Tag: rich handley

Shadows of the Empire

Shadows of the Empire: The Movie-Without-the-Movie Extravaganza of 1996

T-bone 6 Comments
Share

In 2015, I conducted a series of interviews with some of the people who worked on the Shadows of the Empire project concocted by Lucasfilm back in 1996. I loved the project, warts and all, from the moment it was released so it was a joy to conduct these interviews and gain multiple inside perspectives on what it was like to create such an expansive project. The essay was written for the Expanded Universe anthology called A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe (2016) from my friends Rich Handley and Joe Berenato. I’ve decided to reprint the essay here on my site because I feel it sheds some more light on the nearly 30-year-old project and ended up revealing a few facts that were previously unknown to me about the inner workings of Lucasfilm at the time.

I’ve slightly edited this essay for the Internet by removing footnotes and changing them to links, and other small things like that. All quotes, unless otherwise indicated, are from my interviews. For more fun, head over to Facebook and like my Shadows of the Empire fan page.

I hope you enjoy the essay.

Read More

A More Civilized Age…Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe

T-bone 2 Comments
Share

Last year, Sequart published a pair of anthology books discussing Star Wars, starting with A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and followed by A Galaxy Far, Far Away… Exploring Star Wars Comics. To round out the trilogy, as is often the case with many things Star Wars, Sequart released its third in the series, A More Civilized Age… Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe! Read More

A Long Time Ago…Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe

T-bone Leave a comment
Share

As some of you know, this site was launched in 1996. That means it’s been alive for 20 years; a pretty big accomplishment. In that time, I’ve written in my bloggy, informal style here on the site, with the occasional magazine article or sidebar here or there. It gives me great pleasure to announce today that the wonderful Sequart organization has released the first in a trilogy of Star Wars books called A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe. Inside, you’ll be treated to some great writing by some well-respected writers, one of them being me! Read More

Wookiee Madness! The Russ Manning Comic Strips

T-bone Leave a comment
Share

It’s Wookiees Gone Wild!

From the moment Chewbacca graced the silver screen in 1977, the word Wookiee (two e’s at the end, please) became a household name. Until Episode III, we only saw Wookiees as background characters. There was the Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, but many fans (and even George Lucas) don’t like to think back on that bit of riveting TV as part of the real Star Wars universe.

Back in 1979, however, there was a weekly comic strip that ran in many newspapers by Russ Manning. It was a fun strip that ventured into all kinds of areas and explored many plotlines. Many planets were traveled to, including Kashyyyk – home of the Wookiees.  The planet name was going through a bit of a transitional phase at that time. It was part of the 1978 Holiday Special, but was pronounced “Kazook.” In the Russ Manning comics it’s spelled Kazhyyyk (with a z). The expanded universe finally got a hold of itself soon after and decided that the proper spelling would be Kashyyyk and that one stuck.

Special thanks go out to my friends Rich Handley and Matt Bracher for these great scans.

Here’s a short description from Rich about the strip:

These are the only Star Wars comic stories from the L.A. Times newspaper strips (except for “Planet of Kadril”) that have never been reprinted by Dark Horse Comics. They represent one of two stories that ran on Sundays during the “Gambler’s World” storyline, which ran Mondays to Saturdays. (The other story was the one about Constancia, which was reprinted in a K*B Toys one-shot by Dark Horse.) Neither of the Sunday-only stories was printed with a title.

Here’s a quick word from Matt:

The impetus is that they were ALL posted on alt.binaries.starwars at some point and I’m re-experiencing their beauty and wonder. The poster even included a week of Russ Manning dailies that I’ve never seen before; part of the Tatooine story that never saw print. (Although, missing are the two weeks of dailies that Al Williamson did adapting the first film.)

What a great trip down memory lane for comic lovers.  Enjoy!

Russ Manning Comics Set 1

 

Russ Manning Comics Set 2