You've got to be a regular brainiac to keep track of all the stories in the modern day Expanded Universe. Despite this writer's lack of interest in the EU (happened many years back when Luke found himself on a planet of Force-repelling tree snakes. No. Really.), there is no mistaking that it has become a franchise unto itself. In fact it isn't seldom that an EU fan will say they don't regard the films as actual cannon because Boba Fett's origin in
Attack Of The Clones contradicts something that happened in one of the books. (I couldn't say for sure which book, but rest assured, your EU loving friends can).
Thinking like that just doesn't fly with the old Marvel comics simply because there is no way the stories can be taken seriously. No really, as cool as they are nostalgically speaking, these stories make no sense whatsoever!
Looking back at the series --which ran for 107 regular issues, three annuals, and a four part limited series that adapted
Return Of The Jedi-- the Marvel run gave us a handful of Lightsaber duels between Luke and Vader that predate their epic first conflict in
The Empire Strikes Back, two full stories where our heroes are fighting along side Jawas, and piles upon piles of on-the-cover dialogue that has next to nothing to do with the story inside.
But you want to know what else the series had? It had style. Buckets of it in fact. That and some great talent working on it such as Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino, Michael Golden, Chris Claremont, Gene Day, Walter Simonson, Archie Goodwin, and Al Williamson to name a few. What's more, even though the
Splinter Of The Mind's Eye novel by Alan Dean Foster seems to take all the credit as the first, it was actually the old Marvel comics run that started the ball rolling, making it the true godfather of all
Expanded Universe stories.
…and it had that cool green bunny dude and Hoojibs. (Who doesn't like the Hoojibs?)
This edition of eBay Today was inspired by the following auction:
This edition of eBay Today was inspired by the following auction:
Star Wars Vintage Comics COMPLETE SET #1 - #107 Marvel1028
