(click to biggen the pics)
With the impending arrival of the new Star Wars movie next month, MKE Comicbook felt an obligation to feature the franchise’s rich comicbook legacy this month. Our discussion about a galaxy far, far away actually began though, with a chat about AJ’s Deli on Milwaukee’s South Side. AJ’s was described as >the< place in MKE to get your favorite Polish food and Polish soap-operas magazines. 🙂 Emilio also mentioned once getting a strange, “Red Bull-like” energy drink that “tasted like a cigarette dissolved in 7-UP” (despite its questionable taste, the drink apparently served its purpose).
Before getting to Star Wars (1977), we also talked about other similar movies from the original SW-era – like “The Last Starfighter” (1984), “Enemy Mine” (1985), “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980), “Starcrash” (1978), and even “The Greatest American Hero” (1980) and “Barbarella” joined the discussion. Though not set on a different planet, the modern “Attack the Block” got mentioned too, for featuring John Boyega (who’s starring in the Force Awakens), and dealing with aliens.
Don shared a number of classic Star Wars comics from the first Marvel era. They were:
+Star Wars 80: about 3CPO and his “girlfriend”
+Star Wars 62: “Luke Skywalker: Pariah!”
+ Star Wars 38: Luke and Leia filler issue, but Don really liked the Michael Golden artwork.
Don also mentioned getting a great deal on a bunch of “Star Wars A Long Time Ago” trade-paperbacks at Half-Priced Books.
Luke told us about two light-hearted SW entries created by Kevin Rubio. Rubio created an early Star Wars fan-film called “TROOPS”, which was a parody of COPS, following along with some storm-troopers on Tatoonie. His success with that parody, and other writing assignments, eventually led to him being asked create a comedic comicbook set in the SW “universe.” That comicbook was “Tag and Bink Were Here” – a sort of a “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” but in a Star Wars world, filled with lots of SW inside-jokes (for example, T+B find Chewbacca’s missing medal).
Luke also brought Dark Horse’s “Star Wars Tales Vol. 1”, a trade paperback featuring self-contained tales in the SW universe.
He also shared Dark Horse’s “Star Wars: Kanan the Last Padawan”
Shawn has been loving the new Star War books from Marvel. He shared a great sequence from an issue of Darth Vader, during the introduction of Doctor Aphra, that featured an excellent homage to Indiana Jones!
“Star Wars-Vader Down”, a Star Wars cross-over event has also impressed Shawn – particularly the artwork by Mike Deodato with some amazing double-page spreads.
Shawn final selection for the night was from the main Marvel Star Wars title – specifically issue No. 6 which introduces a new character – a woman who may, or may not be Han Solo’s wife!
Don’s trivia contest was a lot of fun, with categories like “zoology”, “bounty hunters”, “filmographies”, and “the Star Wars holiday special.”
