Star Wars Book Review: The Classic Newspaper Comics

Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics

Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics by Russ Manning, with Alfredo Alcala and friends. This book was released by IDW Publishing.

This amazing book is the first volume published, with two more volumes hitting stores soon! This first volume is loaded with 600 newspaper comic strips, beginning with their first appearance on March 11th, 1979. The book ends with the comic released on October 5th, 1980.

I was surprised to see that the first several pages are loaded with the rich history of early Star Wars literature. It’s crazy, that in this current time we have so much Star Wars content. We’ve got books, comics, cartoons, 7 movies (as of this post), magazines, and more. As a fan today, I can’t imagine what it must have been like in 1977, to have just one movie with so very little other material! Before the newsprint comics in 1979, the only books available were the Novelization, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and Han Solo’s Revenge. In the comic realm, issues #1 and #2 were available from Marvel Comics.

The newspaper comics are truly a delight. It’s fun to read these great stories and definitely a treat to gaze at the amazing artwork! A goofy observation, but I am a huge fan of the attached ribbon bookmark! That little detail was fantastic. I’m going to grantee you, that any Star Wars fan will love The Classic Newspaper Comics. Volume 1 is fun, a collectible, and it’ll look really cool on your coffee table and/or bookshelf.

I highly recommend you pick up Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics Volume 1 for yourself, for the favorite Star Wars fan, or comic book collector in your life!

Star Wars: Moving Target Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Star Wars: Moving Target – A Princess Leia Adventure, is a junior novel written by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry. The book was published by Disney Lucasfilm Press as part of the Journey to The Force Awakens in 2015.

SUMMARY: General Leia is recalling events from the old days to a droid. Specifically an event that takes place after The Empire Strikes Back, before Return of the Jedi.

The rebel alliance has obtained important information, the intelligence is so important, it’s kept classified among the alliance high command. The Empire is constructing a new Death Star.

Leia comes up with a plan to distract the Empire while the alliance can regroup and prepare for a massive assault on the new Death Star. Leia wants to lead a decoy mission on the opposite side of the galaxy. The plan is to place recruitment beacons on various worlds with codes that will attract the Empire.

The alliance command approves the mission, calling it Operation Yellow Moon.

CHARACTERS: Kidi Aleri: She’s the communications expert in Leia’s crew. Never before have I been so annoyed with a character… well maybe a few, she’s on par with a few others. She’s the Jar Jar Binks of the prequels, the Mr. Bones of the Aftermath trilogy. She’s smart when it comes to remembering codes, but she’s the most ignorant, sensitive, space hippie in the galaxy. She’s so surprised that people actually die in war… she’s so stupid! Someone should have disposed of Kidi through the airlock!

Princess Leia Organa: I’m really starting to think that only one author should be allowed to write for Leia. She’s written in this book like she has in a few others, even in Legends canon. A mean, bitchy, all about herself princess. Leia gives classified information to her team… she was ant supposed to do that.

Overall Thoughts: A quick read doesn’t mean a great read. I thought the best thing about the book are the planet descriptions. The snowy mountainous planet, the tropical planet with giant lilly-pads for ships to land on, kind of silly but neat. Other than that, I found no enjoyment reading this book. The characters are boring or irritating. I’m frustrated with the misuse of character, especially Leia. The mission that Leia and her team go on, Operation Yellow Moon, doesn’t even make since for the movie timeline. Awful books make me angry… all that time invested for nothing, geez… sometimes it feels like a weekend in Vegas, reading is gambling. I’m so glad I didn’t read this right after its release back in 2015. I really hope the upcoming Leia book set to release in September for Journey to The Last Jedi, is much better.

RATING: I give this book a 1 out of 5

Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia

by Matthew Wilson

Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia is written byTricia Barr, Adam Bray, and Cole Horton. It was published by DK Publishing. There is a forward by Dennis Muren, the Senior Creator and Director at Industrial Light and Magic.

This Visual Encyclopedia is loaded with amazing images and information. On the opening pages you’ll find the contents, which will show you how the book is organized. There are five sections: Geography, Nature, History, Culture, and finally Science and Technology. The history section would be my favorite. There’s a breakdown of the timeline, deep explanations of the galactic politics, and a who’s who in the Jedi Order and the Sith. It’s insane how much this book covers! helmets, clothing, accessories, pod-racers, furniture,and even food!

If you like Star Wars, you’re going to love this book. It’s a great reference while reading the novels, some characters and planets appear in this book. I think this is a must have for any Star Wars fan.

Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run – A Han Solo and Chewbacca Adventure is written by Greg Rucka. This junior novel was published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press as part of the Journey to The Force Awakens.

SUMMARY: The Shrikes, a special Rebel Alliance team that’s tasked with scouting new locations for the rebels to set up bases. The Shrikes have a run in with the Empire! One member is on the run while the rest of the team is gunned down. The Imperial Security Bureau learns of the escapee, and is now searching for the rebel.

Leia asks Han Solo and Chewbacca to retrieve the only surviving member of the team. He holds all the secrets about where the Rebel Alliance’s next destination will be. Han is reluctant to take on the mission, the system he’d be going to is in Hutt territory… and that’s not where Han really wants to be at the moment. He puts aside his personal issues for the greater good of the galaxy and will do what he can.

