Review by C.J. Bunce

It is three years before Star Wars: A New Hope.  Jahan Cross is posing as special envoy for the diplomatic service.  His preferred companion is a feminine-inspired android named IN-GA 44 or ”Inga,” adept at researching corrupt officials’ computers and uncovering just what they don’t want uncovered.  Cross reports to the director of Imperial intelligence, Agent Cross’s very own “M,” who sets him out on a dangerous mission.

Next week Dark Horse Comics is releasing a compilation of its take on dropping James Bond in the Star Wars universe with Star Wars: Agent of the Empire, Volume 1– Iron Eclipse, reprinting Issues #1-5 of the monthly comic book series.

Iaclyn and Elli Rossum are heirs to Iaco Stark, deceased owner of a droid factory.  Stark had married a beautiful blue Nautolan (those blue tentacled head aliens) woman named Dah’lis.  Agent Cross was pursuing Imperial Colonel Muhrlein and droid Inga uncovered information connecting Muhrlein with a vast smuggling ring, but everything points to Stark’s droidworks.  But there Cross hits a dead end, other than finding the curious name of the project: Iron Eclipse.  To pursue this lead Cross must enter the Corporate Sector, outside the protections of even the reach of the Empire.  First Cross must secure Inga as his partner and some techno-gadgets he assembles not from “Q,” but from an officer named “Pew” who supplies the latest in subversive security tools for the elite, intelligence gathering crowd.

At a dinner party we meet those first suspects: Stark’s widow, and his son and daughter.  It’s not long before Agent Cross exhibits even more qualities from the James Bond-inspired spy world, including using his own male charm to pursue Stark’s widow, only to find himself knocked out accused of her death.  Agent of the Empire is definitely the stuff of classic spy novels.  You’ll even find an alien detective in trench coat and fedora, which may just be a little too much cramming our world into the Star Wars universe.  But it’s all in fun.  In fact some of the story reads like some kids playing with action figures in the 1970s (or 80s or 90s or…), but it’s more than that–the writing is clever and crafted as a tight spy story.

On Agent Cross’s journey he has a chance encounter with an old Corellian friend and his loyal Wookiee companion, who assist Cross in getting out of a scrape.  But Cross is no Han Solo–and that’s good–he’s his own rogue and a bit of what you’d get if you cast Jason Statham as James Bond.  John Ostrander offers a quick-paced story here all Star Wars fans will like.  He gives us a view from inside the Empire, where everything is not as black and white (or dark and light) as you might think.  Of the initial Marvel Comics from Issue #1-107, my favorite story began with Issue #7, showing the offworld exploits of Han and Chewie.  This story takes place in that same time and place with the early days of Han as smuggler.  Unlike many other tie-in stories, which focus on well-known Star Wars heroes from the movies, Agent of the Empire only brings in Han Solo and Chewbacca as secondary characters.  It’s a great twist keeping these guys as a tangent, yet their presence grounds the story for passing readers wanting more of their favorite Star Wars duo.

French comic book artist Stéphane Roux offers some nice pencil work in this Star Wars series.  His detailed background work is unmistakeably Star Wars in design, from ships to weapons to worlds.  His characters are fun to watch and his action sequences are well choreographed.  His introduction of new aliens with familiar visual parallels in the prequels is a nice touch.  I liked the fact that there was a bit of an explanation for General Grievous here in subtext.

Like you’d find in a Bond novel or movie, keep an eye out for a lot of tongue in cheek situations and several parallels to Bond escapades, including Bond girls, a slick Bond ride, and tough female Bond companion–even if she’s not human you’re in for a touching story.

Keep an eye out for Easter eggs in Roux’s art, including a a “who shot first, Greedo or Han” scene, and a certain scene with the ill-fated Colonel Muhrlein, who collects certain rare weapons outside the pricetag of his income, including what may very well be a Klingon bat-leth and a Reman dagger from a universe not so very far, far away.

Star Wars: Agent of the Empire, Volume 1– Iron Eclipse has a scheduled release date of October 24, 2012.  It is available for pre-order now at Amazon.com.

Review by C.J. Bunce

Whether you’re a fan of the original novel, Orson Welles’ radio drama, or any of the film adaptations, you’ll be hard-pressed finding anyone who isn’t familiar with H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, in which giant tripod Martian invaders take over on Earth.  What if H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds as a cautionary tale, based on facts known only to him and a few other government insiders?  Author Kevin J. Anderson asked this question and many more in his 2006 novel Martian War, re-released this month in a trade paperback edition.

Anderson ponders several “what ifs”–What if the Moon and Mars were as Wells and his contemporaries had predicted in the 19th century, with roaming animals, birds and vegetation and advanced lifeforms?  What if the Invisible Man was a real inventor, Doctor Moreau an actual twisted scientist, and they teamed with a young Wells, his would-be wife Jane, and real-life contemporary English biologist Thomas Huxley and astronomer Percival Lowell?  It all sounds like another take on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and to an extent it is.  Martian War is also every bit in the same genre as Guy Adams’ 2012 release, Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Doctor Moreau, reviewed here this summer.

Told via The Journal of Dr. Moreau–an account of Moreau’s capture of a Martian on Earth, and a chronicle of H.G. Wells being blasted in an accident to the Moon in a vehicle with girlfriend Jane Robbins and Huxley, Anderson’s story is as much steampunk as it is alternate history or classic science fiction.  Moreau uses his latest medical gadgetry to merge man with the Martian to allow the Martian to survive in a very Frankenstein meets E.T. the Extra-terrestrial kind of way.  Meanwhile Wells’ lunar journey could come right out of the classic science fiction War of the Worlds contemporary film A Trip to the Moon, as Wells & Co. marvel at the flora and fauna and follow giant mooncows to meet the Martian-ravaged peoples of the Moon, no spacesuit required.

Wells, Jane and Huxley devise a plan to not only become the first Moon travelers, they also plot a plan to avenge the Moon beings–called Selenites–who were enslaved by Martians years ago.  Upon arriving on Mars, Wells finds a world that has destroyed itself and as it uses up the last of the resources from the Moon it now turns its beady alien eyes toward Earth.

Initially the notion that humans can walk along a lunar surface that looks a lot like Earth is a bit jarring–we know from 70 years of space exploration he and his contemporaries just plain got it wrong.  But once you realize what Anderson is up to, it becomes a creative and intriguing journey, one that maybe only Wells himself might have invisioned back in 1898.  Chronicling Wells’ wonder at the strange, new worlds evokes Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and Wells’ attack on Mars is reminscent of The Battle for Endor in Return of the Jedi.

Anderson is the author of The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice and Champions of the Force
(three of the better Star Wars tie-in books that I enjoyed in both print and audio versions back in the 1990s), X-Files tie-in novels Ground Zero and Ruins, and he is now working on a new series of Dune prequel novels.

Martian War was originally published under Anderson’s pen name, Gabriel Mesta, and has been re-released in a new trade paperback edition, available in bookstores and at Amazon.com.

Once upon a time and a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, everyone lived happily ever after.  And while they were all so happy they didn’t realize they were being slowly assimilated by the evil Empire.

You might have missed it in light of coverage of Sandy today, but the big industry news is George Lucas finally is letting Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound–the whole shebang–go, for the paltry sum of $4 billion–the same price Disney paid for Marvel Comics in 2009.  Yep, $4,000,000,000.  You can just hear that THX sound logo make a giant flushing sound.  Heck, I bet that was Lucas’s profit last year in action figure sales alone.  What’s he thinking?  The man whose kids I (OK, my parents) put through college through the purchase of ten thousand action figures, several hundred comic books, every book, soundtrack, poster, drinking glass, key ring, Halloween costume, spaceship, Hallmark ornament, giant inflatable landspeeder, talking Yoda, remote control R2-D2, and even more action figures, is calling it quits?  Say it ain’t so.   And he is selling it to who?  Disney????

