Happy Father's Day...

 ...OR ELSE!

Space Hero Saturdays STAR WARS the Lost Comic Books!

Since today is May the 4th Be With You Day...

...we're showing the covers of the only Star Wars comics that have never been reprinted in their original format!

Blackthorne's three-issue mini-series from 1987, Star Wars 3-D!

The stories are new tales by Len Wein, Patrick Zircher, Jim Nelson, and Caesar MacSombol!

While these comics have been reprinted (as shown below), the reprints aren't 3-D!

Would you like to see the 3-D versions?

Let us know!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Star Wars Omnibus

Wild Space

Volume 1

(Which reprints the issues shown above...but in 2-D!)

Paid Link

On May 4th...What Will YOU Do?

Holy Dire Dilemma!!!
Do you go to...

...or...do you go to...

...since you can't do both!!!

The 24+ hour Star Wars Marathon begins on Friday night, and if you leave the theatre, you'll lose your seat!

But, if you don't go to Free Comic Book Day, you miss out on all the limited-edition goodies...including a couple of Star Wars-related comics!

What Will YOU Do???

Friday Fun! MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU...All Day and All Night!

The Skywalker Saga!

All nine films...in chronological order!
Not since the legendary "Go Ape for a Day" marathon...

...featuring the complete, original, five-film Planet of the Apes saga in the early 1970s has such an event been staged!

Note: that marathon was in release order, as shown on the poster, not chronological order, which would've been Escape, Conquest, Battle, Planet, and finally, Beneath!

And, while I was up for that, I'm not sure my now-senior citizen's body is prepared for nine flicks in, I presume, 24 (or more) hours!

But perhaps the Force will be with me!

I'll let you know on May 5th!

RIP Roger Kastel 1931-2023

Best-known for his iconic posters for the movies Jaws and The Empire Strikes Back...

...artist Roger Kastel considered his third most-famous work to be a poster that pre-dated both of them, Doc Savage: the Man of Bronze!

In fact, the landing page of his own website (Click HERE) states...

Roger Kastel's Work Includes:

JAWS: Legendary painting featured on the cover of the paperback edition of the Peter Benchley novel as well as the poster for the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film.

Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back: Movie poster for the second episode in George Lucas' original Star Wars Trilogy.

Doc Savage: Movie poster and cover art for Issue #1 of the acclaimed 1975 Doc Savage comic book series.

Original painting

The art (usually cropped and silhouetted) was used both domestically and internationally on theatrical posters and various licensed products.
Trivia: In 1987, I participated in an auction of legendary sci-fi editor/historian Forrest J Ackerman's estate where I acquired, not the poster art, but the next best thing to it...

...the expanded art for the "Ron Ely" on-screen credit at the end of the film, which consists of a hi-res photo of the original painting along with acrylic art hand-painted on both sides and below to accommodate the wide-screen image!
The credit lettering was optically matted during post-production.

It sits proudly over the TV in the Atomic Kommie Comics Video Library...

...and everybody who has seen it is able to identify both the actor and film!

(No "what film is that from?" or "who is that?" from the people we hang out with!)

Have Yourself a Star Wars Christmas with...CHRISTMAS IN THE STARS!

Click on the pic to see the superb Ralph McQuarrie cover art in all it's glory!

You were expecting the Star Wars Christmas Special?

Here's John (Finn) Boyega hearing this album for the first time!
(For the record, I got the album when it came out..and still have it!)

Happy Father's Day...

Art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon

..or else!

May the Fourth Be With You! 40 Years Ago...Star Wars Met Disney...sort of...

Long before Disney bought LucasFilm...

...they took a shot at doing a Star Wars-style property!

Before the Disney Channel and Radio Disney, the marketers at The House of Mouse would occasionally try to tie-in with popular trends.

Halyx, a pop-rock band that performed at TomorrowLand in the early 1980s was one such attempt.

And, being Disney, it was no half-baked, quickie tie-in, but an example of the Imagineering crew at its' best.

You can read about the creation and implementation of the project (by one of the participants no less) HERE and HERE.

Here's the band performing (audio with still photos)...

Too bad they don't even make a cameo in TomorrowLand...

CoronaVirus Comics #maythefourthbewithyou Disease in the Star Wars Multiverse

Let this be a warning!

Contagious disease can strike anyone...

...even Lando Calrissian!

Check out the story at...

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

Christopher Lee 1922-2015

Yeah, he was Dracula, Count Dooko, Saruman, Fu Manchu, Scaramanga, and a host of other villains...

