A Long Time Ago... with Pedro Iniguez
Hello there.
Welcome to A Long Time Ago… the fortnightly series where I ask a different guest to share with us a favourite Star Wars story and historical site. This started as a tie-in to my first piece of published writing, the article ART WARS for Star Wars Insider #226. The whole archive of my exploration of fourteen ancient art sites and every Star Wars story on my shelves can be found here.
Today I hand over to Pedro Iniguez!
Pedro is a horror and science-fiction writer from Los Angeles, California. He is a Rhysling Award finalist and a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee.
He is the author of MEXICANS ON THE MOON: SPECULATIVE POETRY FROM A POSSIBLE FUTURE. His work has also appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror, Beyond the Bounds of Infinity, and Shadows Over Main Street Volume 3, among others.
His horror anthology comic book CATRINA’S CARAVAN: BLOOD CYCLES, horror fiction collection FEVER DREAMS OF A PARASITE, and SFF collection ECHOES AND EMBERS, are slated for 2025 releases. The latter’s releasing from friends of the newsletter Stars and Sabers!
In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
My love of Star Wars began when my father sat me down to watch A New Hope when I was 4 years old, back in 1990. It was also my general introduction to the science-fiction genre.
Star Wars has become a grand mythology of wonder and imagination, encompassing films, animation, novels, and so much more. Choosing a favorite story is an almost impossible task [Editor’s note: I agree (and yet I ask the question anyway)!], but I can pinpoint one story that has stayed with me since I first read it back in Star Wars Tales 19 back in 2004. The short comic story is called Into the Great Unknown.
The premise: After Han Solo and Chewbacca cause some mischief, they are pursued by the imperial fleet, which sends out some TIE fighters after them. Desperate to evade capture, Solo sends the Millennium Falcon into lightspeed without punching in any coordinates and winds up crash-landing on a forest in a strange planet that very much resembles the Pacific Northwest of Earth. Once there, the duo is attacked by what appear to be Native Americans, leaving Solo mortally wounded. Chewy returns a dying Solo to the Millennium Falcon, where he succumbs to his injuries.
After some time, (126 years later) a man named Dr. Jones and his sidekick, Shorty, are in the area in search of the illusive Bigfoot, who has supposedly been spotted in the area. Chewbacca watches the strangers as they discover Solo’s skeletal remains onboard the ship. Feeling some sort of connection with the dead man, Jones abandons the search for Bigfoot, citing his desire to leave the mystery to the “Great Unknown.”
I loved the uncanonical ties this comic had to Indiana Jones, another favorite film series from my childhood. It’s the kind of story a kid like me would make up all the time, so it speaks to my inner child.
In Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico…
Is it possible to have a favorite historical site and have never traveled there? Anyway, I have a strong curiosity about the Nohoch Mul Pyramid, in the ancient Mayan city of Coba in the Yucatan Peninsula. It is a 42-meter-tall pyramid overlooking the Yucatan and a few lagoons. The location even had ties to a vampire story I wrote (“The House of Laments”), wherein I implied a lost civilization of vampires dwelled under its foundation. It is said much of the city remains buried under the earth and much has yet to be discovered, so, the air of mystery around it definitely has a “Great Unknown” quality Dr. Jones would admire.
Thank you so much Pedro!
These posts come out every other Sunday so subscribe today to discover the next guest and their picks!
Cheers,
Harvey