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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 5, 2017 14:14:50 GMT -5
Congratulations on bringing the ship to port so successfully, Confessor! This was one epic review thread and I looked forward to each new instalment!!! I'll miss it! Issue 107 was the only Star Wars issue I bought "fresh" after RotJ, apart from the one in which Kiro returns (although I picked a few here and there later on). I didn't realize that both the Nagai and the Tof invasions were, in hindsight, pretty short-term events. In fact, I probably misread the two events completely. I had seen both invasions as a case of "Oh no, the galaxy is being invaded by a wave of dangerous new enemies", which is a plot I always thought to be completely ridiculous... I mean, how do you invade a whole frickin' galaxy From your reviews, it seems that both the Nagai and the Tofs, hostile as they were, were threatening the peace and order in the new republic but not actually spreading everywhere, "invading the galaxy" being short-hand for "invading the part of the galaxy we happen to live in". The ending of the series was a little anticlimactic and I was sorry to see Shira Brie, my favourite non-canonical character, meet such an ignominious end. To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson discussing Mace Windu's demise, she died like a punk. But I guess that when cancellation looms, there's only so much you can do. The artwork continued to clash with the story, even if Portacio did a good job here... I wish we'd had more Williamson, more Gammill, more Frenz and perhaps (we can always dream, right?) some Garcia Lopez... |
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Post by Confessor on Jan 5, 2017 14:31:01 GMT -5
Congratulations on bringing the ship to port so successfully, Confessor! This was one epic review thread and I looked forward to each new instalment!!! I'll miss it! Thanks, RR. I still have two "overview reviews" for the short-lived Ewoks and Droids cartoon tie-in comics to do, but yeah...this is the main series done now. It's been a labour of love, for the most part, but having worked on it for a little over two years, I am both glad and a little sad that it's finally over. I wish we'd had more Williamson, more Gammill, more Frenz and perhaps (we can always dream, right?) some Garcia Lopez... Ooh...yeah, Garcia-Lopez would've been great. Good call! I love his work on the '80s space opera series Atari Force, which really isn't a million miles away from the aesthetic of Star Wars. |
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Post by philfrombrentwood on Jan 5, 2017 16:38:06 GMT -5
I do too. When the opportunity to buy the Dark Horse reprint collections, I jumped at it and read them cover to cover much like I used to read ROTJ weekly in my early teens - to much ridicule at the time I might add. However, those ridiculers are now gushing over 'Rogue One' so who's laughing now! There was a time when the Marvel series along with assorted Palitoy figures, a copy of 'A New Hope' taped off of ITV and the Radio Play taped off of Radio 1 plus an active imagination and that was pretty much Star Wars for me. Thank you Confessor for this thread and the memories it has brought back. As for the criticism of the cover, well at least it was an actual final issue cover unlike the very low key cover for ROTJ 155...  |
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Post by rom on Jan 6, 2017 10:25:25 GMT -5
Confessor, Thanks again for taking the time to review the iconic Marvel SW series from the '70's/'80's. This is definitely the most comprehensive review thread I've ever read of these comics, and there were some images/pictures (primarily the UK comic covers) that I had never seen before.
Your thread has inspired me to re-read the entire series again at some point in the near future (re: my DH reprint Omnis).
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Post by brutalis on Jan 6, 2017 13:41:35 GMT -5
With your finish to reviewing the series i will have to really look at the comics in deeper detail when i read through them again Confessor. You brought out some interesting thoughts and notes and this thread is truly one for the ages to savor and read time and again...almost as much fun as the Star Wars comics were in the day! Quite an accomplishment sir so you should be proud of your efforts...May the Force always be with you indeed!!!
