Summary: With the Empire gone it's Life Day once again across the Galaxy but with Han and Chewie on the run from Kianjiklub it's not so merry.
Plot: This is something I really can't believe hasn't been a thing for years, I mean yeah, I know the Holiday Special was mostly garbage but the idea of a Star Wars specific holiday was fantastic and a putting out a special book every year to commemorate that holiday just seems like a no brainer.  As for the book itself like any anthology not every feature can be a winner but there were enough wins here to make it well worth reading. Surprisingly my favorite entry was " Paid on Delivery" by Steve Orlando, I usually dislike like just about everything he writes but his throw back story of a young Han and Chewie saving Life Day for a group on enslaved Wookies while on a run for Jabba had a great mix of action and touching character moments. And although not exactly fleshed out "Gift of Light" by Jodi Houser was light and fun. I say not fleshed out because there was no explanation about why the music clued R2 and Threepio into the freedom fighters plans until after Luke, Han and Chewie bashed in the Imperial's head; the idea of children's music as a secret code was interesting but there just wasn't enough time to develop the sense of intrigue the story really called for to work. I think my only real let down was that despite enjoying the Story Cavan Scott told about Han and Chewie escaping a jam on life day just before the events of the Force Awakens...it just didn't do enough to tie the various other features for it to work as a framing narrative. If every story was a jam they got into during Life Day it would have been one thing but with the High Republic story by Justina Ireland that theme wasn't there so the transitions to the various stories were pretty abrupt. 
Art: Of the various artists featured here I think my favorite was Ivan Fiorelli, he not only did a great job of giving us a Han Solo who looked like Harrison Ford he also gave a vision that was noticeably older than the Han we remembered from Return of the Jedi but younger than he was in the Force Awakens which did a great job of setting the story between the two films with out having to waste a single word to say it.
Grade:7/10
I really hope this becomes something they do every year and doesn't become just a one off.

Summary: Looking to get into Jabba's good graces Hand and Chewie decide to get him a new pet...a Hoojib! And on Cloud City Lando get robbed by street urchins. 
Plot: I'm sorry I lead you on Confessor...but I was tricked by the cover as unfortunately Jaxxon isn't actually featured in this years annual which is a little bit of a surprise. That said, in lieu of another yearly Jaxxon appearance Scott does bring back another long forgotten piece of Star Wars lore..Pliff the Hoojib. In this story however, instead of Leia encountering the strange telepathic rabbit  instead it's a young Han and Chewie looking to establish themselves with Jabba who end up befriending Pliff. It's a fun, light story that I think definitely does justice to David Michelinie and Walt Simonson's story from the original Marvel Star Wars run. I don't know why Scott loves bringing back these long forgotten toys from the past, but I'm glad he does because Star Wars is first and foremost FUN, and I'm glad Scott always seems to get that.
In the Second story by Chip Zdarsky(when does this guy sleep? I think he writes two dozen books a month) we're given a fun Oliver Twist kind of story where Lando gets pick pocketed by a bunch of grubby kids but after the Fagan like crime boss scares them they turn to Lando for fun. It's another simple tale but the characters of both the group of kids and Lando himself really come across as complex multi-dimensional characters which is impressive given the feature's short run time.
Art: While Florean's very cartoony style fit really well with the light airy adventures of Han, Chewie and Pliff it was Jason Loo's art that really made the book for me. There was a grittiness to his depictions of Cloud City that just really drew me in and yet despite that realism the gang of kids almost had a Little Orphan Annie like simplicity to them which really fit the personality of the story and provided a fun contrast to what one usually expects from a Star Wars book.

Grade:9/10