Can’t say I ever expected to see Werner Herzog in SW, but now I’m even more intrigued by this show. Though I hope they do more with him than TFA did with Sydow.
Baobab Archiver might know more details? He’s working on a Knight Rider music restoration.
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Knight-Rider-restoration/id/55803I was such an avid KN watcher back then, I can’t believe I never spotted that! At least the prop guy took time to customize it a bit. And cover up the manufacturer/copyright information, even though that would have been hard to see on analog tv back then. Coincidentally, Kenner had the KN toyline.
I wonder if using a Kenner toy made it less risky, despite being a different franchise? Then again, as you said, it’d be hard to notice back then.
I’m still curious about what the gun actually did? I can’t remember there being futuristic guns in the episodes that I’ve seen, so I guess it must have played a relatively important part in the episode.
wow wow wow ! Where did you find these ? I had no idea how detailed and precise Archie Goodwin’s layout sketches were ! He was a pretty good artist judging from this , with a great sense of visual storytelling . Yes , great find , thank you for sharing !
http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2015/09/1979-star-wars-31.html?m=1
I actually found these a long time ago, before this thread was created, and had completely forgotten that I had these pictures until recently. I’ve tried to find more info, but haven’t found any other mention than what’s in the link above.
Archie Goodwin’s layout sketches next to Carmine Infantino’s finished art for the first four pages of SW #31.
I find these fascinating as, to my knowledge, it’s quite rare for a comic writer to sketch out the lay-out of a comic and then hand them over to the actual illustrator.
It’s also interesting to see just how similar the finished art is to the sketches. Apart from a few changes in angle/perspective, the compositions are practically much the same.
Apparently there’s an episode of Knight Rider where they used a SW Kenner toy as a prop.
(Does anyone know exactly which episode this is from and what this gun did?)
This is all I’ve been able to find, most from years later:
https://starwarsblog.starwars.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/10/EpicCollections.jpg
http://chinese-starwars.com/jediarchive/expanduniverse/donald/donald/24_captain_pellaeon.jpg
http://www.battlegrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/expandeduniverse.jpg
I’ve seen a few of those before (I even own one of those Thrawn figures), but the weird thing is that I’ve seen plenty of EU (and Thrawn trilogy) related ads from the mid- to late-90’s, but nothing about just the book in 1991. I mean people must have had some way to get hyped for it, so there must have been some promotion for it.
It did remind me of this commercial, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOV2dGdFbGk
It’s a bit funny really that one of the most beloved SW books never got a proper TV ad (to my knowledge at least), yet one of the more controversial ones got a dramtic TV commercial narrated by Mark Hamill.
I think there were full page ads in magazines like Starlog at the time.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’ll have to see if I can find some photos/scans of Starlog from 1991. Though, I still think there’d have to be more than just that.
I’ve read/heard a lot about how big of a deal Heir to the Empire was when it was released in stores, and I’ve even heard descriptions of the marketing and the general excitement about there being a new SW story, but I’ve never seen any photos of it. I tried to google it but couldn’t really find anything. Has anyone actually seen/found any ads, promos, photos, etc. online relating to the release of Heir to the Empire in 1991?
double post
- ahh , I think you are right about SW 17 , I got my wires crossed between that and the ROTJ novel. and yeah ,I think you are right about everyone in that era trying to guess how everything connected . That is part of the charm of that era , where there was only one movie and things could go anywhere without having to be rigidly interconnected .
Yes, as much as I love the later EU, the early years did have much more unrestrained creativity, resulting in some really crazy, but fun stories. It got a bit too weird at times IMO, but I much prefer that over the rigidity plaguing a lot of the new SW stories.
ah…just checked and it is the second edition where I saw that 112 year for 3p0 , I was mistaken about it’s placement in the book ,There’s no mention of it in the entry for C-3PO, but there’s a timeline in the front of the book that says:
112 BSW4 (before SW Ep4): C-3PO activated.
Ah, right. I’d completely forgotten about that section. Funny how they didn’t mention it in Threepio’s entry as well.
it also has:
35 BSW4: Clone Wars ended. And issue 17 of the original Marvel comic hinted at Owen and Ben being brothers too , as did the ROTJ novelization .
I’ve read the novelization, but I never thought about the suggestion in SW #17. I’m assuming you’re referring to the “you let a brother leave without saying good-bye” line from Beru to Owen? I always just assumed they were referring to Anakin, but I guess Ben’s a possibility also. Though a few panels later Luke asks Beru about what happened between Owen and “my father”, so I think Goodwin was probably thinking of “Anakin”. Seems like everyone in the late 70’s & early 80’s was just trying to guess how everything was connected. I’ve always wondered if Lucas was as involved with the ROTJ novelization as he was with the SW novelization, or if he at that point didn’t care and just approved of the book in general. Lucas obviously changed a lot of his lore-ideas between ROTJ and TPM, so either is possible.
