MARVEL STAR WARS EXPLORERS: The Return of Ben Kenobi

I'm guesting on the latest episode of this fun podcast, discussing the newspaper strip story, The Return of Ben Kenobi, by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, with hosts Brian Rudloff and Sam Stovold.

Have a listen here.

THAT COMIC SMELL: Read Me Forever!

The new episode is online now.

From the website:

"On today’s episode we covers those pages/comics in which we constantly come back to. The ones we set aside even though we have a huge reading pile to get through. The ones that we jumps to when thinking about comics. The show offs. The utter loves. The ones that are FOREVER!
We also go into quite a large list this time of comics that we have got a hold of, bought or have been reading recently.
This and all the usual comics chat on…
That Comic Smell!

Get us on…
Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c
Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs
YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno
Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj
and most places you find podcasts.

Star Trek DC (Mike Barr, Tom Sutton, Ricardo Villagra)
This Was 2020 (Peter Conrad)
Batman: Strange Apparitions (Steve Englehart, Marshal Rogers, Len Wein, Walt Simonson)
Bubbles Fanzine #9 (Brian Baynes)
Please Don't Step on my Jnco Jeans (Noah Van Sciver)
King-Cat Classix (John Porcellino)
Tarzan (Burne Hogarth)
King Kirby: Jack Kirby y el mundo del cómic (José Joaquín Rodríguez)
Bone (Jeff Smith)
Watchmen (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons)
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (Al Williamson, Archie Goodwin)
The Incredible Hulk (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby)
Spider-man/Venom (Todd McFarlane)
Transformers: Stargazing (Simon Furman, Jeff Anderson, Stephen Baskerville)
Hellblazer: Original Sins (Jamie Delano, John Ridgway)
Thor: Blood Oath (Scott Kolins, Michael Avon Oeming)
X-MAN (Steve Skroce, Terry Kavanagh)
Battle Angel Alita (Yukito Kishiro)
Fued (Mike Barron, Mark Nelson)
The Hulk vs Doc Samson: Marvel Annual (John Byrne
Dragonball Z vol.2 (Akira Toriyama)
One Piece Vol.1 (Eiichiro Oda)
Excalibur (Chris Claremont, Alan Davis)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, David Lloyd)
Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Blacksad (Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido)
The Death of Superman (Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various)
Follow Me In (Katriona Chapman)
CYDO (John Tucker)"

STAR WARS: EPISODE 9: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Because Star Wars is a money making franchise which has to continually be kept running, Disney has been busy training everyone to understand that Episode 9, rather than being the end of Star Wars, is more accurately the end of “the Skywalker Saga” - a subset of Star Wars which sits alongside all the other shows like The Madalorian and spin-off movies like Rogue One. However I understand it in the context presented to me in 1979 - it's the final episode of the 9 movie Star Wars saga.

Here's an excerpt from the very enjoyable book "Once Upon a Galaxy" by Alan A.Arnold:

"Alan A. Arnold: Tell me more about the overall concept of the Star Wars saga.
George Lucas: There are essentially nine films in a series of three trilogies. The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke's father when Luke was a little boy. This trilogy takes place some twenty years before the second trilogy which includes Star Wars and Empire. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about twenty years pass between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about fifty five years."

The Star Wars adaptation comics have been a mixed bag. The first three have sterling work from Roy Thomas / Howard Chaykin, and Archie Goodwin / Al Williamson. By the time we got to the comic of The Last Jedi last year, I found I enjoyed that more than the movie. I was able to swallow the events of that story more when presented as a comic (which I could pretend was an expanded universe type of thing).

As far as I’m aware a comic for The Rise of Skywalker hasn’t been announced, but with this last trilogy, the adaptations have been coming out a year after the movies, so we’ll see.


In any case, tomorrow sees the culmination of the promised 9 part saga. Obviously a lot of things have changed along the way (Lucas’ non-involvement is a deal-breaker, truth be told). But it is what it is, and it feels like a momentous occasion to me.

