Part IV is on its way

Here’s a sneak peek for you. I’m scanning the pages right now

Star Wars age 9 on Facebook

Part IV begins with the entry to Mos Eisley “What a Hole”

Pages update!

I finally knocked the pages on this blog into some sort of shape. See the ones listed above? Part I, Part II, Part III etc? They were an embarrassment.

Please read the comic and the rest of the main site and come back and comment and those respective pages above. I value your feedback and obviously I enjoy the funny comments. Here’s a good example >

Also you can comment on any of these posts very simply. Here’s a really good one of those from PJ Nolan >

Oh, one other thing: this morning I added some helpful extra navigation into bottom of the the comic pages themselves. You’ll be able to do less clicking now. See it here >

Special Editions: 1

Leave well alone? But it's in the best Lucas Tradition!

I thought it’d be interesting to take some of the old drawings and try to colour them as faithfully to the film as possible. It’d be fun to see a poor drawing very accurately coloured. It is fun to do but with this one, perhaps I took it too far. It simply looks too good.

Perhaps the problem with Vader in the after version is that the original childish line-work has been swamped by the dark, better-executed under-colour. I think if I can lighten and re-tint the line-work and make it show I’ll get a better looking yet still reasonably faithful image.

It is in the best Lucas Tradition of taking something great that you did when you were young and tinkering with it – a sort of Special Edition version – but I’m not sure about it now.

Judge for yourselves and let me know in the comment box below!

How it should have ended

Rod Hannah on Blue Milk Special sent me this link. I had never thought of this before! Just blow up Yavin!

Thanks to www.howitshouldhaveended.com

Update on the Blog Site

Apologies for the crummyness of the pages listed along the top on this BLOG site.

Those: Part I, Part II, Part III ones.

Even though the most important element of SW9 is the main parent site it’s important that the pages here look decent and interesting too. Therefore I hope to do some work on them soon – to bring them more into line with these on the main site.

Comic Re-designed Today!

Ok! The comic’s presentation has been redesigned today. It should be better to use – and look better. Please let me know if there are any probs.

• Can you see all of the content?
• Can you read the commentary?
• Are the Back – Forwards buttons visible?

If you feel you’re not seeing a new version or things look a bit odd try hitting: Ctrl & F5 simultaneously to refresh your browser. Thanks!

See it here »

Passing notes and Total Destruction

Presumptuous or what?

I had a flick through an old school jotter – or copy – as they call them in Ireland. This happens to be Niall’s one. He’s the chum who also did a good, pocket-size comic adaptation of SW when he was around 10 or 11. Of course, the jotter’s scrawled all over with drawings.

What a mess

In the inside back cover there are some notes that we scribbled back and forth to eachother. We shared a desk for over 2 years and probably destroyed all three with grafitti and drawings of SW and Space 1999. Lovely looking oak things they were, of the type typical in Irish National Schools back then; with a hardwood flip-up-and-down bench attached. I’ve just realised! – it was probably those grubby desks that gave off the smell of vomit, not the building! Why I didn’t I think of that before? Oak has a vomitty, nutty aroma when worked, and we certainly worked this timber with compass points and all sorts. It’s amazing how a child can dig a hole through 3/4″ solid oak board, with a compass – if given enough time, and not enough amusement. We’d've made perfect prison breakers.

Anyway, that inside back cover. Amongst all the mess of insults, counter-insults and drawings; I hastily wrote:

Girls who Spit

She's a bit rough

Yet again: I can’t claim all the credit. This time it’s when Leia spits on Vader. It’s… in the blasted novel.

Crap, crap, crap. It even sizzles when it lands on him.

Having said that, the princess in the 10 year old version is grubbier than in Lucas’ text. This is a princess and senator of the Royal House of Alderann – or Antilles or something (Look, I haven’t been a SW nerd for over 30 years ok?).

I could have done so much more with it though. Oh the missed opportunities. Did she do a big nose-honk first? If we look closely, is she wearing a chunky sovereign ring? Is the Pocahontas hairdo actually a council-estate-facelift gone wrong? See the strip at Star Wars age 9 >

“Oh well, a Duck can Quack” (cont’d)

Genius, genius...

Just been reading the dreaded Ben-meets-Luke chapter this morning on the way into work – in the 1977 novel. I was afraid to read each line. I wondered, “Will I find that George came up with the Duck dialogue before I did? Will he be able to claim all the credit?”

I read on… first the “That’s a Krayt Dragon call” line from Luke. My pulse quickened. Then, nothing. No ducks. Imagine my relief, dear reader! Yes, the Pulitzer Prize for Young Literature is mine.

I read on further. In the scene in Ben’s house, Ben explains that although being a great pilot isn’t heriditary, some of the qualities that make one are. Then he says (my chest tightened, the prize slipping from my grasp…)

Ben: “Still, even a duck has to be taught to swim.”

Luke: “What’s a duck?”

Damn! Blast! Curses! There it goes, my prize. George got there first. Though admittedly, my version is far sillier – and meaningless. See it here >

Vader’s Coffee Cont’d.

The Star Wars novelisation of '77

Well, I’m just re-reading the 1977 Star Wars novel – for the first time since I was a kid I might quickly add (I’m surprised even at myself)! I’m curious to know where the better-written bits of Star Wars age 9 came from. Er, that’s my excuse for the moment: research. Lines like “Their expressions every bit as worry wrinkled as their uniforms”.

The cover’s fallen off, so I’m using it as a bookmark; and it seems that I painted the inside back cover with black poster paint! Why? Who knows? On the left, you can see one that’s on eBay. It’s the only one, so mine must be worth literally millions. Beautifully painted cover artwork incidentally. Not all airbrushy, this illustration comes from the days when illustrators could paint wonderfully and weren’t afraid of visible brushstrokes.

But… do you know what? The ‘Vader Levitating and Drinking Coffee’ mystery has been solved. Am I spoiling the mystery..?