New Podcast Episode

Podcast for issue six is now up! Blog for issue twelve should be up later today (it's drafted now just needs some revision). Hope you all like it!

Star Wars issue 12 "Doomworld"

We're back and so is the team of Archie Goodwin (story) and Carmine Infantino (art). How did they fare this time around? Let's find out!

If you want bigger pictures please click on them to enlarge..

Luke, Artoo and Threepio pick up where we left them off in the sinking escape pod. The sea serpants and their riders seem to be attacking or salvaging the sinking ship, but thankfully don't notice the escape pod while Luke watches with his space binoculars.



I'm going to have to agree with Threepio here, that is a really bad analogy. I get it Marvel, you're trying REALLY REALLY hard to make us remember the movie.

The new arrivals on the....water landspeeders....attack the dragon riders. They are able to scare the dragon riders off, but not before losing some of their skimmers. The lose disappoints them until they notice Luke and the droids...



Infantino, like Chaykin, sometimes make Luke look like He-Man as above. By the way, the guy in the first panel and Luke in the third panel look like twins. Maybe he was "the other" Yoda spoke of.



Once again, Luke is given a red saber. I've lost track, but is this the first time they've used the correct spelling for lightsaber?

Are these guys REALLY that stupid that they don't recognize robots? It's the friggin Star Wars universe! COME ONE!



Thanks for the exposition. At this point it's almost obligatory that we get a movie flashback once an issue. It just seems like it's Marvel saying, "Hey! Remember the movie? Wasn't that cool!"

Luke holds off the men for as long as he could with the saber, but he is in danger of being overpowered. Artoo has his own interjection...



There is so much to say about the above panel...so much....but yet words just fail me.

So Luke successfully commandeers the vehicle and demands to be taken to their governor. We get a nice full page of their base.



Remember, this is the 70's and full splash pages aren't as common as they are now. This is just cool and a triumph of Carmine Infantino. It looks straight out of a movie.

The governor, who looks strangely like a Napoleon cartoon, is ready to execute the men for the lost skimmers. They try to save face by showing them the robots and Jedi they brought back with them.



Interesting in-universe perception the galaxy had of the Jedi at the time. Remember, at this point Marvel (and our general public) knew very little of the Jedi and their backstory.

Luke convinces the governor only he could make sure he gets the true worth of the droids. He starts to think fast on his feet which reminds him of Han. As a result we cut back to Han's storyline.




Maybe Marvel has been doing this all along and I just noticed, but it looks like the Star Destroyer has four shield generators on top instead of the standard two! Weird!

Han and Jack are getting closer to the Drexel system and Han is trying to figure out what to do when Jack realizes he lied about the Rebel treasure being there. Leia didn't really think this lie through did she?

Jack proceeds to tell Han about how he came into possession of a Star Destroyer.




Look closely, are these the first appearance of Tie-Bombers?

Wookiepedia says the battle in question was actually the Battle of Toprawa. That's pretty cool and gives it some more history and ties.



I wonder if Goodwin knew who the backer was when he wrote this. It's interesting because that line WILL pay off much later down the line. Curious.

SPOILER: It's Jabba

The crew members interrupt the bonding moment between Solo and Crimson Jack to inform them Jolli has gone nuts and is attacking the crew.

Apparently Leia's mind games with her last issue had an effect. She started asking about kissing and some of the pirates got a bit fresh with her...which didn't sit well with Jolli.



Han getting slapped again is hilarious, although I'm really unsure how to feel about the Jolli kissing mind games storyline.

Chewbacca (who they say is 100 years old here...Wookiepedia says 200 is the correct age) pulls the ship out of hyperspace at Drexel.



Thanks Leia! What a position you've put us in!

Note the little....um....note on the side of the top panel that they forgot to edit out in post. It took me a few reads to notice it.

