This March, Dark Horse Comics and Putnam Publishing proudly present the first of a planned trilogy of Star Wars graphic story albums, Star Wars: Dark Forces -- Soldier for the Empire. Like Dark Horse's first graphic story album, Aliens: Tribes, this novella-length prose story (by William C. Dietz, author of The Final Battle) is accentuated by 25 full-page, painted illustrations (by Tarzan: The Lost Adventure cover artist, Dean Williams).

The story involves a character named Kyle Katarn, a decorated graduate from the Imperial Military Academy. Like any Academy graduate, Katarn would have given his life for the Empire. But when they killed his father, they lost his dedication, and Katarn is willing to do anything to exact his revenge -- including risking his life to steal classified information. The Empire's deadly loss becomes the Rebels' gain!

"Soldier for the Empire has everything going for it. The story's terrific, the artwork fantastic, and it contains characters from the LucasArts computer game Star Wars: Dark Forces," said Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson. "This book should pave the way for a line of graphic story albums from Dark Horse, including a series based on, The X-Files. The hope is that this unique format will bring new readers to the comics market."

Star Wars: Dark Forces -- Soldier for the Empire is a deluxe, full-color, 128-page hardcover graphic-story album. It ships March 7, and retails for $24.95.