I actually made a thread about this, and the whole 1977 “interview”, a few years ago, and I wouldn’t put too much faith in anything claimed in it. Turns out that Lucas tampered with that interview when it was printed in the “The Making of Star Wars” book in order to make it more compatible with the PT.
What’s interesting though, is that this version of Threepio’s origin was eventually canonized in a comic. So in Legends canon, Threepio was never actually created by Anakin, but rather just rebuilt.
Very interesting and thank you for sharing . one thing of note is that I have the 2nd edition of A Guide To The Star Wars universe by Bill Slavicsek from 1994 and for the entry on 3po , it does mention that he was built 112 years bby , I don’t remember if it mentioned Affa or a junk dealer though . I will have to dig all of my boks out of storage when I get the time , but I remember being surprised that 'ol Goldenrod had been around that long when I read that entry back in 94
That’s weird. I also have a copy of the 2nd edition of the “Guide to the SW Universe”, but I couldn’t find any mention of Threepio’s age or the planet Affa. Maybe you’re thinking of the 1st edition from 1984? I don’t have a copy of that book, but from what I’ve read it used a lot of information that was considered non-canon even by 1994. Then again, Threepio being from Affa was still canon after the PT, so it might have been removed from canon, then later re-canonized.
Either way, Slavicsek’s “Guide to the SW Universe” has some fascinating pre-PT entries, like Owen being Ben’s brother instead of being related to Anakin, etc. One of these days I really need to get a hold of both the 1st and 3rd edition and compare them to the one in the middle.
I actually made a thread about this, and the whole 1977 “interview”, a few years ago, and I wouldn’t put too much faith in anything claimed in it. Turns out that Lucas tampered with that interview when it was printed in the “The Making of Star Wars” book in order to make it more compatible with the PT.
What’s interesting though, is that this version of Threepio’s origin was eventually canonized in a comic. So in Legends canon, Threepio was never actually created by Anakin, but rather just rebuilt.
My latest haul of classic SW.
I finally got my hands on some Star Wars Weekly magazines from the UK. I found a really great shop in London called 30th Century Comics, with one of the largest and most well curated collections I’ve ever seen in a comic shop.
Cool haul dude ! I love those UK covers , I saw a whole collection of those issues at the Chicago Comic Con back in 95 and was awestruck by them as I never knew about them until then . Unfortunately , I was flat broke and could not buy them . Would love to have them all just for the extra artwork and back up features ,they would be a great compliment to my full set of the US issues
The big size of them really does makes those covers feel like mini-posters. It was pretty cool seeing a whole box full of them. I was quite tempted to get several more just for the covers.
My current goal is to more-or-less complete my Goodwin/Infantino SW collection by just getting the story-lines exclusive for the UK. They didn’t have all of them however, so I grabbed those two Leia issues as well just for fun so that I could compare them to the US issue. It’s fun to see Infantino’s UK recap pages, as well as how they turned small plot-points in the US comic into cliffhangers in the UK issues.
My latest haul of classic SW.
I finally got my hands on some Star Wars Weekly magazines from the UK. I found a really great shop in London called 30th Century Comics, with one of the largest and most well curated collections I’ve ever seen in a comic shop.
Expensive Equipment and Potential Highly Sensitive Material Stolen From The Mandalorian Set
“According to The Blast, police are currently investigating a case involving expensive equipment stolen from the set of The Mandalorian at Manhattan Beach, California. It is believed that the camera equipment was stolen overnight. Most concerning is that a memory card containing information related to the show itself appears to be missing, and if that’s the case, then raw footage for the series could be at risk of leaking out and revealing story-related secrets.”
The Clone Wars before the Prequels
Video by Eckhartsladder about how the EU explained the Clone Wars before TPM.
did he mention Rian’s trilogy?
He didn’t mention the Favreau series either, so I wouldn’t put to much though into it. Plus, Johnson did recently confirm that he was still working on the new trilogy.
We have creative entities, including Benioff and Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own…
I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.
-Bob Iger
I may have to look into the trade paperbacks of the Darth Vader series. I got like two issues into it when I just quit comics altogether. I was getting kinda burned out on the ho-hum marvel Star Wars stuff. I was reading the main series and the first Darth Vader series they did. Finances were tight and it kinda felt exhorbitant spending about $4 per issue. Plus my comic shop is nearly an hour from my house so I’d often let my pull-list build up for 3 or 4 months before I’d go pick it up. Several times doing that, though, they’d have missed an issue here or there and tracking it down after the fact was a real pain (not to mention often more expensive since I’d usually have to order it online and pay shipping). Anyway, it all just built up into me choosing to stop bothering with comics for a while.