Is anyone keeping track?  Disney owns ABC, Marvel Comics, Pixar, ESPN, a myriad of TV stations and cable networks, Hulu, even the Muppets!  Where will this end?  Like the future world of Demolition Man had Sandra Bullock repeating the mantra “in the future, all restaurants are Taco Bell”–in the future, we will all be owned by Disney.  Can anyone say… time for a federal antitrust review?  Notice how the Disney spin doctors are already trying to blind us with promises of Star Wars Episode VII  (we’ll subtitle it for them: The Hunt for Your Last Dollar) hitting theaters in 2015 and a new Star Wars movie every two years thereafter.  Someone pass the Kool-Aid.  And check out this interview commentary from Lucas from YouTube:

“I’m doing this so that the films will have a longer life…. I sort of look forward to it.  It’s a lot more fun actually, than actually having to go out into the mud and snow.”  You’re not kidding anyone George.  It’s OK!  We know you just want the four billion bucks.  We’d like to have that much money, too.  The only truth of what you said is probably your use of the words “sort of”.

Blaspheme! Take those mouse ears off that droid!

But it’s not like he did what the old guard of fandom wanted him to do with the prequels.  Lucas always needed some confidant to edit his great vision and he never gave up the little control needed for some self-imposed quality control.  At least he gave us the experience of waiting in mega-long lines for the new movies.  No doubt there was some real fun to be had.  And there’s no doubt he built the best science fantasy world ever.  But this isn’t the answer.  Why?  Because it’s Disney.  This isn’t Walt’s DisneyCo either despite all the cheery happy Disneyana-goodwill carefully, subversively built up over the years starting with kids when they’re the most impressionable.  Disney is the new Empire.  And don’t lull yourself into thinking just because they got The Avengers right that everything will be OK.  Remain calm…all is well.  Sleep.  Sleep. 

Where was I?

1.   Princess Leia and Padme are added to the Disney line of dolls with Ariel and Belle and Cinderella.  I bet they give Leia her own mirror and white pony.

2.  Han, Luke, and Leia played by an entirely new crew of actors as in Star Trek 2009.  ’nuff said.

3.  Any Star Wars animated movie–not something somewhat cool like Clone Wars or Star Wars Legos series, but a shiny happy full-length cartoon movie.

4.  Direct-to-video Star Wars live action or animated movies.  You just know Disney will churn out a lotta garbage with the Star Wars logo on it and people will buy it.

5.  Cartoon series: Star Wars Babies.  Just like Muppet Babies.  But with cute little Emperor Palpatine.  Isn’t he so cute?

Things we want to see (if we’ve had a little too much Bantha juice):

1.  The landspeeder ride at Disney World.  And no fake wheels.  Make that baby float on air!

2.  Jedi Cinderella action figure.  Comes with lightsaber and grappling hook.  And Ken is her padawan.

3.  Sandpeople makeover dolls.  This one is a no-brainer.

4.  Pirates of the Caribbean sci-fantasy crossover where Captain Jack Sparrow visits the swamps of Dagobah.  Yoda and Jack share a bunch of laughs and conspire against some new character played by Bill Nighy.

5.  Empire on Ice.  Just like Disney on Ice but with dancing snowtroopers.  Robot Chicken was prescient.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking Yoda is rolling over in his grave about now.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If there is a constant as we look ahead to movie franchises and other entertainment properties in 2013, it is the sequel, spin-off, and remake.  We’re sure someone will provide new content and stories for us for movies and TV from entirely new characters and worlds in 2013, but just take a look at the 24 biggest genre movies coming out next year and it is obvious that Hollywood is following the “tried and true” model of investing in current properties rather than investing money in “the new”.

So with that in mind, what are the big characters to watch out for next year–the characters we already know that seem like they can only get bigger?

10.  Jack Ryan.  Back in the 1980s and 1990s it seemed like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan was everywhere, first with Alec Baldwin taking on the role in The Hunt for Red October, then mega-star Harrison Ford in two sequels, followed by a big break and then Ben Affleck in the prequel Sum of All Fears.  With Star Trek star Chris Pine bringing us yet another prequel effort next December, we think a wide audience will come back again to see what this CIA agent has been up to.

9.  Wolverine.  I’ve always thought Wolverine should be Marvel Comics’ key property.  Spider-man always relied on Peter Parker (well, until recently) who seemed pretty planted in the psyche of the past.  The Avengers seemed too cartoony with characters with too little in common to really be a huge property (happily I was wrong!).  But Wolverine has a certain modern grittiness that readers, especially young readers, would seem to really attach to.  Audiences seem to like Hugh Jackman’s take on the character and his incredible fifth outing as Logan/Wolverine in July, titled The Wolverine should tell us if this will be the end of a big-screen Wolverine for a while or whether he will only get bigger.

8.  Superman.  With the mega-budget The Man of Steel coming to theaters next June, the movie will no doubt be accompanied by a big push from DC Comics in its publishing and toy divisions.  Whether or not the movie is successful, as with Superman Returns, we are likely to see yet another renewed interest in Superman across the globe.

7.  Thor.  Marvel Comics is only in its first issues of a great new Thor comic book series, but with next November’s release of the second standalone Thor movie, Thor–The Dark World, the character will have to prove it has what it takes to continue as a major headliner on the big screen.  We’re hoping for less theatrics in the new film and more of the fantasy that has made fans come back for more over the years with Thor in comic book form.

6.   John McClane.  At some point Bruce Willis is just going to run out of steam.  Yet we saw Clint Eastwood continue what seemed like forever with Dirty Harry sequels, so why not more Die Hard movies?  The fifth entry in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, is coming to theaters on Valentine’s Day.  Hopefully Willis will deliver a performance worthy of this popular tough cop.

5.  The crew of the starship Enterprise.  JJ Abrams has certainly recharged audiences’ desire to come back yet again to the Star Trek pantheon of classic characters with 2009′s Star Trek.  Abrams carefully concocted marketing release timing and box of secrets as to story and even villains further only adds to the intrigue.  In May, with Star Trek Into Darkness we’ll either see yet again why this franchise continues to be so successful, or we’ll get the return of the “every other film” success (or lack thereof) so many franchises seem to go through.

4.   G.I. Joe.  Hasbro’s classic action figure property seems like it will always provide new toys for kids now and tomorrow.  But has it really had the energy the franchise had back with the 1980s animated series and mini-action figures?  We think adding Bruce Willis as Joe Colton to the big budget movie sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation coming in March might be just enough to re-ignite interest in this popular, classic soldier.

3.  Iron Man.  Who knew Iron Man would be the most successful character in the Marvel Comics toybox?  Apparently Robert Downey, Jr., whose Tony Stark now is THE Iron Man thanks to the first movie with Iron Man as solo lead back in 2008.  Although the second standalone Iron Man film was pretty lackluster, Downey’s performance and his character in this year’s mega-hit The Avengers is sure to bring audiences to the theater for Iron Man 3 next May.

2.  The original Star Wars crew.  In a few days we at borg.com will be previewing a new comic book series from Dark Horse Comics, who currently has the comic book rights to Star Wars, and who has consistently given Star Wars fans what they want when it comes to stories of the Old Republic and beyond.  But what Dark Horse has in store for us in 2013 hasn’t been seen since its brilliant Dark Empire series that premiered more than 20 years ago.  And even though you might think Disney will take its time with its first new Star Wars project, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see some other Star Wars projects released from Disney by end of 2013.

1.  Green Arrow.  Green Arrow as the #1 character to watch in 2013?  Three reasons to stay involved with the world of Oliver Queen:  (1) The CW Network TV series Arrow is finally the first comic book-based series to combine both superhero action and drama that will appeal to all audiences.  With two dozen additional DC Comics characters going in and out of the story line you’ll be missing out if you don’t watch this series.  (2)  DC Comics’ New 52 oddly omitted Oliver Queen from the Justice League.  In 2013 a new Justice League–The Justice League of America–will include Green Arrow in his rightful place.  (3)  The ongoing comic book series Green Arrow has had trouble finding its footing over the past 15 months.  The decision to put fan favorite writer for Animal Man, Jeff Lemire, on the Green Arrow title shows DC Comics’ editors know Green Arrow is poised to break out in 2013.  If Lemire hits the right marks he could bring Green Arrow to the forefront of the DC Universe.

Agree?  Disagree?  What characters do you think will be big in 2013?

