I felt a touch of sorrow as I realized this was the final Star Wars title published under Dark Horse Comics.
The ending was inevitable when Disney announced it was purchasing Star Wars.
A few years earlier Disney had also purchased Marvel Comics, so there was no way Dark Horse was going to be able to keep any of the series.
The collaboration between Dark Horse and Star Wars began around 1990.
It was a dark time for fans of the galaxy far, far away.
George Lucas hadn't touched the series for several years, and for all we knew we weren't getting anything new from Lucas Film ever again.
Most novels, graphic or otherwise, kept story lines within the original series.
Then came The Thrawn Trilogy.
The series written by Timothy Zahn dared to take fanboys and girls into the future of our trio of adventurers.
Suddenly, writers understood they didn't just have to stay in the four year period between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
Dark Horse took this idea and ran with it.
Tales of the Jedi took readers back 5,000 years before Luke Skywalker was born when brave adventurers were still mapping the hyperspace lanes that Han Solo took for granted.
It told of the first meetings between the Jedi and Sith which of course led to disaster and war.
But it wasn't just the past.
The Legacy series told the story of the descendants of Luke, Leia and Han more than 125 years in the future.
In the past few years, Dark Horse went even further with the Dawn of the Jedi which takes place somewhere between 25,000 to 36,000 years before Anakin's fall to the dark side.
These stories told of the Je'daii living in a remote star system and straddling the balance of the light and dark sides of the force.
All of these stories now fall under the category of "Legends" with Lucas Film hoping to have a stronger hold on the peripheral stories of Star Wars.
All is not lost in the graphic novel realm as the first comic books from Marvel are coming out this January.
And, Marvel is reprinting Dark Horse comics under its Legends Collection.
Still, for years I have read the Dark Horse comics and loved so many of them, it is a bitter sweet parting of the ways for so many fans of the company.
Do you have a favorite series from Dark Horse? Are you looking forward to something from Marvel? Let me know in the comments...
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