Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Commencement, Part 1 marks the debut issue of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic book series. John Jackson Miller penned the story, while Dark Horse Comics published it as the cornerstone title for their revamped Star Wars lineup, celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2006. The comic, titled Commencement, Part 1, hit shelves on January 25, 2006.
Marn Hierogryph, while engaged in an illicit transaction involving spice and ale, is caught off guard by Zayne Carrick. Zayne, a Jedi Padawan, is tasked with bringing the Snivvian to justice. Gryph manages to escape by dropping barrels of ale on Zayne, scaling a rooftop, and then kicking Zayne off a ladder as he unsuccessfully attempts a Jedi mind trick. Zayne's fall lands him directly into a private banquet hosted by the Jedi, intended to celebrate the culmination of the Padawans' Jedi training, where he is met with the pointed ends of nine lightsabers.
Jedi Master Lucien Draay apologizes for his Padawan's intrusion before delivering a speech about the upcoming Jedi Trials, while Zayne converses with his companions. Later, while discussing the cost of the damages related to his entrance with the banquet manager, Zayne spots Gryph and gives chase, only to be captured using telekinesis. After apprehending him, Zayne arrives late to the Jedi Temple for the ceremony, where he discovers his fellow students murdered by their own masters.
During the initial phases of the series' creation, Brian Ching quickly came to the realization that portraying expressions on Marn Hierogryph's mouthless Ortolan's face would present a challenge. Miller then proposed using a Snivvian instead. Atiyeh and Ching collaborated to develop detailed visual representations of each character in the series. By August 2005, during Comic-Con International in San Diego, the majority of the first issue was finalized, and Miller had already written scripts for several subsequent issues. The script for the first issue had been both finished and submitted by May 2005. The issue saw its release on January 25, 2006, which was 363 days after the first discussion about the series between Miller and Randy Stradley. Miller erased Ching's first draft of the double-page scene in Commencement, Part 1 from his computer to avoid the risk of accidentally sending it to fans, as he wanted the scene to remain a surprise until the issue's release. Ching and Miller also dedicated significant effort to crafting the expressions of Carrick and Lucien Draay for the issue's final page.
Upon the series' initial launch, Dark Horse expressed disappointment with the initial sales figures for issue #1. However, the issue quickly sold out and underwent a second print run. By June, orders for Knights of the Old Republic had increased, surpassing those of Star Wars: Rebellion. Travis Charest created the covers for the series' first story arc, and the cover for issue #1—depicting Carrick cradling the deceased Padawan Kamlin—was designed well in advance, based on overarching plot details. For the banquet scene in issue #1, Brian Ching's original concept was a particularly busy scene filled with many details, but he ultimately discarded it in favor of a series of panels that focused more closely on the five Masters and was less "boring."