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s exactly the place long-time Star Wars fans always wanted to see more Star Wars adventures take place.  Not before the original trilogy.  Not during the Clone Wars.  We’re talking about the time our favorite characters were at their best–between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

Marvel Comics originally had the license for comic book spin-off stories during the 1970s and 1980s.  In that time they visited their own strange, new worlds, but the best stories featured Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and the droids.  After 114 issues (107 regular monthly, three annuals, and a four-issue Return of the Jedi adaptation) interest in the Marvel Comics Star Wars waned.  Flash forward to December 1991.  Dark Horse Comics’ writer Tom Veitch and artist Cam Kennedy, coupled with the best Star Wars comic book poster-quality cover art to date by the stellar artist Dave Dorman, created a new comic book series, Dark Empire.  Dark Empire followed the events of Timothy Zahn’s post-Return of the Jedi trilogy and brought comic book readers some of the best Star Wars universe storytelling produced in comic book form.

Over the last few decades Dark Horse Comics has continued holding the license for Star Wars comics, and has produced some great reads, including the great Agent of the Empire series, reviewed here last year.  The new Star Wars promises to be the next stage of classic Star Wars storytelling.  Will any of this factor into Disney’s newly purchased Star Wars efforts?  Will there be any commonality between Star Wars of the comic books and the Star Wars of novels, TV and movies, or will the comic books remain separate from the canon of the films much like the Star Trek universe?  For now, it looks like we’re looking at different paths, but maybe there will be some crossover elements.

The first story arc of the new Star Wars monthly beginning with the release of Issue #1 today, “In the Shadow of Yavin” picks up with Luke and Leia and a small band of rebels re-grouping on the edge of the galaxy two months after Luke destroyed the first Death Star.  Luke and Leia, flying X-Wings, are ambushed, forcing Leia to ditch her ship into the nearest planet.  They make it back to rendezvous with other rebels where Mon Mothma sets Leia on a covert mission.  Meanwhile elsewhere we find Han and Chewbacca struggling with taking orders from the new rebels they have joined up with.  Far away, Emperor Palpatine scolds Darth Vader for his failure to protect the Death Star.  Vader is demoted, removed from his own ship and forced to report to a new Imperial leader, the young Colonel Bircher.

Issue #1 gets readers back into the world of these characters.  It’s not so much new territory, but one possible segue between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back of all those stories we have read in novels and comics over the years.  This new Star Wars will need to pick up its pace in Issue #2 to reel in readers to stick with this series.  Readers want more than familiarity, but it is understandable that this first issue would need to spend time revisiting the set-up and background.  All said, Brian Wood’s story is a fine start (Wood has written for Dark Horse’s The Massive and Northlanders series).  Carlos D’Anda’s art has an action-oriented style–with a bit of Howard Chaykin’s 1970s Star Wars character art–but his best work is on his ship detail (D’Anda’s work has been featured in Justice League and Batman: Arkham City).  You will remember what it was like when TIE Fighters were the coolest ships ever created.  And Alex Ross’s painted cover–every bit a superstar Ross cover–is an effective way to get readers to pick up the book.

Negatives?  I wish a Star Wars writer would create a series without needing to grasp onto the cliché lines from the Star Wars main cast in the movies, “I have a bad feeling about this” is just too over-used in Star Wars stories as are concepts like “this is our only chance.”  Also, why is Leia the one with the downed ship, and Luke having to tell her everything necessary to fly an X-Wing?  Wouldn’t she have been around these types of ships more than Luke?  And what’s with the first rebel to greet her at the rendezvous sporting a chauvinist attitude?  Why is that relevant or necessary to the story?  The biggest problem with the Star Wars universe is its strange handling of female characters and its treatment of key females as something less than strong leaders.  Leia was tough, but look how weak her mother Padmé ended up.  If Dark Horse’s Star Wars is going to be successful–and if Disney’s new Star Wars empire is going to be successful in 2013 and beyond–new storytellers need to learn from George Lucas’s biggest mistakes.  First and foremost, embrace strong female characters.  Put men and women on equal footing in the Star Wars universe–there is no good reason not to.

Star Wars Issue #1 is available today at comic book shops everywhere.

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you think you’ve watched all the science fiction movies worth watching, odds are there’s something out there you’ve missed.  You’ve probably seen the modern blockbusters from Star Wars to Terminator and maybe the older classics, like The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original) and Forbidden Planet, and every sci-fi flick that has landed in theaters since your eyes first opened to the amazing genre as a kid.  But are you sure you’ve seen everything?

The Syfy Channel has teamed up with Universe Publishing to release a giant book of 100 years of sci-fi movies and TV, from A Trip to the Moon to Hugo, in The Science Fiction Universe… and Beyond: Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi.  And although the Syfy Channel continues to look outside the boundaries of Syfy for new TV dramas and reality series, this 256-page, full-color, coffee table hardcover is out to remind everyone why we like the Syfy Channel in the first place.  And better yet, when you’ve run out of the obvious to watch on TV or stream on Netflix, you can use the book as a guide to catch up on the obscure and the overlooked.

Two components in this book make it work for different audiences.  For new entrants to sci-fi–yes, every new year brings on the newly converted–the Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi includes nine chapters in chronological order noting the details and place of each movie or TV series in sci-fi history, highlighting major works Planet of the Apes, The Twilight Zone, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and modern superheroes.  So newbies, and those just wanting to reminisce through the classics, have a lot to read about and get glimpses of with more than 300 primarily color photos.  For the sci-fi connoisseur, look to re-discover or discover for the first time the 1936 film Things to Come, with a screenplay written by H.G Wells, and the French New Wave noirpunk crime thriller Alphaville (how did I miss knowing about that film?).

Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi has its own take on sci-fi.  It includes superheroes fully as part of sci-fi, something you don’t regularly see in sci-fi compendiums.  It encompasses the post-apocalyptic, too, where other books may not–another good choice.  In its chronological picture of sci-fi, instead of breaking up an original work and its remakes, it includes the remake in the discussion of the original–something most books don’t do, but I found it to be a good idea here.  Finally, I had expected to see greater weight given to sci-fi channel series, like some of their made-for-TV horror movies, and happily, that wasn’t the case here.  If anything, Syfy Channel properties take a backseat to the bigger, classic productions–something that should earn extra points for any reader.  And horror is only included if it is also sci-fi in theme, like The Thing and The Fly.

Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi really is an objective, thoughtful, interesting, and thorough look at sci-fi in films and TV.  And where lesser but still important sci-fi works are left out, writer Michael Mallory has included an appendix of films and TV series that weren’t included in the text of the book, and each of these only adds to the completist’s checklist of must-see viewing.  I found that I had watched 102 of the 124 main movies and TV series featured, giving me 12 new works to track down, in addition to 50 of the 100 listings in the appendix.

Design-wise, the Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi reminds me a bit of Art of Imagination: 20th Century Visions of Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy, the giant mega-reference on the art of sci-fi and fantasy.  I am a sucker for books with full-color jackets and hidden photo-cover bindings.  In content and design, Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi will fit nicely on any sci-fi lover’s reference bookshelf.

Syfy Channel Book of Sci-Fi is available in bookstores and online at a discount off retail at Amazon.com.

As with many movies these days it seems like studios release enough trailers that by the time you see the movie you already know it front to back and can even quote key lines.  It looks like the same may be true for the new Star Trek movie coming out soon, Star Trek Into Darkness, all previewed here earlier.  And this weekend Paramount released yet another preview.

Lots of great colors and “wow!” imagery, maybe even more so than with the earlier teasers and previews.  Even more story elements are revealed including many that make you want to sit down and list how many plot points it has in common with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the other Star Wars prequels.  Depending who you are and how much you liked the Star Wars prequels, a comparison like that may or may not be a good thing.  But with J.J. Abrams locked-in to begin directing Star Wars: Episode VII soon… you just can’t help draw the comparisons.  Here’s a few apparently obligatory prequel scenes to think about as you watch this trailer:

• Jar Jar and Qui-Gon Jinn chased on foot across the fields of the planet Naboo
• R2-D2 suddenly having the ability of flight across a planet’s surface
• giant vertical cityscapes of Coruscant
• female/alien bounty hunter Zam Wesell’s lavender outfit
• space car chase scene with cocky Anakin and serious Obi-Wan Kenobi complete with joking banter
• Jar Jar Binks, Qui-Gon Jinn and Kenobi in a submarine craft startled by a sea creature
• and even though it’s not from the prequels, remember Han Solo’s line to Chewbacca before the jump to light speed?

Abrams, of course, didn’t land the Star Wars gig until after most of the production for Star Trek Into Darkness was complete, so it’s not like this Star Trek prequel is really a practice run for a go at the first Star Wars sequel since Return of the Jedi.  (Then again, we sure hope we don’t see Abrams’ trademark lens flares in the next Star Wars films).

