ToyFare #132

Another issue of ToyFare is on the newsstands, and there is another sidebar in the price guide from yours truly in the back. Pick up a copy and check it out!

Marvel Unbound - Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 3 - Resurrection of Evil

Here on Random Thoughts Escaping is a written version of my contribution to today's Marvel Noise podcast: a new installment of "Marvel Unbound". And with it comes another opportunity to chat about it in the Marvel Noise forum's "Marvel Unbound" thread. Enjoy!

While they have since lost (or given up) the rights to many of their licensed properties, back in the '80s it seemed Marvel owned the rights to officially adapt nearly every movie and toy franchise of significance. Blade Runner. Bond movies like For Your Eyes Only. Conan the Barbarian. Star Trek. G.I. Joe. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Transformers. And, yes, even Star Wars.

Dark Horse currently holds the rights to Marvel's Star Wars catalog, and made the run available in seven volumes under the Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... banner. Similar to the scarcity of the G.I. Joe trade paperbacks, volume one of the Dark Horse Star Wars trade paperback -- containing the adaptation of the original movie -- is difficult to find and ridiculously priced on the secondary market. While I would love to get my hands on that, it's volume three, Resurrection of Evil, that interests me most, because it covers one half of the point in time that I was reading the comic. The collection starts off with the six-issue official adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back and cruises through to issue #53.

One of the coolest things about these adaptations is the literary license Marvel was able to take. The original issues were released concurrently with the movie, so the writers often worked from earlier drafts of the scripts resulting in varying or additional information not found in the films. Sometimes characters weren't quite "right" visually or omitted altogether because the artists either didn't see the movie in advance or were not given permission to illustrate particular details. In the Empire adaptation, we get a subplot of Wampa ice creatures inside the Rebel's Hoth base, a freaky looking Yoda, and no visuals whatsoever of the asteroid space slug. Overall, though, what we get here is solid and enjoyable!

This is sort of a double-edged sword, though. What's cool about this is that, unlike the Return of the Jedi adaptation, Empire was folded right into the Marvel continuity as issues #39 through #44. The downside is that because it was folded right into the Marvel continuity you eliminate Han Solo from the storytelling palate unless he's used in flashbacks, so we're left with Luke, Leia, and Lando heavy tales.

Outside of The Empire Strikes Back adaptation, the only place we see an appearance by Han in this volume is in the "Giant 50th Collectors' Issue!" It's actually a pretty solid story by Archie Goodwin that includes an entire chapter out of Han and Chewie's past, with art by Al Williamson, Thomas Palmer, and Walt Simonson.

Thinking back to the time when these books were produced, no one knew where Lando's allegiance would eventually lie. Many of the stories filling the gap between Empire and Jedi focused on Lando and Chewie being called away from the search for the bounty hunter Boba Fett and Han, and revolving around Leia and Chewie's distrust of Lando. David Michelinie, however, allows Lando a rare moment of heroics in what is the best original story in this volume -- the two-parter "Resurrection of Evil"/"To Take the Tarkin" -- spun across issues #51 and #52.

While Goodwin is probably the writer most closely associated with the title for his work both here and in the newspaper strips, and handles the bulk of the scripting in this volume, there are some other well-known Marvel scribes contributing one-off issues throughout. G.I. Joe mastermind Larry Hama under whelms with his tale of Leia vs. Vader in issue #48's "The Third Law". Chris Claremont's duel-titled tale in issue #53 -- "The Last Gift From Alderaan!/A Stranger Among Us!" -- takes this volume out in outstanding cliffhanger fashion! (And Simonson's cover is just gorgeous!)

Williamson is as inextricably linked to the title for his art as Goodwin is for his storytelling, but they're not the only game in town. Carlos Garzon, Carmine Infantino and Simonson also split art duties with Williamson here.

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 3 - Resurrection of Evil is one of the volumes from this series that is readily available at cover price or below, and includes an interesting interview with Jennifer Barker of Digital Chameleon Ltd., the company responsible for recoloring the entire Marvel Star Wars series for Dark Horse. I didn't collect a lot of Star Wars comics back in the day. I only have issues #50 through #57. All post-Empire Strikes Back. All sans Han Solo with the exception of a flashback story. Four of those eight issues are captured in this volume, and rereading them here was a real treat.

Why I'm Voting Republican...

(Thanks to Buffy for bringing this to my attention.)