CHARACTERS: Alecia Beck: She’s one of the few women that holds a high rank within the Empire. She’s a senior commander in the ISB, which is the Imperial Security Bureau. She’s the antagonist, definitely deserving of that title. She is one mean lady with a bad attitude. Beck is cruel and will stop at nothing to bring her subject into custody on the charge of treason. She has a distinctive look, she’s got short blond hair and a cybernetic eye. She lost her real eye in a fight against her former superior… who was trading secrets for credits. Maybe her attitude comes from that confrontation.

Han Solo: Such popular characters like Han, Leia, and Luke are always difficult to write, those are the characters everyone is going to pick apart because we know them too well. Han was written pretty well. He really comes off as a scoundrel, thinking only for himself. His copilot and friend Chewbacca, kind of acts as his conscious.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: This book was actually pretty decent. The dialogue wasn’t too childish. The plot was simple and didn’t stray into weird places. Han was written great, the character was written very well. The book was a quick and easy read. The antagonist was an interesting character, very harsh. I wouldn’t mind reading more stories with her character. The Shrikes are an interesting concept, It’s something that seems legit.

If you’re wanting a short decent canon book. I’d suggest you pick this one up. It takes place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.

RATING: I give this book a 3 out of 5.

Star Wars: Guardians of the Whills Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Guardians of the Whills is a junior novel, Written by New York Times Best Selling Author, Greg Rucka. He’s a comic book writer and has written other books for Star Wars such as Before the Awakening.

Summary: Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus where Guardians of the Whills at the Kyber Temple in the holy city of Jedah, then the Empire came. Some had abandoned their faith, fled the city, or even became a thorn in the empires side. The more the citizens stood up against the Empire, the tighter their imperial grip became.

In this tale, Chirrut and Baze take it upon themselves to take care of a local orphanage. They steal from the empire and give to the children; food and medicine. They are approached by some individuals and are asked to join a local resistance group against the empire. Turns out, this group is lead by Saw Gerrera.

Chirrut and Baze do what they believe is the right thing to do, take care of the orphanage… and fight the Empire.

Characters: Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus were Guardians of the Whills at the Kyber Temple. They are both honorable and humble.

Chirrut’s faith remains strong. His senses are in overdrive, making up for his blindness. He’s focused and calm.

Baze’s faith is lost. He’s angry at what has come of his home. He puts up a good fight and prefers a big gun.

Overall Thoughts: The story was well told. Rucka certainly captured the voice of each character we saw in Rogue One. However, toward the end of the book, their voices shifted a bit, not really coming across as they do in the film. Jedda felt like a war zone, it was set up nicely. I was very disappointed that we didn’t get to really see what the Guardians of the Whills actually means… what they were like in their prime. It’s the books title, but it’s all during the imperial rule.

Rating: I give this book a 2.5 out of 5

Star Wars: Thrawn Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Star Wars: Thrawn is written by New York Times Bestselling Author Timothy Zahn. Zahn is no stranger to the Star Wars galaxy, he is the mastermind behind the Legends canon epic known as the Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. I’ll provide links to amazon below so you can pick those up if dont already have them!

Summary: The empire takes a mysterious alien into custody. Due to the rarity of the individual, the officer in command decides to deliver the alien directly to the Emperor as some sort of trophy. The bond is formed immediately between the Emperor and this alien, a Chiss named Thrawn. Thrawn swears his loyalty to the Empire. His impressive background and military expertise leads Thrawn to many successes in the Empire, climbing the ranks faster than anyone else. Because of his alien species he does face adversaries which brings him some strife, but there isn’t much he can’t handle.

The antagonist in the novel is brilliant, only Thrawn stands a chance at piecing the puzzles together that are laid out by this individual, called Nightswan. He’s responsible for theft of a strong material that is being used by the Empire to build a certain military space station. The side story involves a young woman, Arihnda Pryce and her struggle with power and success. I want to tread lightly and not reveal spoilers, so moving on.

Characters: Because Thrawn was loaded with so many fantastic characters, I’m going to mention three of them.

Thrawn: calculated, well spoken, and well trained. The mains a military genius. He is a strange being to the known galaxy, only myths exist of the alien species, the Chiss. Thrawn is the man you’d want on your side. I found myself routing for him… I should be, because he’s a filthy imperial. To better understand his foes, he studies their art. Thrawn is one of the most elaborate and impressive character we’ve been gifted in the new canon.

Pryce: A woman from Lothal. I was actually impressed by this character, she was secondary, and somewhat disconnected from the story of Thrawn, but her story was just as fun and interesting. Her path is a crazy one. I liked this character but by the end of the book, I hated her. Not because she was poorly written, but because of her personality and what she does. Only after this book did I find out she’s in the Rebels TV show.

Finally, Eli Vanto: The character I feel a lot of us regular guys can relate to, you have plans, you can see your success paying off, then crap just hits the fan and you wind up in places or situations you never expected. I routed for Vanto from page one.

Overall Thoughts: This book is absolutley amazing! If you are a Legends fan who can’t bring yourself to read a canon book… but your watching or reading this review anyway, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. Timothy Zahn can seriously write a novel. I’ve heard folks complain that there wasn’t enough action in the book, I found just the right amount. The perfect balance of action and politics. This novel focuses on thing that is very very important, that a lot of books on both the new canon and Legends lack. STORY!

As of now, I’m going to claim that Thrawn is definitely in my top 3 canon novels. I think this is the first book I’ve read that demands a trilogy. I hope Thrawn survives season 4 of Rebels… a show I don’t watch, so we can get more books focuses on his character.

Rating: I give this book a 5 out of 5