Unwanted Extra Pages for Koma Script Title Pages with Graphics

Question

Komascript. Book class.

I'm trying to use a graphic on (as) my title page but it throws two extra empty pages that I can't get rid of. The order should be:

1-half title page

2-title page

3-lower title back (with copyright info)

and then the ToC and the rest of the main matter.

Instead, I'm getting:

1- half title page

2- title page

3- blank page

4- another blank page

5- \lowertitleback page

and then the ToC and the rest of the document.

MWE:

\documentclass[twocolumn,fontsize=9pt,BCOR=2cm,headlines=2.5,usegeometry]{scrbook}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}
%\extratitle{\textbf{\Huge Me}}
\begin{titlepage}
\includegraphics{i.jpeg}
\title{}
\date{}
\end{titlepage}
%\extratitle{\textbf{\Huge In Love}} \title{In Love}
%\author{}
%\date{}

\cleardoublepage
\lowertitleback{
    \textit{A Boring Book}
    ©2022 Anyname, Inc. 
    All Rights Reserved. Batteries not included. Kids, do not try this at home.    Professional driver on closed course. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.  
\medskip

\noindent ISBN: 1234567

\noindent ePub: 12345678
}
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\addchap{Introduction}
\Blindtext
\end{document}

Apparently (see discussion below) the issue is caused by the size of the added graphic, even though that graphic is a4 sized, the same papersize used (and the default!) in the Koma classes. When I add the full page a4 title page to this MWE (before I used a placeholder for the MWE only–it throws the unwanted extra pages, which defy suppression. It seems odd that Markus Kohm would recommend creating an external title page in the German manual but not explain how to accomplish that feat. Any ideas?

I tried using \usepackage{includepdf} thusly:

\extratitle{
\includepdf{halfpage.pdf}
}

which put the half title on the second page and left the first page blank!

Answer 1

If you want to add an external created title page, you should not use \maketitle.

Example:

\documentclass[twocolumn,fontsize=9pt,BCOR=2cm,headlines=2.5,DIV=calc,usegeometry]{scrbook}
\usepackage{pdfpages}% loads graphicx
\usepackage{mwe}% example-images and dummy text

\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\noindent
\parbox{\linewidth}{%
  \color{red}\Huge Content of half-title page \par% dummy half title page
}

\cleardoubleoddpage
\includepdf[pages=1]{example-image-a4-numbered}% dummy title page

\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty}
\vspace*{\fill}
\noindent
\parbox{\linewidth}{%
    \textit{A Boring Book}
    ©2022 Anyname, Inc. 
    All Rights Reserved. Batteries not included. Kids, do not try this at home. Professional driver on closed course. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 
\medskip

ISBN: 1234567

ePub: 12345678
}\par
\end{titlepage}

\tableofcontents
\addchap{Introduction}
\Blindtext
\end{document}