Book Review 'Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire' (Dark Horse Comics TPB)
Trade Paperback Edition cover art by Christopher Moeller. ©1997 Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In 1996, almost a year before the theatrical release of The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition, Lucasfilm's marketing division conceived a massive multimedia campaign called Shadows of the Empire. Centered on Steve Perry's eponymous novel set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the project included an original soundtrack album, Nintendo video game, a set of Kenner/Hasbro action figures, a behind the scenes book by Mark Cotta Vaz, Topps trading cards, and even references to its events in Brian Daley's Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – The Radio Drama. In Steve Perry's own words, the unofficial tagline for this massive campaign was "Everything but the movie." "Everything but the movie" included, naturally, a comics adaptation, and Dark Horse Comics – an Oregon-based publisher which at the time owned the licensing ri...