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 6, 2017 14:12:56 GMT -5
I still have two "overview reviews" for the short-lived Ewoks and Droids cartoon tie-in comics to do, but yeah...this is the main series done now. I hope those will be better than this final stretch of Star Wars stories. It seemed like these last dozen or so were more of a labor for you. Really appreciate your slogging through in order to give us a full understanding of the series in spite of that. First Savage Sword of Conan and now this. It's really hard saying goodbye to these threads that have, in many ways, been a cornerstone of this community over the past few years. Thank you for all your hard work. I truly hope you have a next project in mind! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 6, 2017 22:06:40 GMT -5
Congrats on finishing the series! I'm still going to read my epic volume.. just got distracted by some other stuff for a while  |
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Post by Confessor on Jan 6, 2017 23:25:41 GMT -5
There was a time when the Marvel series along with assorted Palitoy figures, a copy of 'A New Hope' taped off of ITV and the Radio Play taped off of Radio 1 plus an active imagination and that was pretty much Star Wars for me. I can relate to this so much. I too taped Star Wars off of TV on 24th October 1982 - I remember the date because it was 2 days after my 10th birthday and I got a blank VHS tape for my birthday, specifically to video it. Don't know if you got many of the adverts prior to it stating on tape when you videoed it, but there was a trailer for Disney's kid's horror film, The Watch in the Woods just before it started. Do you remember that? I watched that VHS over and over, until it started to badly degrade. Without exaggeration, I must've watched that copy of the movie in excess of 200 times. I know this because I counted my viewings back then. I also remember listening avidly to the radio play, although I didn't tape it because I had no means of taping directly from radio at the time. And, of course, the UK Marvel comic and the Palitoy (later Kenner) toys, were a big part of my obsession with SW. Thank you Confessor for this thread and the memories it has brought back. And thank you for following along and for bringing your superior knowledge of the UK weekly Star Wars comic to the table. I hope you'll stick around the forum, now that this thread is more or less done because, if you're into comics, this place really is a nice place to spend your time. |
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Post by Confessor on Jan 6, 2017 23:38:28 GMT -5
I still have two "overview reviews" for the short-lived Ewoks and Droids cartoon tie-in comics to do, but yeah...this is the main series done now. I hope those will be better than this final stretch of Star Wars stories. Actually, while neither series or the cartoons that spawned them are really to my taste, the Ewoks and Droids comic series are quite charming kid's comics. In that respect, they probably are better than many of these final few issues of the regular SW series. It seemed like these last dozen or so were more of a labor for you. Really appreciate your slogging through in order to give us a full understanding of the series in spite of that. Yeah, these final 10 or 12 issues are a slog. The series definitely fizzled out at the end, rather than building to a climax. Still, I always knew that these issues would be a bit of a chore, but you have to take the rough with the smooth in a review thread, as you know. First Savage Sword of Conan and now this. It's really hard saying goodbye to these threads that have, in many ways, been a cornerstone of this community over the past few years. Thank you for all your hard work. I truly hope you have a next project in mind! Oh yes, I certainly do. The return of an old CBR review thread is my next project.  It's been very enjoyable for me to do this thread though, for the most part. I'm just glad that other posters have enjoyed it too and that they've chimed in with some really interesting comments and observations. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 7, 2017 0:01:08 GMT -5
Oh yes, I certainly do. The return of an old CBR review thread is my next project. Really looking forward to the return of Tintin!! |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2017 0:05:53 GMT -5
I also remember listening avidly to the radio play, although I didn't tape it because I had no means of taping directly from radio at the time. And, of course, the UK Marvel comic and the Palitoy (later Kenner) toys, were a big part of my obsession with SW. A great moment of my fandom was when the local library acquired the boxed sets of the radio plays. It was only a few years and a couple of moves ago that I let my taped cassette tapes go. |
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Post by philfrombrentwood on Jan 7, 2017 8:26:11 GMT -5
