest plans can change unexpectedly, and sometimes in better ways you could never have anticipated. Thanks, Madison!
Randy Stradley
Editor