And the new Vader series started right after ROTS and was full of prequel junk and “bleeding crystals” and all sorts of stuff that really tempered any interest I would’ve had.
But I’ve heard quite a few good things about it since then. It’s way too late to try grabbing single issues to catch up, and I kinda prefer tpb’s anyway. I dunno though, I’ve been really interested in checking out the Dark Horse X-Wing series ever since Rogue One came out so Vader May continue to wait.
I was quite skeptical about getting into Soule’s Vader series as well (especially after Gillen dull attempt), but I’m obviously very glad I did. To me it has had much the same effect as the Clone Wars series did in that it’s helped “fix” a lot of PT ideas/concepts, and it’s one of a few series that’s helped me keep faith in Marvel’s ability to make a comeback of sorts in the near future. I can’t say much about the whole bleeding crystals thing though as I personally think it’s a really cool idea, but the second story-line is much more focused and the third story-line is absolutely fantastic. The current one has also been pretty great so far (and it ties in to RO and the Lando miniseries).
PS, I’d highly recommend issue 18 as a gauge of sorts to see if the series is something you’d like to re-visit. It’s a standalone story and is IMO the best issue so far. Alternatively you could get the Burning Seas TPB, it includes #18 and what I think is the best story-line so far.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more talk about Charles Soule’s Darth Vader series in this thread. I honestly think it’s one of, if not the greatest SW comic series ever made. It started off kinda slow, though still very good, but the last story-line, and the ongoing one, has been fantastic.
This series, to me at least, has really has made up for the overall blandness of the past two years of Marvel SW (both the writing and the art). I finally got around to reading Jason Aaron’s main SW series and was pretty pleased with it overall. But apart from a few good miniseries (mostly the Soule ones), there hasn’t really been too much to get excited about in the last two years IMO.
‘Marvel teases ‘Age Of Star Wars’ comics from all three trilogies…’
More info coming during New York Comic Con 2018.
&
https://fansided.com/2018/09/18/new-age-of-star-wars-comics-3-reasons-to-be-stoked/
Does anyone actually know who’s going to illustrate it? They only mentioned Camuncooli as having drawn the banner, and It would be awesome if he drew the entire series, though I’m not quite sure how that would affect his work on the Vader series. I enjoyed Houser’s comic adaptation of Thrawn, but as far I know she’s only written one Poe Dameron annual as far as original SW stories go.
That sounds like an absolute nightmare. I’m guessing they called him something else?
Nope, just “Han”, that’s why it got so confusing. We did eventually learn to just repeat the characters names in conversation to avoid saying “him/han”.
At least SW comics managed to avoid this due to capitalization. And Han wasn’t in any of the cartoons so they never had to deal with it.
As a side note; the name Anakin was often a bit amusing to me and my friends as the common Norwegian pronunciation is phonetically similar to a fairly common girl’s name (spelled “Anniken”).
Well, I’m Norwegian, but they rarely dub live-action films (that’s almost exclusively reserved for animated/children’s films), so I’ve only seen the cartoons in Norwegian. And even those aren’t particularly strange other than a few odd pronunciations of character/place names.
However, the name Han was always a problem when talking or playing SW as a kid, because “han” in Norwegian literally means “him”. So talking about SW characters could often get confusing as it was often unclear if “him” was referring to Han or someone else, because even if you were talking about Luke or Vader then suddenly “Han” would appear out of nowhere.
Rian Johnson Reiterates He’s Still Working on Star Wars Movies
“Wait, Mace Windu, don’t kill Palpatine, it’s not the Jedi way!”
Literally 15 minutes later:
Anakin slaughters the Jedi, including defenseless toddlers
This is the biggest logic leap in the entire franchise, and it completely ruins the rest of the movie for me.
I unfortunately have to agree. The kid’s all over the place. It’s telling that the only way for the novelization to make this work was to spell out that Anakin was literally out of his mind and seemingly incapable of making rational decisions.
Isn’t that how the Dark Side works though? Prior to ROTS we saw Anakin loose it completely in AOTC when he slaughtered an entire village (incl. the children), and even Luke went kinda berserk in ROTJ after Vader threatened to turn Leia. That’s a pretty agressive and wild outburst for an otherwise fairly calm and rational character. ROTS even emphasises Anakin’s yellow eyes to illustrate that he has been completely consumed by the Dark Side.
Well sure, but the problem is he turns to the dark side forever on a dime.
In the two situations you referred to, big emotional moments spark them to lash out with the dark side, after which they both later repented/regretted. In ROTS, I guess we can say that Windu almost killing Palpatine is a big emotional moment, but is it really enough to push him past the point of no return and seemingly turn the dark side switch on and lock it there for the rest of his life? No… and the film tries to make it out that he’s doing this semi-rationally, as a means to save Padme (he even second guesses himself, saying “What have I done?”). But… no, he’s got no problem murdering his friends and colleagues minutes later.
