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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 4, 2021 9:40:24 GMT -5
Iceworld
October 4th-November 14th, 1982
Written by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al Williamson
LA Times Syndicate
Summary: Fleeing a squadron of Tie fighters on his way back from his mission Luke hides in the tail of a passing comet to make his escape but soon finds that he's trapped by the comet's slipstream and and can't pull out until it crashes onto an icy planet...a planet we know as Hoth! Plot: In this chapter Williamson not only fully bridges the gap between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back by having Luke discover Hoth but also creates a fun survival/ mystery story which is a fun tact to take within the Star Wars universe. I was initially thrown by the shoddy science the story started with as Luke and Threepio comment that the comet is traveling faster than any known starship and it's gravitational pull is too strong for Luke's ship to escape but I quickly got over it as it's not as if Star Wars was ever big on hard science to begin with. Once past that we get a fun story of Luke trying to survive the wilds of Hoth and a mystery of who his saviors are and while we never really get a satisfying reason for who his saviors are other than that they are imperial life model decoys it was a solid read. Art: When working with only a few panels in each week's installment and no color telling a story and making is visually interesting is a huge challenge but the way Williamson frames his panels and the creative inking tricks he uses never cease to amaze. It could easily feel simplistic or repetitive but Williamson seems to delight in experimenting with style. On of my favorite examples would be this strip from October 18th:  To start with, rather than opening the strip with another shot of Luke and Threepio in the starship he pulls back for an exterior shot which with it's beautiful scratchy, snowy look instantly sets a dire mood, breaks up the visual look of the setting in the ship and foreshadows a future development with the mysterious figure on the Tuantuan. That's a lot for one image which is a great use of the limited space allowed...but he doesn't just stop there as in the third panel he goes for an inverted, negative look which makes for a stunning black and white image. The man is an absolute master.
Continuity tidbit: The end of the story features the early title for the third Star Wars film as well as a sneak peak at Admiral Ackbar:  I like the more pointed, squid like look Ackbar sports here. : While a little simplistic the story provided a fun bridge between a New Hope and Empire Strikes back and featured some fantastic artwork. Grade:B- This story was okay. Nothing great. It was nice to see Hoth get "discovered" by the rebels, though, so now we know how they got there! The ending, with them being LMD's, was an interesting twist. I have to say, that while I think that Goodwin has done a great job of capturing Han and Threepio's voices, I don't like the way he has Luke talk as much. He has Luke saying "flying' " and "goin' " and "gonna", but Luke never talks like that in the movies. In fact, Han is really the only character in the movies with that sort of infomal speach. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 5, 2021 9:37:21 GMT -5
Revenge of the Jedi November 15-January 23 1983 Written by Archie Goodwin Art by Al Williamson LA Times Syndicate  Summary: With work finally complete at the Fondor docks Lord Vader takes control of his new flag ship the Executor and sets out to christen it by destroying as many rebel bases as he can! With his campaign begun the Rebels scramble to find no allies to hold off this terrible weapon and they find it in the Mon Calamari. Plot: In one of the longer strips to date Goodwin chronicles the Rebel's first meeting with Admiral Akbar, and although it introduces a key character into the Star Wars universe it comes across as a little flat. It starts out well enough with a great moment with Vader who wishes to forgo a champagne toast to christen his new vessel for a christening in blood it sputters after that. Perhaps it would be different if I hadn't have already known that Akbar is in Return of the Jedi, but because I know he's alive at that later date the panels detailing his destroyed ship, and the subsequent search of the planet for him although beautiful are a real slog because there is no tension as we know he must be alive so it ultimately just feels like filler. And then, although I love the visuals of the swamp the slug monsters and the way they just grabbed the Falcon and imprisoned it at the bottom of their lake just felt like yet another stalling tactic. Why would otherwise mindless creatures simply hold onto the ship? Why didn't they destroy it if its noise bothered them? The answer of course is because you can't destroy the Falcon and it gives Akbar a way to showcase his tactical skills. In the end what could have been a high energy rescue mission turned into just another way to get from point a to point b with nothing really all that interesting to see along the way. I was really excited for this one Confessor, but it looks like our views differ wildly! Art: While some of the plot elements that precipitated the panels in question may have had me rolling my eyes I have to say that the back drops that Williamson created were truly spectacular:
 That swamp is absolutely teeming with strange life and yet it never looks cluttered but rather totally organic as it should. On top of that the panel is so dynamic that you could almost swear that it was animated which is no small feat for a static image.