Still no confirmation in the new preview of whether Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain is more than meets the (strangely shiny blue) eyes.

So check out the new trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness:

Star Trek into Darkness has a U.S. release date of May 17, 2013.

Abrams Star Wars: Episode VII is expected to be released in 2015 and has reportedly already signed Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford for at least cameos.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

First it was Mike Mayhew and Star Trek and Doctor Who.
Then it was Mike Mayhew and Green Arrow.
Then it was Mike Mayhew and The Bionic Man and The Bionic Woman.
Now it’s Mike Mayhew and Star Wars.

Isn’t it great when the stars align and the people creating new entertainment are in sync with your view of the world?  Like taking your all-time favorite genre franchise and mixing it with your current favorite artist?

To quote Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “This is just… neat.”

The comic book licensee to the Star Wars universe, Dark Horse Comics has announced one of the coolest ideas you could put together.  Go back to George Lucas’s original take on Star Wars–before the edits and revisions and treatments and full-blown screenplays. Take that original story and re-imagine the Star Wars universe as if the original vision was Star Wars.  That’s exactly what long-time Lucasfilm executive editor J.W. Rinzler and current The Bionic Man cover artist Mike Mayhew have up their sleeves.  Coming in September 2013 is an eight-issue mini-series, titled The Star Wars, the title of Lucas’s 1974 version of the Star Wars saga.

The images above and below are Mike Mayhew’s first released panel art from The Star Wars.

Dark Horse Comics has a new series in play called Star Wars, which recounts the alternate adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and the gang between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.  It’s a bunch of fun.  The Star Wars will do something different–something that my pals as a kid and I used to chat about in the lunchroom–something niggling at Star Wars trivia buffs for years.  What the heck is The Journal of the Whills?  Will we ever see it?

The Journal of the Whills was once only publicly referenced in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, that strange interim work by Alan Dean Foster, released after Star Wars but before The Empire Strikes Back.  But after decades went by and Star Wars became the biggest blockbuster franchise ever, Star Wars became something more than a summer blockbuster movie, and folks like Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers revealed Star Wars as a serious target for intellectual study.  Folks like J.W. Rinzler, working at Lucasfilm, dug in and unearthed original writings of Lucas, pages of script on yellow lined notebook paper.  Rinzler, writer of the key fan library fixtures The Making of Star Wars, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, and The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, discussed these original treatments with George Lucas, who was initially disinclined to do anything else with these archive pieces.

Dark Horse quotes Rinzler’s reaction to the source material in this week’s release: “While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—-but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars.  His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read-—mind blowing.”

Lucas’s original hero, as conveyed to original storyboard artist Ralph McQuarrie, looked like Lucas.  And it doesn’t take a genius to see how he came up with Luke as the short form of his own last name.  Lucas’s hero was a reflection of himself, as seen in this early image from McQuarrie, who passed away last year:

Through research in the Lucasfilm archives it was revealed that the original two-page story treatment was called The Journal of the Whills, a 1973 document that apparently was rejected by Universal Studios, with whom Lucas had a two-picture deal for American Graffiti and Star Wars.  Lucas originally wanted to film his version of Flash Gordon but could not secure the rights.  The Journal of the Whills recounted the training of Jedi-Bendu apprentice C.J. Thorpe, a student under the tutelage of a space commando named Mace Windy.  From there, Lucas created a 13-page synopsis that was based on Akira Kurasawa’s film Hidden Fortress.  The draft 1974 screenplay grew from that, keeping plot devices and story elements from the past pieces but expanding the story into a full-blown space opera and space fantasy, inspired by Flash Gordon and an amalgamation of mythic themes from classic storytelling.  Obviously many elements for what would be Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader’s backstory in the Star Wars prequels came from these early ideas.

Rinzler and Mayhew’s The Star Wars will follow Jedi Annikin Starkiller and General Luke Skywalker, a six-foot tall lizard alien named Han Solo, and the evil Sith Knights.  And it’s interesting seeing Mayhew keep the Lucas look in his characterization in the top photo above.

We’ve been raving over Mike Mayhew’s art here at borg.com for months.  Click here to check out our past coverage.  He’s drawn our own favorite properties, from Green Arrow to The Bionic Man, not to mention superhero works everyone loves, like The Avengers and X-Men.  His style conveys superheroes as visibly powerful, visibly heroic.  His detail is on par with the pencil work of Michael Turner and Mauro Cascioli.  His covers rival mega-cover artist Alex Ross.  Just looking at his first images for The Star Wars you can see imagery with the vibe of Ralph McQuarrie, the earliest professional Star Wars artist.  In short, Mike Mayhew is the perfect artist for Dark Horse to select to draw The Star Wars.

And we can’t wait to see more.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

When does the creative spark begin, and when do you follow through with it?

We chat at borg.com each week about some of the best artists, authors, writers, actors, makers and doers around.  Every creator is at a different place in a spectrum between wanting to do something and accomplishing their goals.  Some may want to be the best out there.  Some may want to get that first project in the hands of readers and viewers.  Whether you’re trying to get that first comic book published, the first novel in the hands of an agent, the first movie playing on the big screen, everyone has to start somewhere.  One route many people take is creating fan versions of existing properties.  Some succeed by starting with fan fiction–either by writing a short story with the further adventures of a popular character, making a full comic book story, or a full-length novel.  For legal reasons these won’t make you money, but they will allow you to work on the creating process.  If you’re really successful at fan fiction you may just end up being noticed–noticed by someone who may give you more opportunities to do what you like to do, or better yet, your big break.

We found four fan works you might not have seen before that we think are worth taking a look at.  First up, a long time ago in a small village in Ireland… there was a nine-year-old Star Wars fan named John White.  Today John has two one-of-a-kind websites, one focusing on a 200-page comic book he wrote as a kid adapting Star Wars to comic book form in Star Wars: Age 9, and the other adapting Alien to comic book form in Alien: Age 11.  Before you brush off the idea as “yeah, my kid does stuff like that” actually take a look at John’s knowledge and talent with layout, color, and design at such a young age (like the panel of the Millennium Falcon above).  John has also filled in the gaps as a grown-up with new work and his new work could easily be found in the pages of today’s DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, etc.  Check this out from one of what I’ll call his “special edition” pages from Star Wars: Age 9:

And how about this stunner John-as-adult added to his Alien: Age 11:

He was good then and his work is great now.  I will only say this–if one of our readers in the comic book publishing industry (say, at Dark Horse or Dynamite) sees these pages and signs John, I just want credit for putting you both together.  I know I’ll be buying his first book.  John’s spark was ignited at 9 years old.

Sam Johnson, one of my friends you might have seen sporting a “red shirt” with me meeting Joss Whedon at Comic-Con last year, teamed up with his college friends this past year to make a new online audio fan-fiction series: Star Trek: New Beginnings.  Sam was influenced by old radio plays like the 1970s Star Wars recordings, as well as Star Trek fan fiction work like New Voyages and Tim Russ’s Of Gods and Men.  With friend Bernard Kyer and a crew of other friends they write episodes, read dialogue with a full cast of actors and then edit in familiar sci-fi sounds and music with Skype equipment and headphones.   Although they’d love to do visual work, as students they just can’t afford the equipment and sets necessary–yet.  Thirteen episodes are in the works for their first season and they’ve gotten off to a great start.

Check out all of the ongoing voyages of the Excelsior class starship Cochrane NCC-37819 here, and this first voyage:

And follow the Star Trek: New Beginnings project at their Facebook page here.  Sam and his friends are creating some great audio work.

One Star Wars fan film that has received a lot of attention is Star Wars: Revelations, which has one of the longest screen-times of any visual fan work at 47 minutes.  It’s an example of what you can do when you have more resources–not the resources for a multi-million dollar Hollywood production, but nearly 200 members of cast and crew and $15-20,000, enough to give viewers your vision in an awesome way.  It has a very Attack of the Clones vibe, interesting costumes, lots of digital effects, and you could see the new Disney Star Wars efforts taking story direction in similar places to Revelations.  And I think the holograms and lightsaber work is particularly incredible, especially for a fan-made production.