Father, Son

One of the toughest things to write about is something you don't like. Bad reviews are always surprisingly harder to articulate than good ones. There are often boundless directions to go in when you are pressed for a word count on something you enjoy, but writing a (justified) negative review can be as tedious as the piece being evaluated. Peter Gabriel's Still Growing Up, Live and Unwrapped was one of those chores for me, but there was a bright spot: I discovered the song "Father, Son" among the extras. And for all its treacle, it still puts me in an appreciative mood -- thankful my father is still around and understanding that I still have a lot to learn from him.

Good Morning, Son

As a writer there are things -- essays, passages, songs -- you read or hear and know you could have (or sometimes feel should have) written. Ben Folds' "Still Fighting It" is one of those things for me. I'm not a huge Ben Folds fan. I liked the single "Brick" that he put out with his old band, Ben Folds Five, but beyond that I'm not someone who claims extensive knowledge of his oeuvre. I do know that "Still Fighting It" is on Folds' first solo album, Rockin' the Suburbs, released September 11, 2001 -- about a month after my son was born. I didn't find the song until a couple of years later, during that time when my son's personality was really starting to emerge. And the lyrics captured right where my head was at the time -- realizing he was "so much like me (I'm sorry)" and how it was "weird to be back here" in Northeast Ohio, where I grew up, as a husband and father. The lump-in-your-throat honesty -- raw and brutal as "Brick", but so heartbreakingly beautiful here -- captures so much about being a dad, and the feelings that confusion evokes.

Revisiting the song today, and coupling that with having just read David's new book (and its underlying theme also about a man stretching and evolving into the role of spouse and provider), and I am suddenly in a most reflective, most appreciative state of mind as Father's Day approaches.

Strung Out in Heaven's High

We've watched the first two episodes of Discovery HD's miniseries When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, and I'm nearly speechless. I have always loved the stories of America's early space program. I remember the first time I saw The Right Stuff -- based on Tom Wolfe's book about the Project Mercury program -- on HBO with my parents back in the '80s and being transfixed by the story and fascinated by the fact that the real people the actors were portraying were still around.

When I saw the trailer for this new series, where the Discovery Channel was able to open up the NASA vaults and re-master the footage for presentation, I was blown away. Gary Sinise does a fine job of narrating, framing the visually stunning footage in its natural flow and suspense. And as our six year old son observed: "This is like Star Wars... only [in Star Wars] they don't wear spacesuits or helmets, just their regular clothes and a communicator."

My only complaint is that the episodes go by much too quickly. Episode 1, "Ordinary Supermen", covers the Mercury missions in just under an hour. Likewise, episode 2, "Friends and Rivals", presents the Gemini program in the same running time. But that could be considered nitpicking, because I am grateful to see any of this footage at all.

With Akron-ness

My friend David's new book, All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House, is living up to expectations. I picked up my copy at his reading and talk at the Akron Main Library auditorium this past Wednesday and have barely put it down since.

I have known David for about three years now. When my first review for PopMatters was published, I emailed it to him because I knew he had co-written the great book We Are Devo! with Jade Dellinger. He responded graciously and has always been generous with guidance and a kind word ever since.

Before our flight to the suburbs, we lived around the corner from David and Gina. Our house was nothing compared to what they have undertaken, both in the size of the house or in the scope of any sort of needed refurbishment (NYT slide show), but reading the new book now makes me wonder if I should have been asking David for home improvement advice as much as I have asked him for writing guidance! (I think David would modestly say I have been better off without his advice in the home repair arena.)

What's cool for me is that I have actually been inside the house that is really a main character in the new book on a couple of occasions when dropping off or picking up stuff that David and I were exchanging. I've only ever seen the foyer and center hall inside and the garage around back (to turn my car around because, as described in the book, backing out of that drive can be suicide). If I had known the story behind the house beforehand I would have paid more attention to what surrounded me, but it left an impression nonetheless.

We found out at the Library event that All the Way Home has been selected for Oprah's Summer Reading List, which is huge for the book. Combine that with the great profile in the New York Times a couple months ago and the fact that David is the kind of writer who connects with the reader almost immediately, and the book is bound for success and David for even greater heights. From the well-placed music references to the laid-bare emotional confusion of what it means to earn the title of husband/father/provider, there is an inherent urban, metrosexual, hip-ness to David's writing that is off-set perfectly by his ability to appreciate the wonder of the town he has grown up in.

After David's talk at the library, I stood in line with my old neighbors from Highland Square who had also come out to support David, along with my parents who had driven up to hear him speak. I introduced my parents to David, and we all had him autograph our copies of the book. He signed mine, "With Akron-ness," and it couldn't be more appropriate.