Conclusion: Although there is some beautiful artwork from Williamson that's just full of life that's the only energy you'll see on display here as the narrative itself lacks any real sense of energy or urgency. Hopefully the stories that actually detail the escape from Yarvin end up being worth the slog to get to.
Grade: C- I thought this story was decent. Not great, but decent. Maybe I liked it a little better than you, thwhtguardian. At least there was a lot of action. But how the heck could Artoo know (or even suspect) that Han & Luke were aboard the imperial skimmer that blew up? Also, if the Mon Calamari are amphibious, why do they need helmets to go into the lake? Ackbar's syntax in this story was a bit odd, as he didn't talk like this in Return of the Jedi. Vader’s bantha analogy, which I probably would have found odd at the time, works better now that we know he’s from Tatooine, thanks to the prequels. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,202 
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Post by Confessor on Aug 5, 2021 10:06:43 GMT -5
I thought this story was decent. Not great, but decent. Maybe I liked it a little better than you, thwhtguardian. I think this is my favourite of all the Star Wars newspaper strips. It's a really good, exciting story, I think, and as a kid I loved that it showed how Admiral Ackbar and the Mon Calamari joined the Rebel Alliance (although Rogue One has rendered this version of events to be inaccurate, as that film shows that the Mon Calamari were part of the Rebel Alliance prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope). Also, the fact that we see Vader taking command of The Executor for the first time is very cool. Ackbar's syntax in this story was a bit odd, as he didn't talk like this in Return of the Jedi. This strip was written and drawn 6 months to a year before Return of the Jedi came out. At that point, even if Goodwin had had access to footage of Ackbar's scenes from ROTJ, he would've likely been voiced in them by puppeteer Tim Rose, because actor Erik Bauersfeld's distincive tones were overdubbed towards the end of post-production on the film. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 7, 2021 11:39:50 GMT -5
The Paradise Detour July 11th-October 2nd 1983 Written by Archie Goodwin Art by Al Williamson LA Times Syndicate Summary: After escaping the Imperial fleet and it's new Super Star Destroyer the Rebels blast off for their new base on Hoth, but when Luke, Han and Chewie follow in pursuit they find themselves coming up short and in need of repairs. First it seems like our heroes have found paradise but trouble soon finds them!
Plot: Following up on the heals of Doom Mission and Race for Survival Goodwin really seemed to have gotten a head of steam and was plowing forward into some fun adventures on Hoth leading up the Empire Strikes Back but unfortunately this isn't just a detour for our heroes but forward momentum as well. Now, there have been some fun genre bending stories involving Star Wars, in fact the very concept of the series is a blending of fantasy and science fiction but in this series when Goodwin has tried in the past with stories like the Night Beast and the Serpent Masters he's continually fallen short and this latest chapter is sadly no different. While a story of Luke over coming the mind tricks a witch could have provided us with interesting character development too much of it came off as just an extended version of the cave scene from Empire only with out the creepy atmosphere and feeling importance. On top of that what really killed it for me were the references to the Night Beast and the Serpent Masters; maybe it's just me and readers loved those stories as this was coming out but they were serious turkeys in my eyes and they drag down an already forgettable story. Worse still is the placement of the story; after the build of the last two in finding a new base I had a tremendous amount of excitement and this detour just killed that, side stories have a place and purpose but this was not it.
Art: Williamson's character work is spot on here and I liked his slow reveal of the witch and her wasted form but sadly he isn't given a lot to do here.
Grade: 5/10 Yeah, I agree. This story didn't do much for me. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 9, 2021 14:57:57 GMT -5
Showdown December 26th, 1983 - February 5th, 1984 Written by Archie Goodwin Art by Al Williamson LA Times Syndicate Summary: Han, Luke and Chewie may have succesfully helped avoid detection for the new Rebel base on Hoth but for the heroes it's a definite case of out of the frying pan and into the fire as they are captured by Boba Fett and his gang of cut throats and are now being brought to Ord Mantel before returning to Jabba the Hutt...