I can relate to this so much. I too taped Star Wars off of TV on 24th October 1982 - I remember the date because it was 2 days after my 10th birthday and I got a blank VHS tape for my birthday, specifically to video it. Don't know if you got many of the adverts prior to it stating on tape when you videoed it, but there was a trailer for Disney's kid's horror film, The Watch in the Woods just before it started. Do you remember that? I watched that VHS over and over, until it started to badly degrade. Without exaggeration, I must've watched that copy of the movie in excess of 200 times. I know this because I counted my viewings back then. My copy was taped on a Philips V2000 recorder - which was nether VHS of Betamax but the double sided tapes. It had no pause button so record or stop was pressed leaving a slight second gap which usually was filled with what was taped over - in this case the 1982 production of 'HMS Pinafore'. It produced this strange version of A New Hope which had a cameo appearance from Frankie Howerd at one point! Oo er missus That version shown on ITV had a different audio track from the VHS and pan and scanned a different part of the screen to the VHS. Beru sounded better. There was 'Close the blast doors' which I think got reinstated and that green R2 unit from the briefing scene was not to be seen...I'm rambling on now. I will keep an eye out for other threads especially any XMen circa the Romita Jnr first run which coincided pretty much with the post ROTJ stories. |
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Post by tarkintino on Jan 7, 2017 11:41:25 GMT -5
Star Wars #107As for why the series was cancelled, Duffy has given conflicting explanations about that over the years. Back in 1987, she told Starlog magazine that the main reason Marvel decided to cancel the comic was because the increasingly restrictive instructions coming down from Lucasfilm about what she could or couldn't do with the franchise's main characters made it increasingly difficult for her to write interesting stories. Duffy reiterated this in a 2005 interview with Back Issue magazine: "The restrictions from Lucasfilm are what effectively canceled the book. It got to the point where they said that I couldn't do this and that with the characters … we got the feeling that whoever was in charge of approving all this at Lucasfilm didn't want there to be a comic book at all anymore." In 2011, Duffy also revealed that Lucasfilm's restrictions even extended to her own original characters: "It was a bit strange because Lucasfilm started to tell us what should happen (or not happen) to the characters that I (or Marvel) had created. I thought that was a rather alarming evolution." Duffy holding to that "restrictions" defense always appeared weak, since it would not be long before Dark Horse's adaptations seemed to be free to get the feel and characters right--at a time when Lucas was already preparing to return to Star Wars, so theoretically, he (or/and Lucasfilm) would have been more protective over franchise storylines and their impression on the audience. The longer Duffy remained with the title, the more it lost anything resembling the Star Wars feeling. While the need to move beyond the Empire was necessary, it did not mean that the galaxy-spanning government was no longer a major threat that would never release its grip--or need a new leader as monstrous as Vader/Palpatine. The title had a strong run in the post-TESB period, such as the Tarkin superweapon / Imperials plotting against Vader plot--that was flat out gripping and made the reader impatient to wait for the next issue. All of that strong plotting style was lost after the ROTJ adaptation, as if the subconscious thought of Vader and the Emperor's deaths meant the comic had to rebuild from the ground up, when that was not true, especially if we consider how Dark Empire handled post ROTJ material, effectively building a solid galaxy that rivalled the best of Marvel's original SW stories. You are not kidding...  I'm not sure what the motivation was: influenced by the popularity of Rambo, which (by the time this issue was written) probably captured the imagination of teens/young adults more than Star Wars? Someone was a little to into Stallone (i.e. a crush ), and wanted to see that in the title, no matter how inappropriate? Either way, you know a Star Wars comic's last thread of legitimacy snapped when it channeled other movies for inspiration instead of its own massive history and legacy. Lumiya should have been the bubbling, top threat all along; she had the perfect history linking her to the Vader and the Empire, and of all likely adversaries, who else would pose the greatest threat to Luke--and any future Jedi to come? Why she was mishandled to this degree remains a mystery, but its clear it hurt the title's chances to at least ride out the choppy waters of no Star Wars movie to reference at the time. Agreed. I loved the best of the title--and the Goodwin/Williamson daily strips more than any other SW comic published since, with the exception of Dark Empire and Shadows of the Empire. |
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Post by rossn on Jan 7, 2017 17:12:06 GMT -5