But there were things about this amazing man you probably didn't know!
Bet you didn't remember he hosted Saturday Night Live (March 25, 1978)?
"Dr Jeckyl and MisterRogers" is a must-see!

Or that the British version of This is Your Life paid him homage with a slew of big name guests (including Charltton Heston, Oliver Reed, and Patrick MacNee) in April 1974?

Or that the guys behind Rocky Horror Picture Show tailored a pair of songs for him in the superhero parody Return of Captain Invincible!

Or that one of his two favorite roles was Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man?

An astounding, talented man, he'll be missed.

STAR WARS: Then and Now

When this trailer hit theatres in 1976, there was a lot of excitement...

Yesterday the trailer for the new film "dropped"...
..generating a similar level of excitement.
Here's a special treat from 1977...a condensed audio version of the first film, narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne...

...originally presented in the now all-but forgotten format called an "lp record album"!
Before YouTube, downloads, streaming video, even cds and (gasp) videotape, this and print versions like novelizations and comic book adaptations were the only way to re-experience the film outside the movie theatre.
Enjoy.

Happy Father's Day!

Or Else!

Meet the Max Rebo Dancers Next Week at Femmes Fantastique!

We've just uncovered a cache of pix from 1996...

Rystáll Sant (Mercedes Ngoh), Lyn Me (Dalyn Chew) and Boba Fett (Don Bies) during rehersal.

...specifically, the Jabba the Hutt throne-room reshoots from the Return of the Jedi Special Edition including some never-before-seen pix of the three dancers who appear only in the Special Edition, next week at our "brother" blog, Femmes Fantastique!

Ralph McQuarrie (June 13, 1929 - March 3, 2012)

From Star Wars to BattleStar Galactica to Star Trek, among many others...

Star Wars

 Ralph McQuarrie envisioned worlds beyond belief for two generations of movie and tv sf/fantasy fans.

BattleStar Galactica

Star Trek: Planet of the Titans (1976, unproduced)

3-D Week Begins Tomorrow!

To celebrate the release of Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace in 3-D...

...(although I'm waiting for the Original Trilogy!),
all the RetroBlogs™ are running 3-D tales this week!

Monday: Western Comics Adventures™
Tuesday: Crime & Punishment™
Wednesday: True Love Comics Tales™
Thursday: Seduction of the Innocent™
Friday: War: Past, Present and Future™

PLUS: 
Hero & Heroine Histories™

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™
and
Femmes Fantastique™
will all do 3-D tales during the week.
Don't Miss Them!
 (and don't forget your 3-D glasses...)

Support Small Business!

 Visit our

3-D Movies & Comics 

Collectibles Store
 (where you don't need 3-D glasses!)

Star Wars 3.0

There's an ongoing debate at SpinoffOnline about the further revisions being made to the Star Wars series for it's release on Blu-Ray.
I added my two cents...

Re-doing elements now, over 35 years later in the case of the first film, alters both the intent and thrust of the movie.
If you look at the novelization of the first film (by Lucas and Alan Dean Foster from Lucas' screenplay), many story aspects, including the Emperor, the Fall of the Republic, and the Luke/Leia relationship (you can't believe they're brother and sister in the novel or film) are vastly different than what resulted, decades later, in the prequels.
That's because Lucas himself is not the same person he was back in 1976.
He's changed.  In some ways for the better.  In some ways for the worse.  We all go thru it.  But when we have a mid-life crisis, we don't have the money to change an entire universe to suit us.  He does.
Imposing that current, altered, worldview on his earlier works seems...ill-advised.
It was dumb when his buddy, Steven Spielberg, digitally-removed guns from goverment agents' hands and replaced them with walkie-talkies in the video release of ET for no real reason except that, years later, he had little kids, and like any overprotective parent, he overreacted.
It was character-altering when Lucas had Han shoot second in the Cantina, making him less of an opportunistic sleezeball than he was originally-shown to be...by Lucas himself!
And, it was sad, that, instead of just "cleaning up" the Oscar-winning fx of the first Star Wars, he replaced the Oscar-winning sfx with digital work that, a decade later, looks dated.

Comments?

A Star Wars Christmas!

You were expecting the Star Wars Christmas Special?

Fantastic Femmes--Ayesha Dharker

This page has been updated with new info

HERE!

Fantastic Femmes--Kelly Hu

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info HERE!

Fantastic Femmes--Diahann Carroll

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info 
HERE!