Director Shane Felux had a similar spark as John and Sam.  In a Force.net article he wrote:  “You could trace everything back to 1977 where sitting in a darkened theater I was whisked away into Star Wars.  It’s what led me to majoring in directing and acting.  You could maybe even say it was Kevin Rubio’s Troops that brought that spark, that desire to make a film into being again because it was Troops that brought on the new wave of fan films.  Films I had watched and decided would be a great stepping stone back into the world of directing.  I thought about it for awhile and realized that there would never be a “good” time to do it.  There was a full time job, a spouse, and now a child. It was only going to get harder.”  Read more at Force.net here.

Here is the trailer for Star Wars: Revelations:

And you can watch the entire film here:

The computer effects look like something out of the video game Star Wars 1313 that was due out from LucasArts that we previewed here.  Unfortunately with Disney dismantling the LucasArts division Star Wars 1313 seems to be in jeopardy.  Maybe someone like Shane could help get more projects like this going at the new Star Wars wing at Disney?

Probably the best Star Trek fan film and best fan production of any franchise might be Tim Russ’s Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.  Although it incorporates well-done original series story sets, props, and costumes, the real punch with Of Gods and Men is the willingness of so many former Star Trek actors to return to either reprise characters they originally played or take on new roles.  First and foremost is Nichelle Nichols returning as Uhura, Walter Koenig returning as Chekov, Tim Russ as Tuvok and Alan Ruck as Captain Harriman.  It also starred Star Trek’s Garrett Wang, Chase Masterson, J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, Ethan Phillips and Cirroc Lofton.  The story itself even has elements that were later seen in the Star Trek 2009 reboot film.  The ships, other special effects and sound track are also well done.  And because it is a fan film you can watch the three-part sci-fi drama online for free at the production website here or watch it all right now here:

The parallel universe Evil Captain Harriman is the best part.

Director Tim Russ was already a Hollywood professional–a successful actor in both Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Generations, yet he still wanted to make a fan film.  And he made it happen.

As with all fan fiction, you have to remember these are made by fans, so they aren’t of the final quality you’d see on TV or at a theater so set your expectations accordingly.  Yet for the love of the worlds they explore they show off some great skills and illustrate what talented people can do when they come together, whether or not they are professionals.  And if there is something you want to do, whether it’s write, draw, paint, sing, build, or make, clear the way of whatever is holding you back and get started!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Lucasfilm announced big news this week: the top level slate of creative talent behind the first film of the next Star Wars trilogy.  Moving away from screenwriter Michael Arndt, Lucasfilm handed over writing duties to Lawrence Kasdan and director J.J. Abrams.  Kasdan had served as consultant during the pre-production phase, and they couldn’t have selected a better choice than the screenplay writer for Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Silverado (not to mention Body Heat, The Big Chill, and The Accidental Tourist) to bring his experience writing great movies to this project.

It’s a mix of young and old, with the established Kasdan working with relative newcomer J.J. Abrams, whose credits include the last two Star Trek films, along with top duties on Super 8, Mission: Impossible III, Fringe, and Lost.  Yes, he’s young, but he’s no slouch.

“I am very excited about the story we have in place and thrilled to have Larry and J.J. working on the script,” stated Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy in a Lucasfilm press release.  “There are very few people who fundamentally understand the way a Star Wars story works like Larry, and it is nothing short of incredible to have him even more deeply involved in its return to the big screen.  J.J. of course is an incredible storyteller in his own right. Michael Arndt has done a terrific job bringing us to this point and we have an amazing filmmaking and design team in place already prepping for production.”

As location scouting, production design, casting, and costume design are moving forward, Lucasfilm named its production team, which is beginning to make what will likely be the biggest film of 2015.  The dream team includes legends who worked on the original Star Wars trilogy: composer John Williams from the first two trilogies and every other best soundtrack of all time, sound designer Ben Burtt (Lincoln, Wall-E, Star Wars: Episodes I-VI), visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett (Star Trek Into Darkness, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith) of Industrial Light & Magic, and long-time Lucasfilm fixture, producer Kathleen Kennedy.

From the Star Trek universe and more recent world of filmmaking, the Star Wars Episode VII crew will include director of photography Dan Mindel (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness), costume designer Michael Kaplan (Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Fight Club), supervising sound editor Matthew Wood (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Master, There Will Be Blood) of Skywalker Sound, and executive producer Tommy Harper (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Jack Ryan, Star Trek Into Darkness), as well as the aforementioned Abrams as writer, director, and producer.

The list of top-level moviemakers goes on to include more recent talent: special effects supervisor Chris Corbould (Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception), production designers Rick Carter (Lincoln, Avatar, Forrest Gump) and Darren Gilford (Oblivion, TRON: Legacy), re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom (Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story, Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol), and producer Bryan Burk, with Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds) serving as executive producer.

Filming for Star Wars Episode VII is scheduled to begin in Spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios for an expected 2015 release.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

After the completion of the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas sat down and went frame by frame through all six Star Wars movies, examining literally hundreds of thousands of images and selecting about 250 screen grabs from each film, frames that he believed showed particular artistry, each in its own right.  The result was 2011′s limited edition of 1,138 boxed sets called Star Wars: Frames, sold for $3,000, and now only rarely available with one set being sold at Amazon.com for a whopping $11,500.  Thanks to Abrams Books, Star Wars: Frames is being re-released this month in a far less expensive but complete edition, collecting 1,472 stills from all six films in the Star Wars saga.  It is without a doubt the definitive visual work on Star Wars, in a rare league of deluxe book editions along with long out-of-print Dressing a Galaxy: The Costume of Star Wars and Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop as the best Star Wars books ever released.

This more affordable, unabridged version of Star Wars: Frames includes two hardcover books, each covering one of the two movie trilogies in 368 pages, housed in a hefty Death Star-themed silver box.  Listing at a published price of $150, you can buy it for less than $100 at Amazon.com.  The only difference between the $3,000 version and this version is the original was issued in a six-book set (one book for each film instead of one for each trilogy), with each image taking up a full page, packaged in a wooden crate instead of cardboard.   The content is the same.  Star Wars: Frames will be released November 5, 2013, but we received an early review copy this week.  The book lives up to its promise, in surprising ways.

Moving through the classic original trilogy first, we learn from the foreword by J.W. Rinzler that this is not just George Lucas’s view of the best images of his films, but it also includes visuals that help keep the beat of the story.  So immediately you see key images that showed up in decades of marketing materials, on notebooks, stickers, trading cards, cardboard puzzles, and anything you can imagine.  But you also see in-between frames that allow you to examine background detail your eye may never have caught before.  You may be inspired to start a list of the best of the best–could this be whittled down further to the 50 best images of each film or even the top 10 (or one, as we looked at back in 2011 here at borg.com)?

The biggest surprise is that this should be a book for discussion among fans.  Why did he select this shot of the Jawas in the Tatooine gorge instead of the memorable image of the Jawas carrying R2-D2?  Where is that classic view of Han Solo and Chewbacca firing off the ramp of the Millennium Falcon?  Lacking any text other than the forewords by The Star Wars comic book and “Making of” series writer Rinzler and director Guillermo del Toro and books dedications, each spread features four large widescreen “letterbox” images on impressive, high quality and highly detailed 15.7 inch x 14.1 inch pages in 20 lbs. of books.  The rationale for the selection of each frame then is left to the imagination of the reader.

Lucas reviewing final edits to his out-of-print, limited edition version of Star Wars: Frames.

What also comes across is the scene by scene design artistry of one movie over the other.  Maybe not surprisingly the most artistic compositions of the movies appears to be Episode IV: A New Hope, yet equally eye-popping is the imagery of Episode II:  Attack of the Clones.  Yes, devoid of clunky dialogue and stilted acting, Attack of the Clones is full of beautifully designed visuals, including shots inspired by Maxfield Parrish.  You also notice that the movies heaviest in action–Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith–have far less iconic stills.  The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best of all the films, in particular is in need of its rousing John Williams soundtrack, although it clearly has its defining moments, including the contemplative Yoda on Dagobah, the AT-ATs and tauntauns on Hoth, and the capture at Cloud City.  Even The Phantom Menace has brilliant sweeping cityscapes, although this is eclipsed by many images of the endless pod race scene.  Yet, maybe more than before, it becomes clearer what Lucas was attempting to do with the prequels.