Star Wars #106Cover dated: July 1986 Issue title: My HiromiScript: Mary Jo Duffy Artwork: Cynthia Martin (layouts)/Ken Steacy (inks) Colours: Daina Graziunus Letters: Tom Orzechowski Cover art: Cynthia Martin (pencils)/Joe Rubinstein (inks) Overall rating: 3½ out of 10  Somehow despite checking back here several times I completely missed the more recent entries on this thread. As always great review Confessor and I can't really disagree with you on anything (I like the Hiromi a little more than you but I think they were disastorously misplaced in this storyline.) I do rather like the cover though. I guess that is something.  Star Wars #107Cover dated: September 1986 Issue title: All Together NowScript: Mary Jo Duffy Artwork: Cynthia Martin (layouts)/Whilce Portacio (finished pencils & inks) Colours: Elaine Lee Letters: Tom Orzechowski Cover art: Cynthia Martin (pencils)/Joe Rubinstein (inks) Overall rating: 4 out of 10  And so it ends.  There is not actually that much I have to say about this issue, except again to agree with you Confessor about how rushed it is, the bizarre appearance of Luke, the daft appearance of the Tofs and so on. One piece I did like that I don't think you mentioned was that the anti-Tof alliance had out and out Imperials in its ranks, including a few still wearing stormtrooper armounr. I know I complained about how the surrendered Imperials vanished into thin air so that was a nice touch. I do find it weird that Lumiya ultimately never fought Luke again after their climatic duel in #96 and they actually never interact again after #97 (at least until the 2007 novel Exile). When I first learned about the Marvel comics over on the Jedi Council Forums about fifteen or sixteen years ago I got the impression they had clashed much more often. Having actually read the comics you could almost make the case that Leia is as much Lumiya's real archnemisis as Luke - Leia is the first one of our heroes to meet her and the climax here is between Leia and Lumiya. I don't know what to make of Duffy's comments. Killing off Dani and Bey seems a strange idea, and very, very dark for Star Wars, especially since they both have living loved ones even if Dani doesn't know it yet. Viewing Marvel's Bronze Age Star Wars series in its entirety, it was, on occasion, uneven, but, for the most part, it was a damn good read. For countless fans like myself, this comic was the Star Wars saga back in the '70s and '80s, at least in terms of ongoing adventures between the films. It introduced us to memorable and beloved characters such as Valance the Hunter, Fenn Shysa, Shira Brie, and Dani, all of whom found a place in fans' hearts, right alongside their better known, George Lucas-created cinematic counterparts. As I said in the very first post of this review thread, back in December 2014, at its best, Marvel's Star Wars comic featured excellent stories, incredible artwork, some fairly mature concepts, and, above all, it captured the innocent wonder and wide-eyed spectacle of the original trilogy perfectly. I still miss it.  Hear hear! I was far too young to read the Marvel run when it first came out but having read it in the Dark Horse omnibuses and especially having had the chance to read the thoughts of an original fan I really like it. This was a terrific thread and aside from getting to see what others liked about these stories I learned a lot. I can understand you missing this series Confessor, but if it is any consolation you've probably helped a lot of other fans rediscover it.  I eagerly look forward to Tintin! |
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Post by Confessor on Jan 8, 2017 11:22:40 GMT -5
Oh no, the inking in SW #105 is definitely by Ken Steacy. It looks noticeably different to the Art Nichols inked issues we've seen of late. The details in Marvel Age were often different to the finished comic, due to the lead time required for the listings in that mag. Artistic teams or sometimes entire plots would change between the printing of Marvel Age and what eventually appeared on the comic racks. It was #104 not #105 I was asking about, the one with the enigmatic inking credit you suggested could mean it was inked by Martin and one or more others. Could one of the others have been Nichols? Oh, I see...looking at SW #104, and comparing it to the Art Nichols inked issue #103, it could be. But the inking of #104 looks less "precise", for wont of a better word, and has a thicker, heavier line, with more spot blacks and less hatching, for example. My instinct is that, no, it's not Nichols inking #104, but...it could be. The inking details listed in Marvel Age were often different from the finished issue during this final year of the comic, but that doesn't mean that they automatically are in this case. It's tough to call, but I'm gonna say, no, it's not Nichols. But take that with a grain of salt. |
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From your reviews, it seems that both the Nagai and the Tofs, hostile as they were, were threatening the peace and order in the new republic but not actually spreading everywhere, "invading the galaxy" being short-hand for "invading the part of the galaxy we happen to live in".