He’s all over the place, and the motivation for the consummation you refer to just isn’t there.
He doesn’t turn on a dime. We find out that Palpatine has been his mentor and whispering to him since TPM. Anakin holds Palpatine in high regard. In AOTC we are faced with how rebellious and arrogant Anakin is. He bucks the rules and starts a relationship with Padme. He forms a forbidden attachment (in my mind this is a failing of the Jedi that rather than actually train Jedi how to handle themselves, they just forbid everything that is remotely dangerous). When Tuskin Raiders murder his mother, he slaughters an entire village in his rage. In ROTS he seems to have grown up, but he is again having nightmares. This time of Padme dying instead of his mother. And Palpatine leads him along. He never promises any answers. The entire PT, we see Palpatine playing both side and being sneaky. I think there is plenty there to suggest that Palpatine is treating Anakin the same way he is treating the Republic. Both dreams (Shmi and Padme) are planted by Palpatine. Palpatine keeps Shmi alive until Anakin arrives. Later Palpatine keeps Anakin alive to get him into the new suit. Possilbly even longer. You could tie it into Palpatine in Jedi still keeping Vader alive and when Vader kills him he is doomed to die and not just because the force lightning fried his suit. This ties in with Darth Plagueis being Palpatine’s mentor. He could keep others from dying, but not himself. And the final thing that cinched Anakin’s fall making complete sense for me was the audio of the scene when Anakin kneels after Mace goes out the window. Listen to the audio. It reminds me of The Voice in Dune. In that moment Anakin is teetering. He no longer trusts the Jedi but he has not given over to anger. Palpatine pulls him down and makes him his servant. When next we see him, he is striding into the Jedi temple with yellow eyes and slaughters anyone who stands against him. Shortly after he even chokes Padme. It was like driving over a steep hill. Once on the down side, he was carried along and only years later when Luke was about to die did he find his way back. But the way I see it, is he was pushed over the top by Palpatine. He didn’t exactly go willingly.
What sounds good on paper doesn’t translate properly on screen. We know that Palpatine and Anakin are friends, but we don’t really see concrete examples of Palps twisting his mind toward the dark side, or at least not enough of them. He just mentions a story in direct relation to Anakin’s Padme problem. What does Palpatine say that would make Anakin distrust the Jedi? Just a platitude about power. I don’t think that’s enough to make Anakin first of all distrust the organization he’s spent more than a decade with, let alone decide to murder them. It really is a turn on a dime, he’s goes from merely frustrated with the council specifically, to wanting to kill every single one of them, without any believable justification besides “I will do anything you ask.” The idea that Anakin ultimately thinks “the Jedi are evil” is a good one, but there isn’t much of anything to support him getting to that point in the film. What we’re ultimately supposed to believe is that Anakin would willingly kill his friends, colleagues, mentors, and innocent children, just to maybe one day find a way to save Padme. And that’s a ridiculous jump for his character to make.
I’m not sure if Anakin would consider all Jedi as “friends” or “mentors.” He personally knew only a handful, and even them he resented at times. And his disillusionment with the Jedi goes way beyond just them asking him to spy on Palpatine. This isn’t too well communicated, though is is either implied or mentioned at least once in either AOTC or ROTS. Also I don’t see why Anakin’s belief that the Jedi were trying to take over the Republic wouldn’t be a big motivator? It’s a bit weird that Lucas expects you to remember one conversation from the previous film, but I wouldn’t say his “the Jedi are evil” opinion is random or out of character. As for killing the younglings, then we’re back at debating how the Dark Side works.
I don’t think anyone here is claiming that ROTS communicates all of it’s themes and ideas as well as it should have, but the point is that they are there. Lore-wise the PT works quite well, but cinematically it fails on many points.
What’s hilarious is once Anakin has turned that first moral corner, Palpatine essentially fesses up that he actually doesn’t know how to keep Padme from dying.
But Anakin keeps on Sithing with the vague B.S. promise from Palpy they’ll find the secret out together. How? If Palpy didn’t learn it from Plagueis already, I don’t think he ever would.
And since Anakin’s visions revolve around Padme dying in childbirth, there isn’t exactly a whole lot of time to find the secret, if it exists at all.
Well, technically he never said he could actually do it, only that it was a Sith ability requiring the Dark Side and that Plageuis had given his apprentice all of his knowledge.
I guess, after killing Mace there really wasn’t much else for Anakin to do than hope that he and Palpatine could figure it out together. Though, I think the whole “we can discover the secret together” -thing was Palpatine’s way of guaranteeing Anakin’s cooperation until he got consumed by the Dark Side. Otherwise Anakin might have quickly turned on him.