Plot: This is another win in my book from Archie; no weird un-star warsy monsters, the plot doesn't feel like filler and there are some fun character beats as well. I was a initially a little worried when I saw that Boba Fett and Darth Vader were going to be here as I was worried that it would ride on the coat tails of Empire Strikes back a little too much, and to be fair the plan to use Han to lure Luke is lifted from the film, but Goodwin averts the feeling of over familiarity by instead focusing on the bounty hunter Skorr whom he first introduced in the strip" Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell" back in 1981(his very first strip). Based on a single line from Empire from Han, he wasn't my favorite villain but I really liked his motivation here, that his grudge with Solo is so strong that he'd rather kill Solo rather than see him in the hands of anyone else. What strikes me the most here is just how much of a book end this story is to how Archie opened his run; a lot of writers when facing an ending like this(there's only one story left until cancellation) aren't focused on providing a real ending but Archie really seems to be trying to tie things up and set things up so readers can go right from these strips to Empire in a seamless way which is fantastic. Art: As always, the space scenes are my favorite. I love the way Williamson draws the ships and his depictions of space in general with the various bits of debris and cosmic clouds are just awesome to see. Once again though his tracing in certain scenes is really blatant here; and it's weird because looking back at previous strips it wasn't nearly as frequent, he'd use it occasionally to nail a particular facial feature for a character but here he's doing whole scenes which just seems lazy to me. As an aside, I don't know if it was Williamson's confusion or Archie's but the bounty hunter that is talking to Korr through out the strip is continually referred to as Zuckuss but the character is shown to be Dengar. It didn't take me out of the story but it did seem weird considering how accurate they are with other elements. Grade:8/10 Pretty good story, more outstanding Al Williamson art. I do have one minor complaint here, though. Goodwin has Skorr refer to Dengar as Zuckuss repeatedly. Since this was written in 1983, three years after The Empire Strikes back, this error seems kind of inexcusable to me. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 9, 2021 15:16:55 GMT -5
ShowdownDecember 26th, 1983 - February 5th, 1984 Written by Archie Goodwin Art by Al Williamson LA Times Syndicate Summary: Han, Luke and Chewie may have succesfully helped avoid detection for the new Rebel base on Hoth but for the heroes it's a definite case of out of the frying pan and into the fire as they are captured by Boba Fett and his gang of cut throats and are now being brought to Ord Mantel before returning to Jabba the Hutt...
Plot: This is another win in my book from Archie; no weird un-star warsy monsters, the plot doesn't feel like filler and there are some fun character beats as well. I was a initially a little worried when I saw that Boba Fett and Darth Vader were going to be here as I was worried that it would ride on the coat tails of Empire Strikes back a little too much, and to be fair the plan to use Han to lure Luke is lifted from the film, but Goodwin averts the feeling of over familiarity by instead focusing on the bounty hunter Skorr whom he first introduced in the strip" Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell" back in 1981(his very first strip). Based on a single line from Empire from Han, he wasn't my favorite villain but I really liked his motivation here, that his grudge with Solo is so strong that he'd rather kill Solo rather than see him in the hands of anyone else. What strikes me the most here is just how much of a book end this story is to how Archie opened his run; a lot of writers when facing an ending like this(there's only one story left until cancellation) aren't focused on providing a real ending but Archie really seems to be trying to tie things up and set things up so readers can go right from these strips to Empire in a seamless way which is fantastic. Art: As always, the space scenes are my favorite. I love the way Williamson draws the ships and his depictions of space in general with the various bits of debris and cosmic clouds are just awesome to see. Once again though his tracing in certain scenes is really blatant here; and it's weird because looking back at previous strips it wasn't nearly as frequent, he'd use it occasionally to nail a particular facial feature for a character but here he's doing whole scenes which just seems lazy to me. As an aside, I don't know if it was Williamson's confusion or Archie's but the bounty hunter that is talking to Korr through out the strip is continually referred to as Zuckuss but the character is shown to be Dengar. It didn't take me out of the story but it did seem weird considering how accurate they are with other elements. Grade:8/10 Pretty good story, more outstanding Al Williamson art. I do have one minor complaint here, though. Goodwin has Skorr refer to Dengar as Zuckuss repeatedly. Since this was written in 1983, three years after The Empire Strikes back, this error seems kind of inexcusable to me. I don't know if the error is Goodwin's or Williamson's to be honest, did Goodwin intend to have Zuckuss their as well and Williamson just didn't put him in? Or was Goodwin just confusing his b-list bounty hunters? |
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