Goodbye, Star Wars p2 from Break the Cake, 2018.

THAT COMIC SMELL 36: Giant Size 2019 Annual (Bronze Age Top 3)

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.

Have a listen at iTunes, Soundcloud and YouTube.

From the web:
""Look out Gotham! The Joker’s back in town!"
We're back and bigger than ever! After a large bout of sickness, festive down time and technical problems we come to you with this Bumper Giant Size Episode. We begin by answering some VERY interesting twitter questions from listeners. Which takes us nicely into showing off our Christmas pressies/swag to each other. Some have more than others and we go all out to try and make each other jealous.
If that wasn’t enough for you, we even had a main topic of our Top 3 Bronze Age comics! As we find out though, we barely scratch the surface on such an iconic and defining era in comic history. That doesn’t stop us completely smothering ourselves in bronze-age goodness and sharing some incredible favourites.

This and all the usual comics chat on the only comics podcast that one day would love to be sponsored by a biscuit. I mean I think we eat enough…

That Comic Smell!"

THE STAR WARS PHENOMENON IN BRITAIN

This new book covers the cultural impact the first three Star Wars films had on the UK. The author was a young kid living through it.

Many aspects of the merchandise available are covered in depth - toys, records, books, etc. All lovingly covered in detail.

The comics are discussed too. The Marvel UK series, and the newspaper strips by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, as published in The Sunday Express Magazine.

I was pleased to see I am quoted regarding the latter, talking enthusiastically about the cuttings I took from these.

I've still got them. A really nice wee collection...

MARVEL STAR WARS #108 (or MUG ME, MARVEL)

Marvel was licenced to make Star Wars comics in the 70s and 80s, creating the original run which featured many creators including Howard Chaykin, Mary Jo Duffy, Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Carmine Infantino, Cynthia Martin, David Mazzucchelli, Tom Palmer, Walt Simonson and Al Williamson.

Being a big Star Wars fan, I read all of them. The series ran from 1977 to 1986. The next Marvel Star Wars comic was scheduled to be a series called Dark Empire by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy, but the rights lapsed and Dark Horse picked it up instead. They’ve published Star Wars comics since 1991. Unlike Marvel, who put out one ongoing series with limited related titles, Dark Horse have continually brought out an ever changing roster of series. It was too much to keep up with for me. I still keep an eye out for good Star Wars comics, but haven’t felt the desire to buy them all since after Dark Empire 2 back in 1994.

Now that Disney has bought Lucasfilm, speculation is rife about Marvel getting the licence back. Disney owns Marvel, so it might make sense. However there have been other Disney properties which feature in comics not made by Disney, so it’s not a certainty. And anyway I thought to myself, who cares? Doesn’t make any difference to me who’s publishing Star Wars. But then it occurred to me: Marvel could get the rights back and publish Star Wars #108.

The completist in me would find it very hard not to buy that!

STAR WARS BLU-RAY

There's another release of the Star Wars movies imminent, this time on Blu-ray. There have been more changes made to the films and also included is a selection of deleted scenes. Posted online is an alternative take of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher on Hoth. Watch it here. I checked it out and realised that I was familiar with the deleted dialogue. A lot of it was in the comic adaptation from 1980. These comics took a long time to do, and so the writer Archie Goodwin and artist Al Williamson would work from scripts and reference photos, so as to have the comic ready at the same time as the movie was released. By this time, dialogue had changed and scenes had been cut, but they were still in the comics. I remember there was much more to Luke's training with Yoda in the comic, for instance. This black and white artwork really shows up Williamson's work nicely. The writing at the bottom, "Next week! Re-Enter: Obi-Wan Kenobi! Miss it not!" is there because this page is from the UK weekly reprint comic. As six pages had gone by, it was time for a break until the next issue. I can still remember the anticipation for the next instalment. The arm bursting through the wall at the end is a wampa monster, in a scene that was cut from the movie but is also in the deleted scenes now offered.