What is missed or overlooked in the quick scenes and edits of the films in the special effects realm can be seen and studied now in Star Wars: Frames.  That the futuristic spacescapes of Attack of the Clones look so much like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and that A New Hope looks so much like a David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago) production, add to the elements that stack in favor of this boxed set.

Is Star Wars: Frames a must-have for Star Wars fans?  No question.  For a study in design and movie making this set will be one you pull from the shelf again and again.  Get your discounted copy here at Amazon.com.

Disney has issued a casting call for November 14, 2013–this Thursday–for a 17-18 year old female and a 19-23 year old male to star in Star Wars Episode VII, to commence filming at London’s Pinewood Studios in early 2014.  The casting call will be held in Chicago, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Park West in Lincoln Park.

A similar casting call is out for Great Britain.  A call was held in Bristol November 9 & 10.  Glasgow will hold a casting session at Wasp Studios November 16 & 17.  Manchester will hold a casting session at Progress Centre November 16 & 17.  London will hold a casting session at Apiary Studios and Dublin will hold a casting session at Filmbase, both November 23 & 24.

Other casting calls  have been announced for Nashville (Nov. 24); Austin (Nov. 22); and Troy, Michigan (Nov. 17).  An application and more details are available here.

What roles are being offered?  You could be Rachel or Thomas, the stars of the new Star Wars film.  Rachel and Thomas…  Huh?  These are like Blue Harvest was to Return of the Jedi, names being used to veil the details of the actual story.  Could they be one of Han & Leia or Luke’s kids?

Who are they looking for?  All you 40-something Star Wars uber-fans don’t click on your Travelocity ticket just yet.  Here’s the scoop on both roles:

Seeking: Young woman to play 17-18 Years old. Must be beautiful, smart and athletic. Open to all ethnicities (including bi- and multi-racial).

Rachel: Was quite young when she lost her parents. With no other family, she was forced to make her way alone in a tough, dangerous town. Now 17 she has become street smart and strong. She is able to take care of herself using humor and guts to get by.

Always a survivor, never a victim, she remains hopeful that she can move away from this harsh existence to a better life. She is always thinking of what she can do to move ahead.

Seeking: Young man to play 19-23 years old. Must be handsome, smart and athletic. Must be over 18.

Thomas:  Has grown up without a father’s influence. Without the model of being a man, he doesn’t have the strongest sense of himself. Despite this, he is smart, capable and shows courage when it is needed. He can appreciate the absurdities in life and understands you can’t take life too seriously.

If you make it to a casting session and want to share please let us know as we’d love to talk about it here at borg.com.

Star Wars Episode VII is scheduled for release in theaters December 18, 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

“In the Shadow of Yavin” is a great subtitle for this year’s regular monthly Star Wars series from Dark Horse Comics, although it inexplicably seemed to vanish from the series introductions after Issue #5.  Written by Brian Wood, the Star Wars monthly comic book series goes back to a key, relatively unexplored segment of the Star Wars universe–the period between the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, and The Empire Strikes Back.  In 13 issues spanning this past year, readers could take a look back to their own vision of the future of Star Wars in the 1970s when all we knew were the events of that first movie and later, three novels by Brian Daley.  Of course this isn’t altogether new territory.  This period was examined by Marvel Comics following on their own adaptation of the first movie, the now classic comic book series created by Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin, along with Carmine Infantino, Donald F. Glut and Rick Hoberg.

So how did this series fare?  The new Star Wars monthly (not to be confused with The Star Wars limited series or the several other Dark Horse Comics Star Wars Universe titles), is to comic books what “popcorn movies” are to cinema.   It’s a great mag that you can pick up and enjoy each month for what it is–images of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Darth Vader when their roles were much simpler.  Full of X-Wing and Tie-Fighter battles, it’s a print edition action movie, thanks to pencillers Carlos D’Anda and Ryan Kelly, and movie poster quality covers by Alex Ross.  We even get some fun exploration of Darth Vader’s banishment by the Emperor for losing the Death Star, and appearances by Boba Fett, who back in the day we wouldn’t meet until The Empire Strikes Back, and Mon Mothma, who we would not meet until Return of the Jedi.

The addition of these key characters by Wood makes sense here.  They are inserted in the story in ways that don’t take away from their later introductions in the movies.  The addition of Boba Fett and Bossk may feel like a cheat to some, like adding bacon to your Iron Chef tourney meals, since it was their cloaked past and brief encounter in The Empire Strikes Back that created their mystique.  But this series isn’t about canon and detail as much as creating a fun serial.  This includes Luke and Wedge Antilles hanger deck scenes that may be inspired by the knuckledragger sequences of the Syfy Channel Battlestar Galactica TV series.

Where this series does rise above the typical Star Wars story, including Lucas’s own creations, is in its exploration of four primary female figures even to the exclusions of fleshing out Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.  Princess Leia Organa is the series lead, she pilots her own X-Wing, she scolds newbie farm boy Luke for not following the rules, she strategizes and carries out tactical plans.  Mon Mothma carries out her own separate level of political maneuvering to help ferret out a spy plot, even turning the tables on the Empire itself.  On Coruscant, Han and Chewy team up with a smuggler and pilot just as savvy as Han in the new character named Perla.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Darth Vader taps his own protégé by promoting a confident and determined woman named Moff Birra Seah, even defying his own Emperor when he wills Seah to kill herself when he is dissatisfied with her role.  As Princess Leia typifies the story of the citizen of a destroyed planet trying to rebuild a rebel defiance, Seah’s character illustrates the complexities of survival within the confines of the military machine of the Imperial Fleet.

All said, this Star Wars monthly will keep readers engaged in its ongoing pathway to the inevitable promotions of Luke and Han to generals, the knowledge of Darth Vader of an enemy named Skywalker, and a rebel base entrenched in the ice planet called Hoth.  Issue #13 of Star Wars from Dark Horse Comics is available in comic book stores now.  You can pick up trade editions of issues #1-6 in Star Wars Volume 1: In the Shadow of Yavin and Issues #7-12  in Star Wars Volume 2: From the Ruins of Alderaan, both available from Amazon.com.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you really want to see the best of popular comic book publishing titles in 2013, you need look no further than Dark Horse Comics’ series The Star Wars.  You have a great independent publishing house with the enviable license to the greatest genre franchise, add in an original script by a young, pre-fame George Lucas, an adaptation by Star Wars expert J.W. Rinzler, and the best interior art panel work in the industry, and you have the first four issues of a sci-fi classic in the making.

Regular comic book readers, and diehard Star Wars fans already know about The Star Wars, first a 1974 script that is the stuff of sci-fi legend that has sat in a file drawer for nearly four decades–Lucas’s first draft of Star Wars, before editing, when all the big fantasy ideas first danced around his mind, and now a limited edition monthly series.  What is amazing is that your average passing Star Wars fans may not be aware of this new comic book series that is bringing the original source material to the public for the first time in dense, colorful, action-packed pages.  We’re no doubt that the hardcover edition that will ultimately bring together the eight-issue series and a director’s edition due out next week (“The Official Guide to a Different Galaxy”) will be a mainstream bestseller.  Dark Horse Comics just needs to get this series in readers’ hands.

So what’s the big deal?  Artist Mike Mayhew’s incredible panel art.  Mayhew pulled from the unused, original design concepts for Star Wars to re-design an entire, comprehensive, fleshed out galaxy.  Beginning with the Starkillers, a father named Kane who is a cyborg and sons Annikin and Deak, Mayhew looked to Flash Gordon and Ralph McQuarrie for inspiration.  Annikin takes on many plot points that would later fall to Luke Skywalker, yet if The Star Wars was released with Star Wars we’re thinking this Annikin would have been perceived as the coolest Jedi, bringing in some of the hot head qualities we know from a certain space smuggler.

In The Star Wars, General Luke Skywalker is a veteran of many battles in his 60s.  But the greatest challenge must have been designing Han Solo himself, who in 1974 was a large green hulk. Mayhew designed the look entirely himself to have the general silhouette of Swamp Thing or the Martian Manhunter, a boisterous fellow who carries the humor and mass of Chewbacca.  Imperial General Darth Vader is not a cyborg or Sith in The Star Wars–he’s a villain to be sure, but here Mayhew pulled in elements from the famous uniform from the films.  Stephane Roux created the new Imperial troopers, who bear a similar look to Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art, complete with the “light swords” that would one day be coined lightsabers.

