CBR reports writer Tom Veitch died today after contracting COVID-19. He was 80 years old. Veitch was best known for penning Dark Horse Comics’ first Star Wars series, 1991’s “Dark Empire” and 1993’s “Tales of the Jedi,” but also wrote “Animal Man” during the 1990s, and created several original titles, including “The Light and Darkness War” with artist Cam Kennedy.
Veitch was born on September 26, 1941, and grew up in Walpole, New Haven, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. He attended Columbia University and was initially a poet. From 1965 to 1968, he became a Benedictine monk in Weston Vermont, and despite leaving the Order, he formed lifelong friendships with two former Trappists, one of whom, Elias, became the subject of Veitch’s book The Visions of Elias, published in 2016.
After moving to San Francisco in 1968, Veitch became involved in the underground comix scene, collaborating with artist Greg Irons on titles like “Legion of Charlies,” “Deviant Slice,” “Skull Comix,” and “Slow Death Funnies.” He also worked with his brother, cartoonist Rick Veitch, around this time. He continued to write poetry while publishing an eponymous magazine, and penned several prose novels, like The Louis Armed Story, Antlers in the Treetops, and Eat This!
Following a spell working for Hemmings Motor News in the ’80s, Veitch returned to comics with the Marvel/Epic Comics series “The Light and Darkness War” in 1988. The book, which tells the story of a Vietnam War veteran who is transported to another world, became the first collaboration between Veitch and Cam Kennedy, as they would soon reteam on “Dark Empire” and “Dark Empire II.” The series, which marked the first appearance of a Palpatine clone in Star Wars fiction, was concluded by Veitch with co-writer Mike Beidler and artist Jim Baikie in 1995’s “Empire’s End.”
Veitch’s other work included the creator-owned DC series “The Nazz” (with artist Bryan Talbot), “Clash” (with Adam Kubert), and “My Name is Chaos” (John Ridgway), as well as the 1995 ‘Elseworlds’ book “Superman: At Earth’s End” (with Frank Gomez), which starred an old, heavily bearded Kal-El. During his later life, he owned and operated Old Bennington Books, a bookstore in Bennington, Vermont, and his own imprint, Sky River Press. He is survived by his wife Martha, their daughter Angelica, and two grandsons, as well as his younger siblings Wendy, Robert, Rick, Michael, and Peter.