My overall thoughts? This has some of the better elements I loved from Archie Goodwin's newspaper strips (which haven't been published yet). Infantino is awesome and the full page pirate ship was a comic masterpiece. His faces are still a bit rough though. Just look at Han's face in that panel. I'm liking the story though and wish they would've done more to get Leia involved this issue.

So join us next time for...

Did R2D2 get put together?

I found this video during one of my many wasted hours browsing Youtube. It's supposedley real and not staged. The wife supposedley doesn't mind the attention and finds it funny.

The premise...this guys wife gets emotional and cries after a viewing of "Return of the Jedi".

Star Wars issue 11 "Star Search"

By gosh! It's been almost a month since posts! Part of that has to do with Thanksgiving break, part of that has to do with a million other things! I try to be weekly, but I won't always succeed. In the meantime, I've been putting out some podcasts to catch up to where I am now.

The historic Thomas/Chaykin run (albiet brief) is now over. We had some good and bad I'm a bit disappointed to see them go...even if it was years before I was born. I was very excited about getting to the team of Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino though! Archie Goodwin did the Star Wars newspaper strip for years and I enjoyed the reprints of those as well as reprints of his other Star Wars work. Carmine Infantino is a comics legend in his own right having helped create the Barry Allen version of Flash. I couldn't wait to get to these issues...so let's start.

Han and Chewie are leaving Aduba after the events of the last arc. We get the obligatory comic recap...

Click on the pictures if you can't read the captions.

I love Don Wan's magic wand. I guess Hedji did die afterall. That explains why all other reviews said he did. I swear it's hard to read that from the issue itself though.

Unfortunately they are captured by Crimson Jack and his crew (again) before they can make it back to Yavin. Han realizes that resistance is useless, so he let's the Falcon get captured. He hopes to lure Jack into a Rebel trap and get another reward. There is one kink in his plan though.

Good job Han! That solves some problems but creates others...or maybe it just creates problems.

A few things here...

1) Leia, the Empire already knows where your base is.

2) I thought Jack liked keeping people alive so he could rob them again? Guess ot.

3) Even Jack thinks it was dumb for Leia to go on her own. So why didn't the Alliance think so?

Chewie and Han are able to fight off some of the space-pirates.

Chewie has never looked more like a big walking carpet. Got to love how the space pirates are dressed as sea pirates. I guess pirate wear is universal in any era or setting.

Eventually he get's a gun pointed at Jack and they agreed to talk it out. Han says they'll never find the Rebel treasure if he kills him. Han retells the story of a "A New Hope" but alters the events by saying Leia fell in love with him. He goes in for a kiss with Leia and whispers to her to play along.

I think this could be considered Han and Leia's first kiss. I love how Archie Goodwin is hitting it out of the park with Han and Leia's banter! Spot on!

Leia screws up Han's plan but telling Jack and the others that the "Rebel treasure" is in the Drexel system (which is where Leia was going to look for Luke before getting captured). Jack buys it and starts heading towards the planet. Jolli leads Leia back to her cell while Princess Organa plays some mind games with the young pirate.

Joli's face on the top is hilarious. At this point in the series, it's become cliche for a character to think of another character, then we'll get a recap of the movie (for the millionth time) as we cut to that character. Note the irony that within a few issues Leia is a prisoner...again.

So what happened to Luke on Drexel anyway?

R2D2, what the heck are you doing?????

Luke and the droids decide to take their chances inside the sinking ship.

Massive exposition from C3Po. By the way, Carmine Infantino needs to practice drawing the droids.

To be honest I thought they were already in an escape pod before R2 took them to this one. They are able to get out right before the monster finishes off their ship.

And that gives us our cliffhanger!

Thoughts so far?

Archie hits it out of the park with Han and Leia's banter. Big plus. I'm not sure about Infantino's artwork. I don't hate it, but I'm still getting used to the style. It seems different from his Silver Age work. I'm sure he'll evolve just like Chaykin did though.

We'll return next week for...