The cityscapes, the gaseous planet Alderaan (not Cloud City), the ships, all feel like they belong in the “other” Star Wars universe, with familiar “camera angles,” and design detailing, yet for the most part they are new–you’ll feel like you’re reading a Star Wars book, but the world is just slightly askew.

The honesty in the 1974 script comes through in Issues #1-4 as Rinzler seamlessly pulled Lucas’s work, which had some gaps, into a complete story.  You’ll find darker components here than the story you know, beloved characters get killed, the Empire is made up of several Flash Gordon-inspired Emperor Ming types, and the deeper political themes that weren’t as well carried out in The Phantom Menace make more sense in the context of this different story.  The action is plentiful–we wouldn’t be surprised if Disney looks here for element ideas for its coming Episode VII film.

The Star Wars Issues #1-4 can be ordered from your local comic book shop and Issue #0, consisting of some great background and art not found in the monthly will be released next Tuesday, December 31, 2013.  Issue #5 is expected to hit the shelves in February 2014.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We tried on for size almost every new book that was released from comic book publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Archaia/BOOM!, and Image.  We tried to sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics had to offer, too, and although we didn’t have enough time to review everything we did try to put out there for your consideration those titles we thought our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro bent.  Our pull list included issues from Afterlife with Archie to Django Unchained, from Liberator to Larfleeze, and from Velvet to The X-Files.  This past month we have reviewed the year-long run of the best of these titles, as we narrowed our selections to 21 of the very best entries in genre entertainment outside of TV and movies, which we revealed here yesterday.  So here are the rest of our picks for the Best of 2013.

Best Borg Appearance, Kane Starkiller, The Star Wars.  Borgs showed up everywhere this year, from the lead characters on Almost Human, to Doctor Who, to countless comic book series including Justice League and RoboCop.  Our favorite appearance came from the young mind of George Lucas as he created the original script that would later be edited into the original Star Wars trilogy.  And through Dark Horse Comics’ The Star Wars monthly comic book event we learned one of his best ideas was merged into other roles and one of his best characters entirely cut.   That character was Jedi Kane Starkiller who revealed to all his cyborg chest implants that kept him alive, later to heroically offer his own technology to save his friends.

Best Comic Book Series –  Miss Fury, Dynamite Comics.  A uniquely crafted tale, a compelling and seductive superhero, great action panel after panel, sourced in a long-shelved classic character of the Golden Age of comics.  Rob Williams and Jack Herbert’s Miss Fury is a carefully rendered update that rings true to the edgy spirit of the world’s first female superhero.  Beautiful panels set up an ever-changing time and place and pull readers along for the ride.  And stuck-out-of-time Marla Drake and her alter ego Miss Fury could not have looked better, whether carving out her place in the 1940s or as she was teleported into the future.  It’s a series no one should miss.

Best Comic Book Writing – Matt Fraction, Hawkeye.  Last year revealed one of the best comic book series we ever read, focusing on that “other” superhero archer, the second tier Marvel Comics superhero Hawkeye.  Matt Fraction gave us the most interesting set-up and look into the daily life of a superhero who isn’t Captain America or Iron Man.  This year he kept up the momentum in his Hawkeye monthly series, providing stories that challenged readers, each issue taking a different peek into Clint Barton, another costumed superhero called Hawkeye, and their trusty dog.

Best Comic Book Art – Mike Mayhew, Rain Beredo – The Star Wars.  We still don’t know how an artist can create so much world building in a single year.  And how do you re-imagine something as iconic as the original Star Wars design and give us something  to rave about?  Mayhew’s pencils in the limited series The Star Wars are pretty much second to none (and Beredo’s color choice is superb as well) and we can’t wait to see how they wind up their adaptation of George Lucas’s original script for the beloved Star Wars universe.

Breakout Comic Book Writer of the Year — Aaron Gillespie, Bionic Man.  Gillespie quietly rebuilt the Bionic Man franchise this year as he took over the reboot of Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, launched by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester.  In doing so he offered up an interesting update to the 1970s original borg hero, and brought along plenty of humor and retro fun.  We think Gillespie is the writer to watch in the coming years.

Breakout Artist of the Year - Greg Smallwood, Dream Thief.  It blew us away that a new comic book artist could bring along so much original style in his first major published comic book series.  Smallwood’s layouts on the Dark Horse Comics limited series Dream Thief and his cool and gritty anti-hero left us eagerly awaiting what he has up his sleeves next.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Hawkeye, Issue #11, Marvel Comics. Although Afterlife with Archie, Issue #1 also blew us away with its creepy twist on the classic characters, the best single issue of any comic book series we reviewed was Hawkeye, Issue #11 written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja.  Check out our review here of this great issue told entirely from the perspective of Clint Barton’s sleuthing dog Lucky.  Pure awesomeness.

Best Comic Book Marketing Event — Lenticular Villain One-shot Month, DC Comics.  We can’t get enough of all things retro and what is better than lenticular images?  How about taking 52 monthly titles and devoting them to a litany of villainy and giving each a 3D lenticular cover?  A genius of an idea, DC Comics’ villains vandalized the regular monthly series for one month this year and the result was loads of fun.  And we can’t stop listening to the return of that high-pitched sound from our youths as those books scrape against each other.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Alex Ross.  Last year we were able to pull out the best covers for 2012.  This year we found ourselves arguing over the best Alex Ross cover of the year.  As just a sample, Ross created noteworthy cover art for Star Wars #1-4, Battlestar Galactica #1-3, Grimm #1, Dream Thief #1, Miss Fury #1, Django Unchained #6, Fantastic Four #1, Masks #1-8, The Owl #3, The Shadow #4 and 13, The Shadow: Year One #1-6, and Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #10.  Plus Astro City, Doc Savage, Pacific Rim, Peter Cannon, and Lords of Mars covers!  The man must never sleep!  He produced so much, each of which could be a year’s best, that we’ll have to run down his best of 2013 on a later day.

Best Comics Collected Edition: Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, Archaia.  Putting aside Archaia’s unique book format for the world of Mouse Guard, David Petersen’s unique one-two-punch of storytelling and artistry in his world of mighty mice continues to entertain readers with the gripping and personal trials of these heroes on their latest epic quest.  Petersen may have offered up his best work yet this year in Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, a harrowing and bittersweet account of the last of a breed.

Best Use of Comic Book Medium — Liberator, Black Mask Studios.  Matt Miner’s Liberator mini-series took a hard-nosed look at animal rights this year through its vigilante heroes, expanding the knowledge of readers lucky enough to get their hands on the series.

Best Comeback – Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin.  It’s not like these guys really went anywhere but we just wanted to say how fun it is after all these years to walk into a comic book shop and to be able to buy new books drawn by Grell and Chaykin.  With Grell on the Arrow series and Chaykin with projects like Satellite Sam, fans of classic styles can get their fix and new readers can get introduced to work from the old pros.

Best Non-Fiction Genre Work — The Hobbit Chronicles, Weta Workshop.  Reviewed here at borg.com earlier this year here, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design provides an unprecedented look at last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, through lavish photos of art design, sets, costumes, and props, by the folks at Weta.  With coffee table books released and re-released in 2013 including Star Wars Frames, Firefly: A Celebration, Princess Bride: A Celebration, and Bazooka Joe, it was a great year for books about movies, TV, and other genre properties.

Best Reviewed Book - Johnny Alucard, Kim Newman.  Although Stephen King’s new book Joyland was also a great read, Kim Newman’s new Anno Dracula series novel Johnny Alucard, in his parallel universe of vampires living amongst us, was deep in world building and complex relationships with fictional and non-fictional characters throughout, as Newman’s anti-hero Johnny rises to power.

Best Retro Reviewed Book – Nothing Lasts Forever, Roderick Thorp.  Just like we enjoyed Martin Caidin’s original novel Cyborg that inspired The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, Thorp’s original work, Nothing Lasts Forever, which was turned into the movie Die Hard, was a great window the hard-working cop who saves the day.  Fans of the Die Hard series left wanting after the new movie this year need only check out this book for some great fun.

Best Auction and Catalog of the Year — The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Auction, Julien’s.  This December the first and maybe last auction of screen-used props and costumes from a private collection hit the auction block.  The Trilogy/Middle Earth catalog itself was a feast for the eyes of fantasy fans–a sourcebook in its own right for close-up photos of these rare pieces.  The auction results included the sale of one of Gimli’s axes for $180,000.

Best Album – Smash Mouth, Magic.  Plenty of good music hit the airways this year, including Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, the Skyfall soundtrack, and the extended Night Visions album from Imagine Dragons.  But our favorite was the long-awaited release of the next Smash Mouth album, Magic.  Including remixes of several of the songs, it added another great party album to the band’s catalog of great tunes.  Check out our review here.

Best Song/Best Video – Space Oddity, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield.  Sure, there were great songs on the airwaves this year, including Adele’s Skyfall, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, but was anything cooler than astronaut Chris Hadfield recording and filming his own cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in outer space?  We don’t think so.  Twenty million viewers on YouTube would agree.

Best New Tech –  3D Printing.  It was the year everything could get printed, from human organs to bones to edible pizzas.  It’s the next big thing.  3D printing took off and tricorders are on their way in 2014.  The future is now.

Best Toy Line — Honey Trap Army, Gentle Giant.  At several hundred dollars per figure, these toys were not for everyone, but if they’d only produce a mass market version we think everyone would get a set.  A direct-to-toy series that was not based on any existing property, the sculpts for Gentle Giant’s incredible femme fatale fighting team, the Honey Trap Army, were simply beautiful.  Check them out here to see what we mean.

Best Action Figure — 12-inch Retro Rocket Firing Boba Fett.  Gentle Giant’s line of 12-inch action figures based on the Kenner line of 3.75 inch figures from the 1970s and 1980s was nothing short of brilliant.  No toy series was more nostalgic to fans who grew up with the original trilogy, so when they issued a rocket-firing Boba Fett based on the unreleased prototypes, the result was toy gold.  Check it out here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our Best of the Best list for 2013 here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Friday Disney announced it is pulling the Star Wars exclusive licensing deal from Mike Richardson’s Dark Horse Comics at the end of the year–a deal that gave fans the very best Star Wars stories written in the franchise over the past 20 years.  Disney owns Marvel Comics and so this was not a big surprise, although it is disappointing to see something so successful going from one of the “little guy” independents to a big conglomerate that has sucked up everything from ABC to ESPN and has become adept at throttling the number of voices in the media marketplace.  Star Wars comics hold the reputation they have because the expanded universe was built brick by brick at Dark Horse in Milwaukie, Oregon, by some of the best writers and artists around.  The mainstream press is quick to refer to the franchise “going back to Marvel Comics” because Marvel published the initial Star Wars series Issues #1-107 back in the 1970s and 1980s, but that series just can’t compare to what was done at Dark Horse, beginning with its Dark Empire series.

If you haven’t read the expanded universe of Star Wars via comic books, you’re missing out.  Get to a comic book store now to check out the current monthly Star Wars series while they are still made by the best creators around, including Brian Wood’s Star Wars, which takes place between the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and The Star Wars, based on George Lucas’s original draft screenplay, each reviewed here last month.  We think Dark Horse will have no problem backfilling its market niche with other new series, one of which should be expanding its Firefly/Serenity book line.

Here are some other great Star Wars series published by Dark Horse Comics that you might have missed:

Check out where it all began with Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and a two-issue third act Empire’s End all available in the Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy.  If you love the original characters of the saga you will be happy with this book.  Dave Dorman’s painted cover art for the series is some of the best movie poster quality Star Wars art to appear in print.

Back when we had nothing to read of the Empire but Brian Daley’s Star Wars novels, Timothy Zahn wrote a three-novel series that propelled Star Wars back into our thoughts again.  Dark Horse published a great graphic series adaptation of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, in Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy. 

Back in the 1990s one of my favorite expanded universe characters was Mara Jade, who would later marry Luke Skywalker.  Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole created Star Wars: Mara Jade – By the Emperor’s Hand, showcasing this cool character whose origin was with the Dark Side.

John Ostrander and Douglas Wheatley created a popular one-shot called Star Wars: Purge, documenting the days of the Dark Time, and taking place after Episode III (with nice Adam Hughes cover work).

Dark Horse Comics’ chief Mike Richardson wrote the bloody series Star Wars: The Crimson Empire Saga, a tale of the last of Emperor Palpatine’s royal guard.

Ostrander again wrote another Star Wars series, Dawn of the Jedi, with Jan Duursma.  It’s available in two trade volumes, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi Volume 1 – Force Storm, and Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi Volume 2 – Prisoner of Bogan.

Last year Tim Siedell wrote Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin, about an assassin hired to kill Darth Vader, and Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows, about a clone war trooper under the command of the Jedi who switches loyalty to the Empire, although it is not available in a trade edition until later this year.

If James Bond intrigue is your thing, try Star Wars: Agent of the Empire, another very fun read written by John Ostrander.  It’s available in two trade editions, Star Wars: Agent of the Empire, Volume 1–Iron Eclipse and Star Wars: Agent of the Empire, Volume 2–Hard Targets.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Last Saturday Mythbusters took on Star Wars story elements in one of its best shows in its long run.  How do Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman keep up the momentum?  By sticking to the show’s unique format, keeping the original duo of makers and breakers that got us hooked on mythbusting in the first place, and giving fans the only place they can see science presented like nowhere else.  Giving us a season opener with the greatest space fantasy of all time proves the series can continue as long as these guys want it to keep running.

The first Star Wars element they pursued in the Star Wars special was the chasm scene in A New Hope where Luke and Leia swing to safety in the Death Star while being pursued by Stormtroopers.  Instead of simply proving out each element–which they did by testing a grappling hook, and having Jamie swing across with and without a Leia stand-in–they went into full cosplay mode with Jamie in Luke’s outfit and Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion cosplay group acting out the scene.  Although Jamie noted that in a life or death situation it’d be difficult to get that grappling hook to stick on the first try, they determined the whole scene plausible.  A big win for Star Wars considering these guys usually find movie myths don’t make the cut.

Next up, Mythbusters Grant Imahara, Kari Byron, and Tori Belleci took on the AT-ST all-terrain armored Scout Walker scene from Endor in Return of the Jedi.  The Ewoks rigged two giant tree stumps to swing from either side and squish the driver’s compartment like a pop can.  Were they able to replicate the scene?  You bet!  Although their test structure seemed ready to crumble any minute, the heavy trees practically demolished an armored car just as in the movie.

Finally, in what Adam referred to as the most elaborate myth test ever, Jamie and Adam recreated the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han discovers Luke, beaten by a Wampa, and stuffs him in a tauntaun that just died to keep him alive while he builds an overnight camp.  Adam built a tauntaun from foam and fur, and they stuffed it with their trademark brand of gooey but life-like guts.  Along with test equipment that measured the temperature of Luke (played by a dummy) they monitored the frozen conditions and showed that if you’re out in the cold on Mount Everest and there’s a fresh animal carcass to hide in, it might save your life.  Awesome!

It’s this kind of episode that will keep fans coming back for more, and has made Adam and Jamie pop culture royalty.  What adds to the cool factor of this episode is the fact that Adam made models for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  Tori Belleci created some of the federation spaceships and podracers for Industrial Light and Magic for the prequel trilogy, and Grant Imahara worked for ILM on all three Star Wars prequels as an electronics and radio control expert, updating the R2-D2 units for the movies.  What better street cred is that to put on such an episode?

Here is a preview of this season’s episodes:

Catch the Mythbusters Star Wars special on your local cable free-per-view and new episodes on Saturday nights through March 1, 2014.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Dark Horse Comics is offering a valentine to anyone who wants to catch up on one or more of 38 Star Wars digital comics available on their website.  Their promotion states that you can save up to 50% off cover price but we’re seeing $2.99 books going for as low as $0.99 and even a $0.49 for Brian Wood’s Star Wars, Issue #1.

We recommend the great Star Wars: Infinities books, a “what if?” alternate version of each of the three original trilogy stories.  You’ll also find the classic Dark Empire series, and romantics can check out Star Wars: Union, where Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade tie the knot, and the Valentine’s Day version of the Star Wars Christmas Special in Judd Winick’s one-shot Breaking the Ice issue.  Disney has announced they are throwing aside much of the expanded universe built over the past 35 years, but we think they are nuts if they don’t include Mara Jade.  Find out more about her in Dark Horse Comics.

Click here to check out the available books.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com